Maybe this is old news for some of us, but for me and my adventures in working from home, ive been surprised at just how powerful my mobile phone is. As a tool for communication, business and leisure its only real limitations are those that i place on it by not utilising it to its full potential.

It’s probably 20 years since I first started owning and using mobile phones.

In that time what we use our phones for has changed completely. Remember a time when texting was seen as rude and informal? The world now literally runs on whatsapp and telegram web text services.

What Iam surprised with is just how powerful a business tool I carry around in my pocket.

The temptation to feel guilty about working from home and to end up chained to your laptop indefinitely is huge, the phone can set us all free, with the use of just a few apps.

Video calls I’m a big fan of at the moment for social and business interaction. I can use all manner of software to hold a video conference, but to be honest none of them are working so well. They are just being overwhelmed, WhatsApp on the other hand has yet to let me down. I just set up a group and dial. No codes, no dial in, just simple connectivity from my phone.

Email is easy, messenger is easy so I’m always connected when i need to be.

Got documents you want me to review or edit, I can do that easily on my phone also.

Spreadsheets are a little more demanding but its do-able.

The content I write, edit and publish online is all executable from my phone.

Sure I prefer my laptop or I-pad (Laptop vs I-Pad is a whole different conversation. The point I’m trying to make is that its all possible from my humble mobile phone. If I use it as the powerful business tool that it has the potential to be, I no longer have to be chained to my laptop.

Some of the free to use apps I’m using right now on my phone both for work and for writing, editing and publishing include:

Word, excel and PowerPoint, to view edit and create documents

Outlook and Gmail for email and calendar

Google lens for transcribing text and handwriting into documents

Google keep for notes

Trello for project management

WhatsApp for communication

Medium for writing and publishing

WordPress for writing and publishing

Grammarly for editing

Canva for editing

Teams for collaboration and sharing

All of these I can link to my laptop or iPad or both and all give me the freedom to work from my phone and stay connected without sitting for 10 hours plus per day with a laptop on my knees feeling guilty about how productive or not I’m being.

Give it a go, you never know you humble mobile phone may just amaze you, I know mine certainly has….