At Croud, we’re all about finding ways to work more efficiently and increase our productivity. In this blog, the team at Croud US shares their favorite digital shortcuts, tools and hacks to working smarter, not harder.
Managing your Chrome tabs
When you have multiple windows and many tabs open in Google Chrome, it’s easy to lose track of things. By pressing CTRL + Shift + A (for Windows) or CMD + Shift + A (for Mac) in Chrome, you can access a list of all your open tabs. You can then use this to quickly search for and navigate through your open Chrome tabs, similarly to an Excel filter.
You can also use this list to quickly close out of tabs. This makes sure you can easily find what you need without having to open duplicates. Plus, it’s a great way to identify and remove duplicate tabs, so that you can reduce the clutter on your Chrome window! Now what do you do if you would like to return to a tab you accidentally closed out of? Easy! All you need to do is select CTRL + Shift + T (for Windows) or CMD + Shift + T (for Mac) to reopen the tab.
Taking a quick screenshot
Whether we’re creating a task brief for our Croudies, or adding an insightful graph to a client’s deck, screenshots are frequently used in the work that we do. Thankfully, there’s a quick way to capture whatever’s on your screen by just using your keyboard. To use Windows’ screenshot tool, Snip & Sketch, press Windows key + Shift + S on Windows. This shortcut allows you to take a photo of your screen in the matter of a second or two, without having to spend the extra time finding the program on your computer.
There’s also a great way to do this on Macs. Simply press CMD + Shift + 3 to take a screenshot of your entire screen, or press CMD + Shift + 4 to select a specific area of your screen to capture.
Time tracking
When your responsibilities span across multiple clients and projects, it’s always helpful, and often necessary, to keep track of how much time you’re investing in each task. One of our favorite tools to use is Toggl, a time-tracking app that allows you to view how you divided up your time each day across all your responsibilities. It’s a great tool to help you plan ahead for important deadlines, while also measuring your overall productivity.
Managing your windows
The Croud team is full of multitaskers, but this also means that you can usually find a number of us with several windows open at once. To help you easily navigate through all your different windows on a Mac, you can simply press CTRL + ⬆️ to expose all your open windows at once.
On the other hand, if you’d like to hide all windows of whatever app you are currently using, simply press CMD + H.
Easily format your Google Sheets
When you’re someone who frequently uses Google Sheets for work, it’s always handy to have some good hacks and shortcuts in your back pocket. One of our favorite ones is CMD + Shift + V (for Mac) or CTRL + Shift + V (for Windows). Pressing these keys simultaneously allows you to paste just the style of a copied cell in Google Sheets. Simply put, it’s a great way to copy over the format of a selected cell, without copying the content within that cell.
Quick searches using Chrome’s omnibox
Chrome’s omnibox is the bar located towards the top of your browser, which combines your usual address bar with the Google search bar. It’s a great tool to make searches across Google’s search engine or for accessing other websites via a specific URL. A fast and easy way to use Chrome’s omnibox is to press CTRL + L (for Windows) or CMD + L (for Mac). This will allow you to quickly jump to the search bar, without needing to drag your mouse to the top of your browser to begin typing in a query.
Summary
From navigating through seemingly endless browser tabs to easily formatting cells in Google Sheets, there’s a multitude of digital shortcuts and quick tips on how to make working easier. For more industry insights, news and updates from Croud’s digital experts, check out our blog.
