25 Apps that Make Working from Home Easier

At present, working remotely has changed from a luxury of some sectors to a key pillar of the national economy. Thanks to modern technology capabilities, many of the day-to-day processes which until now were mainly organised in presence can now be accomplished by employers and employees without leaving the house. In order to make it easier to adapt to the new reality and to keep  things running smoothly, LMT compiled 25 applications that will facilitate both communication and workflow during this time.

For communication and remote teamwork
Maintaining of communication is one of the most important, but also the most challenging components of remote working. Being in different locations rather than being with colleagues or clients, can be a problem, as it requires extra effort for the communication process that was simple so far. Apps like Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, Slacks, Zoom can make this process easier, by not only providing the audio and video conferencing capabilities that are needed by a large number of people for working remotely, but also by letting you share and edit project documents with colleagues, organise communication on themes, subjects etc. LMT experts remind you: if the video call is not an absolute necessity, opt for audio calls for better call quality – so you can feel more confident that other activities or network load will not affect the quality of your call.

For providing feedback 
When working remotely, sometimes excellent communication tolls are not enough, very often you need to quickly and visibly collect the opinions of your colleagues on a topic and get feedback. At such times, digital tools like Doodle which allows you to conduct small internal surveys, for example, to find out the most convenient time for video conference, will be really useful. In addition, LMT experts suggest the OfficeVibe that would help to monitor the satisfaction of each team member, when performing specific responsibilities. Via this app the team members will receive regular direct messages with questions about their overall mood, team microclimate etc. Afterwards the responses are sent anonymously to the team leader who can evaluate the steps and techniques needed to effectively organise future working life.

For document management
A very important factor when working remotely is document and file management. This is especially important when working collectively, as you need to find the most effective way to share your work, while allowing other team members to access, edit, and comment on documents. Apps like Google Drive, DropBox, Box, Quip can help everyone to save and share important files, give colleagues an opportunity to edit and add their own documents.

For working time control
When working from home, tracking the amount of work you accomplish over a specific period of time can be difficult, as work responsibilities often mix with some household work. So, to make it easier to see how much time a particular job has taken, it is worthwhile to use one of these applications: Time Doctor, Hours, Toggl, Teamweek, Harvest. These tools make it easy to track the progress of your work as they record time spent on tasks and report on progress, allowing you to analyse and improve your performance.

For project management
Project management tools obviously are vital for teams working remotely, so apps like Trello, Basecamp, Float, MeisterTask, TaskWorld can considerably facilitate your day-to-day operations. These tools make it easy to manage tasks, statuses, responsibilities of team members, and to share documents within a team.

To improve productivity
Staying productive while working remotely can be one of the biggest challenges as there are a lot of distractions at home. That's why a number of apps are designed to address these risks. TomatoTimer, Focuslist, Forest, Nozbe, Todoist are just a few of the apps recommended by LMT experts that will help you organize your working hours wisely, stay focused on what you need to do, and don't miss the rest time you need to stay productive.

NB! We encourage you to keep track of the security of your chosen solutions and data processing principles also during this period.