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50 Must-Have Remote Working Tools and Apps
With millions of people adjusting to working from home amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, many are being faced with an entirely new situation, and it can be difficult to make that adjustment, and maximize your productivity outside the confines of your regular office.
But there’s a range of tools that can help. In this post, we’re going to take a look at 50 tools and apps that can significantly improve your WFH process, and ensure you’re able to stay on task while operating from your home office (or kitchen table, or bed, whatever the case may be).
Take a look at this list – there’s bound to be a few suggestions that can add to your process.
Project Management/Task Management Tools
1. Trello
Trello is a project management tool which organizes your projects and tasks into boards. In one glance, you can see what’s being worked on, who’s working on it, and the current status. Trello helps you to organize all your projects, tasks, and all of your team.
2. Asana
Asana helps you to create, assign and manage tasks. It organizes tasks according to your projects, so you can talk to a team member within a task in order to keep the conversations organized. You can also upload or export files from Google Drive, Dropbox, computer, and other cloud places.
3. Assembla
Assembla is a project management tool for remote teams and freelancers – it enables you to manage teams, codes, integration, reports and security features, all from a single platform.
4. Basecamp
Basecamp is one of the best project management tools for remote teams. It’s used for project management, scheduling, meetings, assignment tracking, documentation and complete tracking from a single platform.
5. Podio
Podio is a great option for organizing tasks, and getting work done. It provides the transparency and accountability needed for efficient teamwork by enabling people to organize and track tasks in one easy-to-use dashboard.
6. Taskworld
Taskworld seamlessly manages your projects, tracks tasks and facilitates collaboration across multiple projects.
7. SmartSheet
Smartsheet can be used to track and manage diverse types of work for teams large and small, from enterprise companies to startups.
8. Monday
Monday offers a new way to manage your projects and work. It helps teams plan together and execute projects that deliver results on time. Getting your team on board is as simple as sending an email. Getting them hooked is as simple as letting them use it.
9. Wrike
Wrike is the perfect project management tool for big teams. It comes with features like Gantt charts, workload view for resource management, custom dashboards, structuring via folders, projects, and auto-assignment based on task status.
10. Meistertask
MeisterTask is an online task management tool for teams. You can use MeisterTask to organize and manage projects in a beautifully designed, customizable environment which adapts to individual needs. Kanban-style project boards allow teams to create streamlined, automated workflows and get more done together.
11. nTaskmanager
From making checklists to managing projects, collaborating with project teams, scheduling meetings, sharing files and more, nTask lets you do everything using just one tool.
12. Jira
Jira is built for every member of your software and development team to plan, track, and release great software.
Work Management Tools
13. Workfront
Whether you’re designing new products, driving technology transformation, or creating global marketing campaigns, Workfront provides a single, central application platform to share ideas, create content, manage processes, and do your best work.
14. Airtable
Teams use Airtable to organize their work, their way. It’s an all-in-one collaboration platform which combines the flexibility of a spreadsheet interface with rich features like file attachments, Kanban card stacks, forms, calendars, and reporting.
15. Paymo
Paymo is a work management platform which bundles task management, scheduling, time tracking and billing, in order to help deliver projects on-time.
16. Scoro
Scoro provides all the tools your team needs to fully manage your business and work – project management, work scheduling and tracking, taskboards and lists, contact database and CRM, quoting and billing, advanced reporting, real-time dashboards, and more.
17. Kissflow
Kissflow facilitates complete process management, all in one intelligent and easily integrated platform, where any team member can create an automated process, build a project board, handle a case flow, and collaborate on work topics.
Team Collaboration and Communication Tools
18. Slack
Slack is an instant messaging, remote office communication tool for teams and remote workers. It has great team management features for managing projects, assigning teams, planning launches, and openings, reviewing employee and sales contracts and more.
19. Aircall
Aircall, a cloud-based phone system, enables teams to maintain their agility and stay connected – even when everyone’s apart.
