Are you required to work remotely? This post was originally drafted in the pandemic, so we've updated it for recent tools that are usefu in terms of resources and tools for working remotely and increased productivity!
By DONNA MORITZ| PUBLISHED 3 APRIL, 2020
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We've attempted to return these tools to a list of evergreen resources for work (and play) for you to work remotely.
Please note that as this post was shared originally in the peak of the 2020 pandemic, we included a lot of free access links to everything from Hamilton the Musical to online gym sessions to online museum visits, TED talks and more. Now that (thank goodness) period of our life has passed, we've updated this post to the evergreen tools that help you work remotely.
Tools, Tips and Resources to Work Remotely (and Play!
1. Canva Pro
Need I say more about Canva Pro? It's my go-to tool as I use Canva for everything. Find out more about why Canva Pro is worth it here:
Ready to take Canva Pro for a spin? Try it for 30 days on my free trial:
2. Skillshare
Want to learn a new skill or to level up your existing skills while you work remotely? SkillShare is a wonderland of short courses in just about everything from stop motion animation to learning guitar, learning a language or sewing. Take your pick! With this link you can get one month to test it out. Can't afford to pay? Just add a reminder to your calendar in just under 1 month time to remind you to cancel. Enjoy (and let me know what you learn!).
Get two months free on Skillshare here.
3. Podia
If you've been talking about creating an online course, now might be the time if you are going to work remotely. When it comes to platforms to help you do that, I'm in love with Podia. I'm currently moving my old, custom course platform over to a new platform and I spent MONTHS deciding on where to move. I looked at a bunch of course platforms, many that are super popular, and many that I love. But I ended up on one that I hadn't considered before – Podia.
Why Podia? It's super easy to use, it has many of the features, I was looking for in other platforms like Thinkific and Teachable and Kajabi but for a much more affordable price when you consider that Podia includes unlimited students and no sneaky add-ons to achieve full functionality.
You can fully host videos, downloadables like PDFs, accept money (or integrate with your own shopping cart), send emails (or automate with your email provider) and it even has a robust membership platform. So basically it's very all-in-one and saves you a lot of time plugging in other tools and functionality. For those people starting out with online courses, it's a great option.
Oh, and they even recently added an awesome messaging function (to keep in touch with your students based on their actions) and a webinar feature, so they are always adding more functionality for their users, which makes me happy.
You can try Podia here and get 15% off with my link after you do a 14-day free trial. When you couple this with the discount for paying up-front for annual membership (also 15%) that's a total of 30% for the year.3
4. Zoom
Zoom has emerged as the most popular video conferencing platform of them all when it comes to remote working. I've used Zoom for a while now for meetings or presentations and I love it. Check out how to start using Zoom here as well as tutorials and guides for using this versatile tool. You can do meetings up to 40 minutes for free and up to 100 people, which is not so bad for a free plan.
5. Tasks Management Tools for Teams that Work Remotely
There are many tools that work well for teams but two that I have used (and have solid “free” functionality) are Trello and Asana. They are perfect for when you need to work remotely as a team.
Both tools you to manage tasks, projects and content calendars as well as messaging features between team members. Asana is better with bigger teams with time-dependant projects with lots of moving pieces and assigned tasks. Trello can work well for small teams with small projects, content calendars and visual tracking of tasks.
Hot Tip: Take them both for a test run, with a different project on each and see how you like them!
Check out Asana here and Trello here.
6. Easy Advocacy
One of the most effective ways to share your story is to empower your audience to share it for you. One segment of your community that is often overlooked – but super powerful – when it comes to sharing content is your employees.
Easy Advocacy allows you to streamline your employee advocacy efforts, amplify company news and give more reach to your content. And it just takes one click from your employees to share. It's also gamified so you can track your biggest sharers. It's also perfect if your team has to work remotely and you can even gamify the process. And it's free!
Start using Easy Advocacy here!
7. Wave.video
Wave is my go-tool tool for video creation. Check it out here.
8. Splasheo
Splasheo is a video captioning service that allows you to create videos with headings and captions with quick turnaround. The Splasheo team is offering a free trial for friends of Socially Sorted. This essentially means you can get up to 4 videos created for free during a 7-day trial period. Only continue to pay if you love the service and want to keep using it.
Take advantage of the Splasheo trial here now and get some videos edited while you are working from home!
Hot tip: use old presentations or footage that you can easily get converted into a short meme-style letterboxed video. Choose the best segments, send them off and have them returnd to you with headings and captions.
BONUS TIP: Plan Your ‘Trials' to Avoid Surprise Payments
Doing a Software or Tool Trial? If you need to enter your credit card and you are not entirely sure you will continue after the trial, do the following so you are not automatically charged:
- write the date in your calendar at least two days before the automatic payment is due as well as the day before it is due so you can remember to cancel your trial.
- choose monthly payment as the option when signing up. This is so (in the case of an accidental charge) you can request a refund on a monthly charge vs an annual one. Hopefully, this won't happen if you use the tip above to remind yourself to cancel.
And of course, it goes without saying that if you enjoy a service and you can afford it, consider paying to continue. A lot of businesses are doing it tough right now and your continued subscriptions will help to keep them in business. Not every start-up is Netflix, so consider your expenses and if you can invest in keeping your favorite tools running, then do so.
That's it for now. I hope you have enjoyed this list of helpful tools, tips and resources to help you work remotely (and stay entertained). I'll continue to add resources to this list as I discover them, so feel free to bookmark this and come back to it for updates.
Over and Out
What are your favorite business resources, tools or entertainment sources as you work remotely (and play remotely). Share them below!
Donna Moritz
