How to work remotely during the coronavirus pandemic

Working from home, or as they call it to work remotely, has been considered a luxury for people around the world and in this sudden time of crisis, this apparent luxury has turned into a necessity and for good reasons. And now that the coronavirus not showing any immediate signs of slowing its pace down, industries and offices around the world have turned to requesting their employees to work from home. While guidelines and assistance have been provided in most cases, there are still people struggling to understand how they can achieve the same kind of productivity from the comfort of their homes.

After you are done with this article, you could even propagate these suggestions to your boss and ask them to consider incorporating them into work for the foreseeable future or even make it an official policy as people learn to adjust to work remotely.

Have meetings while working remotely

One of the main problems that have occurred because of the virus is the inability to schedule meetings out of fear of spreading it. This has brought video calling software to the frontlines and there are a number of excellent tools that you can use to boost productivity and prevent unnecessary delays from occurring. Here’s the list of some of the best:

Zoom

Zoom is a purpose-built application designed to handle meetings of many sizes. From just one-on-one meetings to full-scale conferences, Zoom has managed to effectively build something that has all the necessary features any business could never need. It’s most prominent features include meetings, video webinars, conference rooms, phone systems, and even an instant messaging service.

Google Hangouts

This application is developed by Google so you can automatically assume that quality assurance has been taken care of by qualified people. This means that you can move your entire meeting schedule over to Google Hangouts and resume business operations without a hitch. Google Hangouts is a bit more casual than Zoom, but certainly gets the job done at least for small organizations. With video conferencing available for up to 10 people at a time, it becomes a strong contender for teams that may not want to purchase an enterprise solution.

Using asynchronous tools to help boost productivity

Apart from having meetings to discuss future goals and whatever else happens in them, you are often faced with obstacles at work that you really can’t explain verbally and have to show the problem to someone for them to understand it better. This is where screen recording tools come in handy and can easily solve complex problems that require assistance from team members.

Let’s look at a few of these async tools for working remotely:

Loom

Loom is an application that allows an effective replacement of long emails explaining issues and whatnot. With Loom, you can record your face and your screen at the same time while also being able to send voice messages explaining stuff in a bit more enterprise environment that makes it easy to keep track of things unlike in casual messaging platforms where things can easily get lost. Loom also allows you to easily edit your screen recordings with markers and other drawing tools that make the video much more interactive and gets the point across as if people met in person.

Snagit

Snagit is also a screen recording software that allows various engaging graphics to be included in video segments that make the content much more self-explanatory. The free trial can also be accessed without a credit card and that makes it much more viable if you just want to experiment with a bunch of different ones to see what fits your needs the best. It also has a range of sharing abilities that seamlessly communicate the video onto different platforms like Google Drive, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

Data sharing support tools

One of the great challenges to work remotely is that you have to share data all the time and with files becoming larger every day, it can often be a challenge to move around entire applications if your internet isn’t as speedy as you want it to be. The issue is made more troublesome when you can’t be in the office and just use their local servers to transport the files with lightning speeds. While online storage tools have been in use by many people regularly, now is the time to fully utilize them and make sure no unprecedented delays take place simply because the files can’t be reached by the required personnel. Here are some famous tools that you should learn to use properly to maximize their output.

Box

Box is a cloud-based service that has a ton of tools to make working from home as frictionless as possible. Box offers intense security protocols that make sure whatever data you upload on their servers is secured to the fullest with zero tolerance for backdoor entries. File sharing, reviewing, and integrating is easier than ever with the help of Box. Workflow management also becomes a breeze with the way Box handles and provides automation tools. One of the biggest selling points of Box is that it can be used in collaboration with over 1400 other applications which include the likes of Amazon Web Servies and Slack.

Jumpshare

Jumpshare is a tool much like Box but has an added benefit of being able to record screens as well. This means that you won’t have to install separate software for that and with so many programs already running on one’s machine these days, this can really take the burden off of your computer. From being a central repository, allowing file-sharing of humongous sizes, offering seamless screen recordings with graphics tools, Jumpshare really does offer a lot. If you haven’t chosen software for this kind of work yet, do give it a shot.

Is it really possible to work remotely, effectively?

Yes! With technology and software becoming more decentralized every day, working from home an objective of many big tech-firms across the world that they plan to achieve. With so many tools available to make the job easier, employers are finally understanding that remote work can even boost productivity rather than when working from the office.

Currently, it is absolutely necessary that all workplaces exercise extreme caution and find more unique solutions to get as much done remotely. It is the only way to keep businesses afloat while also maintaining the required precautions.

One last thing, if you work remotely and you see excessive use of your phone or smart watch, we have some amazing tips for you to improve battery life on your iPhone and Apple Watch.