20. Dropbox
Dropbox is a cloud-based file storage and sharing platform, where you can store files, docs, images, and videos and share them with others. It’s perfect for collaborating with remote teams and employees.
21. Skype
Skype is the most used professional chatting and instant messaging tool. Small and large businesses use Skype for effective communication with their employees – in-office and remote – via video chat, instant messaging, voice calling and more.
22. Workplace By Facebook
Workplace by Facebook gives your organization the capacity to connect all of your employees into the same network, with a range of familiar tools.
23. Pukkateam
Do you have a large team spread throughout a building – or a remote team working from home or another part of the world? PukkaTeam keeps you connected, recreating the office atmosphere, and helping remote workers feel like part of the office community.
24. Zoom
Zoom‘s main use is for video conferencing and meetings, and it’s a perfect alternative to Google Hangouts when you need a larger number of people to attend a meeting at once.
25. Float
Float is a resource scheduling and management tool being used by many companies to assign work and resources to remote teams, and track the status and progress of projects.
26. Zenkit
ZenKit is “the team collaboration tool that grows as you do”, and it includes features for tasks, collaboration, and more.
27. FunRetro
You can collaborate with your remote team, and move your business in the right direction, using this simple, intuitive, and helpful tool.
28. Glip
Glip is a collaboration software app which includes free messaging, group video chat, and task management for better team communication.
29. Join.me
Join.me is a free screen sharing, web conferencing, and online meeting tool for organizing quick meetings with your remote employees and teams.
30. Jell
Jell is a professional social networking platform for remote teams.
Productivity and Reporting Tools
31. Evernote
Evernote is a great note-taking solution for teammates working remotely. You can keep all your notes organized, and sync them automatically across all of your devices.
32. Noisli
Noisli provides background sounds that help to mask annoying noises in order to keep you sane, improve your focus and boost your productivity.
33. focus booster
Using focus booster, you can get a better understanding of how you use your time, and maximize your productivity as a result.
34. I Done This
This tool lists daily achievements and progress reports from all of your team members and sends out morning newsletters with the performance reports to everyone’s inbox.
35. Todoist
Todoist lets you create projects, add notes and upload files, set reminders, flags and track performance on productivity charts.
36. Mindmeister
MindMeister is an online mind mapping tool which enables you to capture, develop and share ideas visually.
37. Brain.fm
Music to improve focus, meditation, and sleep. Just as the visual design of an office or bedroom should enhance its function, the music you listen to should support your goals as well.
38. Weekdone
Weekdone provides you with insights into what’s going on in your team by helping you to track and report results. Track weekly progress, provide feedback, and move everyone in a unified direction.
Time Management Tools
39. RescueTime
RescueTime works in the background on your computer, phone, and tablet to show you exactly how you spend your time (no manual entry required).
40. Worldtimebuddy
Worldtimebuddy is a remote work tool with a time converter for distributed teams. Its design lets people compare multiple time zones, plan conference calls, and web meetings for business.
41. Toggl
Toggl is a simple time tracking tool. Break down your hours by projects, clients and tasks to see what’s making you money – and what’s holding you back.
42. Accelo
Accelo’s automatic time capturing feature effortlessly records time spent on tasks.
43. Doodle
Doodle helps you to focus on real work by making time-consuming tasks, like scheduling and organizing meetings, fast and easy.
44. Calendly
Calendly is a powerful, yet simple automated scheduling tool, which takes the work out of connecting with others so you can accomplish more.
Other Remote Tools
45. PivotalTracker
PivotalTracker enables businesses to work with remote clients and employees. It has a unique automatic planning feature that makes the task of scheduling easier and more effective.
46. GitHub
GitHub is a programming and development tool that can also be treated as one a productivity tool for remote workers and remote teams.
47. Workfrom
While it may not be as valuable in the current situation, Workfrom helps you to find places where you can work, including public spaces, like libraries, and paid spaces, like coffee shops and cafes.
48. Confluence
Confluence is a team workspace platform, which enables collaboration and transparency across diversified groups.
49. 1Password
1Password remembers all of your passwords to help keep your accounts safe.
