This one tiny Chrome extension fast-tracked my productivity

I’m all about making my day a little bit more efficient. It can be stressful when I look at my to-do list at the beginning of each day and there is just an overwhelming amount of things on it. Between family and work, I have to juggle plenty each day. Not that this is an uncommon problem, which is why I thought I’d share a recent trick that I’ve incorporated into my days to make them run more smoothly.

I’ve written a lot about how I use NotebookLM to help me in both personal and professional situations. It’s a great way to use AI to do research for me, whether I want to learn a new hobby, get better at doing PowerPoint presentations, or even use it to fact-check ChatGPT. In the spirit of using features or programs on my computer to get things done more quickly, I noticed my Google Chrome browser updated recently and, when I opened it again, it highlighted a new feature that it could do. It mentioned being able to listen to pages and read the text out loud to me.

I thought that would be extremely helpful. I then looked into it and saw — unfortunately — that it was only available for Android users. Maybe Google will eventually offer this to all users, as I have both a Mac and Windows laptop. Undeterred, I kept looking and that’s when I found Read Aloud. This extension actually changed how I search the Internet.

This extension can read any page out loud

It cuts the time I read almost fully

I read the reviews for Read Aloud and was impressed by how many people were pleased with it. After downloading it and pinning it to my Extensions, I was able to start using it pretty much whenever I wanted. When I first opened it, it began reading the page I had up (in Italian) which threw me off. I quickly switched the language. There are plenty to choose from, and many are available in both male and female voices. I picked one near the top and realized I preferred the female voice over the male.

The voices are clearly computer-generated, which is totally fine by me. I don’t need something ultra-realistic — as long as I can understand it, I’m good. What I didn’t expect was the amount of control it gives you. You can change the speed, volume, and pitch of the voice. At first, it was reading too quickly for me to follow, but a quick slide of the speed bar in the settings fixed that right away.

There’s also a Test button you can use to preview your chosen settings before committing. As for the pitch control, it adjusts the voice’s inflection — more upward tone when toggled to the right, and less when moved to the left. I was pleasantly surprised to see all these features packed into a free extension.

I used it more and more each day

Saving myself time is what I’m about

I have to do plenty of research each day to be able to write. A lot of the time, I would go into NotebookLM and use Audio Overviews after uploading a bunch of source text to get a better summary of the topic I was researching. This was something that I could download and bring with me if I wanted to learn more about a topic while out and about. However, most times, I’m just doing desk research, so I don’t really need to bring something with me anywhere. Read Aloud is perfect for that.

When I’m trying to catch up on the latest stories on Pocket-lint, I usually turn to the daily newsletter recaps (you can sign up for those by creating an account at the top right of the page) or head straight to the site to browse the newest articles. But to save time, I’ve started using Read Aloud to have the page read to me.

At first, I kept the Read Aloud pop-up in the same browser tab so I could follow along visually while it read. Eventually, though, I found I preferred using it in a separate window — it gave me more flexibility to multitask. Not only could I listen to pieces from my incredibly talented colleagues (and yes, I’ve absolutely had it read my own stories back to me), but I could also browse other tabs at the same time. Listening while reading or researching something else has really helped speed up both my production and my workflow.

My daily workflow has been totally optimized

It makes a ton of sense to have

The more I’ve used Read Aloud, the more efficient I feel I’ve become. I use it for just about everything throughout the day. I’ve used it to summarize emails, and I’ve had it read back sections of my writing to hear how they sound. That’s actually become one of my favorite editing tools — it helps me catch small errors I might miss when I’m writing quickly. I tend to get on a roll and fly through a topic, sometimes skipping a word or two without realizing it.

One feature I really appreciate is that Read Aloud doesn’t just read an entire page by default. If you highlight a specific section, it will focus on just that part, which makes it easy to use in quick bursts throughout the day. I also customized the shortcut so it pops up whenever I press Command + Q, saving me from having to reach for the mouse and click the extension.

I can’t say enough good things about Read Aloud — I’m actually shocked that I hadn’t found out about it sooner. Hopefully Google Chrome’s Listen to feature will eventually come to macOS users.