7 Productivity Apps For Freelancers To Become The Beast Freelancers

Being freelancer is easy.

Anyone can be a freelancer, all you have to do is work independently with clients that you acquired by yourself. A freelancer means you are your boss, its the middle phase between being an employee and being an entrepreneur.

But being a freelancer is one thing and being a productive beast freelancer is altogether a different thing.

Here’s a basic difference

A Freelancer	A Beast Productive Freelancer
Does not schedule his  time	Schedules his time in advance (up to a week)
Delay tasks in hand	Proactive in projects
Wishes his life to get more productive	Strives to be more productive with the right tools every day
Hope to be more organized	Neat, clean, and organized in his work

So if you want to be a beast productive freelancer then keep reading this article. In this article, we will focus on 7 productivity apps for freelancers that can help you as a freelancer to stay focused on the tasks at hand without wasting time on stuff that does not matter

Now before we go to the list, here is a friendly reminder: There are 100s of productivity apps in the market that you can use to increase your focus and time management, and the following list contains productivity apps that I as a freelancer personally use it on my day to day basis.

So let’s check-in:

Here is the list of 7 productivity apps for freelancers

#1. Lastpass

Lastpass is a chrome extension that stores your password securely which you can use later without having to retype the password again.

But here is it gets better: You can use this tool to share passwords with your clients or get login credentials of your client’s without you or them having to share the password.

For example: If you find a client who wants to do Facebook ads, then typically she will need to add you as a “user” in her ad account but what if that client is non-techy? Well, you can make explainer videos and guide OR you can simply take her account access via LastPass and add yourself as a user in that account.

Benefits?

• Passwords are 100% secured
• Other people can not see passwords
• Free to use

How Do I Use It?

Lastpass is the most frequently used app by me. I use it to fill out the login credentials of websites quickly. I also use it for my clients who want to share their ClickFunnels or other login credentials.

Pricing: Freemium (I never used paid plan, so it should be enough for 99% tasks)
Official Website: Lastpass.com
Best Use Case: Share login credentials securely
Is It Beginner Friendly? Yes
Support: Good. They also have a chatbot on the website.

#2. Waveapp

Are you always looking to create beautiful invoices for free? Or does your client ask for invoices? Or Are you looking for complete accounting software? Then Waveeapp is for you.

This app helps you stay productive by giving out a dashboard that you can use anytime to send invoices, track income & expenses, and analyze your finances. And the best thing? This app is entirely free with no strings attached.

Benefits?

• Analyzes P/L in a beautiful dashboard
• Cloud-based (No download required)
• Send invoices without watermark

How Do I Use It?

I sometimes use Payoneer to send my clients payment links, and Payoneer asks for invoices before you can make a payment link, so at that time this app helps me make a quick invoice with my company logo on it.

Pricing: 100% free
Official Website: Waveapps.com
Best Use Case: Make professional invoices
Is It Beginner Friendly? Yes
Support: Effective. They have a lot of docs and study material.

#3. Evernote

Evernote is a note-taking an app that you can use it anywhere, be it your mobile phone, desktop, or online. Being freelancer means we get a lot of thoughts while working on projects and Evernote helps a lot in putting our thoughts on a secure place. Plus it syncs with all your devices that means if you write on Evernote mobile app, then your ideas will be sync to desktop and web app too.

Benefits:

• Free for personal use with unlimited entries
• Neat and clean design
• Organize your notes with hashtags
• The sync feature is best
• Collaborate with team

How Do I Use It?

For me, I use this app to write my daily journaling. At the end of each day, I log into Evernote and write things like what went wrong, good and where should I focus, what was the best moments, etc., etc

Pricing: Freemium (but being freelancer, I never required paid plan)
Official Website: Evernote.com
Best Use Case: Capture ideas and thoughts quickly on a note
Is It Beginner Friendly? Yes
Support: Good. Huge open community.

#4. Google Docs

It needs no introduction. Google doc is a perfect free alternative to Microsoft Word. With the use of Google doc, you can write contracts, blog posts, share step-by-step guidance with a client or anything else that you want to convey through words.

Fun Fact: I am writing this blog using google doc. itself

Benefits:

• Unlimited doc files
• Formatting options
• Secure sharing options

Pricing: 100% Free
Official Website: docs.google.com
Best Use Case: Convey big messages through well-formatted content
Is It Beginner Friendly? Yes
Support: May not require but youtube has a good number of videoes on how to use google docs effectively.

