Seven Cool Remote Work Tools
While the pandemic jump-started remote work and coworking, workers have found they love the freedom and flexibility and now don’t want to give it up. Today, with six in 10 Americans working remotely at least one day a week, remote working tools are expanding to make it easier to work from home or from a coworking site.
Tools like Zoom and Microsoft Works led the way for this new working style. Many new and enhanced remote working tools are now available. Together, they are filling niches in online collaboration among remote workers. Here are seven of the coolest ones:
Slack. Slack is a chat application that can be purchased for a working group or for all employees in a company. Slack is real-time messaging, file sharing and collaboration that can be used across an organization for simplified communication. Slack can be broken out into channels for teams or used to send individual messages to chat with specific co-workers. Voice and video calls are also easily enabled from Slack (a new feature to mimic Microsoft Works). What’s cool: with Slack, you don’t have to break away to a separate email or texting app. It’s instantaneous and can be made part of the work screen.
Google Drive. This collaboration tool is free (an upgrade can be purchased that has stricter user privacy guarantees) and easy to use. New features are added all the time. Collaborators are invited to be a team that reviews documents, PowerPoints or spreadsheets, and their edits are shared and seen by all team members. What’s cool: Google Drive eliminates having too many separate versions of a document that make changes impossible to track.
Fyle. Many remote employees are reimbursed for coworking costs, such as mileage and home office equipment. Fyle is a cloud-based expense management software for small to midsize companies that enable employees to post and track expenses, along with an audit trail. What’s cool: the software integrates with the finance department so that expenses can be approved quickly…or questioned. This expedites reimbursement.
Brain.fm. Do you like to listen to music when you work? Then Brain.fm is for you. You pick from music options that scientifically stimulate your brain to accomplish the task at hand. What’s cool: You can select from a menu of options that help you complete an assignment on time, like focusing or being creative. Their secret sauce: patented neuromodulation.
Shift. Many workers use multiple email accounts such as Gmail and Outlook. Shift consolidates them all onto one browser with multiple tabs. This way you’re notified of a communication no matter what the source, so you don’t miss something important or have to open multiple windows. What’s cool: you only need one login for all your email communications, no matter what the platform.
nTask. Working remotely on a complicated team project can be frustrating. You might be waiting on someone else before you can act, with the deadline quickly approaching. What you don’t need is one more Gantt chart or threatening email from the project manager. Enter nTask. With this software, the project can display drag and drop Kanban Boards, pre-built templates, links to projects and assigned tasks, task statuses and multiple assignees. What’s cool: nTask integrates Google Calendar, Zoom, Apple Calendar, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.
Krisp. Taking a call from a noisy break room? Working from home with a baby crying in the background? Grabbing an important call just as the kids come home from school, all yelling at the same time? Then Krisp is the answer. The noise-cancelling app works on cell and video calls and supports microphones, headphones and speakers. What’s cool: Krisp is an excellent choice for call centers where everyone is talking at once and all within earshot.
New tools improve remote and coworking, giving them more staying power
These tools are seven of literally hundreds of new applications designed for the new world of remote work and coworking. The tools are increasing efficiency and cementing the place for remote work and coworking in years to come.
With these innovations, remote work productivity is improving over time. An ongoing research group from Stanford and several other top universities found that remote work efficiency increased from 5% better than in-person in May 2020 to 9% in May 2022.
Remote work and coworking are here to stay.