Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the surge in the popularity of remote work has been epic, to say the least. Even people who never dreamed of working outside the traditional office building have been forced to adapt to the new normal.
But if you’re like most people, you’re probably still trying to get a hang of things. How do you successfully separate your personal life from your professional life when you’re working from your couch? And how could anyone stay organized and productive with so many distractions around?
Well, with a little help from technology, you can be just as efficient and productive as you would be in a brick-and-mortar office. Here are the top 10 tech tools for remote workers that will absolutely make your life easier, whether you’re an employee or manager working from home.
Productivity Tools for remote workers
1. Time doctor
Keeping track of time can be pretty challenging when working remotely. But thanks to robust time tracking tools like Time Doctor, the control of your time is right back in your hands. This software was designed to help both individuals and companies that manage remote workers.
Among its myriad of features, Time Doctor can track how a user spends their time on the computer and generates daily and weekly assessment reports for the individual or manager. This creates room for improvement by revealing how time usage can be improved. This generated time report can also be used by the employer for billing purposes.
But that’s not all – it comes with an alert feature that helps to ward off distraction and boost productivity. It is available on PC and mobile devices and comes with a 14-day free trial.
2. Kickidler
Kickidler is a powerful multi-function employee monitoring software. It comes with so many cool features such as time-tracking, productivity reporting, activity log generation, and screen recording.
With this app, you can count on your employees to be on the job when they should be. Beyond monitoring, though, kickidler also allows individuals to track their activities and boost productivity.
3. Todoist
If you find it so hard to stay organized, Todoist might just be a lifesaver. Whether you’re a remote team manager or employee, the app will allow you to organize your personal tasks as well as those of your team.
With Todoist, you can create tasks, subtasks, projects, and notes. And the app provides a reminder whenever you need to perform an approaching task, so it’s pretty hard to forget to do something important.
4. Blink
Blink is another versatile productivity tool that allows you to do so many things. Some of its features include calendar handling, a news feed, discussion board, and staff directory, which makes a productive and friendly work environment a breeze even when working remotely.
[Also read: 6 Ways to obtain better work-life balance when working from home]
Video conferencing tools
5. Zoom
Zoom needs a little-to-no introduction, as there’s almost no US company that doesn’t use it in one capacity or the other. And the reason is simple – it’s an easy-to-use video conferencing tool and it’s so affordable.
This app allows you to share your screen and record your meetings, and you can even break into room sessions if necessary. Whatever business you’re doing, and at whatever scale, Zoom is great for getting your team together. It is available on PC but also mobile-friendly.
6. Whereby
This is another video conferencing tool that lets you collaborate with your remote team on the go. And like Zoom, it allows you to create a room link, which you can share with your team members via email. With this easy-to-use tech tool, you can have virtual face-to-face meetings with your team. It supports screen sharing and is PC and mobile-friendly.
Project management tools
7. Trello
If you’re into project management, then look no further than Trello. Among other things, it is super easy to use, very efficient, and allows for seamless collaboration among team members. You can create and assign tasks with due dates and create different cards where the assignments can be moved as the project moves along.
One rather cool feature of this app is the advanced checklist feature, which gives you a birds-eye view of all current projects and tasks for the month. The best part is that it has a completely free option for individuals and teams, while its business class package starts at $10/month.
8. Airtable
Airtable is another great project management tool that is so easy to customize. It comes pre-loaded with so many cool templates to get you started. Another great thing about this tool is that you can customize your viewing option for different applications
Airtable comes with a pretty decent chunk of storage that allows you to store your attached files in one place. And the coolest part is that it integrates seamlessly with third-party plugins like Slack, GitHub, and WordPress, thereby making it easier to stay organized.
[Further reading: 5 Tips to Create An Organized & Productive Home Office]
Cloud storage software
9. Dropbox
Gone are the days when you were stranded if you lost your hard drive. With Dropbox, the sharing and saving of files are as simple as the click of a button. So, if you manage remote workers, this app will allow your team to easily sync and share large files across various devices, and also collaborate on documents.
10. Google drive
Google Drive is a super-reliable cloud storage platform where you can securely keep your precious files. It comes with 15 GB of free data storage for all users, who have the option of upgrading to paid plans for even more storage space.
GoogleDrive is available on all devices, which makes it easy to access your files from anywhere. It also promotes easy data sharing and synchronization among remote team members.
The Bottom Line
Working from home doesn’t have to be a nightmare. Try these tools and watch as your productivity soars.