#5. Google Sheet

As Google doc for Microsoft Word, Google Sheet is an Excel alternative. But do not get bogged down by thoughts of “excel sheet means only used by some data analysis with maths skills” in fact google sheet has more powerful features than that.

Here’s are a few things you can do with google sheet:

• Create/Manage tasks
• Schedule your weekly timetable
• Project management (assign tasks to team members)

How do I use it?

I use a sheet more than a few times a day. I use it to create tasks, explain things to clients in a step by step guide, scheduling my weekly timetable and organizing tasks, etc., etc

If you want my weekly timetable, then download it from here

Pricing: 100% Free
Official Website: docs.google.com
Best Use Case: Todo list management
Is It Beginner Friendly? Yes
Support: May not require, but youtube has excellent videos on how to use google docs effectively.

#6. Hubspot Email Tracking

Hubspot’s free email tracking chrome extension helps you track emails that you send to clients. For example, you can check who opened your email, when did they open, etc.

Benefits:

• Free to use
• Email tracking helps you craft a right email
• Email scheduler and templates

How do I use it?

For me, when I send proposals or quotations to the clients, I always track those emails, it helps me follow up on the right time based on whether clients have opened the email or not. So if a client has opened the email, then I will send email based on that vs. if the client has not opened the email then I will simply send a reminder.

Pricing: Freemium (with paid plans you get to track more emails)
Official Website: HubSpot Email Tracking
Best Use Case: Track emails
Is It Beginner Friendly? Yes
Support: Good quality.

#7. Forest: Stay focused

Now, this is one of my favorite entry in the list. Forest is a timer app that works like the Pomodoro technique with a twist. What it does it, when you set a timer, it assigns a tree to your timer. So if you focus for that amount of time, then you get to see your tree grows in that period. This focused app helps you beat the procrastination.

Benefits:

• Stay focus and beat procrastination
• Grow trees in real-world by just focusing on tasks
• What gets calculate is ought to increase. So if you do three sessions of 45 minutes, you will feel better and would want to do four sessions the next day.

How do I use it?

Daily I set 45 minutes timer on the app for 6-7 times in a day. So whenever that timer is ON. I only focus on a task at hand. Once the 45 minutes end, I do some fun activities for 10-15 minutes and again starts the timer.  Doing this helps my body with “reward system.” And our brain is full energetic when there is a reward involved in any activities.

Imagine having 6 sessions of 45 minutes daily with full focus for a month. That is 45*6 * 30 (days) = 8100 minutes, i.e., 135 hours of total focus dedication on your work. How much will that help you with your freelancing?

If you are working as a freelancer for a full time, then I recommend you to do 6-7 sessions of 45 minutes with full focus without distractions.

Pricing: Freemium (with paid plans you can plant trees in the real world)
Official Website: Forestapp.cc (Available on Android, iOS, and Chrome)
Best Use Case: Focus timer app
Is It Beginner Friendly? Yes
Support: Good quality.

Bonus Tool: Grammarly

Grammarly corrects your English grammar and frames long sentences with an easy to digest words. If English is not your primary language, then this tool with chrome extension should be installed on your browser.

Benefits:

• Correct grammar
• Improve vocabulary (select a word to find an alternative)
• Structure sentences like a native writer

How do I use it?

I use it for almost every time I am writing anything online, be it email, Facebook post, or blog post. Plus their newly added support for google docs makes it more effective.

Pricing: Freemium (the free plan is good enough to start)
Official Website: Grammarly (Available on Android, iOS, and Chrome)
Best Use Case: Corrects grammar
Is It Beginner Friendly? Yes
Support: Good quality.

Conclusion:

That was the list of 7 top productivity apps for freelancers which I personally use it. The list contains various tools like invoice maker, email tracker, and the app that helps you beat procrastination.

But remember all productivity apps are productive if you use it in a sugarcoat. If you keep searching for apps and wasting time playing with these tools, then you would be doing more harm to yourself than helping. So remember to use these productivity apps to boost your efficiency. With that, I will see you soon.

Download The PDF Of This Tool List

PS: Sometimes, while linking to the third party tools, I do use my affiliate links. However, these links wouldn’t charge higher pricing, in fact, they might offer you an exclusive discount. With these affiliate links, I do get a commission if you buy the product, this helps me run a website for free with quality content without charging you a cent.