Key Takeaways
Slack is the go-to solution for small teams to collaborate and stay productive with features like voice and video calls, drafts, and more. Microsoft 365 offers class-leading solutions like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel with 1TB of OneDrive storage for all your files and media. Toggl Track is a time-tracking and productivity software essential for teams, freelancers, and businesses to understand how time is spent.
While working from home has its perks, maintaining productivity and fostering collaboration can be challenging at times. The right software can make all the difference, transforming your home office mess and potential distraction zone into a well-oiled machine of productivity and teamwork. Whether you are a solopreneur or a part of a remote team, these tools will empower you to achieve goals and thrive in the digital age.
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1 Slack
Keep your team communication in check
Source: Slack
Slack topping the chart shouldn't surprise anyone. It's a go-to solution for small teams to collaborate and stay productive. Once you create a workspace, make sure to add relevant channels like General, Sales, Marketing, Finance, and more to streamline communication. Slack comes with a bunch of features like voice and video calls, reactions, drafts, the ability to pin messages, and more.
The company recently introduced Lists to manage small projects. One of the biggest strengths of Slack is its integration with third-party apps and services. It works with all the popular tools like Trello, Airtable, Asana, Google Drive, Zoom, and more. With workflow builder, you can automate common team tasks as well. Slack offers a free plan, and you can subscribe to $7.25 monthly plan to unlock unlimited messages, app integrations, and more.
Slack
See at Microsoft Store
2 Microsoft 365
You can make it all happen
Microsoft 365 is another essential package for your home office setup. Whether you want to draft documents, create presentations, or go over spreadsheets, you need the class-leading solutions to get the job done. While Google and LibreOffice offer similar tools, nothing beats Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
The software giant offers native Office apps on all platforms, and your active Microsoft 365 subscription also comes with 1TB of OneDrive storage, which should be sufficient to store all your files and personal media. The seamless OneDrive integration also comes with other perks like Private Vault, private sharing, and the ability to add expiry date to sharing links.
Microsoft 365
See at Microsoft 365
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3 Toggl Track
Keep track of your time
Source: Toggle Track
Toggl Track is a time-tracking and productivity software that helps individuals and teams understand how their time is spent. It's an essential tool for teams, freelancers, and businesses to create reports, invoicing, and analytics.
Toggl Track shines with a seamless integration with third-party tools like Trello, Asana, Jira, Evernote, Outlook, and more. Once you complete the Toggl Track setup, explore Zapier integration to connect it to other apps and use a dedicated button to track your time. There is an option to enable a Pomodoro timer as well. Toggl Track offers a robust plan for freelancers, while the Starter plan is priced at $9 per month.
Toggl Track
See at Toggl
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4 Notion
Create personal and flexible databases
Close
Notion is an all-in-one productivity powerhouse for remote workers. It is flexible software that allows you to create a task manager, habit tracker, subscription tracker, small project coordination, notes, and different databases as per your preferences.
Thanks to hundreds of Notion templates out there, you don't even need to start from scratch. Notion also offers AI integration to draft a blog post, summarize a page, fix grammar, and more. However, the block editor with the slash (/) command may take some time to get used to. But once you get past the initial learning curve, Notion is absolutely a joy to use.
Notion has seamless integration with popular software solutions like Google Drive, Figma, Framer, Miro, Sketch, and more. It is quite helpful when you deal with several files in a Notion workspace. Notion has nailed synced blocks where you can use the same blocks within different pages and make changes across them all in real-time.
Notion
See at Notion
5 Asana
Complete your projects in style
Your home office setup is simply incomplete without a dedicated project management tool. While there are hundreds of project management tools out there (including Notion), Asana tops our recommendation list for several reasons.
You can track team tasks, manage projects, and boost your team's productivity in no time. Asana offers a customizable home menu with several widgets, a robust task menu to add all the relevant information, and supports different views like List, Board, Dashboard, Calendar, and more. Asana also has seamless integration with third-party solutions like Slack, Teams, Google Drive, Figma, Canva, and more. The pricing starts at $11 per member per month.
Asana
See at Asana
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6 FigJam
Brainstorm ideas with team members
Being a remote worker, you don't have the flexibility to use a physical whiteboard at home. If you prefer a traditional whiteboard approach to map out your ideas and thoughts, explore FigJam. Developed by Figma, FigJam is a feature-rich whiteboard solution for small teams, professionals, and freelancers.
It's helpful in brainstorming, diagramming, strategizing, planning, and collaborating in virtual meetings. It comes with all the essential tools like text, sticky notes, stamps, tables, and more. Like Figma, it's a web-based software that nails down real-time collaboration. In a classic Figma style, there are dozens of templates to kick off your project planning.
FigJam
See at Figma
7 TickTick
Fly through your daily tasks
Aside from database, project management, and team communication tools, you also need a task management app to get through a busy day. TickTick is our go-to recommendation for remote work for several reasons.
TickTick lets you create different lists and has native apps on all the platforms, tags, and more. TickTick desktop apps also support basic project management with a list view, notes, habit tracking, and more. There is an option to enable a Pomodoro to track your productive time, too. The app has nailed the esthetics. Aside from the standard dark and light shades, it supports multiple themes based on cities, seasons, and more. It is priced at $4 per month.
TickTick
See at TickTick
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8 1Password
Save your login credentials
When you deal with so many software solutions and services, you need a capable password manager to save and manage your login entries. While there are dozens of password managers out there, 1Password stands out from the crowd for multiple reasons.
For starters, 1Password has native apps on all the platforms, including a capable web extension on Chrome, Edge, and Safari. Although 1Password recently switched to electron apps, the company has done a solid job with the overall app look and finish.
1Password supports multiple categories, vaults, and tags to manage your password entries like a pro. You can also create a profile to enter your personal information and financial details with a single click. 1Password pricing starts at $3 per month.
1Password
See at 1Password
9 Joplin
A robust note-taking solution
When you work from home, you need a capable note-taking app to track your meeting details, ideas, thoughts, and research notes. Joplin is a solid note-taking solution with a long list of features, robust organization, markdown support, and more.
Unlike other note-taking apps, Joplin has a standard toolbar at the top to craft notes in style. Joplin offers multiple theming options, as well as native apps on all the platforms. There is an option to sync your Joplin notebooks with cloud storage solutions like OneDrive and Dropbox, too. Joplin also supports plugins, which can be a boon for developers to extend the app's functionality with their preferences.
Joplin
See at Joplin
10 Toshl
Track every penny
Are you leading a small team on a tight budget? Being a project manager, you need to keep track of every penny. It's an ideal option for your personal use as well. You can track all your cash, cards, and financial accounts like PayPal in a single place.
Toshl comes with a trendy river view to glance over your expenses and income. You can also create budgets for different categories to plan your green cash in style. Toshl supports location tracking, where you can track expenses based on different places. If you have Toshl paid plan, connect your local bank with it to import all the transactions in the app. Toshl supports 12000+ financial institutions worldwide.
Toshl
See at Toshl
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Supercharge your workflow
What are you waiting for? Whether you are a freelancer, a remote team member, or simply looking to optimize your home workspace, these tools can fuel productivity and collaboration in no time. Apart from software solutions, you also need the right set of hardware and gadgets to elevate your home office setup. Check out our separate guide to find the top nine products we recommend.