Lockdown has seemed like a never ended, necessary evil. But, in many businesses, it has signalled a change in the way we work, potentially forever.
While some salespeople have suffered from acute cabin fever (lethargy, loneliness, draining), others have thrived working from home. The good news is, no matter if you love or hate it, there’s plenty of tech available to make the ‘new normal’ a more pleasant experience. After all, a healthy body and mind is a motivated and productive salesperson.
From daily yoga apps to sleeping aids to indulging in new wine to boosting productivity, here are the best apps and tech to make working from home more mindful and improve your remote working routine:
Daily Yoga: If you haven’t tried yoga before, why not try it now? Daily Yoga is an app for all levels, with specific yoga workouts for each ability and part of the body. It’s great for relaxation, general wellbeing, and finding your zen.
Microsoft Teams/Slack/Zoom: Missing out of the office vibe? Get on these communication tools to ensure you keep in contact with the rest of the team. Teams is great for chat and calls, Zoom is the leader in video calls, and Slack is perfect for workplace chat.
Strava/Garmin Connect: Hold yourself accountable to incorporate exercise into your daily routine with one of these tracking applications. Plus, measure your performance, set yourself goals and find new routes/challenges to take part in. Exercise the body, exercise the mind.
Spotify: Podcasts, albums, audiobooks. You name it. Spotify is the go-to music streaming platform for pretty much any taste. Get access to literally millions of songs, build work playlists, explore new artists and generally enjoy music.
Centr: Actor Chris Hemsworth is behind Centr, a new all in one fitness app featuring workouts, recipes and meditation. It’s designed mainly for intense workouts with very little equipment needed, but has an excellent array of healthy eating and lifestyle tips.
Daylio: Daylio is a diary app that enables you to keep a private diary without having to type a single line. You can not only track daily activities, but also your mood and happiness.
Todoist: Looking for a really simple and easy to use online to-do list to keep up to speed? Todoist enables people and teams to organise, plan, and collaborate on tasks and projects.
Station: One ring to rule them all! Oh no, wait, that’s Lord of the Rings. Station is one app to rule them all. Basically, it unifies all your work tools in one neat and productive interface. A massive productivity booster!
MyFitnessPal: It’s easy to eat badly when working from home, but MyFitnessPal provides a free online calorie counter and diet plan. You can track your caloric intake quickly and easily, as well as find nutrition facts for over 2000000 foods.
Duolingo: Earned back a load of free time working from home? Always wanted to learn a new language? Duolingo provides over 30 languages online with bite-size lessons based on science.
TED app: Get more than 3000 TED Talks from incredible people on your phone. Perfect for inspiring you and feeding your curiosity.
Vivino: If you, like many, have become a bit of a wine connoisseur during the lockdown, up your wine game with Vivino, the app designed to help you find the perfect bottle of wine. Ideal for downtime.
LinkedIn Learning, formerly Lynda: Want to improve your business and sales skills during lockdown? LinkedIn Learning has hundreds of courses to learn business, creative, and technology skills to achieve your personal and professional goals.
Evernote: Evernote is the leading app for note-taking, organising, task management, and archiving. You can capture ideas when inspiration strikes and share notes with anyone.
Netflix / Amazon Prime: If you’ve made it through lockdown without one of these, fair play. If, like the vast majority, you haven’t, you’ll probably already have watched your fill of TV shows and films. Nevertheless, what better way to unwind than to chill out on the sofa and watch some sensational television.
Audible: If listening rather than watching is more your forte to unwind, Audible is the go-to for spoken books (audiobooks), radio and TV. Even better, sometimes you’ll be listening to a book read by some familiarly famous voices.
Headspace: Headspace makes meditation easy. Get your daily dose of zen, without the robes and rituals, in as little as 10 minutes per day. If you stress easy, give it a try.
These are just some of the best tools and gadgets to keep you sane and healthy when working remotely. Remember, working from home or self-isolating can take its toll mentally. Looking after yourself is just as important as thinking about your next deal. The two go together.
