As You Work From Home
As the world transitions into a more remote work environment, staying productive and efficient while working from home is crucial. As an African freelancer or independent contractor, you have the opportunity to set your schedule and be flexible with your work hours. However, this flexibility might make it challenging to keep up with daily responsibilities.
Thankfully, different software helps you achieve more while working from home. These applications can help you manage everything from time management to invoicing.
Software That Helps You Achieve More As You Work From Home
Here are 20 web apps that will help you achieve greater productivity as you work remotely:
- Slack – For seamless team communication
Slack is an effective communication platform that streamlines conversations. It helps create channels that serve as dedicated areas to connect and work productively with your team. In addition, slack allows you to engage with specific co-workers via direct messages and private channels without involving other peers.
Features
- Set reminders for tasks you want to remember.
- Allows team members to collaborate using posts.
- Offers audio and video calling options for up to 15 team members
Pricing
- The cost of the phone plan is $6 per user each month.
ClickUp is a top-rated project management application App designed to make your life easier as an independent contractor working from home. The web and mobile application provide a range of tools that allow users to manage their projects in one location, ensuring effortless collaboration among remote teams.
2. ClickUp
ClickUp’s exclusive features include document attachment, calendars, reminders, goals, and even an inbox for direct messaging. ClickUp can handle any team size, and users can develop their custom views, which they can save and share with others.
Features
- Task management
- Remote work
- Agile development
Pricing
- A free plan is available
- Paid plan costs $5 monthly per user
3. Google Drive
You can rely on Google Drive to store and exchange documents with distant team members while working from home. As part of the GSuite, this platform seamlessly integrates with Docs, Sheets, and other Google products, enabling you to modify files straight from Google Drive. Furthermore, the data kept on Google Drive is incredibly safe. You have complete control over whoever can view your files and documents.
Features
- Advanced search features
- Team collaboration
- Complete control over file access
- Starred files and folders
Pricing
- Drive Enterprise costs $8 per user monthly with an additional $1/25GB of storage.
4. Krisp
Krisp is a fantastic tool for remote African workers who prefer audio channels for regular communication. When you’re on an audio/video conversation, background noises sometimes disrupt the communication line, making you appear unprofessional.
The AI-powered software helps cancel background noise during calls by inserting a virtual filter between your mic and the calling App. This virtual filter detects and blocks all noises from getting through, ensuring users have clear audio throughout the call duration.
Features
- Acoustic echo cancellation
- Preserve best voice quality
- Virtual background
Pricing
- Free plan available
- Paid plan costs $3.33 per month
5. Seven App
You’ll need to take breaks even if you work from home, so why not spend it on a healthy workout? Seven App allows you to choose from 200 customized programs and exercises to help you achieve your fitness goals. These 7-minute workouts will help you stay healthy enough to perform efficiently.
Features
- Workout in landscape
- Follow a friend’s custom-made workout
- A closer look at exercises with 3D touch.
Pricing
- Seven days free trial available
- Plan cost $9.99 per month
6. Aloe Bud
We often forget to take breaks while working, which is detrimental to our health and productivity. Aloe Bud ensures you take care of yourself by sending you regular reminders to eat on time, stay hydrated, and be mentally and emotionally healthy throughout the day.
Features
- Scheduled push notification reminder
- Activity cards
- Activity log
Pricing
- Premium reminders cost $1.99
- Custom reminders cost $3.99
- Reminder bundles cost $4.99
7. Hubstaff – for team productivity
If you are looking to track the individual performance of team members, Hubstaff is the software for you. This solution also includes a GPS time monitoring system that allows you to track employees’ travel and on-site time. You can also use the online timesheet feature to track individual employee hours, billable hours, and payments.
Features
- Automatic payroll
- Time tracking
- Application and website tracking
Pricing
- Premium plan costs $10 monthly
8. StayFocusd
This website blocker restricts the amount of time you spend on time-consuming websites to the minutes or hours you specify.
Add the URLs of websites you’ll want to avoid during work hours and set a time limit (say, 10 minutes). Once the time limit elapses, you won’t access the websites.
Features
- Website blocking
- Blocks social media notifications, including Facebook
- Distraction-free UI
Pricing
- StayFocusd is a free Google chrome extension.
9. Trello
Trello is one of the most user-friendly project management tools for freelancers. The software allows you to manage your project by creating individual boards that you can further customize with cards and lists. You can also allocate these cards, containing tasks, to any member of your team.
Features
- In-line editing
- File attachment
- Easy drag-and-drop editing
- Progress meter checklist
- Easy upload (Google drive, local devices, Dropbox)
Pricing
- Has a free plan
- Enterprise plans start at $20.83 monthly per user
10. TeamViewer
TeamViewer is a powerful tool for remote assistance, remote access, and online meetings. This program’s robust and accessible technology allows users to remotely access other computers if they have the same application installed and the required login information. TeamViewer’s technology is trustworthy, and you can use it to access a remote device to retrieve files securely.
Features
- Connection control speed
- Management console
- Recording session
- Direct access keys
- Multi-platform access
Pricing
- Premium plan costs $19.11 monthly per user.
- The multi-user plan costs $36.19 monthly for 15 licensed users
11. To-doist
This App helps you track your plans for the day to avoid missing out on anything. If something new comes up, the software allows you to set a reminder easily.
Features
- Task management
- Task dependencies
- Schedule recurring tasks
- Kanban boards
Pricing
- To-doist has a free version that can take up to 80 projects and five team members.
- Premium ($3/month)
- Business ($5/user/month)
12. Skitch
Skitch is an annotation tool created by the same team behind Evernote that helps you bring your ideas to life with shapes, doodles, and markups. It also allows you to comment on projects and have visual dialogues with your colleagues.
Features
- Integrates with Evernote to save to your Evernote account.
- Let’s you take photos to annotate without having to leave the App.
Pricing
- The standard plan costs $9 monthly
13. Simplish
Simplish is a task management program that allows you to organize your activities, take notes and observations, schedule events and projects in an integrated calendar. It also provides a simple interface for interacting with co-workers on shared tasks.
The App’s colour palette lifts your mood. You’ll also receive positive daily affirmations to keep you upbeat at work.
Features
- Advanced scheduling
- Unlimited photos
- Reminders
- More space
- Priority support
Pricing
- The plan costs $2.99 per month.
14. Kazoo
Kazoo is your ultimate remote team engagement toolkit. It is an all-in-one platform with everything you need to keep your remote teams motivated. Organize insights, rewards, recognition, surveys, and more. Features
- Management of individual and organizational performance
- Recognition on a peer-to-peer level
- Participation polls
Pricing
- Demo available
- Bespoke pricing system
15. iA Writer
iA Writer is a word processor that provides a virtual distraction-free writing environment where you only want to concentrate on your work. As a writer, this software will help you achieve more as you work from home by blocking common distractions like commercials, news, notifications, etc.
Features
- Chapter folding
- Document outlining
- Clean interface
- Pre-designed templates
- “Focus mode” feature
- Integrate with iCloud and Dropbox
Pricing
- Android version is free
- Windows license cost $19.99 per month
- Mac license costs $28.99 monthly
Conclusion
So there you go! 15 software that will help you get more done while working from home. Some work for specific purposes, others cover multiple areas, but each offers something unique. So, what apps would you add to our list? Let us know in the comments below.
