The COVID-19 pandemic revolutionized how businesses operate and popularized remote work as most employees worked from home. While the pandemic is no longer an issue, many companies have retained the work-from-home policy to save costs, boost employee productivity and maintain business continuity.

Here are some must-have remote work tools to make working remotely easier and more productive.

1. Project Management Tools

Project management tools allow you to manage your projects effectively and collaborate with other team members. You can create tasks and assign workloads to other team members, track progress, and set deadlines. Project management tools also enable real-time communication and file sharing. Consider the following project management tools for your remote work:

• Asana
• Trello
• Basecamp
• Monday.com
• Microsoft projects

2. Time Management Tools

Telecommuters are subject to distractions. As such, a time management tool is necessary to help you stay grounded and ensure you complete all your tasks on time. You can also use time management tools to prioritize tasks, schedule your work, set goals, and monitor your time usage. They also provide an excellent way to know how long it takes for a job to be completed. Some of the time management tools you can consider when working remotely include:

• RescueTime
• Toggl
• Google Calendar
• DeskTime
• ToDoist

For remote employees, time management and tracking tools foster accountability, transparency and reduce stress.

3. Cloud Storage

Working remotely requires you to have the ability to easily access and share files wherever you are. Cloud storage is among the most important remote work tools for keeping your documents and files safe. It also saves you space and costs and makes data recovery easier after a loss.

Since you store your files in the cloud, you can retrieve them whenever you want as long as you have an internet connection.

Besides file storage and sharing, these tools allow you to collaborate with other team members, track any changes, and make edits together. Depending on your storage needs and budget, here are popular common cloud storage options:

• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• OneDrive

4. Communication Tools

The key to successfully working remotely lies in good communication. Whether you are getting in touch with your team members or employer, having a communication tool ensures that you are always on the same page, regardless of your location. What’s more, most of the available communication tools support multiple users at a time, making meetings a breeze. Examples include:

• Zoom
• Skype
• Slack
• Google Meet

The good thing about these tools is that you can share your screen, record meetings, and send messages instantly.

With the above remote work tools, you can stay on top of your work, enjoy a better work-life balance, and boost your productivity in the long run.

Coworking spaces have gained much attention in the business world due to the rapid rise of their popularity. These spaces are known for their unique designs, including wide-open office layouts and relaxing work areas for people from various fields. Coworking is a crucial part of the business strategy for an entrepreneur, and it can make the difference between success and failure.

What is a Coworking Space?

A coworking space is an office that is employer-independent. Entrepreneurs and employees of different companies can work in traditional office settings. This movement developed and grew throughout the early 2000s and accelerated significantly following COVID-19. As coworking becomes more popular, large companies are reducing office space costs and encouraging employees to work from home.

Advantages of Using Coworking Spaces as a Business Owner

So, how will a coworking space improve a business owner’s chances of success?

1. Sense of community

A coworking space provides business owners a sense of community they may miss while working from home. A coworking space allows them to interact with like-minded individuals and gain a rounded perspective.

2. Improves creativity and productivity

Business owners can develop the most creative solutions when they interact with others. The experience of working with multiple teams in different fields and industries can provide you with new perspectives and thought processes. A fast-paced office environment may motivate some entrepreneurs, especially if their colleagues are also productive.

3. Flexibility

Flexibility is the main benefit of coworking spaces since it has a wide range of different office and desk layouts that you can choose from to suit your specific needs. Considering that many people and teams share office spaces, your business can easily adjust its coworking plan to accommodate fewer or more employees and only pay for what they need.

4. Networking opportunities

Coworking spaces are social environments that create meaningful connections when workers interact and share ideas. It is incredible how quickly a simple problem-solving conversation can develop into a business opportunity, and a friendly working relationship can grow into a closer friendship.

How Coworking Is Quickly Becoming the Future of Workspaces in Many Career Fields

It’s undeniable that the workplace is changing. Even before the global pandemic, companies were increasingly embracing remote working, and it’s now a trend. But that’s not all. In a time where technology is propelling businesses forward, hybrid work structures are taking root, and coworking spaces are thriving, today’s workplace looks very different than it did years ago.

Coworking spaces play an essential role in supporting the future of work since they are ideal for hybrid work. Coworking spaces have seen rapid growth, which is expected to continue. In addition, these spaces offer business perks and benefits that are becoming increasingly important to entrepreneurs today.

Conclusion

Coworking spaces can play an essential role in the future of workspaces. Through these spaces, business owners foster collaboration by sharing knowledge, collaborating, and supporting one another. There is no doubt that coworking spaces will play an essential role in the future of work due to their many benefits.

Email marketing is the most effective way to engage and reach your customers. With projected revenue of over $10 billion in 2023, email marketing is a powerful tool to grow your business revenue. The adoption of automation significantly increases the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. If you are a small business owner, here are the best email marketing practices you should keep in mind.

The year-end holidays often mark a period of reduced productivity among businesses. Employees are distracted by holiday imagery everywhere they turn, causing them to think more about family and friends than work. Despite these tendencies, here are effective steps you can take to keep your workforce productive during the holidays.

The pandemic caused many businesses to shift to work at home operations. As shutdown mandates end a good percentage of firms continue to use the work at home model while some have moved toward a hybrid model combining home and office activities. Here’s a look at how to boost worker productivity for home, office or hybrid business models.

The pandemic has dramatically changed many aspects of our lives this year; the ways we now work, travel, shop, and engage with others can seem unrecognizable compared to just a few months ago.

The office water cooler has gotten a bad rep as the cliché place where no work gets done in an office, but in reality, simple office amenities can nurture productivity. A dehydrated employee won’t get much done after all.

Daylight before and after work, no getting stuck behind school buses on the commute, and perhaps some trips or vacation time sprinkled in – there are some perks to summer work life. However the rise in temperatures often brings about a dip in productivity; surveys amongst office workers report a 25% decrease in productivity and nearly half of employees admitted to being more distracted in the summer.

In the U.S., people work an average of 45 hours per week and consider 16 of those hours to be unproductive. Businesses and industries have distinct goals and derive from and build off of different resources (donations, profits, contracts, staff size, infrastructure, etc.). However, there is one resource common to and equal among all industries, projects, managers, and employees: time.

‘Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort.’– Paul Meyer