5 Free Productivity Tools
So if you're just starting out doing freelance work and don't have a system yet, or you have a system and it doesn't work very well for you, take a look at these 5 tools that will help you be more productive, save time and manage your projects more easily.
Also for the record, I'm not getting sponsored by anyone to share these tools, this is purely to help you be more productive, and also to market myself by providing helpful information to you. =) (Now that’s what I call being transparent!)
I will be covering just the gist of what these tools are, and some of the things I really enjoyed about them, but don't just take my word for it, do some more digging for yourselves and play around with them to see if they suite you and your needs.
I've listed my favorite ones last so stick around if you want to see the best ones. Atleast in my opinion, you may find you have a better use for some, more than others.
This first productivity tool syncs your smart phone messages and app notifications to your desktop. You can even set your device on the charger in another room and if you get a call, text message or an app notification (optional), you will see them pop up in the corner of your desktop screen. That way you're not playing with your phone, but are updated as needed and can choose to leave it for later, or respond immediately from you computer and get back to work!
Now you may have noticed, if you are a Windows 10 user, that the new OS has phone integration as well, so you can receive text messages to your computer and respond. That's all fine and well, however if you don't respond within the dialog box or the Action Center, you can't get back to your conversations except by looking at your phone. That's where MightyText continues to be helpful. I leave it run in minimized form until I need it, and it allows you to use the windows notifications box in place of their own.
There are a few pitfalls with it, but if you are so inclined, you can sign up for the premium version and that takes care of those issues. The main issue I've had is not having all of my contacts synced so I can't make quick new messages from my laptop. I have to first look up the contact on my phone or in Outlook to confirm the correct number to the corresponding contact, but as I mentioned before the premium version takes care of that problem because it allows for multiple contact platforms to be synced.
What I will be discussing is the free version of Toggl, not the premium. The free version offers you the basics and will get the job done, but there's more for those who want to get all they can out of it, including Toggl business that I have not researched myself.
I use Toggl's desktop app on Windows 10 and the online reporting tools to keep track of my weekly and hourly work completion. I also use the Toggl Android app, to keep track of tasks that I do outside of the office, like reading emails while waiting for my wife in the car or working from somewhere that my laptop isn't handy. This helps me stay focused and know where I need to improve if I'm slacking off. I only track my working hours, but you can track whatever you choose. In the image below you can see an example of the desktop app.
As you can see you can add tags to your entries by clicking on the entry and opening the side panel. You can also edit your entries and open up the reports page on the website where you can do a lot more, like research how long you spend on a weekly basis reading your emails or doing social media marketing. You can see an example of this in the image below.
Lastly, I would like to add that it will send you a weekly report in your email showing you where and for how long you worked on certain entries throughout the week. It's a very helpful tool, especially if you're charging by the hour for work for different clients or with a team of colleagues.
The last few images I will show you are of the mobile app, it's very helpful on the go, although sometimes it has sync errors unfortunately.
This tool is more aimed at creatives and designers. It is an online tool that one can use to create prototypes and moodboards. It also has some other features that you can play with for yourself, I'm still learning it as I'm writing about it, but the more I use it, the more helpful I find it. If you want to go even further there is a premium service you can look into as well.
One of the things I noticed very early in my exploration is the ability to make interactive prototypes. If you have a free account and are logged in open the prototypes tab and click on the pre-made prototype titled "Web App Prototype". You will notice that within each "project" there can be multiple project cards. For this project each one of the cards are a different page to the web app. Now if you click and enter the first one on the left you will see what looks like a social media site. Remember this is just a prototype of the final version of a web app, but if you hover over the profile image on the top right hand side, a drop down will appear, additionally if you click any of the menu items there, you will be redirected to the other cards that match it's description. So you will still have to design elements in Photoshop or another application, but you can see the functionality in the InVision app, before you do a lick of coding. Pretty cool right?
Basically InVision will help get your projects organized in a presentable way to showcase to your clients or your team. On that note, it's very social, and allows for live previews to those you share to. It allows the ability to collaborate with others through comments, something they call "hotspots", where specific elements of a design can basically be highlighted and commented on and the option to designate whether a board is "On Hold", "In Progress" "Needs Review" or if a board layout has been "Approved", which seems like a very useful feature. There is also the ability to view the history of a board if you so choose, and see all the different versions of a design from start to approval.
Let's talk a little bit about InVision "Boards". I use these most frequently of the boards and prototypes options, as I like to use these to get the mood and overall feel of a project together in one area. If you are working as a team this is also a great place to share and save resources for the future, like color schemes, source imagery, typeface selection, written documents and body copy written for your project. There are so many uses for these, but you will find that out as you play with it.
My biggest complaint about the InVision tool is that when you are working with lots of images, like one might when using the moodboards, the load time can be tediously slow. If you use lower res images that should help. Really it's the Internet's fault. Sorry Internet, we still love you!
The last helpful thing about InVision, is the InVision Blog. It always has great articles that are relevant to an aspiring designer that are not just helpful or insightful, but also help you to feel that you aren't alone and that other designers and creatives struggle with the same things you struggle with. Check it out if you have a chance!
Hootsuite is a social media dashboard. Instead of posting the same article multiple times on different sites, you can link them all together and post from one place. The free version will work well for most users, but if you have a ton of social media accounts or clients you work for, it will be more beneficial to upgrade to the business platform as you are limited to a set amount of accounts that you can link. Here's the plans if you're interested!
You can also check all of your feeds in one place, see your stats, make reports about your posting success and even schedule when you want to make your posts go out. For instance if you want to share a holiday post, but won't be in the office on the day you want it to go out, then just make one early and send it out at the perfect time on the special day, that way you can still enjoy it without feeling guilty about not posting something on such a crucial date for people checking their feeds!
I use Evernote everyday, I only wish I had started using it earlier that's why it's my favorite and final tool I wanted to share with you! In fact I'm using it to make this post's content!
I'm using it type out the words to this post in a note within a notebook titled "Virtual Crasis Blog" and I'm collecting images inside of this note as well, that I've screen shot from my browser! (See Below)
Talk about trippy 4th dimensional stuff right? Haha WRONG! It's real!
The best part is that it syncs across all of your devices, so your main workstation, to your phone, to your tablet and to anywhere you can access the Internet if you don't have your own device, just use the web application.
I use it for multiple things in my daily life. For instances, anytime I need to make a personal note I can tell my Android smartphone using Google Voice to "Note to Self" and it will ask me for the details and then save it to my Evernote. I can even make reminders that will be emailed to me when they are due.
I use Evernote for everything, from taking notes in my bible study, to keeping my daily goals and task list, to editing snippets of code and sharing it with my "work chat" colleagues who share notebooks with me! All that, and I can even remind myself that I need to check out a cool band later and get some more milk from the store! It is the single most valuable tool I use on a daily basis.
I currently am using the Plus package, which will run you $35 a year and it's totally worth it! You can also use the Free version which is ideal for testing out the features and learning how awesome it is, and then getting you hooked! They may even have a free trial for the other packages if you are a new user.
It works on Mac, it works on Windows, it works on Android and it works on everything, as far as I can tell or have seen.
In addition, Windows 10 store has the app which will make the program work more intuitively with your OS, however there are a few bugs yet, so I am still using the downloaded version from the Evernote site.
I'd also like to say again, I'm not being paid to say any of this, these are all tools I've found helpful on my journey of freelancing and being self employed, hope that you can get as much enjoyment out of them as I do!
As always, God bless and thanks for following the Virtual Crasis blog!
