One of the best things that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic is the paradigm shift in the power dynamic between organisations and their employees.
While the pandemic necessitated remote work in its initial phases, employees later realised that they had the power to influence the change. In fact, employees are choosing to quit instead of going back to the office. And back on our sunny shores, over 50% of Singaporeans will consider quitting if they are made to go back to the office full-time.
While managers have their concerns, working from home can actually be very productive! 77% more, actually. This number may be higher with the aid of some of the best work-from-home productivity tools and apps out there.
Whether you are a freelance content writer, a remote UI/UX designer or someone who just wants to work on a side hustle in Singapore, the home office productivity tools that we will be proposing below are going to help keep productivity levels high while you work in a cosier environment.
Is working from home good for productivity?
A study involving 16,000 workers by Stanford University revealed that productivity levels could increase by 13%. This is largely attributed to them being to work in a quieter environment and increased time spent on work due to lesser breaks and sick leaves taken.
Furthermore, the time saved on avoiding the commute has been put into activities that further improve employees’ productivity levels. These include exercise and more time with loved ones. Both of which happen to be great stress relievers and greatly improve mental wellness.
How can remote work productivity be improved?
1) Communicate effectively with your team members
Distance doesn’t always make the heart grow fonder. In fact, distance from your co-workers often leads to miscommunication. And this, in turn, can lead to workplace conflict.
And this was happening way before COVID-19 happened when people were mingling in person. Imagine how much this problem can potentially be magnified when people move over to online communication, where employees now have visual and auditory cues removed from their conversations.
2) Keep track of all your tasks
Not having people around you to hold you accountable for your tasks can make someone complacent.
Of course, we are not suggesting that you completely rely on others to help you keep track of your work. But things like this do happen. To maximise your productivity when working from home, you need to use specific tools to help you manage all your tasks.
3) Keep track of all your meetings
And speaking of keeping track of things, let’s not forget everyone’s favourite corporate event – the meeting. Jokes aside, meetings are definitely helpful in aligning objectives and operations when it comes to interdepartmental projects.
Scheduling a meeting while physically present in the office is challenging enough, let alone scheduling a large inter-team one while working from home. Using certain work-from-home apps designed specifically to help you run effective meetings can go a long way in helping you save time and improve your productivity in areas where it matters.
4) Schedule regular breaks
While the average human attention span is probably not as low as the widely popular statistic of 8 seconds, we know based on personal experience that sometimes working on the same thing for too long can wear us out.
Scheduling break intervals throughout the day can go a long way in helping us recharge and keep our minds fresh.
So, which is the best productivity app and solution for your work-from-home situation?
1) Slack – For seamless communication and file delivery
Perhaps one of the biggest apps to come into prominence due to the rise of remote work is Slack.
Slack is a messaging platform designed for the workplace to support collaboration. To better organise your messages, you can create Slack channels to discuss work related to a specific project. Need to make a video call for better visualisation of messages? Fret not, for Slack’s huddle feature allows you to do just that with a single click. You can also send important work documents seamlessly.
What’s cool about Slack is that you can also use Slack Connect to add in users from other companies (e.g. vendors and clients) to facilitate inter-company collaboration.
2) Trello – For task and project management
Trello is a project management tool designed to help users keep track of all their tasks and project progression.
It allows you to create columns that represent the different stages of a project or task. On each task card, you can even tag assignees, set deadlines, and list down the sub-tasks that need to be done for the task to move on to the next stage.
3) Timesync – Automate your appointment scheduling
Imagine this. You were tasked to schedule an interdepartmental meeting between 20 people to discuss a huge project and have to gather everyone’s availability. What’s more, some of your colleagues are remote workers working in different time zones.
Sending back-and-forth emails to get an agreed-upon timing simply isn’t it.
That’s where appointment scheduling software like Timesync comes into play. Not only does it sync with everyone’s personal calendar app, it also allows you to create a long list of potential timeslots to hold the meeting. Imagine the amount of time software and apps like this can save you!
4) Any alarm clock app – For scheduled breaks
You don’t need to go crazy with this one and spend hours Googling the best alarm clock app.
The app present on your phone by default should more than suffice. Do set short breaks every hour to give yourself a good stretch and get some fresh air.
Research has even shown that taking breaks can help you become more creative and find more insightful answers to the problems you are trying to solve.
So, which is the best productivity app and solution for your work-from-home situation?
And there you have it! This is our curated list of the best work-from-home productivity tools and apps.
Being productive at work is no longer something that’s confined to the traditional workplace. These days, all you need is a steady internet connection and the support of some of the best productivity-enhancing tools.
That said, working in the same environment for too long can get pretty stale. Breaking your routine from time to time can help you enter the flow state in which you are optimally productive.
From time to time, it’s great to work in co-working spaces with hot desks in Singapore to change things up a little. And co-working space booking apps like Deskimo help make this process incredibly easy! The app helps you access a wide variety of workplaces in the country, so you no longer have to feel bored about working in the same spot again.
Reach out to us today to learn more about how you can do so!
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