The game-changing #WFH tools you need to know about

Despite the government sending people back to manual labour, work from home is going to be happening for many of us for a lot longer than initially predicted.

To get the most of it (and ourselves) we need to stop treating #WFH like work in the office, and adopt new practices all over: whether that is changing up timescales, work patterns and, of course, the tools we employ.

All of these remote tools are free during the pandemic so it’s a good time to dive in and see what works for you and your team.

Spatial

This is the future, now.

Spatial enables people to communicate through AR/VR, and they have just announced the tech to do it without a headset.

It’s impressive that literally within 2 minutes of signing in to Spatial you can create a virtual avatar of yourself. But only do that as it can get quite lonely! You also need to build a virtual room for you and your colleagues to hang out in. From there you can do what you do best: build products, collaborate, or just have drinks!

Check out the demo video and sign up at spatial.io.

Snack

“Spontaneous, time-restricted video conversations with ice breakers” might sound like my idea of organised-fun-worst-nightmare, but honestly, Snack is a hoot.

Snack is a Slack add-on that pairs you with someone in your organisation (or wider slack0world) for a quick, fun chat. The random icebreaker — eg: What was the last book you read? — allows the conversation to flow and not get sterile, whilst it stops it spiralling into work or directionless small talk.

If this sounds a bit inane, it’s because it is. That’s the point. Work is normally full of random bits of interaction that aren’t business-related but they happen in a work setting and make our days more enjoyable.

So now can’t spot a colleague’s book on their desk as you walk to the coffee machine and have a quick chat about it, you can snack instead.

This adds a dose of normality to the new abnormal.

Snack is free for everyone to use throughout 2020.

Knit

Despite Zoom being skyrocketed to the de facto video conferencing tool, I think a lot of people are with me when I say, “Zoom’s clunky and ugly”

That’s why I’ve been using Whereby (previously Appear.in) for years but the #WFH zeitgeist is demanding more add ons to standard video conferencing.

Enter Knit. They are doing something new and look be solving something I think we all dislike about large group calls.

At any large social event IRL, we don’t all talk to each other at the same time, but naturally pair off or congregate in small groups.

Knit provides simple small group congregating, and then the ability to reassemble as a whole. From there you can shuffle the pack again or return to the same ensemble. This looks equally good for remote teams who need to collaborate on siloed projects but also the ubiquitous quizzes with school friends that we are all being subjected to.

Knit is still in beta mode and is free to use.

#WFH

These are just a few of the #WFH game-changers I've tested but I’m sure there’s many more out there. Please recommend below the line...