Get the right tools to stay productive while you work from home.
The latest corona virus outbreak in Europe, USA and Canada sent millions of workers to involuntary home office.
Many employees experience the joys and pitfalls of home office for the very first time and have no home office routine set. It’s not easy to maintain productivity when you suddenly don’t have your usual work environment around.
So, what are the must-have tools for your new home office?
Home office essentials
Home office is productive as long as you can efficiently collaborate on projects with your colleagues and deliver the same results as you would in your actual office.
To achieve this you need tools for communication, planning, and task management, namely:
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An email client
It’s absolutely fundamental to stay in (virtual and sanitary) touch.
You need to be able to work with your emails, access previous communication, or to chat when things need to be communicated fast.
That is why one of the most essential home office tools is a user-friendly email client that will help you tame the storm of incoming messages from work.
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Shared calendars
When you cannot collaborate with your peers face-to-face, you need to keep each other informed about your plans. Shared calendars do the trick.
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Task manager
It’s a relief to have no supervisor breathing down your neck – at first.
After a while, many people get off track and lose focus. In the end, with all the unexpected distractions of working from home, it’s not that easy to keep up.
A good task management tool will help you stay focused and monitor progress of your collaborators.
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Tools with offline mode
In these uncertain times it’s good to be able to work offline, at least to some extent.
Go for apps and tools that allow you to work and access information in offline mode.
For example, an email client in offline mode lets you access the emails you received, and you can also write replies that will be sent out once you reconnect.
If you're working not just from home but out in the field, organizations often turn to mobile time clock app with GPS functionalities for tracking work hours. These apps enable employees to clock in and out from anywhere using their smartphones while also providing real-time location tracking to ensure accurate timekeeping and accountability.
All home office tools in one: eM Client
Another trait of an efficient home office is having all your tools in one place - in this case in one application. While there are several good apps for each of the above-mentioned, it’s just easier to have everything integrated.
One of such applications that perfectly integrate tools for efficient home office is eM Client – the desktop email and collaboration management tool for both Windows and Mac.
Emails, chat, calendars, contacts, or task management - at hand, all in one!
And it works in offline mode too.
Download eM Client for free - it’s about time to fall in love with your new home office :)