8 essential work-from-home apps to make your life easier

Working from home is a growing trend worldwide, and experts agree it's here to stay. While working from home might seem effortless compared to going to the office, it comes with an array of challenges. Indeed, you don't have to waste your valuable time commuting or worrying about your clothes. Still, you do have to collaborate, cooperate and widely communicate with your colleagues. Not to mention how distracting it can be to manage your professional and personal life all at once. A computer, a smartphone and an internet connection are all essential elements of your home office, but these apps will take your work-from-home game to the next level: 

Undisturbed connection: NordVPN

Working from home relies entirely on the internet. Mobile data plans are not designed for continued working and can be frustrating to handle at times. Home WiFi or a broadband internet connection can be a more efficient alternative in this regard. A robust and reliable VPN becomes crucial to get unshakeable internet stability and protect your personal data from getting breached. A VPN can protect your online identity by simply making you anonymous and thus making your connection private, even when you are using a public network. We are recommending NordVPN for its commendable speed and security. Plus, it has a massive number of servers and IP addresses worldwide. 

Effective team communication: Slack

Slack is Microsoft's communication platform specialising in team and group chats where you can exchange texts, links, documents and other files without hassle. Recent Messenger bugs and Whatsapp data breaches prove why we should not use these mediums for professional work. As such, Slack is a great alternative to retaining communication with team members. With the free version of Slack, only a limited number of texts can be exchanged and archived between teams. Companies can opt for the paid version to make effortless communication possible for bigger teams while working remotely. 

Time management: Toggl Track

Toggl Track allows you to combine Pomodoro with time tracking. You can start a timer from your PC and stop it from your phone; it's that flexible. You can create recurring schedules or choose one from the built-ins. The reporting feature is a great measure to track how you spend your time. The timer mode is also very efficient. The built-in Pomodoro gives you a five-minute break after every focus session, and you get a bonus 20-minute break after your fourth consecutive session. After all, who wouldn't want a small reward after some serious productivity?

Virtual meetings: Zoom

There is probably no student or professional who hasn't come across Zoom during the Covid-19 lockdown. Zoom is the perfect tool for complete access to video conferencing and communication. It is one of the best apps to join or host virtual meetings with no limits to participants, and you can host webinars or record your sessions all through this one app. You can record a meeting and broadcast it at a later time as well.

File management/sharing: Dropbox

Dropbox makes dealing with files more manageable. You can store, share, or manage your files using this platform. The free version gives you 2GB of space, and you can increase the limit by subscribing to a paid version if necessary. The app stores all your data on the cloud and becomes remotely accessible to your team members. Companies can choose a paid version for the secured storage of company data and confidential information.

Email management: Spark

While working, constant notifications from emails can be very distracting. Most of the time, they are spam from companies like advertisements or promotions that probably deserve to be left off unnoticed. If you are receiving too many emails during work hours, take advantage of an intelligent client called Spark. Spark will help you prioritise your emails by filtering them and saves you time in the process. It will filter out unrelated emails by snoozing them while making the essential ones pop. The app can also help you with email scheduling, assigning or snoozing emails, notification management and follow-up reminders. 

Device protection: Avast

You definitely don't want malware to attack your computer, leaving your private information vulnerable to an uncontrollable device. That's why you should opt for reliable, professional, secure, and user-friendly antivirus software for your digital devices. Avast is a free antivirus software for your basic needs. However, a paid version is much recommended if you want advanced protection. Plus, it also offers you a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Data Recovery: Stellar

If you are working from home, you have probably encountered horrible cases of losing essential data. If you accidentally delete or lose data from your computer, that's when data recovery software comes in handy. Stellar Data Recovery can aid you in recovering the data lost from your hard drives, USB, flash drives, SSD, memory cards and optical media like CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray. Deleted, formatted or even corrupted data can be easily retrieved with the help of this user-friendly software. 

With these powerful work-from-home apps at your disposal, you can effortlessly collaborate with your teams and keep track of your work while boosting your overall productivity. Plus, everything on this list is free of charge to some extent. But getting a paid subscription is better if you aim to work with larger groups.