How to Manage Your Work from Home with Apps

By Anton Adianto

Familiarising yourself is one of the keys to adapting to working from home that has been happening now for weeks. All sectors of the economy are affected, from finance to F&B; workers have been utilising digital technology to manage work, handle projects and facilitate better communication.

The construction industry has been hit hard. Stakeholders say that COVID-19 has effected great changes, ranging from changes in design thinking to projects on the ground. Many things need to be adjusted when working from home and some of the digital tools below have become daily necessities, now more so than ever.

PANDEMIC INFORMATION
There have been many applications created by private vendors to provide information about COVID-19, such as Coronavirus Statistics, MeMeTeo and nCOV Tracker, but lately in some countries, all of these were closed to avoid the spread of misleading information among users.

As the pandemic continues, each country’s health ministry has been appointed as the information provider. Accessible by anyone, they provide easier access to COVID-19 information through official websites and apps with more accurate, detailed information. Some of these include WHO Info from United Nations; PeduliLindungi in Indonesia; MySejahtera in Malaysia; Coronavirus Australia in Australia or TraceTogether; which is used in many countries, including Singapore.

Image by: Tama2U | Shutterstock

COMMUNICATION
There are so many communication apps that can be found on both PlayStore and AppStore. As we know, communication is key, especially in light of the current work-from-home situation. Communication service providers offer a variety of choices for both corporations to individuals.

Zoom is one of the most popular corporate communication media. Although this app is suspected to be vulnerable to security issues, it is still being used everywhere. World renowned IT companies and several government agencies have begun to switch to Meet from Google, Skype and Microsoft Teams from Microsoft, which are considered safer options.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT & INFORMATION
Working directly together is not a difficult problem! But working separately together without accurate project management and information is impossible without proper coordination and application assistance. For a reliable source of project information, LeadManager from BCI Asia is a leading platform that is easily accessible, especially in critical situations like this.

For designers and media industries, Trello, Slack and Basecamp are apps that are visual and easy to use because the interface is user-friendly. Zoho Projects and Asana provide more advanced facilities, while Podio provides its own CRM model. For IT companies, Jira might provide more detailed track and security management. Of course, Google Docs is the easiest and simplest sharing platform app and software for real-time updates of any project management.

Image by: Weedezign | Shutterstock

CLOUD STORAGE
Work from home gives us the opportunity to exchange and store data together in one place digitally. For those who are not familiar with this, it could be troublesome. However, once again the situation has forced us to adapt. The good news is some apps provide easy services and some are free.

Google Drive and DropBox are probably two of the easiest and most commonly known apps, and are also easy to use. In addition, there are also iCloud for Apple users, Box, MEGA, OneDrive, pCloud and many other apps that offer different facilities and services to suit your needs.

MISCELLANEOUS
In addition to the important apps above, there are some lightweight applications that can also be useful. Todoist is worth considering because it contains a personal assistant-like notification of what you can do today. Take a break from work with apps such as the 7-Minute Workout, Netflix, Spotify or even 9Gag so you don’t get too stressed out. Don’t forget to check the VPN if you care about your internet security issues.

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