Remote work is becoming more and more in demand. There’s no doubt that more professionals will start working from home next year. And those who will be doing it for the first time may need a list of necessary tools for working remotely. Here is the list of basic tools that help you to be an effective worker from home.
Messenger: Telegram
Work chat is the main thing when you work remotely. If sitting in the office, you can solve work issues in person in a face-to-face conversation, and remotely you have to write about everything. When a team switches to remote work mode, there are a lot of work chats.
Therefore, it is very important that the messenger has a user-friendly interface and, preferably, that it be free. Telegram is excellent for these purposes. In addition, the developers have recently added the possibility of video conferencing, so it can replace popular Zoom.
Remote access: Getscreen.me
Alternatives:
The second important thing for working remotely is the ability to connect to your office computer. This needs to be done as quickly and conveniently as possible without installing additional programs.
Getscreen.me is perfect for this purpose — you can connect to your computer directly from your personal office, download files from a remote computer, record sessions, and much more. Connecting two devices is free.
Task Manager: YouTrack
Alternatives:
If you want to keep up with everything and not forget about anything, you need a task manager. It will be especially relevant for managers and PMs — with its help it is very convenient to keep track of the current status of completed tasks.
It is especially useful for teams working on Agile. YouTrack interface is simpler than Jira, although the working principle is similar. Just fix the task, assign a performer (you can assign yourself), set a deadline, and go ahead!
Kanban Board: Trello
Alternatives: MeisterTask, Blossom.
Another convenient tool for fixing tasks, but already under the Kanban methodology. The developers have made simplicity and clarity an absolute, so the service may not be functional enough for complex projects. But the flow of tasks looks so minimalistic that even a child can understand it. Many people think Trello is outdated, but personally, I’m fine with it.
Screenshot manager: PicPick
Alternatives: LightShot, Gyazo.
During remote work, one screenshot can replace a thousand words. That’s why you could use a handy tool to take screenshots. You can take a screenshot in just two clicks. The quality of the screenshots is excellent. The interface looks like Pain. There is a free version.
Password manager: LastPass
Alternatives: Keeper, 1Password.
A work team may use dozens of different services. Ideally, each one needs a strong unique password. Fortunately, there are special tools to make it convenient for users to create and store such combinations.
One of the best known is LastPass. It generates complex passwords, stores them in a secure cloud safe, and automatically enters them when logging into the corresponding accounts.
Time tracking: Toggl
Alternatives: Harvest, Rescue Time
It helps to keep track of how much time we spend on work, how much on eating, sleeping, chatting with friends, sports, meaningless hanging out on the Internet. For remote work every minute is important, because here you can’t work overtime, no one will appreciate diligence, which means you need to clearly understand both your own productivity and the currency weight of one hour.
Video conferencing service: Google Meet
Alternatives: Skype, Zoom
Video meetings create not only close emotional contact between employees but also an effective communication environment. Seeing and hearing your colleagues allows you to interact with them as productively as if you were at the same table.
We use Google Meet because it’s free. Zoom, on the other hand, requires a fee for sessions longer than 40 minutes. And Skype is already obsolete and constantly glitches.
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