What tools do you use to stay productive?

Interview with Ayush, a CEO and avid remote team builder

Slack, emails, and shared docs are the primary tools. Nothing fancy.

As an organization, we work on monthly goals.

Every month we have our company’s goals defined. The company goals then transcend into individual objectives.

Eventually, at the end of the month, one gets measured on goals that they were able to accomplish.

Ayush is a CEO that is committed to helping companies build successful remote teams—see his process and tips for developing location independent teams that thrive.

Read full interview from Interview with Ayush, a CEO and avid remote team builder.

Interview with Gregory, a Senior Software Developer

A comfortable and ergonomic desk and chair setup is key. I have a stand for 3 monitors that keeps them at a good height, and a good comfortable chair that fits me well.

A good headset and camera are always a huge plus as well.

Communication is extremely important when working remotely, so having a good quality microphone - so you can be heard - and speakers or headphones - so you can hear well - is very helpful.

I use a "gaming" headset, because I like it to be wireless (and I can't find any half decent "business" wireless headsets with a boom mic for under $700), but I'm able to turn off all the flashing colors in it with a companion app on the computer, so I'm pretty happy with it.

A whiteboard is a huge help for me when I'm brainstorming or designing a new system, and getting up to walk over to it is always a good idea to stop from sitting in your chair for several hours straight.

I actually have a smaller whiteboard that I replaced a while ago that sits under my desk, and sometimes I'll pull it out to draw or sketch something up while sitting at the PC.

I also use site blocker extensions for my browser to limit my time on sites like Twitter, Hacker News, or other timewasters. Even if it's super easy for me to turn off, the big red warning screen it shows when I go to one of those sites is normally enough for me to realize that it's probably not a good idea.

Finally, a good timer/alarm/calendar system. I live and die by my calendar, so I've set up an old tablet in a stand under my right monitor, and have it displaying my calendar so I always know what is coming up.

I also use a Google Home to set reminders and alarms for different times as I need to. Being able to just tell the oval on my desk to remind me to take out the trash at like 6pm tonight is really nice, and keeps me focused without just ignoring things that I might need to do or remember.

Gregory is a senior software developer working from home - learn how he finds the balance between lack of focus and hyperfocus.

Read full interview from Interview with Gregory, a Senior Software Developer.

Interview with Betsy, a head of content and remote work routine expert

I like to keep things pretty simple so I only use a few tools.

In terms of organizing tasks and ideas, I think that my paper planner is still my #1 way of staying productive but I also really like Evernote and Trello. Since I work with so many different teams, I find that Evernote is great for keeping each of my separate projects organized.

For my blog, I love using Trello to organize my editorial calendar and brainstorm new ideas.

For communication, I use Zoom for meetings and conference calls and Slack for updates and quick messaging.

Betsy Ramser is a content manager, blogger, and teacher who helps other remote workers thrive while creating a daily routine that works.

Read full interview from Interview with Betsy, a head of content and remote work routine expert.

Interview with Liz, a UI/UX designer and cowork advocate

I have several Trello boards going at one time, and I use Asana to keep track of my freelance work projects. I’m also an avid user of team chat software Slack and Flowdock. They are both integral to being able to communicate effectively with a fully remote team.

Liz is a traveling UI/UX designer—see her strategy for thriving as a digital nomad and her efforts to promote coworking.

Read full interview from Interview with Liz, a UI/UX designer and cowork advocate.

Interview with Digital Nomad Sage, an entrepreneur and UX consultant

I use a ton of tools to stay productive. Here are a few:

• Microsoft Office for when I do benchmarks on companies or write UX reports.

• Hootsuite for social media marketing.

• Canva for creating social media posts quickly!

• Survey Monkey for when I reach out to users when I conduct UX Research via surveys.

• Adobe Creative Cloud for when I need to make graphics and edit videos. This software suite is amazing!

• Publisher Rocket for when I need to do keyword research for my ebooks.

• Divi for when I need to create new websites quickly. No need to code!

• Udemy to learn new skill sets. Super cost-effective way to invest in yourself! You can often find discount coupons on the internet to where you can get courses for only $9.99

• Balsamiq Wireframes for when I need to make Wireframes of apps or websites.

• Amazon Advertising for running Sponsored Ads for my ebooks.

From e-books to blogging, Digital Nomad Sage has become an expert on making money online—see his advice for developing an online business.

Read full interview from Interview with Digital Nomad Sage, an entrepreneur and UX consultant.

