On change and productivity

Change is good. 

I like change. I like to try new things, but when well-intentioned designers change my default home page in my web browser because they think it will be more efficient for me, I'm less enthused. Yes, I'll give the new thing a try, but please give me the option to revert to the old setup. Quoting Jeremy Clarkson, "How hard can it be?"

Want to see what I mean? I used to get this lovely, simple page when I opened a new tab in Google Chrome. It had the apps I like and use most often (Mail, Calendar and Evernote). The placement never changed, and I could pin new pages easily.

When the home page changed late last year and this option disappeared, I was glad to find this workaround, which restored the apps page as my home page.

And I was happy with the fix, until recently, with the latest Google Chrome update, it's gone. In the new design, I have to click the checkerboard icon to get to apps. And somehow, every time I open this apps icon, the apps are in a different place! I work spatially, so when you touch my stuff, I get frustrated. And it doesn't allow me to add apps.

I have no choice but to go back to an old standby: Incredible Startpage extension.

Yes the design is old-timey web stuff, but functionally, it does what I want, and for my productivity and peace of mind, that's what's important.