5 Apps to Increase Productivity Working Remotely

Welcome to the future of work. Thanks to the pandemic, more of us than ever are working from home or remotely. Even with some sectors swapping Zoom for a physical office, most companies are incorporating flexible working options.

After Facebook announced that their employees could work remotely, other businesses followed suit. If you’re thinking of working from home or taking advantage of remote working, you want to think of ways to boost your productivity. When you can stay productive, you can get through your ‘to do’ list and avoid working overtime.

We’ve rounded up 5 apps to increase productivity, so you can get the most out of working remotely.

1. Evernote – Free/$7.99+ a month

If you’re someone who scribbles down on post-it notes or likes to take physical notes in meetings, Evernote is the must-have productivity app. With this note-taking app, the sky is the limit. It’s unlike any mainstream software by Apple or Microsoft as it allows you to add everything from audios to digital sketches and PDFs. Everything you need for your job can be kept in one convenient location, with an easy search tool that means you’ll never lose another file.

You can use Evernote to seamlessly collaborate with colleagues at the office or who are also working remotely. The app bills itself as the “best note taking app”, promising to help you capture your ideas and find them quickly within the app. Evernote will help you go paperless with their PDF scanning system, meaning you can wave goodbye to piles of paperwork on your desk.

Evernote is available in a free and subscription version. This productivity app works seamlessly with other tools like OneDrive and Gmail. With Evernote, you can work from anywhere – whether it’s your kitchen table or a beachfront café.

2. Stayfocusd – Free

One drawback of working remotely is that you can become easily distracted. Instead of being focused on working from 9-5, you have flexibility with your hours. You may find yourself scrolling through Twitter instead of getting ahead of your work. If you’re someone who struggles with productivity and keeping on task, then ‘Stayfocusd’ is the app for you.

This browser extension blocks websites while you’re working, allowing you to see dates and times when you want to block certain websites. If you find yourself getting distracted by YouTube, you can block it between 9 am and noon to keep you focused on your work.

Along with your desktop, you can install Stayfocusd on everything from Chromebooks to Amazon Kindles, so you have no way of being distracted from your work.

Best of all – Stayfocusd is free! Although, you can upgrade to the premium membership for added extras. Using this app can help you boost your productivity and improve your self-control and concentration. Now, you’ll be able to get your work done quickly so you can focus on your personal life.

3. SaneBox

Are your emails driving you insane? Most of us don’t get a chance to go through every email we receive throughout the day. If you’re working from home or remotely, your clients and colleagues are going to rely on email as their main form of communication. Your productivity is tied up to how organized your email inbox is and how easy you find it to stay on top of new messages.

SaneBox is here to help you stay on top of your emails. It analyses your emails, identifying the marketing emails from the work ones, and helps divide them into folders if you haven’t read them.

This app will grow and evolve over time as it becomes more familiar with your needs and requirements. The AI will analyze your email history, allowing it to understand what emails you want (and need!) to be seeing. SaneBox can work away in the background, streamlining your inbox, while you focus on hitting your daily work goals.

You can start a 14-day trial to see if SaneBox works for you before taking out a £7 monthly subscription. This app works for any type of email software, whether you use Gmail or another server.

4. Todoist – Free/$3.99 per month

Do you wish you could have a virtual assistant? Are you looking to upgrade your digital diary? Meet Todoist. This planning app has an easy-to-use interface and helps you create a personalized diary to stay on track with your productivity goals. You can color-code your tasks, depending on priority, and share graphs of your progress.

Todoist works alongside other apps to increase productivity, including Dropbox and Slack. You can organize every project into dedicated sections while writing out a daily ‘to do’ list with quick add functionality.

You can use a free version of Todoist or upgrade to a monthly subscription for $3.99 a month if you want to unlock extra features.

5. 1Password – Free/$3.99

Are passwords not your strong point? If you’re working remotely or from home, you might find yourself having to remember dozens of passwords. Anyone who runs their own business is likely to have both personal and company-related passwords to remember. Instead of using up valuable headspace, you can download 1Password to remember all your passwords for you.

1Password will take note of every password you’ve created – so you don’t have to. Gone are the days of running around looking for a random scrap of paper with a password written down.

You can also utilize 1Password to store other information like bank account information and credit card details, thanks to its end-to-end encryption.

This productivity app offers a free 30-day trial, while their monthly subscription costs $3.99.

Working from home or remotely can change your life. It can help you spend time with your family and maintain a work/life balance. The secret to successfully working from home is to invest in apps to increase productivity across the board. We all get distracted and could benefit from streamlined organizational and productivity apps. With these five apps, you’ll be off to the perfect start to build your at-home or remote office.