Managing tabs in Chrome has been a hassle for most of us! While bookmarks have been helpful to manage some of the window and tab load it was never enough for our evolving internet usage!

Like me, you are probably here because you are a Chrome SUPER user and you want to keep windows and tabs organized as best as you possibly can! There are different ways we can go about organizing our Chrome browser tabs and we’ll explore which ones make the most sense. 

In this article, we are going to discuss how to best manage windows and tabs in Chrome. 

We are going to cover:

• Old school ‘Bookmarks  – So how do we manage our window and tab workspace overload utilizing bookmarks.
• Google Tab Groups – How to use Groups to create workspaces
• Managing tabs in chrome with Google Chrome extensions – Some solid google chrome extensions can help us manage and organize our workspaces. 

Problem – How to Organize my tabs in Chrome?

What is the problem? Whether it is for work and productivity, studying or leisure, most internet users end up opening up a large number of browser windows and browser tabs. 

So many tabs in fact that it becomes really hard to manage your tabs in chrome and…

• go through all the browser windows and browser tabs and decide which ones to close at the end of your day.
• manage our dedicated workspace in a productive manner 
• Separate browser tabs and browser windows meant for work and those tabs that are meant for your time-off.
• manage those browser tabs which are almost simply meant as a reminder of a good idea we found on the web, a trip we might want to take one day, and so on…
• Share the same computer with your partner, your kids, co-worker, and fellow students,…

While there is no shame in having many Chrome browser windows open, with plenty of Chrome tabs in them, it is, however:

• Impractical -> as the chrome tabs get smaller you can hardly read them
• Time-wasting -> It takes time to find the exact browser window and Chrome tab you are looking for
• Stressful -> You feel scared to close browser windows as you don’t want to lose your work.
• …

So, how do we find a better way so we can give each Chrome tab the attention it deserves and create an inspiring online workspace? 

Luckily, there are now more tools available for us that will allow us to manage and organize our browser windows and Chrome tabs much more efficiently.

Managing Tabs in Chrome using BOOKMARKS

Solving the – too many tabs syndrome – starts with having some kind of system in place! Every website or tool online has its own home within your system. Bookmarks will help us as being the first line of defense. 

If you find content or online tools for future use, don’t leave them as open tabs, classify them using bookmarks! 

 Bookmarks allow you to create a file system for your browser habits. Simply create a new folder for your main content types or online tools that you want to save. You can also create folders and subfolders for each family member, and so on. Organize it in whatever way works best for you!

Examples:

• My bookmark folder for ‘Good Ideas’ 
• Bookmark folders for ‘Each family member’
• Bookmark folder for Study, For Work, For Leisure
• Bookmark folder for ‘Essential Online Tools’ 
• ETC…

Much like organizing old-fashioned mail that was brought to us by the postman, we need to set some rules of triage. What do we keep, where do we keep it and what goes to the trashcan.

The truth is that we are bombarded with great content daily and that is not changing any time soon. So to keep up with the best content and the best websites or online tools, we need to have our storage system for URLs. Bookmarks do the trick but they are not enough. 

Bookmarks help to store content but they are not really helpful when it comes to creating browser workspaces! It took a while for Google Chrome to wake up, but they finally added the feature of TAB GROUPS in chrome. 

Managing Tabs in Chrome using TAB GROUPS 

Google launched Google Tab Groups in 2020. A new feature that allows us to create TAB GROUPS for our google chrome browser tabs. Allowing us to organize and manage our chrome browser windows and chrome tabs in a better way. It keeps our screenspace more zen. 

What are chrome browser – tab groups? 

Chrome TAB GROUPS as the name implies, allow you to allocate a chrome browser TAB to a GROUP. TabGroups allow us to visually declutter the open tabs that we see in our Chrome browser window. 

When we are using bookmarks, we are storing the URLs away for future use, we close the browser tab. 

With chrome Tab Groups, we are not closing the chrome browser tabs, we are simply visually hiding them by categorizing them into groups. 

For example, you could create a tab group for YOUTUBE, a READING LIST, or a WORK toolset.

You can think of Tab Groups as folders for your desktop. My personal desktop used to look like a battlefield of random apps and files. Then I started to use folders for my desktop! Tab groups for chrome have the same function, they visually organize your main workspace!

COMPARE THIS IMAGE –> Go go from a visual a ‘too many tabs’ experience, which can be overwhelming. distracting and at the least extremely unproductive, like the image below. 

TO ONE OF THESE IMAGES –> To a visually much more pleasing experience. Note that you might have even more tabs open within your Chrome Group Tabs, but now the look-and-feel is organized. This will create a much better work or study environment! Less distraction and more productivity.

How to use tab groups in chrome?

Simply right-click on any chrome browser tab and you can either assign a tab to an existing group or create a new Tab Group. 

What we like about tab groups in the Google Chrome browser

•  Visually pleasing – color-coded
  • Tab groups in the Google Chrome browser are very pleasing to the eye, making it a very zen-like experience. 
  • The color codes make it very easy to associate certain tasks with colors!!
• Create groups (social media/ work /Study/ Free-time)
  • The fact that you can create specific top groups allow for easy organization.
  • You could for example create a tab group for all your social media, a tab group dedicated to your work, a tab group dedicated to studies, and so on.
• Drag and drop tabs to groups
  • We really like the drag and drop feature allowing us to easily move any chrome tab to the desired tab group. Do note that the drag and drop function only works when the top group is opened.

What we don’t like about tab groups in the Google Chrome browser

Google Chrome doesn’t allow you to save tab groups permanently out of the box. There is a Chrome browser setting that you can change which will enable your Chrome browser to open up right where you left off.

If you need to know how to change this setting, feel free to check out how to do this in our article ‘Google Chrome tabs – All you need to know. 

Managing Tabs In Chrome Using Chrome Extensions

What Chrome Tab Manager extensions can do for you!

Best Chrome Extension for managing your browser workspace

My Setup For Managing Tabs In Chrome And Organizing My Workspace!