Working from home has permanently blurred the line between "work time" and "not work time" for a lot of people. The tools that help most aren't the ones that add more features — they're the ones that help you transition in and out of work mode cleanly.
Here are the Firefox extensions I rely on for WFH, and why.
1. Multi-Account Containers — The Work/Personal Boundary
Firefox Multi-Account Containers lets you run separate isolated browser sessions inside one Firefox window.
My setup:
- Work container: Company tools, email, Slack web, client portals
- Personal container: Personal email, banking, social media (when I use it)
- Default (no container): News, research, anything temporary
When I close the Work container, work is done. When I open a new tab in the morning, I consciously choose to open the Work container — that choice is part of starting work.
This creates a psychological boundary that a lot of remote workers lack. There's no spatial separation (you're home in both work and personal time), but there's a session-level separation.
2. uBlock Origin — Cognitive Load Reduction
uBlock Origin is the standard content blocker, and the productivity argument for it goes beyond just blocking ads.
The constant stimuli of ads, popups, and interruptive elements on most websites increase cognitive load. Blocking them doesn't just save bandwidth — it makes the web less exhausting to use across a full day.
I also use it to block YouTube recommendations (after watching a video, the sidebar fills with unrelated content). Custom filter: youtube.com##ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer
3. Weather & Clock Dashboard — Morning Orientation
Weather & Clock Dashboard replaces my new tab with weather + 3-day forecast + world clocks.
For WFH specifically, the world clock component is crucial. I start every day with a new tab, see current time in my team's time zones, and factor that into what I'll work on first. If it's 4pm for my EU colleagues, I prioritize any cross-timezone communication before they go offline.
This takes 2 seconds and prevents the classic remote work problem of realizing at 3pm that you needed to communicate with someone whose day is now over.
4. Facebook Container — Passive Protection
Facebook Container (by Mozilla) isolates Meta platforms in a separate container automatically.
Meta's tracking infrastructure follows you across the web. This extension breaks that tracking without requiring you to think about it — you browse normally, and Meta can't see your activity on non-Meta sites.
A small thing that runs in the background. I forget it's there, which is the point.
5. Firefox's Built-In Features (Not Extensions)
Some WFH tools don't require extensions:
-
Reader View (
F9) for long articles — strips ads and noise - Picture-in-Picture for video calls while working in other tabs
- Containers come built in (Multi-Account Containers adds a UI, but Firefox supports containers natively)
-
Screen capture (
Shift+F1) — built-in screenshot with annotation
The extensions I listed above handle what Firefox's built-in features don't cover. There's no need to install extensions that duplicate functionality already in Firefox.
What extensions are you using for WFH that I haven't mentioned? I'm especially curious if anyone has found something useful for async communication that works in the browser.
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