50. Passpack
Passpack provides all the tools that teams and individuals need to securely organize, collaborate and store passwords with strong encryption and administrative controls.
There you have it, 50 tools to help maximize your WFH process. Hopefully there’s a couple of relevance to your process.
SOCIAL
X Pitches Advertisers on Audience Reach Opportunities in ‘Q5’
X is making a push to win over advertisers in the holiday season, by promoting its opportunities in “Q5”, which covers the post-Christmas to mid-January period.
As explained by X:
“During [Q5], we see reduced CPMs and cost-per-conversion as consumers shop for post-holiday deals and products to support their New Year’s ambitions. Last year, X saw a 5% reduction in the average CPM and a 27% reduction in the average cost-per-conversion1.”
Which could present new opportunity to reach a larger audience with your promotions, if indeed they are engaging on X over the holiday period.
“Q5 is filled with a wide variety of tent-pole moments, ranging from the holidays to sports, entertainment and more. With a surge of engagement around these conversations, your brand can remain relevant to your audiences while driving maximum ROI.”
X says that, based on engagement data from last year, there are a lot of potential topics of interest for brands.
X also notes that sports video views are surging in the app, up almost 25% YoY over the past 6 months, while vertical video is also gaining momentum.
“Vertical video is the fastest growing surface on X. Over 100M people around the world are consuming vertical video daily at an average of over 13 minutes per day. On many days, vertical video accounts for around 20% of all time spent on the platform.”
Though I would advise some caution in trusting these data points.
In recent months, various questions have been raised as to what X counts as a video “view” versus an impression, which is when a post is shown in-feed.
Technically, X counts video views like this:
“The main X video view metric is triggered when a user watches a video for at least 2 seconds and sees at least 50% of the video player in-view. This applies to View metrics for both uploaded videos and live broadcasts.”
But that’s different to the actual view count that’s displayed on posts:
“Anyone who is logged into X who views a post counts as a view, regardless of where they see the post (e.g. Home, Search, Profiles, etc.) or whether or not they follow the author. If you’re the author, looking at your own post also counts as a view.”
Even worse, X counts multiple views from the same person in that count:
“Multiple views may be counted if you view a post more than once, but not all views are unique. For example, you could look at a post on web and then on your phone, and that would count as two views.”
So you can see how the public view count on video posts can massively overstate how many people actually watched a clip, which could be why X is reporting such big spikes in engagement. It just depends on which “view” metric it’s referring to here, actual views or exposure in stream.
Which makes all of these numbers a little difficult to determine, while X owner Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino have also continued to amplify misleading engagement stats via their own X profiles, muddying the waters as to what kind of actual reach and engagement you can expect.
And that’s before you consider the concerns that other advertisers have had with their promotions potentially being displayed alongside harmful or offensive content in the app.
But depending on how you feel about these aspects, and where your target audience is active, it could be worth considering X for your post-holiday promotions, as you look to maximize sales activity over the holiday period.
It’s also worth considering that with fewer big-name brands taking prime spots in the app, there may also be additional opportunity to reach people via X promotions.
There may be value, depending on your strategic thinking, though I would be keeping an eye on actual engagement
You can read more of X’s Q5 insights here.
SOCIAL
Gaza and Instagram make an explosive mix in Hollywood
Gal Gadot regularly posts demands for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza – Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Drew Angerer
Audrey Pilon-Topkara
Hollywood celebrities are paying the price for taking sides in the Gaza war — plastering their social media accounts with slogans such as “Free Palestine” or “I stand with Israel”.
Israeli actress Gal Gadot, best known for starring in “Wonder Woman”, has expressed unyielding support for her country since October 7, when Hamas fighters burst out of Gaza, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostage, according to Israeli officials.
“I stand with Israel, you should too,” she declared to her 109 million Instagram followers.
She has continued to regularly publish or share posts demanding that Hamas release the civilians it is holding — earning her both approval and criticism.
