6 Apps & Websites to Keep Your Work Organized

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Freelancers are often juggling multiple projects at once. Keeping track of deadlines, emails, and day-to-day duties can be pretty daunting, and TBH, not everyone is as anal about staying organized as I am. (And even if they are, things always fall through the cracks; take it from someone who knows first-hand.) While every freelancer would love to feel like they’re on top of their shit and are able to handle everything on their own, they can’t get by without a little help. Organizational apps for work are such an asset for freelancers like me because it helps us out when we don’t have interns or assistants at our disposal.

Below, take a look at a few of my favorite apps and websites that help keep me organized when I can’t keep track of everything on my own.

Trello

I can safely say that I wouldn’t be able to get by without my Trello boards. Trello is a program that allows you to create boards that separate out the various categories of your work. For me personally, I have one for writing (all of my assignments), finances (invoices and money I owe), to-do lists, and more. Trello is super sophisticated and has options for automation, image integration, and more, but I only need it for simple things like keeping track of deadlines. If you’re curious how to set up your Trello boards, click here for my Writing Template board, and click here for my Finance Template board.

Later

If you’re a freelancer who is super active on social media, I can’t say enough good things about Later. It’s a scheduling app that allows you to connect your Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter accounts so you can schedule your posts as far out as you need to. This has been a godsend for me whenever I have a lot of bylines I want to share on Twitter, or if I have a series of photos from a trip that I want to share on Instagram. Later allows me to batch edit my content and schedule it whenever I have time.

Canva

Let me start off by saying that I hire actual graphic designers when I need heavy-duty design work done. But when I need to create a quick Pinterest graphic, a quote box for my Instagram stories, or just want a blog banner photo to look a little cleaner, I use Canva. Canva is a design app that allows you to create… well… pretty much anything you can think of. It definitely isn’t as powerful as Adobe Illustrator or other similar programs, but Canva is enough to help you get by — especially when you’re on a budget. There are some features that aren’t available for free users, but for the most part, you can create basic graphics that are aesthetically pleasing, even with no prior design experience. The website saves all of your past projects so you can re-download them whenever you need them again.

Slack

Even though I’m a freelancer, I still work with a few different clients who require me to be on Slack throughout the day. If you’re in a similar boat, there are a few different functionalities you can utilize to stay organized. My favorite is the /remind feature: Go into Slackbot and type /remind, then type out the rest of your reminder. You can have Slack remind you to send off a message at a certain time, to post something on social media, and more. Literally anything you need to be reminded can be put into that /remind feature. I even remind myself to drink water in the middle of the day.

Google Tasks

If you work in Gmail, Google Tasks is a total game-changer. I’m often horrible at following up on emails or answering things in a timely fashion, but at the same time, I don’t always have the time to respond to things right away. Google Tasks allows me to add emails to my tasks folder and answer them all in one batch when I have time. I suppose this is similar to the “starred” feature in Gmail, but I usually use that for longterm storage when I have something I want to reference later on. The Tasks tab helps me keep track of things I need to do immediately, and when I’m done, I just click on the little bubble and it disappears, letting me know that I’ve completed it. This is especially useful for pitch emails that I want to follow up on, PR pitches that I want to eventually respond to, and ongoing conversations that have a few days of lag time in between each message.

Reminders

This is probably my favorite app on my iPhone because it allows me to set up recurring reminders. I most often use this for invoice reminders for my regular clients. I have a few clients that ask me to invoice on the 15th and last day of each month, and others who ask me to invoice every other Monday. Regardless of the timing, the Reminders app helps me automate the more tedious — but extremely important — parts of my job.

Did I miss any of your favorite organizational apps and websites? Let me know in the comments!

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CareerKristin Corpuzapps, organizationComment