8 tips to make your mobile phone your primary work device

Many of us are still working remotely or hybrid in-office and work-from-home these days. As the severity of COVID waves starts to wane, we’re seeing a shift in our attitude towards how and where we work, as organisations realise that remote work, working from home, and a hybrid arrangement can be as productive and effective as it is dragging the entire staff into the office every day.

Working remotely and hybrid work mean employees will more regularly rely on mobile phones for both calls and data. With this shift in usage comes several considerations beyond what we usually need to think about when using our phones when working remotely. These tips will help you transition towards making your mobile phone your primary device for work.

1. Consider your phone security

When using your personal mobile as your primary work device, phone security is of utmost importance as misuse or even simple slip-ups could cause the company a serious cyber breach.

Using your personal mobile phone to access sensitive work documents could potentially expose the company to unwanted eyeballs. Likewise, using your mobile hotspot to access the company network also poses a serious security risk.

It’s a good idea to provide work mobile phones to employees as it gives you control over the apps that are installed on that device and what employees can use the phone to access. With strict policies, mobile use can be as secure as any other way of accessing the business networks.

2. Make use of remote access features

Tools such as LogMeIn are immensely useful when working from a mobile.

Say you’re out and about, and don’t have access to your desktop. Rather than ignore a business email until you can get back to your desk, just use the LogMeIn app on your phone to access your desktop remotely, and deal with the email there and then.

One of the biggest inhibitors to productivity is the constant loop of putting things off and then trying to catch up. Tools like LogMeIn and many others serve to remedy that issue.

3. Look at smartphone apps as “less is more”

Having too many applications on your phone can actually make you work less efficiently. You might think that each app makes your job easier in some way, but having to constantly flit between them slows you down and can often become frustrating.

Additionally, having too many productivity apps on your phone can cause extra stress to your day. When you’ve got too many apps cluttering your phone, spending time and energy trying to find the right app for completing basic work tasks becomes stressful.

Too many apps can also add more opportunity for security breaches to occur. Managing the security and privacy settings across multiple apps is challenging and becomes a bigger risk the more apps you have.

4. Improve the functionality of your phone

Adding a few accessories can help improve how your phone functions for work purposes as well as boost your productivity.

Having a small, inexpensive Bluetooth keyboard with you is essential when working on your phone. The keyboard on the device is fine for super-short messages and social media posts, but if you want to write a business email or work on a document, you’re going to want to have a proper keyboard to work with. Luckily there are a lot of high-quality Bluetooth keyboards out there that are specifically designed for use with mobile devices.

A few other add-on tools you may want to consider to improve the functionality of your work mobile phone include:

• Power bank to charge your phone on the go

• Stylus to make notes, draw, or interact with your phone with precision

• Stand or holder so your phone sits securely on a surface or in your car

• Bluetooth headset or headphones to take meetings from anywhere

5. Create separate work and personal profiles on your device

Keep your work life and personal life separate while using one device by setting up profiles, particularly if you’re using your own mobile for work purposes.

Your complete home office setup checklist

If you’re an Android user, you can create multiple profiles or ‘users’ on your device. Simplify the division of your personal life and work life by creating a ‘personal’ profile and a ‘work’ profile. Not only will this help you establish some work/life boundaries, but it will help you resist the temptation of checking work-related emails outside of working hours. Learn how to set up this crafty work-around on your device here.

You may also investigate mobile phone handsets that have dual SIM slots or that have eSIM capabilities so you can use one device and switch between your personal and work services.

6. Transform your phone into a PC

If you have access to another larger screen, like a tablet for example, there are a range of software programs that allow you to essentially ‘convert’ your mobile phone into a PC. Most obviously, Google Chrome lets you mirror your phone interface onto another screen.

There are also systems designed specifically for this use-case, such as Maru OS – an operating systems that unites mobile and desktop computing. The OS, which you need to install in place of or alongside Android, gives you a complete desktop experience on your smartphone. Maru OS is only compatible with certain Android models, however, there are a range of similar programs that are compatible with different mobile phone handsets.

7. Make sure you’ve got a fast, robust service

You won’t be able to get much work done on a 3G service. To efficiently work from your mobile phone, you really will need a stable 4G connection everywhere that you’re likely to be based. To get work done efficiently, you need fast, reliable mobile coverage.

If you’re based in a city with 5G coverage available, accessing the ultrafast 5G network could be a good option to power bandwidth-intensive applications while you’re on the go. Check out our free guide to find out more about 5G.

If the company supplies a work mobile phone to employees, it’s also important that it includes decent data allowances so that they can use them for work purposes.

It may also be worth enabling data sharing across the fleet of mobile phones as this allows the business to pool its data resources and the devices connected to that service can all draw data from that pool. This is a great way to share resources, save money, and ensure employees have access to the data they need to get the job done.

How mobile data sharing will benefit your business

Work phones don’t need to be expensive to provide, either. With a SIM-only plan, you can leverage any BYO phone, saving you and your company long-term contracts and phone repayments.

Plus, our industry-leading portal will simplify the management of your business mobile fleet, with a centralised billing system on one easy-to-use account.

8. Finally, don’t let the mobile phone dominate you

Because the mobile phone travels with you, it’s all too easy to find yourself answering emails late into night, and checking online the first thing you do when waking up. It’s really important for your mental health and wellbeing to put limitations around the times that you (and your phone) are available, and make sure your co-workers and customers are also aware of them.

Working with your work mobile

Your mobile phone can help you work better, if it’s approached from the right angle. You’ll even find that you’ll be able to do more business on the phone than you might have expected possible. Just make sure that you keep in mind that it is work, and you need to consider the security of what you’re doing with the phone, and your ability to deliver quality results when working on the mobile.

To learn more about Aussie Broadband’s great range of SIM-only plans, click here.

Editor’s note: This article was updated and refreshed on July 22, 2022 for accuracy and comprehensiveness.