Working from home can feel like a big change, particularly when it’s the first time it’s happening. It’s a common mistake to think that you can just take your laptop home and that’s it, but what it actually requires working from home goes far beyond.
You haven’t got a whiteboard hanging anymore, the post-it notes you could place anywhere probably aren’t there either, and the most important thing is that your coworkers aren’t there to share ideas, discuss, refute, consult, or even tell a joke. So how can one recreate the environment that made office work end up so well?
Here are some tools we know will make all this “work from home” task a lot easier:
The first thing you’ll want to cover up is communication. There are several tools that can keep a team in touch with its members. Google Hangouts, Zoom, Teams, Slack and other similar tools are perfect to keep instant communication with your coworkers. You can hear their voices and see their faces, which is very important!
The next thing you’ll want to take care of is Project Management. What used to be written on a whiteboard can now be on a virtual platform like Trello, Asana, Basecamp and many, many others with different assets that can best adapt to your workflow, depending on your team’s particular needs.
So, about file sharing, since you won’t be able to walk to your coworker with a USB stick to get a file, perhaps the best option is to go to Google Drive, Dropbox, or another similar tool. Those two are great because they let you edit the documents in real-time, see past versions, suggest edits, search… all as if the team was actually together in the same place.
If everyone needs to have access to the same accounts of certain sites, the best idea is to get a password wallet such as LastPass, Dashlane or Keeper. They will do a perfect job on keeping all the passwords your team needs to properly do their jobs in one place and update.
Of course, you will want to take data security into account for any and all of your decisions regarding online collaboration tools
And as far as everyone’s individual environment goes, a great tool you’d like to share with your team is a white noise app. White noise serves as background noise to keep concentrated, there are different sorts, like indistinct chatter, to static, rain, wind, animals. Whatever the person feels gives them the most tranquility and concentration, that’s the one. There’s plenty of these kinds of apps and also exist as YouTube videos.
With the right combination of the tools mentioned above, you’ll have your team up and going at their home offices in no time! Working from home is an ever-changing experience, and can (and will) change from person to person. Remember to always keep communicating with everyone and let this be an opportunity to grow, enhance strengths and discover areas of opportunity!