How to turn your phone into the ultimate work from home device.

If you’re a worker in the UK, Europe or basically

anywhere right now, there’s a good chance that

you’re going to be working from home for a

while. The coronavirus has affected businesses and

workers all over the world, and many people are suddenly forced to transition from their offices to their

bedrooms and still get work done.

We know, it’s not easy. While your phone can be

tucked away in your bag or a pocket during work

hours, it can become the most pivotal piece of your

workflow – if you take the right steps

Set up reminders

When you’re in the office, you don’t need to remind

yourself to stand, take bathroom breaks, eat lunch,

or end your shift. But at home, it’s easy to completely

lose track of time. That’s where Google Assistant

can help. Make a list of the breaks you want to take

and ask your phone’s assistant to remind you every

day, by saying “OK Google, remind me to take lunch

at noon” or ”grab a coffee at 11am” or “stretch your

legs at 3pm”, whatever you need. It might sound silly,

but without an office of people around, your normal

routine will be severely disrupted.

Keep your eyes bright

not only are you going to be using your phone more

often than you would at work, but without a set

time to leave the office, you’re probably going to be

working longer hours too. And that means staring at

your screen more. But your eyes don’t have to suffer

as a result. During the day, you can turn on dark

mode and auto-brightness to keep your screen at a

comfortable level, and if you’re working after hours,

use your phone’s night mode to filter out blue light

and limit eye strain. You can find these options in

your display settings.

Stop staring at a tiny screen

If you’re getting tired of typing on such a tiny screen,

you can always mirror your phone’s screen to a TV

or a monitor with the right cable. If you’re using an

Android phone, you can also mirror your screen to a

TV using the Google Home app .

That said, mirroring admittedly isn’t an ideal solution

for anything other than video streaming, since all it

does is project an image of your phone on the screen

– virtual keyboard and all.

If you’re using a Samsung Galaxy S8 or later,

however, your options are far more robust. Samsung

offers a desktop solution called DeX, which lets you

plug in your phone to a monitor using a USB-C-to-

HDMI cable to work as if you were using a PC. Once

plugged in, you’ll get a full desktop environment, with

floating windows, keyboard and mouse support, and

of course, everything will save back to your phone

once you disconnect. You can even use your phone’s

screen as a trackpad if you’d like.

Get a wireless charging stand

Since nearly every phone released in the past two

years has wireless charging built in, you probably

already have a wireless charging pad at your desk.

But what your work from home set-up needs is a

wireless charging stand. That way you’ll be able to see

incoming notifications, take calls, video conference,

and anything else you need to see your screen to do.

Wireless charging stands like our top choice, the

Anker PowerWave 7.5 

will keep your phone charged and let you use it.

Keep your phone clean

You’ve read a lot of articles about how dirty your

phone is, and well, it’s true. Even if there wasn’t a

pandemic, it’s a good idea to keep your phone clean

especially when smudgy fingerprints make it hard to

read. It’s very easy to do. All you need is to wipe it

down with a disinfecting wipe and then discard the

used wipe. Just don’t forget to wash your hands after

you’re done.

After your phone is nice and clean, the best way

to keep it that way is to not touch it, naturally. So

invest in a stylus. Of course, if you’re using a Samsung

Galaxy Note you have one built in, but you can use

any number of ‘dumb’ styli on any touchscreen phone

that will mimic your taps and swipes. You probably

won’t be able to work as quickly as you would with

your fingers, but it’ll be great for answering calls and

swiping away notification

Block time-sucking apps

Your phone is a fantastic tool for productivity at home,

but it can also be a serious

time suck. So if you need a

little help staying away from

Twitter, Facebook and Candy

Crush, your phone can give

you an assist.

On Android phones

running version 9 or later,

you’ll find Screen Time

and Digital Wellbeing,

respectively, in the settings. In each you’ll find an array

of toggles and dials that let you set usage timers or

shut down access to apps that are zapping your focus.

So when you try to sneak a quick game during your

next teleconference, your phone won’t let you

Get a Bluetooth headset

Even if you’ll be using a PC for most of your work,

you’ll still need to use your phone for the thing it was

made for: taking calls. And since you probably don’t

want to hold a slab of glass up to your face during

a lengthy conference call, you should invest in a

Bluetooth headset or a pair of wireless headphones.

Basically any pair will work with an Android phone,

though some features might get dropped depending

on your handset