Converted! How Apps Saved My Sanity

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This week, I returned  to remote freelancing after two months of on-site client work. The last time I took a break from my business, things were pretty quiet, but this time, my work schedule was full, and many projects had progressed while I was away from my home office.

In the past, I’ve been reasonably haphazard about organization, telling myself I only have a small business that doesn’t take much management. I’d also largely avoided the school of thought that sees the remote freelancer download every new task management/productivity/invoicing app that’s launched. However, my decision this year to leave my Luddite inclinations behind and embrace helpful tools really paid off.

As such, although I expected my first week back in my own business to involve much picking up of pieces, flailing in bewilderment and gazing around blankly trying to work out where things were at, I was pleasantly surprised. In an unprecedented case of organizational success I’ve been able to hit the ground running on my return!

Finances

Earlier this year I started using 1daylater, a simple time-tracking app that does everything I need. I also run a little spreadsheet specifically to manage my invoices and cashflow. Time limitations had kept me from keeping a very close eye on the financial side of things in my business, but on Monday morning when I sat down to start work, it took only minutes before I knew where things were at. And I didn’t have to waste any time scouring my inbox for any payment receipts or client emails.

In one case, I needed to invoice for ongoing work I’d completed between July and September for an old client. Ordinarily, my invoices just list the broad task category and the charge, but this time I was able to easily itemize every piece of work I’d done, and attach a date to it; a necessary courtesy, given the amount of time that had passed, and the multitude of tasks I was invoicing for.

Two factors made this possible. First, using a specialized app to track my time encourages me to include more detail in my work notes, since the app itself prescribes the input of a base level of data. Secondly, taking a moment now and then to consolidate my task notes and enter the time I’d spent on tasks made all the difference when it came to invoicing.

Schedule

The nature of my work means I can be pretty flexible with my schedule. My daily plans are usually loose, and I tend to take things as they come; “overwhelmed” is not normally a word that’s in my work vocabulary. Of course, after eight weeks away, I expected to spend a bit of time trying to figure out where I was supposed to be, who I needed to see, and when I could fit in all the other follow-up tasks I’d need to do.

Again, to my surprise, I faced no such trouble. Over the last year or so I’ve become fairly diligent about recording tasks and deadlines, but I’ve been using nothing more advanced than good old iCal to keep track of my schedule. While I was away I barely looked at my calendar — I just focused on whatever tasks I had to do each day to keep my business running — but as new deliverables or deadlines were decided, I’d add them to the calendar. And on Monday morning, the key dates for the coming months were spread out before me like map. One glance, and I knew where I was headed.

Work in Progress

When I started my “break”, I had plenty of work in progress, and when I arrived at the end of it, that work was still progressing.

To keep track of these jobs, I simply used a daily to do list — not a dedicated task manager, just a normal old text-based list — which I also used as a status report to keep track of where each job was at, and maintain a contact schedule for my clients.

Even though it wasn’t a specialized, dedicated tool, my little task list did the job. When I returned to work I knew where each job was at, what I needed to do, and who I needed to get in touch with. Not bad after an eight-week absence.

Future Plans

Toward the end of my time away, my thoughts naturally turned to my business, and getting back into it after my break. More and more I found myself making plans for the time when I was back in my home office. So I started a separate list for those plans — this way, when I had a quiet moment, I could give them some dedicated thought to the future, and not lose those ideas.

When I returned to work, I had a raft of nice, loose-but-clear plans for how I wanted to proceed. That, along with my startlingly well-organized calendar, meant I had plenty to get on with — and the clarity of vision to do so.

The Secret of Success

Although I’m inclined to sing the praises of the apps and techniques I used to stay organized through what has been one of the busiest, most demanding periods of my working life, there’s one other small factor that accounts in equal measure for this success: the fact that I kept using these tools diligently, no matter how busy I felt I was.

Signing up to, setting up, or installing a tool is one thing; to make it work, though, you need to use it properly. Tools alone won’t save me from my own willingness to believe that everything will somehow, magically be fine. It’s my commitment to using those tools that makes the difference.

What tools do you use to keep your work going, even when you’re not around?

Image by stock.xchng user mcdesign1.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Report: The Real-Time Enterprise

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