With a work from home outlook very much within our foreseeable future, it's more important than ever to find ways to maintain a healthy work-life flow. Working from home can often be an easy route into working more as it also makes the division between your work and home life a little blurry. To help you maintain or start to implement a flow that works for you, here are a few apps that I recommend:
1. Work out your time management
Before you can find the perfect work-life flow, it's important to know your current work-time and free-time split and recognise where you can make small adjustments that may have a big impact. For example, how much time do you spend on calls and in meetings and does this impact how much work you get done in the day? Does this mean you spend time outside of your typical work hours finishing up projects or responding to emails?
You probably do way more in your day than you even realise and TimeTune for Android and ATracker for iOS are great apps to work all of this out. The apps follow your routines and provide data so you can analyse how you're spending your days and find a way to shift towards a more realistic ratio of working to relaxing.
2. Take time away from your laptop or desk
Try to avoid be glued to your desk for the whole day. Sometimes it can feel like you've been within the same four walls for days on end, and that doesn't always need to be the case. You can get work tasks done on the go or while out on a walk for a some fresh air by installing the Splashtop Remote Desktop app.
Splashtop allows you to access all of the files on your laptop or computer, such as a Microsoft Excel file, from an app on your smartphone or tablet to open and work on right from your device. It's a simple but effective way to change up your scenery if you're finding it difficult to break up your day.
3. Make exercise easy
Finding time for exercise can be a little challenging. However, a great option for stress relief that also gets you moving is the Simply Yoga app. Whether you have 10 minutes or an hour, you can start a yoga workout from wherever you are and lessons are available for all levels from beginner to advanced.
With plenty of yoga apps out there, it's hard to narrow down which is the right one for you, but this particular app has unique features such as custom workouts to choose your poses and background music to tailor the relaxing atmosphere just for you. Physical exercise is a great segue from work into personal life and provides a clear adjustment period to focus on something besides work.
If you prefer to be active in the morning, exercise is also fantastic for productivity and kickstarting the day!
4. For keeping tracking of your daily routine
If you need help managing your daily tasks, the Things app is here to help! The app keeps track of your daily routine and sends notifications on what you should be doing and when. You can schedule routines for specific days of the week or month and add special reminders for those tasks you typically forget.
What makes Things unique is that on top of managing daily tasks, it also allows you to create task lists for specific work or home projects, and even create lists for those tasks to complete "some day" that we all have stored in the back of our minds.
5. Collaborate on your home life management
Keeping organised and on top of everything at work and at home can be a mission. An easy way to ensure you don't let those home-life tasks slip through the cracks and that you always have time for the family is with the help of the Cozi app. The app pulls all of your personal information into one place to create a shared calendar, shopping list, to-do list and meal planner so you no longer need to be concerned about the plan for dinner and keeping track of the virtual class schedule during the work day.
Everyone in the family can access and input to the app so they're reminded of important appointments and they can also contribute to picking up groceries and helping out with the daily chores without needing to be asked.
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