Who knows the ins and outs of Shift better than almost anyone? Meet Cait, our Customer Support Manager.
Dealing with customers every day means Cait has to be an expert on the product, but she admits she isn’t the biggest proponent of change. Her setup is a masterclass in transitioning from a chaotic Chrome experience to a structured Shift workflow without losing the familiarity of her old habits.
Here’s how she built a setup that keeps her organized, efficient, and ready to tackle the support queue.
Cait’s setup at a glance
- Spaces: Primary (Daily Default), Sheets, Ephemeral, Testing, Tickets
- Apps: Slack, Asana, ChatGPT, 1Password, Zendesk, Stripe, Jira, Mixpanel
- Template: Original Shiftie (Classic layout)
- Favorite detail: Color-coded windows that match specific Spaces for a quick mental map.
Check out Cait's Shift browser walk-through below:
Adapting old habits to a new browser
Coming from Chrome, Cait was a heavy user of tab groups—juggling upwards of 10 to 12 at a time.
Instead of fighting her old habits, she adapted them. She consolidated those dozen tab groups into distinct Spaces. Her "Primary" Space acts as her daily default, housing her calendar, daily notes, and to-do list.
Cait, Customer Support ManagerThe great thing about Shift was that I was able to actually consolidate some of my tab groups into one space within Shift. In Chrome, I maybe had upwards of 10 or 12 tab groups, I've been able to reduce it down into eight different Spaces.
Interestingly, Cait keeps her Gmail and Calendar as open tabs within this Space rather than pinning them as apps.
"I found that 'out of sight, out of mind' was happening when I set them as apps because, in Chrome, these were always my first three tabs. It's just automatically where I go [to find them]," says Cait, "Tabs act as a third layer of organization. I try to focus my apps more on things that I'm checking daily or using daily. And then I accept [that's not the case for] these three."
This hybrid approach proves you don't have to abandon your muscle memory to get organized. By keeping her core tools as tabs, she maintains her routine while gaining the structural benefits of Shift.
Color-coded Spaces for a clearer mental map
When you are switching between support tickets, internal meetings, and testing, it’s easy to get lost in the digital noise. Cait’s solution? Visual cues.
She customizes the theme of her browser window to match the color of the Space she is currently working in.
- Primary Space: Green icon = Green window background.
- Ticket Space: Blue icon = Blue window background.
Cait, Customer Support ManagerGreen Space, blue Space—you can really reduce it down to quick cues that clean up the mental workload that you might be doing as you're switching between the different tasks in your day.
This simple visual trick reduces the cognitive load of context switching. She doesn't have to think about where she is, the color tells her instantly.
Saving time with shortcuts and smart links
Efficiency is the name of the game in customer support. To keep her workflow fast, Cait utilizes app shortcuts. She has four core apps—Slack, Asana, ChatGPT, and 1Password—that appear in every single Space.
Because these are shortcuts rather than separate instances, they open in the same app across all of her Spaces.
Cait, Customer Support ManagerIf I open a link in Slack in my Primary Space, and then jump to my Ticket Space, it brings me to the exact same place. It saves so much time.
She also leverages Smart Links in her Sheets Space. Instead of opening Google Sheets in new tabs that clutter her top bar, they open within the app instance in a secondary tab bar. This keeps her main workspace clean while giving her easy access to the data she needs.
A dedicated space for testing
As a Support Manager, Cait often needs to verify user issues or test new features. To prevent this from disrupting her daily flow, she created a dedicated Testing Space.
Cait, Customer Support ManagerI use this space to make changes, add apps, and test things out. That way, it’s not interfering with my daily setup.
This separation ensures that her main work environment stays stable and reliable, no matter what experiments she's running in the background.
Start familiar, then customize
Cait’s setup is proof that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to be productive. She started with the "Original Shiftie" template to keep things familiar and slowly customized her environment to match how her brain works.
Whether you’re a tab hoarder looking for order or a support pro needing better context switching, Shift gives you the tools to build a browser that fits you.
Ready to build your own ultimate daily driver?
