When you walk into a café these days, you will inevitably spot several people nestled into cozy corners with their laptops and lattes. While working in unconventional places has always been cool, the pandemic has accelerated the uptake of remote work and the digital nomad lifestyle. These days, more and more people are saying goodbye to the office cubicle and hello to the freedom of working on the go.

See You at the Office

Despite the many beverage-related benefits of working from a café, it can be lonely to work alone even though you have colleagues on the other side of the screen. If you enjoy conversation and sharing ideas over a cup of coffee, a small investment in a structured coworking space could be a beneficial option.

From private team rooms to sprawling open concept warehouses, coworking spaces can help freelancers and entrepreneurs inject a professional touch and a sense of community into their day. Since it was first introduced in San Francisco in 2005, coworking has grown into a global phenomenon responsible for the inception of brands like Uber and Instagram.

The beauty of coworking is that a group of people who are working independently can share in all the positive interaction and equipment requirements of a successful corporate office without having to endure long-term commitment, office politics, and competition amongst colleagues.

Such spaces need not always be small-scale either. For startups who are looking for extra office vibes, startup zones such as the PSU innovation park allow you to have access to a myriad of business resources while maintaining low overheads and the flexibility to scale up or scale down.

Coworking spaces and startup parks usually come with very desirable addresses as well, allowing occupants to be in a locale that would otherwise be out of their reach. If you would like to find yourself in the company of cafés, childcare facilities, fitness studios, and like-minded creatives, then a coworking space is the choice for you.

Call Me Maybe

Another perennial problem with remote working or starting a new business is being contactable. You can try to convince clients to send you an email or ring you on WhatsApp, but, at the end of the day, some people just like to make phone calls. Even if you have an excruciatingly professional website, clients will look for a phone number to ensure that you are ‘real’.

That said, giving out your private phone number can be a minefield of inconvenience. Any freelancer knows that clients love to call you after hours and on weekends, and it is difficult to avoid them if they are ringing you on your personal mobile. What’s more, you do not want to accidentally send them a drunk dial or eggplant emoji because of mistaken identity.

Thankfully, a new app called Chalkboard can help with that. The app gives you a second US or UK mobile phone number for work calls and texts, and effectively masks your real phone number so that clients will never reach you while you are in bed again. With the app, you will always know when it is a client on the line, so you can throw on your smoothest ‘hello’.

Awesome apps like these also have features that help remote workers and entrepreneurs improve their client communication. They send an auto-reply when you miss (or ignore) a call, allow you to keep a business contacts list separate from your personal one, and even let you broadcast messages to multiple business contacts at once.

Please (Do Not) Revert

Even in this day and age, it is mind-boggling to think that many businesses are managing their workflow via email. For remote workers, this is an incredibly frustrating and inefficient way of communication. When there are several people in a team, group emails with multiple reply threads often end in confusion and tears.

There are now various project management and remote collaboration platforms that seek to address this issue. Most of these platforms offer the basic trifecta of instant messaging, file sharing, and notifications. Others go further with task allocation, timeline management, and real-time task status updates from your teammates.

Of course, with the spread of digital nomadism, we must consider that many of our teammates are probably on the other side of the world. Certain apps such as Calendar (not the Google one) can let team members set up their availability times so that managers can schedule group meetings or collaboration sessions at a glance.

If you are like me, you will love the freedom and flexibility of remote work. No other work lifestyle allows you to hop on a plane or join a room full of random people and continue to be open for business.

Remote work is not without its challenges. But with the advancement of technology, we can look forward to more powerful apps to help us be productive and care-free.