5 Tools To Help Londoners Work Better From Home
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many employees to work from home. The reports have shown that there has been a hike in the number of users online and the amount of time spent by people online in London. People are reading and learning about new things online to utilize this time. Many Londoners are now affected by COVID-19, and this has also happened to the residents of Teddington Town. As a result, many Londoners have started to embrace the emerging trend of working remotely from the comfort and safety of their homes.
Many companies are implementing changes within their working model so as to accommodate working from home. This means that employees are free to work more flexibly and stay productive. Of course, this comes with a trial period, where the company in question trains employees and helps them acclimate to the idea of working from home versus working in a set place dictated by them.
When it comes to the question of productivity, there are a few ways to approach. In the modern world, apps are a rocket booster for productivity. Below is a list of the best apps for any remote working Londoner. These apps will help Londoners track their work, maintain communication with their other colleagues and stay secure.
1. Tracking Time Spent Working
Sometimes one can get carried away while working from home. This is because compared to relatively set working hours at an office, you are at home all by yourself. Nobody will tell you when you are done, but also at the same time, nobody will be watching to see if you are actually working when you should be working.
One way to overcome this issue is by using time-tracking apps or software. Such software apps help you track the amount of time you spend on a project, a particular task, or an activity. By measuring how you spend your time, it helps you stay more productive and look back reflectively on how you could spend your time better.
Whether you are a freelancer who wants to bill the right amount of time for your work or a regular person who just wants to manage their time better, using a time-tracking app may be just the thing that you need.
2. Use a VPN to Encrypt Your Network
There is a big surprise that most Londoners are not aware of. When they connect to the Internet from home, the issue is that their network is most likely to be unencrypted. This means that their online activity and even their data is susceptible to cyberattacks (such as packet sniffing or man-in-the-middle attacks). These cyberattacks seek to spy on their online activity and steal sensitive data from unaware Londoners who are simply browsing the Internet from their homes.
However, using a VPN security tool will help make sure your data stays secure. A VPN will encrypt your system and prevent cybercriminals from spying on your online activity. It redirects internet traffic from your computer and other devices to a VPN server, masking your IP address, and encrypting your data.
This encryption and masking make it near-impossible to intercept the data. And since working from home means handling potentially-sensitive data at home, you’ll want to use a VPN whenever possible.
3. Manage your Emails
Try as we might get rid of them, spam emails flood our emails all the time. Most of them go straight to the spam folder, but some sneak their way into our primary inboxes. This, in turn, makes finding important emails a pain–more difficult than it needs to be.
This is where email managers come in. Email managers automatically sort your email, acting like a second line of defense alongside Gmail’s/Yahoo’s/Outlook’s spam detector.
Spark is an example of a fantastic email manager application. It automatically collects all your emails and categorizes them based on content. Spam emails will go to spam, urgent emails will go to your primary inbox, promotional emails go to promotional, and so on.. Seeing your emails sorted will lessen the burden of digging through your email.
4. Install a Message Manager
The pandemic-caused lockdown has forced many Londoners to communicate through digital means. No meetings, only emails. However, this comes with its own share of issues; Using one device for both personal and professional work creates a hindrance to productivity.
Message manager apps are a lifesaver in these situations, and many of them focus on work and productivity. For example, Slack is a message manager application designed for teams working from home. It works like any other instant messaging app, except you can split teams off into rooms, like a forum.
Messages are directly delivered to the group without showing you messages of personal chats or bursting notifications, removing clutter and keeping things organized.
5. Set An Online Planner
Offices typically contain some sort of planner. Whether it’s pinned up on the wall or marked into Google Calendar, they exist, available to all employees so they know what their workweek looks like. They remind employees of pending tasks and gives them time to plan.
But since many employees work from home, they don’t have a pinned-up planner they can check throughout the day. Instead, they need to rely on constant updates. Or an online planner.
An online planner is a great way to let employees see their workload and what they have planned. Online planners have unique features that collect data from all your data charts on different accounts and form a collective planner for a better understanding of employees’ free schedules and availability.
Conclusion
Times have changed. Remote working is not just a temporary hindrance to companies–it is the future of work.
There are many advantages to working remotely. All of the practices, as mentioned above, will help an employee in increasing their productivity, in managing the work/life balance.
Read more about online employee productivity tools and actively use them for work and your personal life. With just the right mindset and tools, remote working can be a productive experience for every employee.
