Working from home is becoming a new modern trend at this time, especially in the novel of the coronavirus crisis which has forced many companies to shut down or implement work from home for their employees. Technology has played a critical role in these hard times. It helps to connect people together via providing many kinds of applications for work and for entertainment.

There are lots of unexpected obstacles to working from home. You have to manage how much time you spend on social media, time out your breaks so you don't accidentally skip them, and resist distractions you wouldn't otherwise deal with at the office.

Thankfully, a handful of apps to help you stay on track are available to download. From internet-blocking programs that stop you from endlessly scrolling, to white noise soundtracks that block out distracting noise, here is the list of 7 apps that’ll make working from home way more enjoyable might helps to support you in doing your job effectively.

1. Forest

Forest is built for focused work.

Forest is an app that helps you avoid your phone and stay focused on your work in an innovative way by growing virtual trees and earning coins, the longer you abstain. While the virtual trees aren't real, the coins add up and are used to help plant IRL trees in Africa.

The app works as some basic following rules:

• As long as you don’t dabble with your phone, the seed grows.
• If you leave the app, the tree withers and dies.
• Eventually, if you stay your ground, your seed will develop into a tree, and you’ll grow a lush forest that signifies how productive you are.

This application really sets out to motivate you to stop browsing your Social Media feeds, and start working with full concentration, as it allows you to:

• Compete with colleagues on who can keep their phones down the longest.
• Plant tree with colleagues, to signify shared work.
• Unlock as much as 30 new tree species (+ white noise sounds).
• Push forward to unlock achievements and rewards.

Forest’s best feature is that you can even sponsor the planting of a real tree somewhere in the world, with the help of the Trees for the Future organization — so, you can both stay productive and help the environment.

Forest is available for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Chrome, Firefox.

2. myNoise

myNoise is built for isolating yourself from background noise.

Sometimes, listening to music while working is more distracting. MyNoise - an all-inclusive noise generator is helpful in giving you a wonderful space for working from home productively by customizing the white noise soundtrack and offering a wide variety of sounds for relaxing. Whether you're sharing your workspace with a spouse, family member, or roommate, or have noisy neighbors, this app will drown out the sounds of others and keep your work atmosphere protected and peaceful.

When it comes to the more mainstream noises, the app’s selection includes the sounds of rain falling on a tent, a waterfall crashing into the water below, and a crackling fire, the sounds of a fish tank, an RPG dungeon, or an interstellar void you’d find in a Black Hole.

MyNoise’s best feature is to encourage you to mix types of sounds the way you want, and even offers a suggestion of the types of sounds that go well together — such as “Rain on a Tent” and “Juggle Life”.

MyNoise is available for: Web, iOS, Android.

3. Slack

Slack is built for team communication.

Slack is mostly the primary source of communication between teams within organizations in direct messages (either sent to individuals or groups) and specialized public and private channels which helps to execute a remote working plan successfully.

Slack is the optimal solution and considered the best platform for communication between teams and for sharing files, data among the team members, sending instant messages, set a work status, and conduct video calls with individuals and groups. You can customize it, add users to your workspace, share files, and also enable dark mode.

You can get Slack for free with access to 10,000 recent messages of your team, integration support with 10 third-party apps, 5GB total storage, and 1:1 video and voice calls between teammates. For more, you can get a Standard plan for the US $6.67 per month, the Plus plan for the US $12.50 per month per user when paid yearly. More pricing details about Slack here.

Slack’s best feature is that within your “conversation” with Slack’s bot (conveniently called Slackbot), you can set reminders for tasks, by simply typing “/remind me to”, writing a description of the task you want to be reminded of, and setting the time when you want Slackbot to send a reminder notification about the task (e.g. /remind me to “video call Serena about the designs” tomorrow at 9 am).

Slack is available for: Web, Windows, Windows Phone, macOS, Linux Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox.

4. Zoom

Zoom is built for face-to-face online chats, consultations, and meetings.

Zoom is an online video and audio conferencing app that lets you hold online meetings, training, and webinars, either 1-on-1, or in groups.

With this app, you’ll be able to make quick calls to consult with colleagues and build team groups for online meetings from anywhere. You’ll also be able to set presence status, as well as send audio, text, and image files to support your opinions as you speak, directly within the app.

Zoom’s best feature is that you’ll be able to conduct interactive video webinars for up to 100 active participants, and up to 50,000 view-only attendees. In line with that, Zoom is not only a great tool for remote teams, but also a great resource for teachers conducting online classes to larger groups.

Zoom is available for: Web, Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox.

5. Timer+

Timer+ focuses on setting task timer.

It's easy to get overwhelmed by tasks at home, especially with so many distractions around you. Setting a focus or task timer can help you to power through challenging moments and sustain your attention longer than you otherwise might.

With apps like Timer+, you can have multiple timers going all at once. If you're feeling really stumped with a task, set a timer for six minutes and give it your all for the whole time. Or, if you need to take a break to stretch, set a timer for anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. Simply being aware of how much time passes might inspire you to use that time more wisely.

• Parents use Timer+ for everything! Cooking, baking, boiling eggs, steeping tea, pressing coffee. Chore time, playtime, reading time, bath time, time outs. Piano practice, laundry, working out, picking up the kids, meditating, and watering the plants.
• Bakers save dough rise times separately – for perfectly leavened loaves.
• Freelancers are now spending only as much time as they quoted on projects!
• Developers use Timer+ to remember to look away from the screen every 30 minutes and stretch every hour.

Some stand out Timer+’s features:

• Run multiple timers and stopwatches.
• See timers in widgets.
• Set timers to repeat.
• Label & reuse timers.
• Runs in the background so you’re free to use other apps.

Timer+ is available for: iOS.

6. Pocket Yoga and Pocket Yoga Teacher

Pocket Yoga and Pocket Yoga Teacher focus on releasing stress

Pocket Yoga and Pocket Yoga Teacher are companion yoga apps you can carry around in your pocket. They recreate the experience of practicing in an actual yoga studio: soothing music will play as a soothing voice guides you through your yoga poses, and explains how you are supposed to breathe.

Pocket Yoga Teacher lets you create your own routine by choosing the poses you’ll want to practice, in the order you want to practice them and helps you to release your stress every day after work.

The app’s best features are to let you choose your practice, duration, and difficulty level, as well as choose the “environment” you want to practice in — as you progress, you’ll get to unlock new, interesting “environments”.

Pocket Yoga and Pocket Yoga Teacher are available for macOS, iOS (both apps), and Android (just Pocket Yoga).

7. Better Sleep

Better Sleep focuses on Breathing, Relax, Sleep well.

Better Sleep was created to bring a balanced life to people, especially those who work too hard, lose focus and lose sleep. Better Sleep is a wonderful mindfulness app for the beginner to relax with nature sound and over 100 different melodies including the sound of rain, thunder, wind, piano, fire crackle, and so on - all in one application. In addition, you can mix melodies together, creating a unique melody just for yourself.

The Meditation function at Better Sleep will help you with short exercises - suitable to time needs but still ensure quality. Every day you meditate a little, you will feel the difference in metabolism in your body. Stress reduction enhances energy after work pressure

The best feature of Better Sleep is that you can completely mix the available sounds to become a special melody for yourself. Choose and adjust the volume for a particular melody to create perfect melodies for you. And it is possible to save it to the collection.

Better Sleep is available for iOS.