Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown, most professionals have been forced to stay inside their homes. There has been a rise in the “gig economy” at home and abroad. People are also resorting to various platforms like Fiverr to offer their services. Working from home can help you bring in a steady source of income while also being in the comfort of your lovely home.
Here we list 5 apps that you can use to optimize your Mac for all of your remote work needs.
Use Google Suite to Foster Collaboration
- Challenge: When working remotely, team collaboration becomes a challenge.
- Problems Faced: In fact, most of the mistakes happen when documents and information are not shared properly among the members of the team. Improper sharing of documents can cause the organization to become inefficient.
- Solution: Google Suite happens to be a fantastic solution to this problem. In fact, the Google Suite of web products is something that will help you to optimize your Mac. They have Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. that will let you share/collaborate on documentation efficiently.
Encrypt your Communication
- Challenge: Whether you are working at a cafe, a public workspace, or at home – you will need a stable WiFi connection.
- Problems Faced: Using public networks is risky because your personal info/devices can be hacked by malicious individuals using man-in-the-middle attacks, and others.
- Solution: The best way to prevent this is by using a tool called VPN (Virtual Private Network). By installing and using a Mac VPN, all your data is redirected through an encrypted tunnel, therefore making your data & connection you are connected to encrypted and safe from cybercriminals.
Make File Sharing Easier
- Challenge: One of the major challenges that WFH professionals have to face is team collabs and file sharing.
- Problems Faced: There is a dearth of platforms that will help you to share files securely with the entirety of your professional team. In fact, not having a proper cloud file platform is one of the key causes of inefficiency in the workplace.
- Solution: DropBox offers a very good solution to this problem. Apart from file storage, it will also provide your team with a platform for sharing, collaborating, and working as a cohesive team. It can also be integrated with Google Docs.
Communicate More Effectively
- Challenge: While working from home, it is very important to have a client that can help you to stay in touch with your team members.
- Problems Faced: In fact, proper communication is the most basic task that you need to take care of. In the lockdown WFH period, it has become commonplace to talk to team members using clients like Zoom, Google Meet, etc.
- Solution: If you want an all-in-one client that will let you integrate email, instant messaging, and video calls, then you have to try Spike. Spike is perfect for users of Mac and can be integrated with surprising ease.
Keep Yourself Organized
- Challenge: One of the key problems of WFH is the lack of productivity and structure.
- Problems Faced: In fact, working from home leads a lot of professionals to become unproductive and lethargic. This can have serious consequences on your professional performance.
- Solution: The best way to deal with this lack of productivity is to plan your work projects in a sustainable way. To do that, you can make use of an app like Notion. It is a digital workspace that you can use for taking notes, making to-do lists, creating databases, maintaining calendars, etc. You can also use Notion as your journal.
With that being said, it is a good note for you to remember to take breaks once in a while so that you do not suffer from burnout and exhaustion. To that effect, you should try using some of the best mindfulness apps like Forest and Headspace.
These have been 5 of the best apps that you can deploy on your Mac to optimize it for remote work. Using these apps will give a boost to your productivity and help you to focus as well.
