Here at Rumours World HQ we have been working remotely since we launched, with a small team of digital nomads situated and often moving around the world. If you’re used to sitting next to your entire team, sharing tins of biscuits and making each other coffees, meeting rooms on-hand, calendars hanging on the wall and communal hard drives a plenty, then working remotely or from home might be very new to you and your team.
Aside from missing out on the weekly birthday cupcakes, the office banter and after work drinks, working from home definitely isn’t ALL bad, nor is it destined to be a disaster. There are some super productive, positive ways to still figure out some levels of normalcy when not physically sharing space with your team. Check out all the tools and resources that we dayyymmm swear by, that can totally piece it all together for you.
1. SLACK: For real-time communication & team updates
Essentially a messaging tool that everybody loves. Seriously try and find someone who’s used SLACK and isn’t now an addict! You might have been aware of a semi-world crisis unfold on Twitter earlier this year when for the first (and hopefully the last!) time, SLACK WENT DOWN! For a few hours. LOL.
But there was panic a plenty, when people realised they may have to use other channels (gasp!) or worse still – even REAL LIFE CONVERSATIONS to communicate with their coworkers! Haha!
But seriously – this is a digital space that helps in communication among teammates flawlessly, allows them to share ideas, comments, docs and edits in real time so everything moves swiftly and clearly.
When teams are remote, they can use Slack channels for instant messaging and collaboration. It will bring all your team communication in one place making managing remote employees a lot easy. This works on Desktop and also offers fully native apps for iOS and Android to give you complete functionality. You won’t look back folks!
2. GOOGLE WORKSPACE: For spreadsheets, presentations, storage... and more!
The cloud storage platform to not only KEEP all your files in one secure and centralised location, but also to create them with mega ease. PLUS it works for multiple users to be in documents simultaneously! Remote workers can create, store and share documents, spreadsheets, and slide presentations and with live edits being autosaved, no fear of losing or overwriting anything here!
Docs can be shared via a link with only viewing rights or editing rights – it really does not have a downside! You can add annotation and notes with tags of your team mates – for approvals or edits. You can use endless templates to make your docs look super pro, or create your own master-slides to ensure consistent brand identity throughout.
Additionally, Google Drive files can be synced across devices, so the individuals can view and update them from anywhere. Trust us, this is a platform which is SO intuitive, it’s so easy to pick up. Why WOULDN’t you use it!
3. WHEREBY: For no-drag video conferencing (yes it does exist!)
We all know about ZOOM by now. Yep. But there is an alternative on the scene which we bloody LOVE! WHEREBY Today, it takes an average of 7 minutes to get set up in a video meeting — and to us, that’s about 6 minutes and 45 seconds too long.
The goal WhereBy has is to keep you productive by striking a balance between simplicity, security, and quality in your video meetings. And genuinely, after trying Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, and many many more options, this honestly has been the best one, we’ve used this with multiple people based all over the world, with no visual drag or audio issues – we don’t have a bad word to say!
You can have more than 10 people to join on video conference meeting, a presentation or an online training, this is ideal with Whereby. The process to joining the video cal session is easy for participant as they don’t need to download and install any software, all are needed is the video conference link and a password, then everyone can join the video calls. BOOM! Give it a go, and you’ll notice the difference immediately!
4. ASANA: For task management & productivity
We’ve found this works particularly well for remote teams because of all the options available to manage and track tasks, no more letting things slip through the net or scrolling through old emails to check what that deadline was. This is a stellar tool for maximising your project management efficiency.
Project management might seem to be complicated, because you need to initiate, plan ahead and execute your work of the team, but seriously it doesn’t need to be. If you are managing or part of a remote team and still assigning projects to your team via emails, STOP – and don’t get left behind. It’s super user-friendly, that you can manage multiple projects and sub-tasks, calendar views, list views and much more.
5. CALENDLY: For booking meetings & scheduling stuff
Calendly is an app for scheduling appointments, meetings, and events. It’s main goal is to eliminate the problematic back-and-forth when trying to nail down times between teams and clients. Rather than email chains and phone tag, you can send your availability with a Calendly link (even if the people booking time with you don’t use Calendly – we love this!). Invitees will see all the available openings in your schedule and can select the one that suits them best. That ensures the ideal time slot for both parties, eliminates time zone confusion and avoids the strings of conversations about who’s available when. This is so simple and just works!
6. EVERNOTE: For taking notes next level
We all love a cute journal or snazzy notebook, but let’s be real, these aint the most functional means of taking notes and more importantly – finding them again! Don’t know about you but I tended to scribble things down, usually illegaibly, and then never be able to track down the notes I needed in one moment! Enter… EVERNOTE.
This is a dream note taking solution for teammates working remotely. You can keep all your notes organised, sync it automatically across all your devices. Evernote is an application that serves as a notetaker, PDA, to-do list and pocket notebook. EVERNOTE IS EVERYTHING!
7. TODO: For your personal to do lists that actually get done!
Short and sweet – for all the list makers out there – GUILTY!! (Anyone else make a list and add things to it you’ve already done, just to feel productive?!)
This is for you if you are looking for geeking out on the organisation of tasks. It gives all the core features that include tasks, subtasks, lets you create projects, add notes and upload files, set reminders, flags and a productivity chart.
8. WORLDTIME BUDDY: For all the time zone checking!
Perfect for anyone working with teams in different countries, just a game saver!
This is a remote work software with a time converter for distributed teams. It a convenient world clock and an online meeting scheduler. Its design lets people compare multiple time zones, plan conference calls, and web meetings for business.
8. FIGURE IT OUT: For REMOTE EMPLOYEES WHO REGULARLY TRAVEL
This tool is perfect for remote employees who travel on a regular basis. Figure It Out is a Google Chrome extension that shows you the time in your specified time zones whenever you open a new tab. For teams that aren’t working from one central location, this can be a great tool for keeping track of what time of day it is where your coworkers are. We like Figure It Out because Remote Year employees are based all over the world. When we want to book a meeting or jump on a call, Figure It Out is a great way to double check that the person we want to speak with is actually available. It doesn’t hurt that this tool is sleek and visually appealing either.
