Tools To Boost Your Productivity While Working From Home
With the current situation worldwide, Work From Home has become the new normal. In this article, we wanted to take a moment to talk about the online collaborative tools that we use to keep the work flowing. But first let’s talk about working from home.
The trend of working from home, or WFH is definitely on an upswing despite the many challenges faced by employees. There are several reasons why working from home is gaining momentum despite lock-down restrictions being lifted in many countries:
- Eliminating long commute time which also reduces pollution and traffic congestion
- Reduced operational costs for employers — less office space rents, less electricity costs
- Increased productivity and efficiency among employees — Since you save a lot of time in commuting, people can be a lot more flexible with their workflow. This allows for increased efficiency in many cases, though there have been reports of decreased productivity.
This Harvard study reports that letting employees work remotely boosts employee morale and has a positive effect on their productivity. WFH will become the norm even after the COVID scare has resided. Many tech companies around the world are embracing WFH — Microsoft employees have the liberty to use collaborative tools like Microsoft Teams to work from home. Infact, Microsoft Teams (or Teams, as it’s commonly called) is the industry standard for collaborative platforms to integrate your entire workflow.
We at Calamus include a wide variety of tools and online collaborative services to keep track of our workflow. Slack for communication, Trello for project management and GSuite for online collaboration on cloud. These tools are very popular among the startup ecosystem for their freemium business model. They allow users to use their services for free and charge for more premium features either monthly or annually.
A few basic online tools that you need to increase your productivity while working from home are:
- Communication tools like Slack, or Microsoft Teams, or Mattermost
- Video conferencing tools such as Google Hangouts, Skype (We wouldn’t recommend Zoom due to the security issues it’s been going through);
- Project management tools such as Trello, Asana or Monday.
Despite using these tools, many people struggle to achieve the same level of productivity that is achieved while working from their office. Following these tips should help you get more work done:
- Maintain regular hours — Make a plan and stick to it. It will be difficult in the beginning but you’ll get used to it very soon.
- Keep a dedicated workspace — You don’t need an entire office room to get your work done. A simple workbench would work just fine as long as you use it just for work. Do not use this work space for tasks other than work
- Take small breaks often — Give yourself ample time to keep your eyes away from computer and mobile screens. Walk around the house, get a snack, or just spend some time talking to your loved ones.
Above all, personalise your schedule according to your liking. You may like to get things done in the morning or you might find it easier to focus in the silence of the night. Find what pleases you and makes you comfortable.
Nevertheless, we have to say we are very lucky to be able to work from the comfort of our homes. WFH is not possible for everyone. Many people have reported decreased productivity primarily due to not having a fixed schedule, loneliness and also not having the resources needed. People from various industries like transportation, logistics, retail and many more, do not have this choice. It is important to realise that being able to work from home without having your productivity hampered is a huge privilege.
If you’re fortunate enough to be working from home, hopefully, this small list of tools will help you make the most of it. It’s time we embrace the difficulties that this pandemic has brought on us and adapt to the changes.
Calamus is an EV company that has created the best generation of e-bikes — the Ultrabikes! It’s the first bike to offer integrated support for Android and IOS devices, GPS Navigation, touchscreen display and scans your blind spots and warns you about oncoming traffic! To know more, visit — calamusbikes.com
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