How to implement remote work, optimize the workflow, handle client meetings and not let it affect your performance – these are all valid questions you might be having.

According to a 2019 study by Buffer, people who do remote work for a prolonged period of time usually suffer from loneliness, experience poor team communication and have more difficulty „unplugging“ after they finish their daily tasks.

Digital agencies, as an industry, often use remote work, freelancers or outsourced experts, all whom may do their work from home. Dealing with clients can involve urgent work to come up, sometimes during the weekend or while being on sick leave. These are some of the best apps and tools recommended by us and which can be used by bigger and smaller companies alike.

Basic daily tools for daily grind

Not using Google Suite apps or Dropbox? Do it! Moving various amounts of files and data around is a daily necessity and email seldom gets the job done. If you’re working as a part of a team you’re probably already using Docs and Google Drive as a fast and secure editing and sharing solution, but a Dropbox account can also be handy for storage.

Google Suite is the most versatile of the two and is a staple in office environments, so creating and sharing text documents, tables, PDFs or presentations is a breeze. Simply add document permissions for your colleagues and clients if need be, easy as pie(charts).

Time tracking is a serious part of project profitability and productivity assessment for any company. Productive is a tool with real-time project tracking options that enables both the employer and employees to manage their hours per task. Clients can also get insight into project hours and follow the progress as well as communicate with task assignees. It can be used for upfront time allocation and project planning by assigning deadlines and keeping track of the workload.

CPP is a professional tendering and invoice cloud solution. It proves you can handle paychecks and accounting without being in the office, probably while sitting in your pajamas with a cup of coffee.

Employee and client communication made possible!

Appointments, task management, follow-ups, document sharing… but also calls and messaging, all can be done using just two simple tools.

Viber is among the most popular and recognized apps on the market, almost everyone has it. We use it for client communication and group calls as it offers crystal clear conversations with up to 20 people simultaneously. We also use group messaging as it’s easy to connect with our colleagues even while on client meetings. You can share files and info or have fun with hilarious stickers to keep the spirits up during some of those all-hands-on-deck situations. Viber for Desktop is a pretty practical solution, too – you don’t even have to use your phone.

Quick office chats, project discussions and personal communication can always be done via Slack. It’s a multipurpose app we use to stay in touch, mostly for interoffice stuff, though you can invite your associates to join if you want to.

„No fuss“ creative production

Whether you need a nice presentation or a creative visual solution, you don’t necessarily have to be a PowerPoint pro. Just create a Canva account. It offers many free and paid presentation templates, can be used to make social media covers and has some incredible editing options that will make your work look pro and nobody will know!

Pexels, Unsplash and Pixabay are very useful free stock photo sites and great alternatives to Shutterstock. If you also need a way to send a serious amount of photos or files of any sort, our go-to site is WeTransfer. Simply upload anything you want, up to 2GB, and click send. You also get notified when the other person downloads the files.

For business list-making and management you can use Trello, which is very helpful if you have many parallel social media tasks and projects to keep an eye on. To translate your copy into various languages or perform an emergency Photoshop edit on a thousand photos by tomorrow, just go to Upwork, a global network of freelancers that will help you solve almost any problem imaginable.

Each of these tools performs a different task in a daily business setting. You might not need them all but trying them out can’t hurt. You may even be surprised how they’ll affect your productivity and help you do your job remotely, without sacrificing your free time. Just perfect, yes?