How to Get by With a Little Help From Digital Tools
I get a lot of questions about how do I manage to juggle all my projects, so I decided to write a series of posts about digital tools that I use on a regular basis that you might find helpful as well.
I juggle a lot. Besides my part-time job with the Humphrey Program at the University of Maryland, I also teach a multimedia class at the Merrill College of Journalism, work on web design/development projects, do occasional digital media workshops for international journalists, manage lilyQA.com and send weekly newsletters to my followers. Did I mention managing my social media presence? Add that to the list too.
I can proudly say that I get everything done and make it look oh so effortless (as best as I can). Don’t be fooled, while coffee helps, good organization is the key.
Being efficient while not suffering on quality is what I strive for. I also want a healthy work/life balance, so if I can find shortcuts when doing all these tasks, I’m all for it! That’s where useful digital tools really come handy.
Whether you’re a freelancer, thinking about becoming one, managing others or yourself, these three tools that I currently use I find extremely helpful:
Managing and sharing documents : Google Drive
The reason why I love Google Drive is that I can easily share and collaborate with others without exchanging multiple versions of the same document. I can also organize my documents per project and access them from anywhere.
Hour tracker: Toggl
This is a great free time tracking software. I love that I can track my time spent on tasks and download a spreadsheet that I can share with my clients and keep for my records.
Social media manager: Buffer
Who has time to be on Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media all the time? There comes a time where you pick where you want to invest your money to save on time. That’s why I gladly pay for the monthly subscription with Buffer. There is a free version too and you can include all your social media channels and easily schedule your posts.
In the next post, I’ll talk about tools I use to send my weekly newsletter. If you have questions or suggestions for next posts, please feel free to reach me at http://lilyqa.com
Painter, Art Teacher, Graphic Designer
9yThanks for sharing your wisdom, Lily.
Freelance writer | Longtime journalist
9yLily... you might address the social (collaborative) vs. non-social tools. I really like using evernote. It's been helpful for stowing away ideas that I might use later for a class or blog post or talk. But in team projects, I get talked into using google docs or dropbox. ... both good tools, but not as smooth as evernote. So I end up losing things ... did I put that in evernote or somewhere else? First World problems, I know, but I'm wondering of other people have the same issue. Thanks. Loving the new job.
Freelance writer | Longtime journalist
9yLove this post, Lily. I look forward to the series. It's always great to hear what tools other people use to make life easier. Thanks.. and glad to hear you're busy. :)
Partner at Kopilovic&Kopilovic Law Firm
9yvery useful info, would be good to know more about buffer and toggl.