Successful freelancers know that time is money. Efficient task and time management are the key factors for freelancers. One freelancer may simultaneously lead several projects, need to communicate with a dozen of clients, and have numerous deadlines to hit. To turn freelance chaos into prioritized work order, there are many project management tools in the getting things done software market.

However, most project management tools are expensive or don’t meet freelance needs. Let’s face the truth: the majority of freelancers are budget-limited, work in small teams with multiple clients located worldwide, or are scattered all over the country. Thus, freelancers want cheap, ideally free, highly customizable project management solutions for efficient team-working.

Let me introduce 10 free, open source project management products that are likely to fit your freelance requirements:

1. Collabtive

Collabtive

Collabtive is a web-based open source project management suite. A quick look inside shows that Collabtive has all the basic features: milestones, task management, time tracking, calendar. Moreover, you can import Basecamp projects and get RSS updates. Laconic, clean interface can be enriched by paid plugins provided by the vendor.

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Most readers of this blog provide creative services of some kind, largely as designers or as writers. And if you are contemplating a switch to the freelance life, you may be wondering about your own creativity, about your ability to constantly come up with new and better ways to do things for your clients.

While there are many different kinds of freelancers offering many kinds of services, all the freelancers I have known have been able to demonstrate outstanding creativity in at least one aspect of their work:

Avoiding it! Continue Reading

As a freelancer, every once in a while I have a couple of hours where I would have liked to have scheduled work for a client but I wind up with nothing. Over the years, I’ve taken a couple of different approaches to this sort of crack in my time: I’ve been known to take those hours off, to work on my own projects and to even pick up work on bid sites. There no single way that freelancers should handle spaces in our schedules, but there are a few factors that can be key to deciding what approach will be most beneficial in the long run. Continue Reading

If you are like most freelancers, the concept of taking a day off from work is pretty wonderful. But in reality, it can kind of put you in a whirlwind. It can even be downright stressful.

I was thinking about how grateful I am to be self-employed today, when I remembered what a friend said in her Facebook status message. She said she was confident it would be a great day because she had a day off from work. This friend works a full-time 9-to-5 gig. I remember what it used to be like to have a day off. I lived for days off. Now, I sometimes have to force myself to take days off. Sometimes when I decide to take a weekday off, I sometimes have to battle an insane amount of guilt.

The question is: for what? Continue Reading

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Freelancers in every field face a constant challenge to achieve and maintain a high level of productivity and quality in their work. One of the ways that you can improve your results is by development of systems or routines for various aspects of your work. Most likely you do some of the same things day-after-day and week-after-week. Having a proven system for getting these things done can bring several positive benefits. In this post we’ll look at why you would want to develop you own systems and some areas of freelancing life that lend themselves to systematization.

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Combining his knowledge of technology with his love of writing, Paul Spicer created a new travel writing application, iGo iWRITE. The 34-year-old Richmond, Virginia resident shares how he got into freelancing and what this new application means for travelers who have a story to share.

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Freelance Folder recently published a post on 5 Surefire Ways to Meet Deadlines for Freelancers and Web Workers by Abhijeet Mukherjee. If you haven’t read the post, it gives a nice breakdown of the topic. I’d like to take this opportunity to build on that post by looking not only at how we can increase our productivity in our day-to-day work, but also how we can change our mentality towards deadlines to create a healthier and more efficient workflow.

Abhijeet’s points and suggestions for meeting deadlines are:

1. Set expectations… with yourself.
2. Prioritize your work.
3. Keep track of dates and occasions.
4. Analyze your accomplishments every day.
5. Try to work only five days a week.

These points are great for keeping yourself on track and maintaining a proper balance in your work. From my experience I’ve found that it can also be helpful to turn the tables and put deadlines to work for you, rather than working against you. Continue Reading

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Freelancing is often a juggling act. Not only are you working on several different projects at any given time, but you’ve probably also got projects that are all at various stages of development.

Starting new projects, finishing others, and diving deeper into even more can make organization and planning a difficult task. You’ll constantly be facing the challenge of managing your time effectively to balance all of your clients and to keep completing jobs.

If you’re like me, there’s nothing more satisfying than completing a job and crossing it off of your to-do list (well, getting paid is pretty rewarding too, but that’s getting off track). Personally, I function far more effectively when I have a challenging but realistic list of tasks for each day and each week. Without planning for the use of my time I tend to lose focus and spend my time less productively.

As I’m creating my task list for each day, and throughout the day as I determine how to allocate my time for each task, I have to prioritize. Effective prioritizing is a necessity for freelancers to maximize their efficiency and productivity. Because we’re all different, what works for me may not work for you. There’s no right or wrong approach, but we all need to find our own ideal method of prioritizing. Continue Reading

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Many freelancers struggle with seeing the true value of their own time and respecting it for what it is worth. In order to have a truly successful career we all need to understand that our time is what allows us to make a living, and the more efficiently we use it, the more profitable our work will be.

As a freelancer, if you don’t respect your own time, no one else will. Personally, I have to say that I have struggled with all of these issues at one time or another.

Here are 8 ways that freelancers tend to disrespect their own time:

1 – Underpricing

Pricing is a difficult decision for many freelancers, especially those who are not yet established. It’s always tempting to underprice your services thinking that it will lead to more work. However, there are real consequences to underpricing. First, you’ll have to work more to make what you could make with higher rates. Plus, customers may view your prices as a sign of your skill level and experience. Continue Reading