Thanks to modern digital technology, more and more people can adopt a remote work lifestyle. Remote employment, whether by contract or full time has become increasingly popular as a flexible – and often lucrative – way to earn a living.
According to CNBC in May 2018, the latest research suggests that approximately 70% of professionals are engaged in remote work at least one day a week with another 53% of professinoals working remotely work remotely for at least half of the week.
Whether you are an entrepreneur, a stay-at-home parent, or an employee, there are tools to help you be productive and efficient from a remote location.
Figure it Out Chrome Extension
Easily schedule meetings and know the time of day or night where remote workers or clients are located. Stop guessing what time it is across the world and know for sure with Figure it Out.
Add up to ten time zones in beautiful colors to connect with employees, remote work teams or clients.
Google Drive
Google Drive is like a giant file cabinet in the sky. It was launched on April 24, 2012 so that users can:
- Create, edit, and store their files on its server
- Synchronize them across all devices
- Share their files with anyone anywhere at any time
It is easy to invite others to view, collaborate, and download any of your files without having to attach them to an email.
Google Drive comes with 5 GB of free space. You can store recordings, videos, stories, photos, drawings, spreadsheets, documents, and anything else you want. If you need additional storage space, you have the option to upgrade to one of Google’s premium plans.
Hubstaff Chrome Extension
Spend your valuable time working on and finishing your tasks and projects and let Hubstaff track your time.
It also has productivity features and a Chrome timer extension that keeps a log of all the places you have been online and how much time you spend on each site. Hubstaff is ideal for employers who are looking for a more effective way to manage remote teams.
Some of the powerful features include:
- Team scheduling
- Online timesheets
- Time tracking
- Employee monitoring
- GPS tracking
Hubstaff plans start at no cost for freelancers who want a simple way to track billable hours. For those who need more, there are premium options that can be customised to fit your business needs.
Trello
Trello is a user-friendly project management and organisational tool. It is essentially a virtual board of cards or list items that can be used by you, your business partners, your co-workers, and your team.
The ability to coordinate, collaborate, and communicate from anywhere makes Trello a powerful tool for anyone who needs or wants to be successful as part of a remote work team.
The Trello project began in 2010 by a company called Fog Creek Software as part of an internal search for potential products. It evolved, improved, and changed hands over the years to where it is today. A powerful collaboration tool that empowers teams everywhere.
Remote workers can easily:
- Drag and drop text and files
- Add images to cards
- Use labels for clarification
- Assign due dates for project completion
- Tag team members
- Add comments
- Plan out strategy
- Track progress
The free version of Trello comes with a 10MB limit. However, you can also attach links to outside sources like Dropbox or Google Drive on your cards to save space and still keep all your information in one place.
Trello works brilliantly alongside many other apps to collect visual feedback from remote teams and clients and enables them to send issues and bugs directly to developers.
You don’t have to use any additional tools as you can report your feedback directly inside the tools you are already using like Github, Trello, and Jira.
The ability to quickly visually capture critical details encourages consistency and allows for fast and flexible reporting.
Slack
Instead of using emails to communicate, you can use Slack, a popular solution that provides an ideal workspace for remote work.
You can create channels for different functions such as one to collect your social media mentions and another one for customer support tickets. Other ways to use Slack are:
- Measure A/P testing
- Work on and finalise your budget
- Plan remote meetings
You can also customise Slack according to your needs via workflows, set up automated notifications from other services, and connect with many other tools.
Join.me
Join.me makes it easier for remote work teams and freelancers hold meetings conduct a client demo from anywhere you want. Need to attend a meeting at the last minute when you are on the beach? No problem, the Join.me app has you covered.
Enjoy the freedom of being able to arrange or attend a quick meeting on the fly and you can even share screens and engage your remote team more effectively.
The time has never been better and easier to work from anywhere you want any time you want. Communicate, collaborate, and interact with anyone and everyone from the remote location of your choice.
