Working from home introduces a new set of creative challenges and opportunities for how firms might organize their operations and workforces. As a result of the pandemic caused by coronavirus (COVID-19), some employers have found that working from home provides them with the flexibility they require to continue running their businesses – conducting Zoom meetings and collaborating online while also giving priority to the health and well-being of their employees and customers as part of their responsibility to the public health.

Before the coronavirus epidemic, more and more companies were realizing the advantages that allowing their workers to work from home may bring to their company and the better work-life balance it would provide for those employees. This article will provide you with some of the benefits and negatives of working from home so that you know what you are getting yourself into and can be well prepared for it in advance.

What Are the Benefits of Working from Home?

With more workers working from home – or utilizing the home as a base for part of the week – there are advantages for the company, including:

✔️ Cost reduction

Employment from home reduces the hidden expenses of working. These include commute, automobile wear and tear, petrol, road fees, parking, and indirect expenditures like professional outfits and dry-cleaning. You may often save on older children’s care, but it’s unwise to forego daycare for younger children and attempt to combine care and supervision with work.

✔️ Lower stress

In many nations, the stress of rush-hour traffic may lead to angry employees who are fatigued and worn before they start their day. This is particularly true for remote jobs. Unfriendly employees, a poor work atmosphere, and numerous diversions are also stressors.

✔️ Productivity increases

Professionals are typically happier and more productive when freed from the demands and distractions of the office and are allowed to work in their surroundings at their speed.

✔️ Work-life balance

Work/life balance is commonly accomplished and fine-tuned via working-from-home arrangements, especially when a professional has the freedom to report to the office and work partly as an alternative and may fine-tune the arrangement to reach an ideal balance.

What Are the Disadvantages of Working from Home?

There are certain downsides to working from home, but they mostly apply to full-time telecommuters.

✔️ Lack of motivation

Getting up and working with the same vigor while working from home might be hard. Lack of creativity and efficiency may damage our emotional well-being and lead to a general lack of motivation to manage tasks. Homework requires self-discipline.

✔️ Isolation

Professionals working from home sometimes complain of isolation and loneliness, which may be distressing. Since the office is where many individuals meet and form relationships, professionals working from home must be more imaginative and inventive in connecting with coworkers.

✔️ Distractions

Working from home eliminates workplace distractions, but others may develop. Interruptions from children, work, neighbors, friends, and relatives may be quite disruptive. Special efforts must be made to let others know you’re working and unreachable during work hours at home.

✔️ Never-ending work

Since no one is watching you, you may be inclined to labor forever. This temptation to labor continuously may be reinforced by higher expectations as a home worker or self-imposed demands to prove oneself in this situation. Lack of physical separation between home and work may contribute to job strain.

8 Best Tools to Make Remote Work More Productive

In this section, we’re going to introduce the 8 best tools to make remote work more productive, especially during the epidemic.

Todoist

Todoist is one of the most popular and enjoyable task management applications. Todoist is a fan favorite. It features a powerful, basic UI. Todoist isn’t a time tracking tool, but it may work wonderfully for those seeking simplicity and minimalism.

Their software lets you add tasks, reminders, and to-do lists and sync every device. On top of that, you may give jobs to others. You may specify the priority of each assignment, make comments, and provide due dates. Todoist is a project management application for remote employees that serves as a task management tool.

Todoist’s Key Elements

• You can copy tasks from a template into Todoist.
• You can also put assignment titles or notes in italics or bold.
• You can change when tasks that repeat will be done
• Connect to Google Drive and Dropbox.
• Keep track of tasks using the inbox

Todoist’s Target Customers

If you like to be organized and have everything pre-planned for better productivity, then todoist is the app for you! Todoist helps to plan your day and week, adding basic jobs to the tool and writing notes as you go.

Supported Operating System

macOS, Windows, and Linux

RescueTime

RescueTime is the only tool that fully reveals your daily time use patterns. RescueTime is a health check and coach for your attention, time management, and productivity. In contrast, many other productivity apps are geared to help you improve specific aspects of your productivity.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed RescueTime, it will discreetly and correctly monitor your device use to provide detailed reports broken down by category and productivity. In addition to providing detailed information on your day-to-day activities, this tool also allows you to block distracting websites, record the highlights of each day, and keep track of the time you spent working offline.

RescueTime’s Key Elements

• Automatic time monitoring, app and website time tracking, offline time tracking
• Setting objectives, visualizing productive and unproductive work,
• Alerts, blocking distractions, enhancing attention, tracking idle time
• Monitoring mobile time, applications, and calls
• Integrated with Evernote, Slack, Google calendar, etc.

RescueTime’s Target Customers

Using RescueTime is perfect since it aids users in identifying time-wasting routines, developing new ones, doing more work in less time, and, indirectly, regaining time for rest and recreation.

Spark

Spark is a sophisticated email app that combines all your emails into a single inbox and sorts messages for you. Furthermore, you may sleep or ignore less urgent emails till later, giving more attention to the ones that matter.

Spark also has many capabilities for working together, so many people can simultaneously work on the same email from different locations. With this method, everyone who has to send an email may do it immediately and accurately, eliminating time-consuming back-and-forth and any possibility of miscommunication.

Spark’s Key Elements

• Clean your inbox, use “Smart Search” to discover emails, and snooze unimportant emails.
• Assign team members emails so they may manage tasks.
• Teams may use private comments, shared drafts, templates, and immediate chat.
• Schedule emails for when they’ll be read.
• Get timely email reminders.

