Tool of the Trade: Momentum
This post may contain affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Kat told me about a Chrome plugin called Momentum recently, and I'm so glad she did, because it helps me throughout the day. (My general feeling about it is “Where have you been all my [working] life?”) According to the Chrome Web Store, 3,000,000+ people have downloaded it too.
This tool is pretty simple, but really effective. Whenever I open a new tab in Chrome, it shows me the time, a greeting, a daily nature image, the temperature, and most importantly, my to-do list. (See above screenshot.) The image above doesn't include some features I turned off, including links, search, most visited sites, and a daily inspirational quote. There are also keyboard shortcuts, but I haven't bothered with those.
{related: how to keep track of work to-dos}
The key benefit of using Momentum is that MANY times a day, I'm presented with my most important to-dos. They're unavoidable! I usually leave a Momentum tab open all day, too.
It's extremely easy to use the to-do list function– just type in your tasks (and rename if needed), rearrange them if you like, and click the boxes to check them off. The completed tasks (which are always motivating for me to see, but you can hide them) are removed at the end of the day.
You can upgrade to Plus ($39.95/year, $4.95/month) for many more features, including countdowns (for dates and deadlines), sounds, world clocks, and custom photos and quotes. You can also integrate Momentum with apps like Todoist, Trello, Basecamp, and Asana.
Update: Momentum is also available for iOS!
{related: how to manage your to-do list at work}
Readers, have you used Momentum? Are you liking any other productivity plug-ins right now?
I use:
– ToDoIst for to dos (life and work). First to-do app I’ve used consistently for more than a few weeks.
– Toggl for timekeeping (I am 100% more likely to track time using this than I am with any other time tracking option I’ve ever used because I can start it from the desktop, from the task bar, from my phone, or from a web app. You can integrate it with a bunch of apps but I don’t use that (I’d like to integrate it with our case management app but tech won’t let me). It also has a Pomodoro timer built in.
– One notebook for work and life. Moleskine classic notebook.
My firm’s IT consultant developed for our firm a unique special value billing app extension to Safari that links all of our iphone’s to the central server’s billing program. All we have to do is to choose the specific cleints and the matters, put in a 3 word desription of our work (I usually just write “ongoing litigation work”) and then press “GO”. The app will automatically start entering the time for billing all checked-off cleints until I press “STOP”. I press GO every day as soon as I put up my morning coffee, and generally STOP until long after I eat dinner and am preparing for bed. I do my billing this way so b/c I am thinking about all my cases andworking on all of my cases continuously, until I either shut down my iMac (at work) or my MacBook (at home).
Since the iPhone app extension is automatically linked to those computers and the server where the billing program is, as long as the iMac or the MacBook is logged on, the firm has a SIMULTEANEOUS record proofing that I have timely billed each cleint for the work between GO and STOP. That way, if the cleint or the IRS wants a printout of any cleint’s bills, I don’t even have to do a thing. The manageing partner gave the IT guy a $10,000 bonus once he perfected the add-on (in addition to his usual salary). We also bought the add-on as a work for hire, which means we own it and the IT guy cannot copy the program to sell or license it to any other cleint, so no one else knows about or can replicate our value billing add-on program. This allows me and the other partners to bill very efficiently without wasting any time doing it. YAY!!!