Looking Back at 2020

2020 wasn't the year that any of us expected it to be. The global Covid-19 pandemic quickly derailed the hope and optimism that comes with every new year. In March, everyone was still grappling with the sudden change to working from home. And yet, the most productive day of the year for the Shift community was March 30th. We are resilient. Everyone is facing the challenges brought by the pandemic head-on and are not only surviving but thriving in their new environments.

As 2020 progressed, we learned everything we could about new ways to improve how we worked: asynchronous communication, deep work, and work about work. While on the surface, all of these were hot buzzwords this year, digging a little deeper reveals their value in creating a workplace environment that's more fulfilling, balanced, and efficient. Asynchronous communication is a key strategy for avoiding Zoom fatigue since it de-emphasizes real-time interaction and instead encourages thoughtful written communication (without Zoom). Deep work is a practical way to improve your productivity by encouraging you to work with 100% focus on meaningful tasks instead of filling up your day with busy work. Work about work is another term for that busywork, and being smart about minimizing work about work allows for more time for working on tasks that contribute to true priorities and the bigger picture.

2020 in Numbers

This year was one for the history books, but the hard work of the Shift community resulted in wildly impressive productivity stats.

The Shift Community—#1 in Productivity

Despite having to adapt to all of the wild changes that 2020 brought with it, the Shift community was 37% MORE productive this year than in 2019. How'd we do that? Well, it's because our community is just that amazing!

Focused Work in the Browser

One of Shift's core features, focused web tabs avoid the distractions of a traditional browser. With 14.2 million web tabs opened, Shift users took full advantage of that feature to get their work done.

Keeping Track of Everything

Shift also allows you to bookmark pages in focused web tabs as well as look back on your browsing history. Our users were really productive in their focused web tabs this year and added 33.5 million items as bookmarks or page history to their accounts.

Context Switching Made Easy

Switching between accounts 226 million times is a mind-boggling amount. But without having those accounts inside Shift, those switches would likely have added up to a lot of lost time due to the risk of getting distracted when making the switch. Luckily, that isn't what happened here—all of these account switches were done with focus and intention inside Shift.

Working in One Productive Place

Remember mentioned that context switching in Shift leads to a lot of saved time? We weren't kidding. Using Shift instead of a traditional browser or using apps right on the desktop has saved our users more than TWO MILLION hours. That's about two centuries' worth of time.

Building Your Ultimate Workstation

Shift users installed 57,000 apps this year. With the ability to fully customize your desktop workstation, adding your email accounts is only the beginning. You can add as many apps as you want, with as many different logins as you need, to take your productivity to the next level in Shift.

Supporting Our Community

With over 1,500 apps supported in Shift, if you use an app, we probably have it. But, we're always trying to improve and make your life even easier. That's why we're continually working to support new apps and added 193 to our directory this year.

Dark Mode is Still Winning

In a way, it's comforting to have some things stay the same this year. Dark mode is consistently our users' favorite color scheme. If you use light mode, let us know on social why it's your preference over dark mode; we're curious!

New in 2020

We launched our most unique feature yet—Workspaces. You can build your personal focused collection of apps, tabs, and bookmarks in Workspaces. You can make your Workspace either project or task based, and keep everything you need to get work done organized in one place.

Looking Ahead

2020 wasn't the year we were all expecting, but the new year is always an excellent time for a fresh start. It's the perfect time to optimize our new way of working remotely and at home. That's why we put out not one but two new features this year to help you do just that. We're excited to introduce Shift's very own integrated Password Manager!

You can now manage your passwords directly in Shift, so you'll never lose a login again. The Shift community is loving this new feature, and have added over 1.7 million passwords already.

Thank you to the amazing people in our Shift Community. The release of two brand new features in Shift wouldn't have been possible without you. We're so grateful for your feedback and inspiration, every single day. Hopefully, 2021 is a little less unpredictable than 2020 has been—cheers to a new year of productivity!