Spark’s Target Customers

The spark app is good for you if you want to increase efficiency and utilize your time fully. Spark Mail lets you “snooze” low-priority emails until later, saving you time.

Supported Operating System

Mac, iOS, Android

TroopMessenger

TroopMessenger is a remote work solution for SMBs to businesses. This low-complexity tool has excellent utility. Team members may communicate through instant messaging, audio and video conferencing, file sharing, and forming infinite groups on the fly.

Admins may add vendors, suppliers, and freelancers as orange members with limited workspace access. Dropbox and Google Drive may be connected with Troop Messenger. Using Troop Messenger, your team may relocate files, papers, and more. This is the greatest work-from-home communication solution your team needs to maintain company continuity during a crisis or pandemic.

TroopMessenger’s Key Elements

• Instant messaging allows you to stay in touch with coworkers.
• Troop Messenger lets you form purpose-driven organizations.
• The profile function displays team member details.
• The solution contains checklists and slips to manage tasks.
• The system supports one-on-one messaging, group chats, contact search, self-messaging, discussion history, use metrics, and more.

TroopMessenger’s Target Customers

Whether you’re a startup or a Fortune 500 company, Troop Messenger can help you manage your team’s cooperation and communication.

Supported Operating System

Windows, Mac Os, Linux, Android, iOS

Toggl

Toggl is a time-tracking tool that lets you see how much time you spend on individual activities. To assist freelancers in effectively invoicing for projects and receiving payment for the amount of time spent on projects, the program was developed from the ground up with remote workers in mind.

For this reason alone, Toggl is a great tool for remote freelancers, and the data it generates will help you provide more accurate quotes for future assignments.

Toggl’s Key Elements

• Track and examine your project performance.
• Toggl reports show your productivity and profitability.
• Toggl’s well-designed applications run on almost every operating system and internet so that you can use them anywhere.
• Hundreds of popular programs, from calendar applications to project management software.
• Time-savings track record

Toggl’s Target Customers

Toggl is a good choice for you if you’re a remote worker, as it may help you enhance productivity by identifying slow jobs.

Supported Operating System

Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox

Everhour

Everhour is a software program that manages and tracks project hours. Its project budgeting function helps control budgets. Its timesheet, clock in/out, and break features help monitor each assignment’s time. Everhour’s real-time technology provides weekly summaries, reports, and applications.

Everhour users receive Trello, JIRA, Github, and Asana. Integrated applications differentiate work-from-home systems. Integration improves source management, access, and monitoring. Everhour boosts remote working, so 34% of the US workforce and emerging freelancers globally may enjoy easier office operations from home.

Everhour’s Key Elements

• A time tracker helps organizations and individuals monitor project time.
• Everhour is an excellent timesheet tool.
• It assists with billing, budgeting, and task management.
• It organizes data effectively.

Everhour’ Target Customers

Everhour is a great time management app that assists you with managing task performance, making budgets and monitoring progress. Keeping everything going under one roof.

Supported Operating System

Cloud-based, iOS

nTask

If you’re looking for a remote project management solution, go no further than nTask. The software is ideal for novices in large corporations due to its straightforward design and affordable pricing.

Kanban boards are also a part of the program, allowing you to map out the whole project in one place and set up various task dependencies. Remote project managers will find the application’s built-in time tracking feature especially useful since it allows them to monitor the progress of their team’s various tasks from a distance.

nTask’s Key Elements

• Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of protection.
• This user-friendly layout gives you access to many options.
• Zones that can be managed and tracked independently for each group.
• Create, delegate, organize, and collaborate on tasks with ease.

nTask’s Target Customers

nTask is a great tool for remote users, as it helps to manage office tasks in one Interface. It is ideal for small businesses and organizations to collaborate with employees and monitor tasks.

Supported Operating System

Windows, Mac, Android

Shift

Shift is a browser that remembers all your login information, even for your email and other programs, so you never have to enter it again. Further, if you had a single browser set aside for work-related tasks, you’d have no trouble concentrating.

With Shift, you can connect to more than 1,200 other applications to create the ideal workflow for yourself and your colleagues, making it one of the greatest remote work solutions available. With Shift, you can simplify your processes and get more done in less time.

Shift’s Key Elements

• Incorporate your preferred web app and many email accounts into a unified workplace.
• Browse your email, calendar, and drive accounts with one search.
• Create a customized method by combining your preferred programs.
• Separate your professional and personal lives.
• Shift’s tabbed browsing environment is optimized for concentration, allowing you to get more done online.

Shift’s Target Customers

Are you tired of constantly logging in and out? Shift is an elegant way to manage everything. Shift streamlines accounts, applications, and processes and makes you worry-free about your extra tasks.

Supported Operating System

Windows, Mac, and Linux, Google Drive, iCloud

The Bottom Line

Working from home or anywhere remotely has fundamentally altered the way that businesses function on a global scale. The ability to work from home comes with several drawbacks, including difficulties in communicating and maintaining one’s motivation and a disorganized setting. Because of this, you will need the help of the finest tools for remote work to optimize your workflow and increase the amount of work you get done.

Furthermore, there is no “one size fits all” approach to remote work. That’s why looking for solutions that work for your team is important. When you have a remote workforce, onboarding, daily management, and employee motivation look different than in a traditional office setting. Invest in the tool to help your remote team stay connected, productive, and engaged. Leave a comment below and let us know which of these tools worked best for you. Happy Reading!