Tips and Tools for Working from Home

In the midst of the Covid Crisis, it’s best you get comfortable (and quickly) with working from home. With open houses already discouraged, provinces like Ontario have additionally urged real estate agents to avoid any face-to-face meetings too. Whether you need to connect with clients, cooperating agents, or solicitors, it’s never been quite so important to lean into technology to stay connected. 

Here are some top tips for working remotely.

Collaborate Digitally with the Right Software

With an internet connection and a laptop, desktop computer, or a smartphone, you’re seconds away from connecting from anyone, anywhere, anytime. Important though is ensuring you leverage the right tools.  Here are a few software suggestions depending on your needs.

Messaging

While texting is a convenient way to message individuals one on one, group messaging isn’t so simple. In addition to hefty charges while travelling, texting isn’t streamlined well for group threads. Even useful apps like iMessage cater to iPhone users leaving them next to useful for Android users. Consider using free apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger where you’ll be able to create group threads and connect no matter the device you use.

Video Conferencing

You’ve likely heard of Skype or Google Hangouts, software that enables both video and audio calls. Though free, well-known and great for connecting, you might consider trying ‘Zoom’ for enhanced and helpful business needs. Allowing multiple users to connect at once, Zoom offers meeting analytics, screen-sharing, and the ability to record meetings.  Depending on your needs, Zoom offers free and paid plans.

Documents

Looking to share documents or work together on a spreadsheet or tee up a meeting? Google’s productivity suite known as G Suite has nearly every need covered. Docs, Gmail, and Google Calendar, Google Contacts, etc, etc, include a wide-ranging and extensive range of free products meant for organization and productivity. If you haven’t tried G Suite, now is the time.

Creative a Productive Home Office

To be productive when working from home, it’s important to get dressed and ready (as if you were heading to the office), dedicate an ‘office’ space within your home and invest in a welcoming workspace. While it’s easy to lounge in PJ’s all day with your hair standing on end, getting dressed and ready for work will increase your productivity in addition to developing a healthy ongoing routine. Carving out an office space (in addition to using tools like noise-cancelling headphones) will help in keeping you focused and productive.  And, adding a little decor to your space might help you to dodge procrastination and blast through your to-do list.