[Super Useful!] Three Overlooked Tools That Are Essential for Remote Work

From ACIDHOUSE, INC., this is Tetsuya Ashida.

I'm writing this on February 16, 2021, during a state of emergency lasting until March 7.

Remote work is being called for again, and the key to working remotely smoothly is how efficiently you use online tools.

However, there are “tools that are very convenient when used, yet barely known or used”.

So this time I'll introduce “three overlooked tools that are essential for remote work”.

Conversely, using these tools will undoubtedly improve productivity dramatically.

Use FireShot to Take Browser Screenshots

In remote work, taking screenshots in your browser is essential.

That's because businesses often use SaaS (Software as a Service, software services provided over the internet).

Think back to office work and face-to-face business.

For item 1, you probably used to print important data and store it physically in the office.

With remote work you can't do that, so taking screenshots and storing them in the cloud provides evidence.

For items 2 and 3, in the course of work, when something needed to be checked or coordinated on a “seeing is believing” basis, you probably called over the person you wanted to show, turned your computer screen with its open browser toward them, or printed the relevant section.

To do the same remotely, you can:

Either of these does the job.

You can't hold online meetings constantly, so send screenshots through chat or email and have people refer to them.

There are various capture tools, but for these reasons:

I recommend FireShot (the link is for Chrome) (I use it regularly too).

Use Loom to Record Your Screen

You sometimes share your screen in online meetings such as Zoom, but with Loom, you can similarly record your screen as a video and send it through chat or email for productive communication.

Just as with the browser screenshots discussed above, it's about “seeing is believing” and “a picture rather than a lecture”.

For example:

It solves situations where you mistakenly thought, at the office or a client's premises, “this won't come across unless we meet face to face...”

What's wonderful about Loom is this:

That's the big draw.

On a Mac, you can record your screen as a video with QuickTime, but it saves to your local disk, so you need to consider disk space and upload the file to some storage service before sharing, which is inconvenient.

However, Loom assumes cloud storage and also lets you download when necessary, which is wonderful.

*Incidentally, using Takufilebin to send recorded videos, or sending them as attachments, is the worst approach, so absolutely don't do it, haha.

The video below explains how to use Loom nicely in Japanese.

Ensure Stable Communication with Wired LAN

The last one is wired LAN, though I'm not sure you can call it a tool.

You might think, “Why bother with wired LAN in this age of Wi-Fi?”, but Wi-Fi still slows down during online meetings or livestreaming. In an age when video editing and uploading are normal business activities, wired LAN is an ideal tool for stable data transmission and reception.

Also, wired LAN is more reassuring than Wi-Fi for security.

As remote work becomes normal, people often use free Wi-Fi routinely, but it's better to think of its security as full of holes.

Of course, places with wired LAN are limited, and always connecting by cable is inconvenient, but if you prioritize:

then prepare a wired LAN environment in advance.

Although recent laptops don't have wired LAN ports, a USB adapter can add one.

Also, not only computers but tablets and smartphones can connect to wired LAN with an adapter.

Conclusion

As you can see, the tools needed to communicate online are available.

If you haven't used the above tools for remote work, actively learn to use them and enjoy comfortable remote work.