Free Resources for Working Remotely To Choose From
Working remotely or from home becomes common these days. Whether you are a nomadic marketer, a student studying from afar, or just someone who needs a more flexible option of working, working remotely is both productive and possible.
It doesn’t always be disruptive and can possibly open up new chances for advanced collaboration.
Working remotely or working at home is such fun for some people. However, it can be challenging as it will have more distractions.
In fact, any kind of business can enable remote working with the appropriate methods and tools. There are many free resources are available on the internet such as a list of tips, guides, articles, and many more.
However, it is not easy to choose the appropriate ones since not all blogs and articles contain factual information. We’ve listed some free resources you can use while working remotely.
Websites and blogs
Websites and blogs are some of the easiest free resources for those who work remotely.
There are lots of websites and blogs that contain informative information you can use while working from home.
• Forbes
Even though Forbes generally covers all business matters, you can also find some interesting articles related to business, advice from professionals, and the best tips. You can look up remote work articles on the page.
• TimeCamp
TimeCamp offers helpful solutions to make you as productive as possible when working remotely. The blog provides a list of articles and tips you can use for your work.
• SHRM
Within the website, you can easily find some helpful resources and articles about work trends, analysis, news, and more.
• Inc.
Inc. is a popular business magazine that covers business trends, solutions, and others. You can look up some business articles published in the magazine.
• The Remoter Project
This ongoing library offers a comprehensive solution for those who want or are going to work remotely.
You can find some interesting advice, interviews, podcasts, personal stories, and photos just with one click.
• Tools
Having the right tools are important while working from home as you need to stay connected with your clients and team members. There are four categories of the most essential tools you should have:
1. Time tracking
Time tracking is essential to track your time along with timesheets and statistics.
Some good time tracking platforms that should be considered are such as Hubstaff, TimeCamp, MyHours, Harvest, EverHour, Clockify, and others.
2. Task and project management
There are several task and project management resources you can use like Asana, iDoneThis, Samepage, HeySpace, Trello, Basecamp, etc.
3. Online communication and collaboration
While working from home, you do need to communicate with your team members or even your clients to make sure everything is going well.
There are several online communication and collaboration tools available like Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, and Slack.
4. File sharing
Now that you are working from home, you can’t share files directly with your partners. Instead, you can use these file-sharing tools to share files with your clients or teams.
Google Drive, Box, FIY, DropBox are among the most popular file-sharing tools you can consider.
Podcasts
A podcast is an audio program where you can subscribe to it and listen to it whenever you want. A podcast gains its popularity these days as it is accessible. Several podcasts are helpful like:
- Remote work podcast
- Inside Remote
- The Remote Show
- With Outside the Valley podcast
- Yonder Podcast, etc.
Guides
In case you are unsure of the way to switch your working style into a remote one, you can read some free guides available on the internet.
Reading guides will help you know what to consider, how to get things done, and how to engage with your teams and clients from home.
Several online guides are highly recommended to help you understand things you don’t know about transforming your working style into remote work. Here are some recommended guides you can use.
- Trello : Why Great team embrace remote work
- Distributed work playbooks by Google
- The remoter guide
- Hubstaff’s the definitive guide to managing a remote team
Forums and communities
Working from home doesn’t mean that you are cut off from the universe.
You can stay connected, finding solutions to problematic questions, meet new people, get advice, and even land a job through forums and communities.
Many people exchange helpful tips and useful information on forums and communities. Such platforms are considered one of the greatest resources for difficult matters.
Here are some of the most useful forums and communities you can use while working remotely:
- Quora : the best forum for question and answer
- Reddit : the most famous threads on teleworking
- Stack Exchange: a trusted online community to learn and share knowledge as well as building your career
Books
Books are on the top list while searching for detailed resources for working remotely. Books are such a necessary guide due to the growth of awareness about remote work and workplace culture.
During your workdays, you can look up the best books that will guide you on remote working. There are thousands of books to opt for.
Reports and Statistics
While doing your job, you may need some statistics, graphs, numbers, and of course, data. You can go to some websites which provide complete data such as:
- FIY : The remote work report
- Buffer : State of remote work
- TSheets : Survey of Remote Employees
- Gallup : State of the American Workplace
Learning
Just because you are working from home, it doesn’t mean that you can’t learn a new thing. Plenty of websites are there to make you more understand.
- edX : this platform is not only for students but also suitable for workers. The site was founded by MIT and Harvard as a home to 20 million learners around the world.
- Udemy : This platform contains courses on many topics to choose from.
Working from home or remotely doesn’t mean that you can’t be productive. Taking appropriate resources during working from home will help you to be more knowledgeable and improve your skills.