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74 of the Best Apps to Improve Your Team’s Productivity

Considering the sheer number of different apps that exist to help manage a remote workforce, it can be overwhelming to choose which one is right for your company. This post is designed to ease the stress associated with determining the correct app for your needs and help organize what you should consider boosting your team’s productivity. We’ve done the research and compiled a list of more than 70 apps that you may find beneficial for your business.

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Types of Apps Available

Before we get into the specific apps on the market, let’s first take a look at what types of apps are available. This will help to give you a sense of the areas in which you might want a little technological boost.

Writing for Social Media Today, a site that provides original analysis on the latest happenings in the social media industry, Pawan Kumar, a digital marketer and content creator, lists his “must-have remote working tools and apps” based on the following categories:

Project Management/Task Management Tools
Work Management Tools
Team Collaboration and Communication Tools
Productivity and Reporting Tools
Time Management Tools

April Reyes, from Traqq – a free, time-tracking and reporting app designed to help productivity and work performance, posted a blog on Engage for Success, a movement promoting employee engagement, that also breaks down various apps into categories. While there is some overlap with Kumar’s post, we wanted to give you a different perspective from another professional:

Time Management
Project Management
Communication
Video Conferencing
File Sharing
Work-Scheduling

74 Apps to Consider

Based on our research, we have compiled a master list of apps across all areas that are meant to help your remote working teams.

We will start with a list put together by Loni K, freelance tech writer, for the noise-cancelling app Krisp. She put together her top apps broken down by categories. Please note, she includes Krisp in her list:

Scheduling:

Calendly
Doodle
Float

Organization:

Trello
Notion
ProofHub

Collaboration:

Twist
InVision

Productivity Boosting:

Freedom
Krisp
Noisli
Bear
Clockify
TimeCamp

Other:

iA Writer
Instapaper
Toggl
Todoist

Otter.ai, an automated meeting note company, posted a helpful list of artificial intelligence (AI) apps that can help boost productivity that was compiled by Seda Babayan, content manager at Krisp. Again, please note she includes both Otterai and Krisp products on her list. We are sharing the apps not previously mentioned above:

Trevor AI
Otter.ai
X.ai
Beautiful.ai
Brain.fm
Grammarly
Asta
YVA.ai

Aaron Brooks of Venture Harbor, put together a list of useful apps for trueNorth, a marketing ops platform, and we are sharing below the ones that have not already been mentioned:

Serene
Slack
Zoom
Google Drive
Calendar
Spark
Chrome Remote Desktop
Zapier
Daywise

Denise Mai, who is a self-described “travel addict and remote work enthusiast” and has been travelling the world since 2008, founded Digital Nomad Soul, which is a resource to help those interested in a location-independent lifestyle. Mai put together a comprehensive list of apps broken down by category, and we are partially sharing it below, but have taken out any duplicates that already appear on our list.

Communication:

Google Hangouts
HipChat
Jing
Join.me

Team Feedback:

Chimp or Champ
Officevibe

File Management:

Box
Dropbox
Quip

Time Tracking:

Time Doctor
Hours
Harvest
Hubstaff
Teamweek

Project Management:

Asana
Basecamp
JIRA
Meister Track
Pivotal Tracker
Task World
10,000ft

Productivity:

TomatoTimer
Focuslist
Forest
iDoneThis
NowDoThis
Nozbe
RescueTime
Perdoo
Health
Mindfulness
Seven
Take a Break Please
Tide

Other:

NordPN
LastPass
Timezone.io
World Time Buddy
Workfrom

Remote Work: U.S. Stats

Now that we have looked at some apps to help you with remote work, we wanted to give you a sense of just how many people are working from home and also some insight into the future of remote work.

OwlLabs, a company that makes 360° video conferencing devices, put together a state of remote work 2020 report.

OwlLabs’ report concludes: “We learned that almost 70% of full-time workers in the United States are working from home during COVID-19. While working remotely, individuals are facing a more difficult balance between home life and work, adapting new technology by leveraging video meetings, and staying productive in their home offices (or closets for 15% of survey respondents.) During COVID-19, there have been unexpected benefits and challenges—people are saving almost $500 per month on additional expenses, however, one in five reports working more hours per week during the pandemic. Despite difficult circumstances for working remotely, 77% of respondents agree that after COVID-19, having the option to work from home would make them happier. Leaders and managers: 80% of full-time workers expect to work from home at least three times per week after COVID-19 guidelines are lifted and companies and workspaces are able to re-open.

Dragomir Simovic, a staff writer at SmallBizGenius, a site geared for small business owners, put together an insightful list of current statistics regarding the remote workforce. We are sharing the statistics below, which paint a helpful picture of the current mindset regarding remote work:

40% of people feel the greatest benefit of remote work is the flexible schedule.
16% of companies exclusively hire remote workers.
Companies allowing remote work have 25% lower employee turnover than those that don’t.
76% of workers would be more willing to stay with their current employer if they could work flexible hours.
People who work remotely at least once a month are 24% more likely to be happy and productive.
The number of people who work from home has increased by 140% since 2005.
4.3 million people in the USA work from home at least half the time.

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