The Web Browser is dead; Long live the Smart Browser.
In the age of hyper-productivity and multitasking, skipping through tabs (with over 70+ of those open), desktop — laptop screen swaps, the clickety-clack keyboard routine, and on, and on — with the occasional sip of espresso — have all come to represent a widespread culture of pseudo-productivity that prides itself on the ability to do more and more with less — in lesser time.
In fact, according to RescueTime, most knowledge workers report that they regularly spend 40.1% of their productive time multitasking to ensure that they hit targets consistently, and overall, get more stuff done.
But, what if we told you multitasking is only a myth keyboard smashers throw about among themselves to feel like they’re changing the world.
It turns out it really is. According to recent studies, the human brain isn’t ideally suited to swapping through tasks and being good at it. Or in plain terms, humans just don’t multitask.
Now, since it’s scientifically proven that humans aren’t suited to handling multiple tasks with efficiency, how then can you manage to keep sane without up to 70+ browser tabs routinely open — ranging from complicated sheets in Airtable, all the way to layered data in Excel — and not counting the 150+ extra tabs open across the 5 Safari windows you haven’t opened since the past week? How can you move all that off your back and still afford to do your best work?
Meet Station, the web browser of the future.
In theory, Station is a high-end, intelligent browser that puts all your can’t-do-without work apps a cursor swipe away and lets you access them via a simple, uncluttered interface, to ensure you’re doing your best work always. Think of it as the best of Google Chrome + Safari’s uncluttered interface combined into a work deck that’s designed to keep you focused on what’s in front of you — without the pesky ‘mail.google.com wants to show notifications.’
What Station is offers is a simple smart dock that logs a collection of apps you’ve chosen so you can get to them with just a click, do your work and then check out as easily — or switch to another work app just as fast, enabling you to stay focused on what’s in front of you, while keeping what’s in the pipeline or on wait organised for whenever you’re ready to pick up wherever you left.
In theory, Station seems to be nothing more than The OneApp with a nice, slick design but it turns out it goes a lot beyond that. With a little more poking around, some of the features that set Station apart as a close contender for the future of work include:
- Focus Mode.
Zero notifications. Zero, zilch, nada.
Once you’re in the zone, Station makes sure you stop existing, at least just for a few minutes or as long as forever, to the pesky app notifications that are always clamoring for attention. With the option to either mute selected or all apps, for as long as you like, you can be sure that whenever a notification pops in, that it’s really worth your time, not some random meme Doug from accounts thought would make you laugh. Add to that freedom from endless tab swipes and it’s easy to see how Station lifts the trophy as the ultimate productivity hack.
No more gridlocks of half-used pages stacked back-to-back in Chrome — just your best work where no human or notification can reach you.
2. Multitasking — without 70+ open tabs.
While we’ve established that multitasking is dead (for the workaholics — and actually, it never existed), Station gives you the next best alternative to a cohesive work environment where you get to focus on what’s at hand, while Station quietly groups your endless open pages under their parent apps.
From HubSpot to Hyvver, Station maintains a library of virtually all workplace & productivity apps so you can easily add them to your personal collection and get started with just a click. This time, without a fan of open tabs, intermittent notifications, and the dreaded popups.
3. Quick Switch & Search with Keyboard Shortcuts
And if you’re still into switching in and out of tabs intermittently, while trying to get a thousand tasks done before deadlines, Station’s got you covered.
With a bunch of easy swap shortcut keys that’ll get you in and out of apps, quickly, you can finally say goodbye to scrolling endlessly with your mouse for like 70% of the time.
This way, it’s easy to do your best work as fast as possible, without missing Chrome or Safari’s keyboard shortcuts.
4. Customize to your heart’s desire.
If your team keeps a rooster of in-house apps you use to power internal systems or if you’re the self-acclaimed hacker with an enchilada of custom tools in your personal portfolio, Station guarantees you’ll have a place for them all — minus the frequent taskbar visits. With Station, it’s easy to create access to your in-house, custom apps to unify your workflow & systems controls.
5. A Complete Tech Stack.
And not only does Station give you the keys to let your custom app friends into the apartment, but Station also doubles as the all-in-one tech stack to get your best work without jumping from GSuite, to the Evernote Desktop app, and back to the source material blog posts you have open in Chrome. A single workspace that helps keep your work organized across the trove of productivity apps you use to get stuff done.
The average tech worker makes use of 50+ browser-based SaaS tools to get their work done, requiring them to swap through half-frozen tabs 300+ times per day. With Station, not anymore. Station’s collection of over 660 SaaS apps, from popular CRM apps like HubSpot & Pipefy, all the way to niche freelancing tools like AND CO & Bonsai guarantee that whatever tools you’re working from, that they got you covered.
When I interviewed Station CEO Julien Berthomier, he expressed that Station was built to address personal struggles he and other entrepreneurs had faced with trying to get work done while drifting through several productivity apps. “What you have is a situation where there’s lots of work and productivity tools to do them with, but these tools are so fragmented that they eventually constitute a bigger hindrance to the task at hand,” Berthomier said.
“We all use countless amounts of SaaS tools at work on a daily basis, switching from Slack messages to emails, spreadsheets, notes… the list goes on. It’s not rare to end a day with 50+ tabs stacking up on top of each other. And it’s not that surprising, given that traditional web browsers were designed to browse the web, not to work across so many tools in the context of work.
Our web browsers have become the operating systems of work but they fail to make us more productive because it was never their intention in the first place. We envision Station as the central hub for all your web apps, perfectly tailored for the work environment of today’s knowledge workers.”
Looking to escape from the Safari & Chrome conundrum? You should be. Try out Station right away.