Interview with Tyler, a director of customer success models how to start a remote work career

Physical hardware:

• Lots of screen space (27" iMac + 24" second screen);
• a studio headset and microphone plugged into a powered USB audio interface;
• a great webcam;
• and noise-canceling headphones for when others are in the house or when I'm traveling.

I can't say enough about taking charge of your environment and schedule.

As a customer-facing people leader, I highly recommend investing in your A/V setup. Every penny has been worth it for the increased bandwidth on video and audio calls.

Software tools: I have a typical stack.

Internal comms:

• Slack for chat;
• Zoom for calls.

External comms:

• Calendly for scheduling;
• Zoom for calls;
• Gmail for email.

We use GSuite for internal documents, and our external knowledge base is built using WordPress.

Hubstaff runs on Hubstaff, so we track our time using our tool, and I really love Hubstaff Tasks for managing projects. Hubstaff Tasks is exactly what you would expect from a PM tool: project boards and task cards.

However, Tasks has an Agile layer of standups, sprints, epics, timelines, etc. that make it really great to break big tasks down into manageable chunks that really move the needle in a flexible and adaptable way. I've been exploring lots of other tools, but that's the core.

From networking to land a remote work gig, to building out an exceptional remote work tool stack, Tyler has quickly figured out how to thrive in remote work. See his tips for starting strong.

Read full interview from Interview with Tyler, a director of customer success models how to start a remote work career.

Interview with Saibu, an HR content writer for a remote company

Personally, I don’t use tools like timers, reminders, or webpage filters. But when it comes to working at Remote Team Inc, we use a lot of tools – from Slack and Zoom to Google Docs and Desktime.

I actually answered this question recently on Quora about the tools we use to stay productive.

Hear how Saibu, a thriving HR content writer, navigates the complexities—and perks—of working with a remote team from Ghana.

Read full interview from Interview with Saibu, an HR content writer for a remote company.

Interview with Vaishali, a content marketer and a productivity tool expert

Time Doctor: I used to freelance before joining Time Doctor. However, I never used any productivity tools then. I was reluctant to use Time Doctor when I joined this company. Eventually, I found out that I was wasting so much time even on a short coffee break. So Time Doctor has proved to be a great productivity and time management tool for me.

Slack: Many believe that Slack is a productivity killer, but for me, it is an app that makes me work faster. I can set reminders, share docs with my co-workers, and take surveys and easy polls.

I also use various online collaboration tools like Google Docs, Skype and a few others to work efficiently. On the marketing tech side, I use apps like Buzzstream, Ahrefs, LinkedIn and Quuu which enable me to be productive.

Vaishali persevered until she found the right remote work job for her lifestyle—check out how she uses productivity tools and time management strategies to stay productive.

Read full interview from Interview with Vaishali, a content marketer and a productivity tool expert.

Interview with Kirsten and Jay-Allen, remote team coaches & collaboration experts

• Google Calendar (and it’s reminders)
• Music apps
• Standing desk and ergonomic chair
• Putting phone and Apple Watch on silent
• Trello

It might be worth mentioning our favourite remote collaboration tools here too:

• Google slides for interactive workshops (the barrier to entry is low, the co-editing limit is high, and accessibility is easy)
• Zoom
• Mural
• Asynchronous communication - while it’s not a tool, it is a method that is really useful in remote teams, especially when there are many timezones at play.

Remote team coaches, Kirsten and Jay-Allen, offer three pieces of advice for new remote workers and reveal the one question every remote job seeker should prepare to answer.

Read full interview from Interview with Kirsten and Jay-Allen, remote team coaches & collaboration experts.

Interview with Melissa, a co-founder and remote work champion

This has always been a challenge for me even before I started working remotely. I've purchased every brand of planner and platform there is.

Where I'm at now is a very simple Excel spreadsheet shared with my business partner in Google Drive.

We have three columns, my to-do's, her to-do's, and our "middle of night thoughts." The third column is critical for me because sometimes you don't know where to start with an idea so I just need to put it down in a list and then divvy it into actionable tasks at another time.

This works now because we are two people. As we grow, we will go back to using either Monday.com or Dubsado. For us, it wasn't worth the cost until we had more people's time to manage.

Another method I use is to chunk out the workday. I give myself deadlines because sometimes I can spend too much time on one thing. So I'll say, "You can work on that web site copy for 30 more minutes only."

If I don't pay attention to the clock I'll get lost in it and not get other tasks done.

I even have a penguin-shaped egg timer that I stole from my daughter. I know, very high tech over here!

Melissa started Work Well Wherever to help individuals & companies embrace remote work—see how she balances entrepreneurship, parenthood, & self-care.

Read full interview from Interview with Melissa, a co-founder and remote work champion.