I work with clients all around the world, which has its perks, but also keeps me super busy. I can’t afford down time on tedious tasks. Meanwhile, cybersecurity is super important when you’re running a one-person business. Most of my work is performed in the browser, and over time I’ve learnt a few simple tricks that help me save time and stay secure online.

This is not a sponsored post, but I strongly suggest using Brave browser and getting a free Proton account. Built on Chromium, Brave works like a faster version of Google Chrome, but without all the creepy stuff. Proton offers an ever-expanding suite of privacy-preserving tools and works well with Brave.

Here are my top 5 browser hacks that I use daily on my freelance laptop.

Use multiple Browser Profiles. It’s super simple to setup. Just add a new Brave profile and pin it to your taskbar. Each profile is its own little sandboxed workspace, which is ideal for splitting your personal and business workflows. I create a new profile for each new client, so I can simultaneously stay logged into the same service using different credentials. You can colour code browser profiles so they’re instantly recognisable and you can also create sync chains to share things like settings and bookmarks across profiles. Working with multiple clients online, this is by far my biggest efficiency hack.

Use Saved Tab Groups within Brave browser. I work on multiple subprojects for a client, each one using a set of website tools for collaboration, coding, publishing, etc. Entire workflows can be opened up simply by opening and closing saved tab groups. Give it a try, it’s super useful.

Use Email Aliases. Proton gives you 10 email aliases when you sign up for a free account. You’d be surprised how many apps and services you sign up for when working for different clients. Using aliases enhances your privacy, helps you segment incoming traffic, and allows for parallel logins.

Use Proton VPN. Brave has excellent anti-fingerprinting built in, but your IP address is still visible to websites and others. Proton’s no-log VPN is free to use as a browser extension. I’m online everyday across multiple sites and services and 99% of the time I use this Brave + Proton VPN setup for client work without any hiccups.

Use PWAs. Many websites can be installed as PWAs. Brave shows you when it’s available with a little laptop icon to the right side of the search bar. I’ve seen many privacy and cybersecurity experts advocate for this method as PWAs inherit the security settings of your browser (including that PVN extension). It also means you can have the same app open in parallel, which is ideal for quick task-hopping between different client logins.

If you’re a busy Digital Independent like me, you really shouldn’t be wasting time on switching logins, loading up URLs, or taking risks with your online security. I know it seems like a lot to take in, but these are set-and-forget hacks that offer immediate efficiency gains.

I’ve been heads down building over the past few months, working on some cool AI-related tools and projects, some of which is hush hush NDA. Over this time I’ve realised how much I enjoy writing newsletters, and it’s something I want to double down on professionally.