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10 Awesome Productivity Programs for Freelancers

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Productivity Programs for Freelancers

For many people, the best advantage to working as a freelancer is not having a boss.

Unfortunately, not having a boss means you have to manage your own productivity. If you need help, consider these 10 awesome productivity programs.

1. Free Download Manager

This open source program can speed up the processing time for downloads. Depending on your system, you may see a 600-percent increase.

2. FreeMind

FreeMind is an open source brainstorming project. You can organize data into a hierarchical format, export reports, track hyperlinks, and include HTML text. Writers can use the program to organize and outline information and then export the file into a word-processing document with headings and paragraphs that follow the flow of the map.

3. Toggl

Do you bill clients by the hour? If so, get Toggl. This time-tracking device can help reduce the time it takes to calculate bills. It has report-generating tools and the ability to manage various projects. You can use the free version or choose to upgrade to a paid version to expand the feature set.

4. TweetDeck

Many freelancers use social media to generate leads and to keep in touch with current clients. It can be time consuming to try to keep up with Facebook and Twitter, but TweetDeck allows you to combine your social networking into one application.

5. AutoHotKeys

How much time can you save by launching an application with one click? AutoHotKeys allows you to customize keyboard shortcuts to access specific programs and files with a few keystrokes. The further a file is in your system, the more time you save with AutoHotKeys.

6. PDFCreator

Portable document format (PDF) allows you to skip the process of trying to save your files in a specific format. Your clients can access the PDF from any operating system. PDFCreator is a free and open source program that allows you to install the program as a printer. Select it as a print option, and the program converts the document to a PDF.

7. Remember the Milk

This program expands upon the basic to-do list. Set reminders, enter locations for events, and keep notes. The program has a mobile version that will sync with your home version so you can get reminders no matter where you are.

8. GnuCash

Every business needs an accounting system, and GnuCash can help. Track your expenses, create invoices for clients, and perform other financial obligations from one program. It even works with exported files from your regular bank.

9. Dropbox

When you and your clients both use Dropbox, you can skip emailing attachments. Instead, you drop the file into Dropbox, and the client can have instant access to it.

10. Keepass

Never forget a password again. With Keepass, you can keep all your passwords in one secure location. If you forget your login information, simply find it on Keepass.

Whether productivity products save you time by increasing speed or by reducing wasted time, they help you trim the excess. With these 10 programs, you may save enough time that you can add an extra client into your workload.

About

Jayson Jones is an art student with a focus in Fashion Design. He loves the Web, good food, blogging and his dog. You can find his work at catwalkcatfight.com.

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{ 23 Responses }

  1. shan ali says:
    thanx for the list.....well i need something for reminder and your post suggested me a tool....thanx
  2. Mark says:
    Hey, now that "DropBox" idea sounds really cool. I wonder. Could that be retooled into an internet marketing delivery system? How secure is it? Just wondering... Mark
  3. Jim says:
    I've been using Gnucash and Dropbox a while. They are really useful to me. Apart from them, I have only fleetingly heard of the rest in the list while some I've never heard of before. I'll stick to a few for now and master those that I'm familiar with.
  4. Maria Pavel says:
    Pretty nice programs. I'm more of a "take a piece of paper and write it down" kind of girl, but i might try these and see where my productivity stands in a few days.
  5. Shekhar says:
    Excellent Collection of Useful resource., was searching something like them. Really worth for any blogger to be more fruitful. Excellent collection..... Thanks for this..
  6. karan says:
    Nice, I guess you must have researched well before writing this one.. I like the way you interact with your readers. Have a nice day friend, Regards, Karan
  7. Stella Anokam says:
    Hey there - nice list of useful, handy applications. I see a few unfamiliar ones I may want to try sometime. Freemind, PDFCreator and DropBox are on my list of best free apps. Thanks for a great post, man,
  8. Thomas says:
    Hi Jayson Nice list you have put together there. A lot of the programs are new to me. Thank you for sharing.
  9. Tinh says:
    Awesome list mate, I love the TweetDeck very much and it is very useful to me :-)
  10. Jason says:
    Yes, These are really good productivity programs for freelancers. However, i already know about download manager and pdf creator. Still, thanks for those remaining eight.
  11. Nishadha says:
    Great list of tools, I only use TweetDeck mentioned in the list but will check out some of the others. I do use alternatives to those during some of my work
  12. Dennis Edell says:
    Is keepass better then Roboform?
  13. RonLeyba says:
    Cool set of free tools for freelancers! I love it ! Thanks Jayson!
  14. Alicia Jay says:
    Hi Jayson, Thanks for this great post! As a freelancer, any program/system/software that can save you time undoubtedly saves you money as well. You've definitely listed some that I didn't know about.
  15. Jitendra Singh says:
    Hello Jayson, Very very thanks to you for letting us know the productivity tools. It will really help us. The one tool which i am using is very awesome in creating note and all is Evernote. Try it once.
  16. Mani Viswanathan says:
    I prefer HootSuite for live Tweeting/FBing. For Scheduling my posts/updates I use TweetDeck. Instead of KeePass I prefer LastPass. It works gr8 bcoz of it's addon for all the browsers.
  17. Steve says:
    jayson, Thanks for those these programs. It rocks. Some of the programs I know and use almost daily. Others I never heard of.. so I'll certainly be checking them out. Have a great week!
  18. Fisayo Sanyaolu says:
    Thanks for sharing Jayson !
  19. Trung Nguyen says:
    Great list, Some programs very useful for me, thanks Jayson for share this list.
  20. Dahlia Valentine says:
    Hey Jayson... Awesome heads up with FreeMind. I didn't know you could export your mindmap to Open Office. Definitely giving that one a try.
  21. Patricia says:
    Thanks for the suggestions Jayson. Hadn't hear of some of these. Will check them out. I'm sure some will come in handy for some projects I'm hoping to set up soon. Patricia Perth Australia
  22. semmy says:
    Hi Jay thank you very much for your list!! I think I'll give your article to my protegee. This will help them to mange the task. Thank you
  23. Wasim Ismail says:
    Nice one, was looking for a new time tracking application, will give Toggl a try.