Working from home: Here are 7 handy productivity apps to make life easier
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Working from home: Hither are 7 handy productivity apps to make life easier
Zoom, Zapier, Quip, Slack and more: Here's a handy list of tools and services – because you lot're all the same working, right? Nosotros can't help when your bed beckons though.
Work from home has altered the style we view go out. (Photo: Mimi Thian/ Unsplash)
With a lot of people increasingly working from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the question of how to be productive away from the office has go a real one. At that place are a lot of digital apps and tools to assistance with telecommuting but for tech noobs – similar me – the choices can be a bit confusing, unless we simply follow office protocol.
Which one works for me? Do I accept to pay? Can it be used on both the laptop and mobile phone? Will it really help maximise my productivity – or will I be spending more fourth dimension learning how to use it than actually working?
Thankfully, the Net does await out for people like me. The apps I tried were surprisingly tech novice-friendly, straightforward and piece of cake to use, whether it was for project direction or organising a to-do list. Oh, and I now know what "cloud-based collaboration" means.
Of course, at that place are a few things that tech can't help you with. Like ignoring the clarion telephone call of your bed or being disciplined plenty to actually go dressed for piece of work – later on all, it's nice to be decent from the waist up (at least) during video-conference meetings.
Here'due south a list of tools and apps that are primed to help you out. And yes, they're idiot-proof.
ZOOM
Zoom, equally it states on its website, offers a range of video conferencing and communication tools for all sorts of businesses. The standout production is Zoom Meetings & Chat, which offers easy-to-use video and vocalism calls, both of which tin exist conducted in a group of up to 100 participants or one-to-one.
Another very of import (albeit vain) plus point? Information technology has camera filter function that helps to "smooth out the skin tone on your face, to nowadays a more polished looking appearance."
Other features include the power to host webinars, send messages and share files betwixt team members via the app.
A good point to note is that the free version of Zoom is useful for smaller teams looking for short meetings. If you don't fancy being kicked out after twoscore minutes, the paid version allows unlimited coming together time and only requires hosts to pay a monthly fee rather than everyone who attends meetings.
For Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and web. Free and paid versions bachelor.
QUIP
Quip boasts the ability to combine chat, documents, task listing, slides, and spreadsheets all in ane app, so that information technology's all streamlined enough to make collaborations fast and piece of cake. Co-ordinate to the website, y'all can real-time chat and message, edit documents with your co-workers, create charts using live data and embed total featured spreadsheets with support for over 400 functions.
Most importantly, yous can import documents from Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, Box, Google Docs; and export documents to PDF and Microsoft Office alongside spreadsheets to Microsoft Excel.
All these are accessible on all of the devices you use at any time, and so y'all can easily review changes, comments, annotations to your docs and spreadsheets from your iPhone and iPad.
Quip is pretty simple and straightforward but is not without its limitations. As pointed out by other users, sharing files or documents with people outside of your organisation is not possible considering of bug similar formatting. And that could be that pesky fly in your ointment.
For iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Free.
ZAPIER
Who isn't looking to salvage every bit much time equally one can in an already over-stuffed 24 hours?
Zapier is an automation tool that promises to save you endless amounts of time on repetitive tasks. Instead of constantly switching betwixt different apps to consummate bones functions like manually uploading files to Google Drive, the website states that yous can cull from a library or customise automations to do these tasks for you.
Essentially, Zapier sends data betwixt your integrated oft-used apps, assuasive y'all to spend less fourth dimension switching between them. For example, it sends data to your Gmail and Google Drive then email attachments are automatically uploaded for remote access.
For Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and web. Free (for 100 tasks) and paid versions available.
ASANA
Organising and tracking your work to-do lists is important when it comes to projection management productivity. Asana is built to exercise just that and helps small teams manage their projects effectively. According to the website, you lot can add together tasks, to-dos, projects, teams, and files made bachelor for up to 15 people absolutely gratuitous. If you need to add more people or more advanced features, an upgrade to Asana Premium is required.
Overall, the basic features of Asana are very piece of cake to utilise. One bang-up one is that all changes made in Asana's mobile app volition immediately appear on the web app. And whatever activity, like creating a task or making an update, can be created offline and will automatically sync when you are back online.
This means your entire team tin stay in touch with progress on specific projects without the unnecessary demand to send out alerts every time in that location is a status update.
For Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and web. Complimentary and paid versions available.
PAGES, NUMBERS AND KEYNOTE
Co-ordinate to Apple, all you have to practise is to invite others to your documents and piece of work on them together in existent fourth dimension. That ways regardless of where you are, you can still work with your teammates on that important presentation or project without really being in the same room.
Collaboration is built into the iWork apps on iPhone, iPad, iPod affect, Mac, and iCloud.com. Best of all, you tin can see the edits that others brand in real time, hide or evidence editing activity.
For iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Free.
SLACK
Slack is an instant messaging platform designed for teams and bills itself as the ideal live advice tool for seamless collaboration between remote workers scattered all over the country.
All chats are organised into different channels, which team members can join and exit, as needed, then nobody receives letters or notifications irrelevant to them.
And if y'all need to discuss anything exterior of the main topics, team members can carry on in separate threads, which prevents these messages from interfering with the more pertinent conversations.
It's also a neat platform for instant file sharing where a simple drag-and-drop is all that is needed to share PDFs, images, videos.
For Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and web. Free and paid versions available.
TRELLO
Having all your tasks at paw fully visible is mayhap the all-time part of Trello. Why? Because this streamlined task direction organization painlessly lets yous track the flow of piece of work equally it moves from one stage to another.
Non just is information technology straightforward, simple and easy to get familiar with, the interface is also incredibly self-explanatory – a definite plus bespeak for this tech noob.
Co-ordinate to the Trello blog, you can add comments or collaborators whenever necessary, and the unproblematic drag-and-driblet functionality helps make project management easier. And for organisation junkies, you tin also customise with your own columns and labels, aslope receiving notifications when things relevant to yous happen.
For Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and spider web. Gratuitous.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/entertainment/work-from-home-tech-apps-tips-productive-177426
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