Are you one of the thousands of people who in the last year worked in the home office mode for a few weeks? Or, who started working from home in early 2020 and has not returned to face-to-face work?

The home office, so common nowadays, was a way for a few people to work until very recently, as an example of freelancers. But, as everyone knows, since the beginning of the pandemic, working from home has become a reality for many people.

Some people even performed their functions with remote work before the arrival of COVID-19. However, currently, most people who were not performing their activities at the company’s headquarters started to work from home due to the scenario linked to the health crisis. For many managers, it was not part of the plans to have to manage their work teams from a distance, having to rely on the organization of each employee outside the corporate environment.

Do you know the difference between home office and telecommuting? Check it out below:

Home office versus Remote work

Remote work is characterized by the possibility of performing your work function anywhere outside the company. In turn, the home office is essentially working at home.

Those who work remotely can work while traveling, in a partner’s office, in a coworking or even at home. There are professionals who have been working in this way for a long time depending on their career.

The home office, on the other hand, is that form that has become common in recent months. When a person sets up his workstation at home and there starts to exercise his daily routine.

Pros and cons

When the home office is an employee’s choice, he has already gone through a stage of necessary adjustments to prepare the home-to-office environment. That includes:

• Set aside a place in the house that will function as an office.

• Check the internet network so that it has the necessary capacity.

• Organization of routine to distribute tasks according to family dynamics.

However, those who are working from home at this time have not always managed to have this preparation time, which is why it is so important to help people in the home office to establish an organization that results in healthy productivity.

How to have productivity in the home office

When the professional is part of a team, and everyone is working remotely, the challenge of maintaining the team’s unity is a reality for leaders and managers. It is necessary to deal with deadlines in a smarter way, with motivation, communication, and the quality of deliveries.

Therefore, when the employee manages to find ways to organize their tasks and seek a balance between productivity and routine, everyone wins!

A good tip is to look at your projects and apply the Agile Methodology in the development of your tasks. Those who manage to break down a large task into smaller steps are more likely to deliver on time and not overload functions.

5 tools to turbo charge the home office

We have selected 5 tools that are especially suitable for those who want to organize their time, improve their workflow, and maintain relationships with colleagues.

1. Trello

Trello is one of the tools that work to organize tasks and people involved in projects. It can be used free of charge for the most basic functions, but it also offers paid plans for those looking for a more robust structure.

The tool is very intuitive and practical. It is possible to determine people responsible for each stage of the project; include dates and alerts for activities; move activities within different stages; include files and customize the entire process.

Trello is one of the examples of tools that work for organizing teams. But there are others too like Asana and Office 365.

2. Google Drive

Google Drive is a complete file production and organization directory. To use it, you just need a Google account and there are ways for individual or corporate use.

One of the great advantages is not having to worry about lost files, it automatically saves every open document.

It is ideal for working in teams. Multiple people can join the editing at the same time making building any document a collaborative activity.

Need to share a spreadsheet, text, or presentation? Just generate a link and send it, including different types of access and permission to indicate what can be done by whoever accessed the file through it, such as reading, commenting, or editing.

One of the great features of Google Drive is the search form. Just type in a keyword and it shows all documents that include the term. And so, it is much faster to find the document you need quickly.

3. Google Meet

Anyone working from a home office knows that, at least once a day, they will need to enter an online meeting room. Google Meet made this function quite simple. Just enter the tool to generate a link to a room or generate a new appointment in the calendar with the need for an online meeting room.

The tool allows the participation of up to 100 people simultaneously in the free version. You can share the screen with a document presentation and organize the conversation through chat and other functions.

4. Rescue Team

One feeling that can cause anxiety and mess up with productivity is the notion that time is not being put to good use. This can happen when you start an activity that takes more time than you anticipated, or when you pick up your cell phone to look at social media, and that’s 40 minutes gone.

An alternative to better control your time management is to use Rescue Time. This free tool tracks your tasks with a timer that runs while you perform a certain task.

It is especially useful to know how long you take developing a specific activity, or even see how much is being used in tasks that are not part of your scope, or that came at the last minute.

5. WeTransfer

Have you spent hours editing a large file, or need to send a batch of documents but do not know exactly how to send them to the recipient? WeTransfer is an excellent option! It will help you gain more speed in file sharing.

Upload the files you need to upload on the platform, and it generates a download link. Send the address to the recipient and they will have access to what you shared.

More organized and productive 

There are several other tools and features created to contribute to your routine and productivity in the home office. Keep in mind that in order not to work too many hours longer than you should, or to not waste time on procrastination, organization is critical!

The important thing is to keep in touch with the team, make sure that the guidelines for performing your work are correctly understood and remember that the balance between work and breaks is fundamental!

Did you like our tips? Take the opportunity to recommend these tools to a friend at home office!