Staying productive can be challenging as a remote developer. While working from home might seem like a dream come true for most people, without the right discipline, skills, and tools, it can quickly turn into a nightmare of procrastination, poor communication, and missed deadlines.
In this post, we’ll shine a light on the top 5 engineering apps for remote developers. Whether you need help organizing your daily routine, focusing on taskwork, or putting an end to procrastination, the remote working tools listed below have got you covered.
Nexton’s Top 5 Best Apps For Remote Developers
Todoist - Task work and to-do lists made easy
Keeping a clear head is key to staying productive and focused. As a remote developer, you’re likely managing multiple projects and working without direct supervision, which can be empowering and liberating or overwhelming, depending on how you’re organized.
One of the best ways to keep a clear head when juggling multiple moving pieces is to use lists to prioritize and organize your task work. That’s where Todoist comes in. A simple yet extremely powerful tool, Todoist lets you quickly create and organize to-do lists to help eliminate the mental clutter that can zap our productivity when working remotely.
Trello - The app for team management and collaboration
Trello is a very well recognized remote work software and with good reason. It is easily one of the best collaboration tools for remote teams because it allows tasks and projects to be divided into boards, with lists, due dates, checklists, descriptions, images, links, and much more.
Your role as a senior remote developer is super collaborative. Working and communicating with multiple teams of people remotely definitely can be challenging, so we highly recommend checking out Trello to simplify the process of working with your remote team.
Pomodoro - Maximize your productivity with the famous Pomodoro Technique
Managing time in a home office is tricky. As a remote developer, a big part of your day is likely spent in-and-out of Zoom calls and other meetings to help hash out ideas, stay on top of projects, and collaborate with the rest of your team. With less time to dedicate to actual hands-on taskwork, proper time management is super important for remote developers.
The Pomodoro technique was first popularized by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s and focuses on breaking large projects or complex tasks into short work intervals with regular breaks. The Pomodoro app combines everything you need to implement this technique yourself; the ability to create, edit, and reorganize tasks; full workflow management; timesheet reports, and, of course, a timer. Check it out if you struggle to make the most of your limited time.
Loom - The app for video recording
For a remote developer, videos can be an extremely helpful communication tool, especially when demonstrating specific pieces of software to team members with a non-tech background. And Loom is arguably one of the handiest video editing apps out there.
With a basic free plan, you can get started using Loom straightaway to record your desktop, microphone, and camera all at once. If you’re looking for a reliable video tool to streamline the way you demo your solutions, Loom is definitely the way to go.
Freedom - Free up your focus
Few things are as distracting as notifications from social media or email popping up on your phone or desktop. Unfortunately, ignoring these pop-ups can be challenging, even for senior remote developers accustomed to working from home. Freedom, however, makes it easy to block the websites and apps that interrupt your productivity and stay focused on the tasks at hand.
Unlike other apps, Freedom is perfect for remote developers because it allows you to customize exactly what apps/websites get blocked during different parts of your day. Rather than just turn off all your notifications, for example, Freedom lets you block social media notifications while leaving the updates from Trello, Slack, or other work apps unaffected.
Better Organization for Remote Developers, Today
Remote developers are far from immune to the challenges of staying productive while working from home. Unfortunately, with so much riding on the solutions they deliver, remote developer teams can’t be caught slacking.
The apps included in this list are all designed to help remote developers and their teams work smarter, not harder. Whether you use loom to change the way you communicate with your team members or Trello to better track the moving pieces of a particular project, the above tools can help you make small changes to your daily routine and focus on getting things done.
