How to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic? Staying at home all the time can be tough, especially if you’ve never worked at home before.
Take advantage of the possibility to work from home by using apps to better plan your time and your work.
I’ve a prepared a list of apps and tips to help you working smarter.
On top of that, you can use them in order to start your own online business from home.
How to make a video call
In order to work from home, the first important thing is to choose an app to make video calls with your team or collaborators.
Here below a list of the most common and recommended apps to help you schedule private or public videoconferences:
- Skype
- Microsoft Teams
- Google Hangouts
- Zoom
1. Skype
Skype is the most famous app worldwide for video calls and it has been used since 2003. In 2011 has been bought by Microsoft.
Skype works on Microsoft Windows, MacOS and Linux and is available as mobile apps for different platforms including iOS and Android.
You can use it for videoconferences as well as for normal phone calls, by using a VOIP system (voice over internet protocol).
Currently exist a free version and a business version (Skype for Business), but Microsoft is slowly trying to move all the business operations into Microsoft Teams.
2. Microsoft Team
Microsoft Teams has been launched in 2017 as the new communication and collaboration platform for teams and organizations.
If you work remotely for a team it’s a great solution and generally a very good app to easily setup video conferences with other colleagues inside or outside your organization.
The quality of the audio and the video is very good and you have the possibility to record the session in order to share it later.
Microsoft Teams integrates with the company’s Office 365 subscription office productivity suite and is the evolution and upgrade path from Microsoft Skype for Business.
3. Google Hangouts
Google Hangouts is a communication software product developed by Google.
It’s more user-friendly to use comparing to other apps, but the quality of the video and audio is not the best.
If you need to have calls with your friends or family it can be a good solution to set up fast video calls, as you don’t need to have a Google account to use it.
If you have a Google account, you simply create a meeting and share the link with your friends in order for them to join the call.
4. Zoom
Zoom provides a remote conferencing service that combines video conferencing, online meetings, chat, and mobile collaboration.
It’s a very good app to organize webinars, especially if you are in the educational field so you need to do classes online with your students.
You can use it to present your products or services and you can record the webinar in order to share it later with your audience.
You have both free e business versions.
How to manage your tasks or team
Let’s check now the apps you can use to manage your teams or to stay on track with your project, in order to have the situation always under control.
- Trello
- Slack
- Asana
1. Trello
Trello is a web-based Kanban-style list-making application
You can create your own task boards with several columns and move the tasks between them, as well as share it with your teams.
Example of columns include task statuses: To Do, In Progress, Done.
It’s a great solution to keep in order your activities and check the status of the project.
2. Slack
Slack is a all-in-one communication tool to stay always in touch with your team.
You can organize your conversations, create channels and share messages within your organization.
Slack brings all your communication together (it can replace the email communication).
Slack integrates with other tools such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Zoom or Trello.
3. Asana
Asana  is a web and mobile application designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their work.
It’s a very advanced project management tool for projects, task, communication, people management.
It has many integrations, including Microsoft Teams.
How to work from home: conclusion and next steps
Thanks to these apps you can work from home in a smarter way and stay in touch all the time with the people that collaborate at your projects.
Try to keep your work organized, create a routing to follow every day, and take advantage of the period  you’re at home to work towards your goals.
These apps can really speed up the work and let you be productive at the same time.
Remember: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” Benjamin Franklin.
If you’re looking for a to make more money, while staying at home, but you’re not sure what kind of business to start, check out my first recommended resource to start your own online business.