3 essential pins (+4 ideas)

I will let you in on a secret: I love looking at how people set up their desktop. It's like looking into people's living rooms, only less creepy! It tells me a lot about their work habits (or so I think). As operating systems loose their significance in favour of browsers, your Chrome configuration is becoming more fascinating.

Some ideas about pinning - perhaps you get inspired to pin more (or less), to try out new services and to access others in a completely new way. Let's dive in!

In case you missed the intro about why pinning is great or the more advanced piece of how pins can save you from going insane - have fun!

Maybe pin a little less.

What everybody should keep pinned

Gmail

Technically, you do not need to have Gmail pinned - you don't lose out. It would perhaps even be better to only open it only 2-3 times a day. But in practice, we email so much (and it also takes a bit to load) that it is very practical to have it available all the time. Also, many services tie into Gmail and many workflows start or end there.

Calendar

Actually, Calendar is the most important service to keep pinned. Because without it, you are not reminded of your events (unless you have your phone remind remind you or set Calendar to send you email notifications). But since for most of us Gmail is core to our working lives, Calendar often gets pinned at #2.

Chat

PwC's instant messenger needs to be running, or you will not get messages. Luckily, you nowadays can choose between a desktop client (in which case you do not need any website), the website at chat.google.com (then you should pin it), Gmail and your phone. Here is a comparison.

More esoteric pins

I have seen people pinning a couple of different services they use very often. Here they go, along with the rational and how you could quickly access them instead.

Drive

If you are a heavy Drive user (who isn't?), it makes sense to keep it pinned. Documents open in new tabs, saving you a lot of time.

Alternative: Chrome now supports typing any document's name directly in the URL bar - try it out!

Cloud Search

Cloud Search not only searches, but also shows you a handy overview of your day and files it thinks will be relevant next. In my opinion, Cloud Search should be Chrome's homepage. You can make it so by pinning! Since Cloud Search can search Drive and Gmail, it can literally be your homepage.

Alternative: Configure Cloud Search to work from any tab. You will not get the homepage features, but the search power. Here is a tutorial.

Keep

Keep lovers might want to have Keep pinned at all times. Easy reference and a steady flow of new ideas have a home!

Alternative: Keep is available in all side panels. New Keep notes can be created by visiting keep.new in Chrome.

Meet

Having Meet pinned is a very clever idea! Just bounce from meeting to meeting, reliably in the very same tab. This will also save you from scrambling to get back to the tab where the "music is playing from" or where to go back to when screensharing. It can be very convenient for people like us who are in virtual meetings all day long.

Alternative: None, really - besides opening meet.google.com or Calendar.

Specific files

That could be either files you are working on, that hold an agenda or your daily log file.

If you would like to know my personal configuration: I keep Gmail and Calendar pinned. Chat lives in the proper desktop application. I use Cloud Search via the URL bar (shortcut: cs). The rest, I open via their full sites - I like typing and usually work with a single Chrome window with very few tabs, things open and close fast. Chrome is smart and fast enough that typing "dr" instantly autocompletes to "drive.google.com".

Thank you for reading - have fun pinning and finding out what best suits your style!

#gmailPublished 2020-05-12 by Holger Matthies.Modified 2021-01-23 by Holger Matthies.Written listening to Max Richter - Vivaldi's Four Seasons recomposed

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