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December 9, 2024
Starting this week, millions of office workers all across the globe will have to adjust to a new routine and work from home. But for us, in the Social Lady team, nothing much will change. Working in a non-office environment has become second nature for us. Social Lady owner and CEO Tal Navarro, opened her first online store from a Carribian island back in 2006, so it’s not surprising that she runs a digital agency from her laptop with a baby on her shoulder. She assembled around herself an international team connecting across distances and time differences as significant as California and Malta or Texas and Israel.
How do we make it work? Everyone on the Social Lady team can probably attest to the personal adjustments they had to make to work from home. Not only your routine, but your whole concept of the work-personal life division needs to be modified. But we also love this way of life and would never give it up and go back to being stuck in traffic or sharing a workspace with others. Many of the challenges that working from home presents can be solved by various digital solutions.
We listed the free (or almost free) apps and software that we use daily. With these tools, it becomes easier to communicate with clients, brainstorm with colleagues, or make your day more productive. Here are apps for working from home:
Whatsapp is the most popular messaging app in the world, so it probably doesn’t need an introduction. We use it regularly: we have group chats for different project teams in the agency and chats with our clients that we use for updates. Whatsapp web allows us to stay on top of it all from our desktop. It’s also useful for audio conversations with people everywhere.
This tool for video meetings allows up to 100 attendees at sessions that last 40 minutes and include screen sharing, chats, and other features. Once your 40 minutes are up, send another link and move over there. Zoom’s most significant advantage may be the possibility of joining a conversation with only a link. No set-up and no log-ins. On mobile, it’s just a matter of installing the app, and then you’re all set to go.
Another popular tool, Google Drive, is a must-have for no-office businesses. If any of you out there are still saving files to your personal computer, please stop. Drive and other cloud technologies are a way to store your assets and make them available to everyone. In Google Drive it’s especially easy to share files with other team members and work together on the same file.
A screen-sharing app that’s very easy to install and operate. This tool is handy for helping others by remote access or teaching team members how to use complex systems.
There are so many project management apps out there that choosing one can become a project too. We use Trello and find it easy to operate and adapt to our various needs.
Effective time management is an enormous challenge when you’re working from home. Toggle is a simple app that’s also available as a handy Chrome add-on. You can use it to track the time different projects take up and learn which of your tasks are especially time-consuming.
We use Canva a lot to design visuals for social media and recommend it to everyone. One of its many advantages is the possibility to share projects with others. Just like in Google Drive, you can send a link or invite your colleagues to work on a design together.
Working from home can be a fantastic opportunity to build your own schedule, find your optimal work times, and make more time for family. We view it not as a necessity, but as the most efficient way to work in the 21st century.
Let us know how we can help you!
