How To Save 10 Minutes Per Day While Browsing The Web
We now spend the majority of our time working on the web. Learn how to navigate your browser faster.
Here’s how to save 10 minutes per day by optimizing how you do it:
#1 Think About Links Before You Click On Them
When you hover over a link with your cursor, a small preview bar will pop up in the bottom left corner showing the URL:
When you realize a link is about to distract you, either open it separately and minimize it for later, or just don’t engage.
As the word ‘practice’ implies, becoming more efficient at interpreting URLs takes time.
But once you do, you can easily save 10 minutes per day with this habit alone.
#2 Learn The Basic Browser Keyboard Shortcuts
The less often you have to take your fingers off the keyboard, the better.
Shortcuts allow you to do just that.
Here are the most important ones:
Cmd+N opens a new window
Cmd+Shift+N opens a new incognito window
Cmd+T opens a new tab and jumps into its URL bar, so you can start searching Google instantly
Cmd+Shift+T reopens the last tab. Great for when you accidentally closed the wrong one
Cmd+W closes your current tab or the window if it’s the last one left
Cmd+[Number] jumps to that tab in the current window. With 9 you jump to whichever’s the very last one
Cmd+L to jump into the URL/search bar
Note: If you’re on Windows, use Ctrl instead of Cmd.
#3 Minimize Browser Windows You’re Not Using
Minimize all windows (Cmd+M) except the one you’re currently using.
This way, you won’t accidentally land in a completely different state of mind or get distracted and pulled in the wrong direction.
#4 Use Visuals For Faster Bookmarks Access
Use your bookmarks with no text, only symbols:
To get these, simply leave the ‘Name’ field empty when saving a URL (Cmd+D).
#5 Use Incognito Tabs Instead Of Disabling AdBlock
Ads are annoying.
But sometimes, they lead to web content not being displayed correctly.
When that happens, reloading the page might do the trick (Cmd+R), but often, your ad blocker rightfully won’t budge.
In that case, your best option is to open the link in an incognito tab.
Here‘s the shortcut to do that:
Cmd+L
Cmd+C
Cmd+Shift+N
Cmd+V
Enter
What this does is jump to the URL bar, copy the link, open a new incognito window, in which all extensions are disabled, paste the link back into the URL bar and load the page.
The third time you do it, it takes less than 5 seconds.
#6 Use Google To Search Specific Sites
Most websites come with their own search function, but it often sucks.
Google, however, has had the single greatest search algorithm for the past 20 years.
Therefore, if you’re looking for anything specific, especially something you’ve seen before, you’re likely to find it faster by searching that site through Google, rather than using its own mechanism.
The format is as follows: site:dansilvestre.com time management
10 minutes a day adds up to 61 hours a year.
That’s 2.5 days.
I’m sure you could use those days well.