4 Apps that made my remote life suck less

In many occupations the tools of the trade are the most valued possessions. Chefs for instance, bring their own knives when joining a new kitchen. They consider their knives an extension of themselves — taking pain in their care and upkeep. Knives are not loaned to others nor treated as a swappable commodity. In the Japanese tradition, broken knives are sometimes buried in a?hocho-zuka?(knife mound) in appreciation for their service. Like swords they’re believed to hold spirits within them and are revered. The mounds are used to pray for better knife and cooking skills.

As “knowledge workers”, we too use tools (we call them apps) to do our jobs. Unlike chefs we are given most of our tools by our employers when we join a new job. And we are given a lot of tools! Identity management company Okta, publishes a Business at Work report each year. In 2021, they reported that the average company deploys 88 apps across all teams. Tech companies best that number by deploying 155 apps!

As I switched to working remotely, I began to notice how much of my day was spent in apps and switching between apps. Apps not only help me do my work but now also let me share and talk about the work I’ve done. I’ve found that the right app can cut the frustration out from a task and at times even?spark joy?in my work!

As this is the season of gratitude I want to spotlight the apps that have made my life better and express my appreciation to the people who work to create them. As a product builder I’ve been in their shoes. I’ve spent many hours thinking about the tasks and pains that my users face. And I’ve been lucky enough to experience the joy of seeing someone benefit from a product I’ve created.

I’m not going to talk about the famous apps: Zoom, Meet, Notion, etc. There is a lot written about them. I’d like to sing the praises of the lesser known apps. The ones that work quietly without fanfare. Saving a minute here and a frustration there. Those apps could use our celebration and attention.

Meeter

It’s a remote world now and we meet online but I wish there was just one place we met. Some people meet in the Zoomverse and others in Google’s MeetWorld. Finding the meeting link and joining right on time started to take its toll on me. I hate being late and logging into a work call 5 minutes late with my personal gmail account was driving me nuts.

Enter Meeter. It’s a mac app that reads my calendar and lets me join the next meeting (and there is always a next one) with a click. Unlike other tools, Meeter doesn’t need any special access to my email or Google account. Its privacy policy is respectful and no identity related information is collected.

Cost: Free.

Pain Relief: Instant

Frequency of use: As many times as I have a meeting.

www.trymeeter.com

Eesel

If managing files was my headache in the 2000s then managing web documents and urls is my current nightmare. Is the information I’m looking for in a Google Sheet? Or in a Notion page? Maybe it’s a Lucid or Miro doc? Finding my way back to the right site/doc/url can be aggravating. There are solutions that try to integrate all of your online apps into a single pane of glass. But those require account access and don’t support every app I use.

Eesel takes a simple and clever approach. It’s a Chrome extension that keeps track of the docs you access and makes it a cinch to get back to them. Searching docs you’ve used is easy and automatic. It doesn’t need any special access and none of the data leaves your computer.

Cost: Free

Appearing organized: Priceless

Frequency of use: Almost as many times as I open a new tab.

www.eesel.app

Take a break

As my meetings went online my breaks between them went away. The brief respite from staring at a screen, as I switched conference rooms is now no more. It became easy to spend hours zoned into the screen without changing focus. My eyes were not too happy about this change. Take a break is a mac app that allows you to take periodic breaks (the default is a 10 second break every 20 minutes). This simple app reminds me to move my gaze away from a backlit screen and adjust my posture. This little intervention has reduced eye strain and aches.

Price: $1.99

Not needing remote chiropractic care: Fantastic.

Mac App Store

Meet Transcript

As a product manager I’m constantly interviewing users and taking notes. Recording the user interview sounds great until you have to go back and watch it all again to find that nugget of insight. Most transcription apps charge by usage. Meet Transcript is a Chrome extension that uses Google Meet’s built-in closed-captioning functionality and captures the text in a Google doc. It’s privacy focused and captures none of your data. The transcripts are stored in a folder on Google Drive and you can even capture screenshots along the way.

Price: Free

Not having to take everything down in a call: Whoop!

www.thanesh.dev

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us,” remarked Winston Churchill back in 1943. He was talking about the interplay between the architecture of a building and its occupants. I think the same could be said of our apps. First we create apps and workflows and then they shape our behavior. Mostly in positive ways but each step forward comes with some frustrations. And in those gaps appear new tools inspired by someone’s experience and desire to bridge that gap. It’s what makes the world of technology so fun and dynamic.

This year I started working on a new app (Mighty Canary) focused on improving the productivity of business analysts and developers building data applications. If you work with a tool like Tableau then?follow Mighty Canary?for an answer to some of your frustrations!

What about you? What lesser known tools have had a big impact in your life this year?