“While you’re at it, can you use your platform to share all the missing and killed innocent Palestinians too?” a user on X, formerly Twitter, wrote in response to one of her posts.
In reprisal for the October 7 attacks, Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip and launched a ground invasion, killing more than 17,000 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas government.
The Instagram account of American model Gigi Hadid, who is of Palestinian descent and followed by 79 million, has spent less attention on fashion in recent weeks.
She cited the “systemic mistreatment of the Palestinian people by the government of Israel”.
“Stop spreading lies. You and your sisters are antisemitic,” said one comment, with many others expressing similar views.
Famous stars can generate equally strong admiration and repulsion from the public, especially if they comment on divisive issues.
Well before social media, boxer Muhammad Ali, the actor Jane Fonda and singer Bob Dylan were adored or hated over their opposition to the Vietnam War.
More recently the actors Ben Stiller, Angelina Jolie and Sean Penn showed their support for Ukraine by visiting the country, in moves that were approved by most of their Western fans.
– Insults –
But the Israel-Palestinian issue is more divisive than most, exposing celebrities to even fiercer backlashes.
Kylie Jenner, the half-sister of socialite Kim Kardashian, shared a pro-Israeli post with her 399 million Instagram followers shortly after October 7, which according to US media she deleted an hour later after being hit with insults.
The Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon was dropped by her talent agency in November for comments she made at a pro-Palestinian rally, for which she later apologised.
Melissa Barrera, star of the fifth and sixth instalments of the “Scream” franchise, was cut from the cast of the seventh by the producers, who said they had “zero tolerance for anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred”.
The Mexican had denounced what she called “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza.
Celebrities who take sides in the conflict have “a lot to lose and little to gain”, said Nicolas Vanderbiest, founder of the public relations firm Saper Vedere in Brussels.
Producers and sponsors have little appetite for mixing geopolitics and business, he said.
In this issue, two “extremely organised” communities are on the lookout, creating a “herd affect”, Vanderbiest added.
Tom Cruise prevented his own agent from losing her job after she had referred to “genocide” on her Instagram account, according to the cinema trade press.
Celebrities could just stay quiet, but with this conflict there is “pressure to pronounce” and no immunity from criticism, said Jamil Jean-Marc Dakhlia, a professor of information and communication at Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris.
“Silence is seen as taking a position,” Dakhlia said. “So we are in a situation where you are forced to take sides, and not necessarily with much nuance.”
American singer and actor Selena Gomez, with 429 million Instagram followers, has been criticised for not taking a stronger stance on the issue.
Along with hundreds of others, including Hadid, singer Jennifer Lopez and actor Joaquin Phoenix, she took a middle road, signing a petition calling for a ceasefire and the safe release of hostages.
Earlier, hundreds of celebrities, including Gadot, had signed an open letter thanking US President Joe Biden for supporting “the Jewish people” and calling for the release of all hostages held by Hamas.
Very few signed both.
SOCIAL
More than 10 million people have signed up for X in December, CEO says By Reuters
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: ‘X’ logo is seen on the top of the headquarters of the messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, California, U.S., July 30, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
(Reuters) – More than 10 million people have signed up for X in December, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a post on the social media platform on Thursday.
This comes as the company, formerly known as Twitter, risks losing as much $75 million in advertising revenue by the end of the year as major brands pause their marketing campaigns on the platform, according to the New York Times.
X, which does not regularly release user data, could not immediately be reached for comment on how the December sign-ups compared to average or why Yaccarino disclosed the figure. Billionaire owner Elon Musk said in July the site had 540 million monthly users.
Several companies, including Apple (NASDAQ:), Disney, Warner Bros Discovery , Comcast (NASDAQ:), Lions Gate Entertainment , Paramount Global, and IBM (NYSE:) said in November they were pausing their advertisements on X.
Musk cursed advertisers that fled the platform after he agreed with a user who falsely claimed Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people.
A report from watchdog group Media Matters found ads from major companies next to X posts that supported Nazism. The platform filed a lawsuit in late November against Media Matters accusing it of defamation.
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