Top tools & tips to maximize your productivity when working from home

Many people think that working from home is a walk in the park. I am often told how lucky I am to be able to work from my house, where I can do laundry, cook meals for myself, chill on the couch, and watch TV.

But I’d imagine that most people who are now having to work remotely due to COVID-19 are realizing that this is not reality. 

Working from home requires a lot of discipline and concentration, since there are many different distractions, especially with most people now having to work from home with their families. 

Here are a few tools and tips from several Bospartans to help maximize your productivity while working from home. After all, who knows? It may become permanent. 

• The key to maximizing productivity isn’t a tool per se–it’s mindset. You are AT WORK. Don’t do chores. Don’t watch TV. Ignore the front doorbell. – Tricia Heinrich, Chief Content Officer 

• At Bospar, we live in Zoom. It is great for interactive meetings where you can share your screen to show a deck or plan document so that everyone can follow along. It is also a good way to make meetings more personable, since it is the closest we can get to in-person. – Laura Ruark, Account Director 

• Slack is essential! Not only does it cut down on the amount of emails that are sent back and forth, but it is key for quick communication with clients as well. – Gaby Perez-Silva, Account Manager 

• Trello is the perfect tool for project management and keeping up with the many moving parts of a PR initiative. – Kourtney Evans, Senior Account Associate 

• OneTab offers a great way to keep track of all of your open Chrome tabs in one list that you can easily create with the simple tap of a button. – Gabrielle Jasinski, Vice President 

• If you’re having trouble staring at a computer screen all day, Sauron is the tool for you. It is a Chrome extension that switches all your web pages to dark mode so that it is easier on your eyes. – Ali Nagy, Vice President 

For me, Google Drive is a lifesaver for virtual collaboration. Docs, sheets, you name it–we’re working on it together. 

Since Bospar was designed to be an all-virtual agency from the start, we like to consider ourselves experts on working from home. So, while working from home may be temporary for some of you, we hope that these recommendations help make the most of your working-from-home time, however long it may last.