Top 20 Tools for Freelancers: Manage work and Increase Productivity
As a busy freelancer it can sometimes get very tough for you to manage all your work related stuff. When this happens, confusion, lack of efficiency and other mishaps follow. Therefore, we searched the internet for apps and software which could help freelancers be more productive and manage their work efficiently.
Here are the top 20 tool for freelancers
The one stop answer to all your management needs I think. This cloud storage tool from Google allows you to store all sorts of files and folders and share them with your friends and colleagues. You can also collaborate with them and work on these files.
Google Drive has collaborated with other apps and thus viewing and editing all sorts of documents is fairly easy. You can easily download them in the desired format also!
It is definitely one of the top team management tools out there. As a freelancer, you may have a team to whom you assign tasks. Managing teams can become tough but with slack it’s easy.
You can easily communicate with all your team members from different departments. You can assign tasks and assign deadlines so that following up on them is automated and thus easy. Therefore, it sure makes our list of top 20 tools for freelancers.
To do lists are a great way to manage your daily chores. High on design the app has been in much use lately. You can create and manage lists and thus keep thorough track of your work.
It is completely free too! That is a plus, I am sure.
Imagine someone or something could keep track of the time you spend on your system when you are working or doing something else. Rescue time does that for you. You can analyse this time later.
For instance, if you are a content writer and are spending more time on research than on writing good content pieces then I guess, rescue time will tell you that a revision is in order!
There are a lot of other Time Tracking Apps and Tools that can be used to keep a track of your time and bill your client on hourly basis.
For a freelancer, email marketing is a strong way to generate clients and earn money. It may be possible that as a freelancer you have a template which you follow each time you send such a mail. With TextExpander you can save a lot of time which will be wasted in sending all these mails one by one.
TextExpander allows you to pre-set abbreviations which will automatically expand into text and even images with a few keys pressed.
You can pre-set different signatures to different clients, auto-insert forms and more. Therefore, this small but potent tool makes our list of top 20 tools for freelancers.
Another cloud storage and collaboration platform which is next only to Google Drive in popularity!
You can sync all files from all your devices into one cloud storage location and that too with a simple drag-and-drop system.
This is very helpful, as you can access your most important files from any device. You just need an internet friendly environment and you are set.
Google apps help you do a lot of things. I could go on separately about each of them but that will be tedious. You can use Google calendars for creating important bookmarks about important events and set reminders.
You can use Google Drive for cloud storage as discussed before.
Plus there are loads of extensions and add-ons which can make freelance work management a lot easier.
EverNote has become a very popular service since its launch. It does not let you miss anything important, anywhere. So, we could not miss to not enlist it here in our list of top 20 tools for freelancers.
Freelancing is about creativity and ideas in your niche and ideas can strike you at any time. EverNote allows you to capture these ideas and related images, clips and videos from your available device and then you can sync it your main system to work on later.
How awesome is that!
This one is another popular app when it comes to task management. With helium you can do stuff like clear out your inbox, assign tasks and follow up on them. You can sync the app with your email account and EverNote account.
You do not even need an internet connection for it to work. Your team may or may not be using the app, it does not matter.
If you are a freelancer in the fields of designing, developing or accounting then this app is a must have for you. It is definitely a top contender on our list of top 20 tools for freelancers.
Clients you indulge in a lot of freelance hiring will love this app. It helps you keep a tab on people which you have employed. Time-sheets are automatically created.
You can see, who is working, how long he is working and when he is working. How cool is that.
If you are freelancer in the field of social media you will love this app. It helps you to schedule your facebook posts, tweets, Google plus posts and LinkedIn posts. You can share a post simultaneously to all these platforms with a single click.
For freelancers working in areas like content and digital marketing, sharing and link-building are important aspects of work. Therefore, buffer is an essential and top tool for them.
This is another top tool for social media marketers. Tweriod allows you to see and analyse your twitter audience. You can see when the most of it is online and schedule your tweets accordingly.
Twitter is a potent tool for social media enthusiasts who include a lot of freelancers and Tweriod definitely helps you to use it more efficiently. Thus, it is one of the top 20 tools for freelancers.
Personally, I feel that if you know excel you can manage all your work related stuff from here. You can create different types of sheets where you can keep track of your work, work which you have outsourced and more.
You can easily create a sheet to manage your money flows and account transactions. There is no process or work-flow which you cannot manage with Excel.
Freelancers have to take care of a lot of things when looking for clients and negotiating with them. This includes making attractive proposals in PDF formats, creating receipts of payment and invoicing amongst many others.
Adobe PDF suite comes in handy with such needs. You can create awesome PDF files and send it to your clients to pitch for work.
I believe it is genuinely one of the top 20 tools for freelancers.
I personally started using Canva Design studio a while back. I have to tell you that I benefited a lot from it.
I was able to design everything I wanted and the way I wanted with simple button clicks.
Canva takes designing to the next level by making it easier than ever before. You can choose from different kinds of designs and layouts and also create custom designs.
You can choose from the thousands of pre-designed templates and formats to build your design. The inventory consists of both paid and free templates.
I believe Canva is a top notch design tool for freelancers and can help them with graphic design, making proposals and more.
One the best task managers out there, Remember the milk is definitely a top tool on our list of top 20 tools for freelancers. It does a lot for you really. You can be reminded from almost any device. You can easily set up location reminders, plan your time and work on things in a very punctual fashion.
- WriteRoom
Freelance Writers who are MAC users will love this tool. It allows for full-screen distraction free writing. It has a completely black background and no menu options. Thus, write with all the focus you can spare.
DarkRoom is the answer for WriteRoom for Windows users. It does the same thing as in allow you to focus on writing by providing the most distraction free space on your system.
As a freelancer you can have a very large network of contacts. What if a tool could manage them all? Yes, ContactMe does exactly that for you, making it the penultimate entrant on our list of top 20 tools for freelancers.
You not only get the names and contact information but also the business info related to them! You can keep track of your correspondences, deadlines, appointments and more.
I believe it is a must have app!
Managing money can be tough for freelancers. Thus, there is Mint which has become a very powerful tool for money management. It has beautiful interface. You can use it to keep track of your income and expenditure.
This app is also available for free which is awesome because the time and money spent on accountants can be many times a lot!
Thus concludes our list of top 20 tools for freelancers.
Freelance is not easy. Being your own boss requires a lot of management and other skills apart from knowing your job. These tools help good freelancers amplify their brand by helping them manage work efficiently and making them more productive.
Thus, I implore you to start using some of them and manage all your work!
I am sure there may be some favourites here in our list. Do mention and discuss in comments. Also add any app which you think we missed!
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