Essential Tools For Getting Back To The Office
Getting back to work in the new normal was never going to be, well normal. Whether you’re returning after being furloughed or heading back into the office after working from your sofa, we all could do with making it a bit easier for ourselves.
Essential Tools For Getting Back To The Office
Getting back to work in the new normal was never going to be, well normal. Whether you’re returning after being furloughed or heading back into the office after working from your sofa, we all could do with making it a bit easier for ourselves. Today, we’ve rounded up our favourite tools and how they can make your return to work run smoothly.
Connect
The popularity of flexible working has skyrocketed over the last few months, and for good reason too. While some may be itching to get back to the office, others may still wish to work remotely.
Keep everyone connected with a messaging tool like Teams or Slack. By setting up different channels and topics, you can make sure everyone stays on the same page and doesn’t miss out just because they’re not in the room.
With Teams, you can also host video calls and integrate Office 365 so all of your files and documents are in one place.
Plan ahead
Manage your time and up your productivity with a robust project management tool like Planner, Asana or Trello.
With each of these tools, you can create boards, assign tasks to yourself and other members of your team and display the workload visually in columns and calendars.
Planner is a Microsoft tool so integrates with Teams, making it even more powerful. Asana is also included in the list of third-party applications that you can connect to Teams.
Take note
If you’re splitting your time between the office and home, you’re not alone. Many are taking a blended and flexible approach to getting back to the office.
However, moving from work station to work station often means forgetting and misplacing notebooks, files and that scrap of paper you scribbled on during an impromptu Zoom call.
Use a digital note-taking tool like OneNote or EverNote to make sure this never happens to you again. You can then take your notes wherever you go, and access them on any connected device.
Sometimes you can’t beat pen and paper, we get it.
If you have an iPad or tablet, you can write as you would on paper in OneNote. What’s more, you can add images, videos and even voice notes to make your notes extra powerful. Clever, eh?
Automate your day
When you think of getting back to work, you’re probably looking forward to the creative side of things, the projects you can really sink your teeth into. Not so much the tedious admin tasks you put off until your next caffeine slump.
There are so many ways to automate the most boring tasks, using tools like Microsoft Flow, Zapier or IFFT.
While each of these tools differs slightly, essentially, they allow you to set up rules and workflows to automatically complete certain tasks.
For example, “Track and manage expenses in an Excel sheet”, “Save Office 365 email attachments to OneDrive” and “Post messages to Microsoft Teams when a new task is created in Planner.”
By automating your day, you can get back to doing what you do best.
Do you need some advice about IT in the new normal? Get in touch with a member of our team today, we’re always happy to help.
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