6 Apps to Make Your Work From Home Life More Efficient (And Enjoyable)
Thanks to coronavirus, we’re all settling into the ‘new abnormal’ of lockdown life. If you’re one of those whose career has flipped to 24/7 remote working, you might be finding that the lack of separation between your home space and work space has made it harder for you to focus, even possibly increased your stress levels.
Help regain control by downloading the work from home apps below, which will help you set boundaries, achieve your goals, maintain focus and give you a little escapism during your work-from-home workday.
The Best Work From Home Apps
Evernote
If having no barrier between your work and home life is leaving you feeling overwhelmed, Evernote should be incorporated into your routine ASAP. This work-from-home app has templates for all sorts of lists, from to-dos to meeting notes, each of which can be easily customised and modified to suit your needs. Using even its most minimal functionality, you’ll be surprised how effective making a day/week list of tasks and ticking each virtual checkbox off helps with your productivity
- Free (for basic package). https://www.evernote.com
Zoom
As we move to remotely meeting our colleagues, friends and family face-to-face, there has been a tussle as to which service is most fit for purpose. While Facetime is convenient and HouseParty is a lot of fun, Zoom is hands-down the best all-rounder. Professional enough for work but with enough features to make it good for downtime (you can create and upload your own custom backgrounds), what really swings it for us is the ‘touch-up’ function that adds a healthy, soft glow to your face.
- Free (for basic package). https://zoom.us
Primephonic
Ever since the French researcher Dr Alfred A Tomatis published his 1991 book suggesting that listening to Mozart helped to develop the brain, “Mozart Theory” has popularised the notion that having classical music playing can boost focus. If you don’t want the ads or DJ chat on a station like Classic FM or Scala Radio while you work, sign up to Primephonic – aka the “Spotify” of classical music. Specifically designed with high definition audio to showcase classical music at its best, it’s got an exhaustive library (3.5 million tracks), exclusive artists and curated playlists for any mood.
- £7.99 per month/£79.99 a year for premium package https://www.primephonic.com
Fiit
Exercise is great for boosting your focus and giving you an energy boost, but if going to a gym is out of the question, Fiit brings the gym to you. Whether you’d taking an hour away from the house to get a workout in at the park or trying to get your sweat on while keeping an eye on your toddler at home, Fiit has all manner of exercise programmes to suit from improving your breathing to building muscle to blitzing calories. Set your goal, choose your plan and go.
- 14-day free trial, then from £10 a month. https://fiit.tv/
Ten Percent Happier
If you can feel anxiety creeping into your everyday life owing to working from home, Ten Percent Happier offers a fully-rounded guide to meditation that will help you through. As you can guess from the name, the aim of the app is to help you feel ten percent happier on a daily basis through guided meditations, daily talks and inspiration – whether you need help unwinding or focusing.
- Free (for basic package). https://www.tenpercent.com/
Zombies, Run!
If staring at your computer screen during the current lockdown has got you considering jogging, but you’re having trouble motivating yourself to get out, download Zombies, Run! for your smartphone. This app immerses you in a story of a zombie uprising and tricks you into interval training – if you start to get chased by zombies, you have to speed up. However, for those who want something a little less apocalyptic, you can always choose a different, equally heroic (and equally fitness-inducing) story.
