As Promised 7 Free #Tech Tools For Those New To #RemoteWorking Or #WorkingFromHome.

6 min readMar 19, 2020

Without realising it. I have been remote working for over a decade.

It’s just something I did as being a digital marketing and technology consultant.

And from this. One of my great joys is being asked to talk about #thefutureworker and technology on things like the BBC.

So after lots of feedback from other people saying I wasn’t doing enough to help. And not being positive enough through the #CoronaVirus Crisis….

Here is my guide to the #tech tools you CAN use whilst remote working.

Often I would start with my WHY but we all know the why. The coronavirus and the different applications in different countries and cities and homes. Running from lock down measures to social distancing and — if you are lucky enough to…

WORKING FROM HOME.

So I hope we are all practicing at least some form of social distancing, like working from home. And if you are — bravo to you — but you might not be used to working remotely. Everyone is at different stages. Some of my work is with a team just starting it’s remote journey this week.

With The Landing for example — being a PLACE — rather than an online tech community. And so some of our members are at different stages. Whilst with FLOCK — as an HR tech SAAS start up I invested in and now remote work with — we have been #remoteworking from day 1. 100% of our team is remote with one core office.

And we are about 2 years in — without even thinking about it.

And with Great Marketing Works — I have worked without an office from practically all it’s live. Over a decade as we train people in digital marketing and online social selling. And so never really saw people until the day we trained them. And irconially I have trained people with and in many of the tools balow. So let’s start.

THE KIT. THE HARDWARE.

Key for at home is the right gear. If you don’t have this as your solid foundation everything else is a foot note. It’s the stuff you rely on for everything else — but often overlooked.

So tools to use are:
A mobile phone (obvs) and don’t forget your charger.
A laptop with a camera for many of the tools below.
If you can headphones — and decent ones.
Gaming ones are really good as they have microphones too.
If doing training on radio stuff — and even video calls — then a snowball mic is great.
Maybe even a ZOOM recorderfor important meetings.
And last but NOT least….

A separate working from home online device. So something like a giga cube from Vodafone that runs off its own SIM.

As you can see in my standing desk office :)

SO THE FUN STUFF — THE SOFTWARE.

1. Loom.

Loom allows you to quickly record your screen and then share it with your colleagues.It’s more efficient than sending long slack or email messages as you can send a quick loom instead.

DID YOU KNOW? Loom’s response to COVID-19 was to remove video limits for all free accounts. Legends!

2. Zoom.

Zoom is video conferencing software LOVED by all in the world of tech. But it’s free tier only allows group calls for up to 40 mins ONLY. So if you are going for longer — perhaps use Google Hangouts. It’s incredibly reliable, easy to use, and has a handy screen sharing feature. And Zoom also has a webinar feature as well for larger audiences.

DID YOU KNOW? Eric Yuan, the founder of Zoom Video Communications Inc., added $20 million to his net worth last Monday. As Zoom shares went crazy in a positive way unlike with…

3. Microsoft.

Microsoft has started offering a free trial of the premium plan for its Teams chat app. According to Business Insider the trial will allow users to record meetings and take advantage of 1TB of storage. Neither of which are available on the normal free version.

DID YOU KNOW? Microsoft is making the extended premium trial available for six months from April.

4. Cisco Webex.

Cisco is offering the free version of its Webex service with no time restrictions. It allows up to 100 meeting participants. And has added toll-free dial-in features with a 90-day license for businesses that are not already customers.

DID YOU KNOW ? You can also use things like GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar. Where you can host presentations for up to 3,000 users — which is something I have been using for over a decade. Originally with Flying Start with NACUE.

5. Slack.

For many tech companies and non tech companies — SLACK is the norm. But not for everyone. And some managers might find that their teams have been using Slack for a while without them knowing! Slack has an abundance of useful integrations and allows chats and sharing between groups.

DID YOU KNOW? The slack doodle integration, allows you to quickly conduct polls and surveys. Right in slack whenever a quick and definite team decision needs to be made!

6.. Notion or Trello.

Thinking about decisions and task management. Remote working options like — Notion and Trello are both incredible tools that will help you manage the tasks of your team.

Trello is great because it has an abundance of integrations through Zapier. And because it is so easy to use. It’s like a digital version of post it notes. Whilst Notion is really useful for building out and managing an entire workspace/company dashboard. With progress board, wikis, calendars, etc. which might be a bit advanced so…

DID YOU KNOW? Most people use Trello. Which to date has surprisingly not done anything in response.

7. Google

Unfashionable as it might seem. And almost old fashioned but there is nothing wrong with using Google and the Gdrive remotely. It allows you to collaborate on documents and task management moments. And can be used in a great way for multiple people.

DID YOU KNOW ? the fact that Google was creating a coronavirus testing website is a HOAX. Which might have been started by the President of the United States. — strange times right?

8. FLOCK

More on the ide of looking at the team dynamics if you are a boss or leader. But it’s something that can be done remotely. And for FREE (if you comment below as I can hook you up… ask me below.)

FLOCK asks your employees to rank their values and what motivates them. Allowing you to create a #companyculture map and see how to manage them more effectively.

As more and more teams are working remotely this (and other tools like it) will become useful for managers. And even HR departments as the normal “intuitive” ways of holding a team together might come under strain.

DID YOU KNOW ? FLOCK is one of a battery of personality and team tests you can do remotely to help you understand yourself. And your team more. So you can ALL be more productive at home and #workingremotely.

Which all links into the next blog — which is going to be on productivity and how to keep being productive. As individuals and as a team. Whilst we are socially distancing due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Hope the above helps — and remember we are all in this together.

Here’s to you — we can and will do this — we will not go down without making a stand. With have the technology to do amazing things remotely — let’s us them to make our businesses bounce back. Even stronger than before.