Virtually six years in the past, after years of working as a contract author on nights and weekends, I give up my salaried job and began working for myself full-time. As may very well be anticipated, it took some time for me to construct my shopper base and fill my schedule with assignments (shoutout to The Everygirl for being the primary publication to hitch my newly self-employed roster!). Conserving monitor of a handful of article assignments didn’t require an intricate group system in the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, however it wasn’t lengthy earlier than I began to lose monitor of my duties as my workload elevated.
Luckily, issues started to alter rapidly for me and my enterprise as I expanded my shopper base and began providing a better number of content material creation and digital advertising providers, however sadly, that meant my to-do record was overflowing and have become overwhelming and tough to handle. Figuring out my shoppers wouldn’t be impressed with missed particulars or deadlines, I turned to Todoist (a job administration system) for assist, and let me simply say that I’ve been hooked ever since.
When you don’t need to be self-employed to get lots out of Todoist, I’d be doing each different entrepreneur on the market a disservice if I didn’t stroll you thru particularly how this job administration system helps me keep on prime of my self-employed sport. I’m breaking down its options together with how I take advantage of it to be an environment friendly enterprise proprietor forward.
What’s Todoist?
Todoist is a job supervisor and to-do record app that makes it simple to maintain up with all your duties, regardless of how huge or small they’re. Since it may be built-in with over 80 apps and is accessible throughout quite a lot of working techniques and units—together with desktops, smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches—its foremost job is to maintain you organized. As a Mac consumer, I like that the app syncs on my telephone, pill, desktop, and laptop computer pc, so I can sort out my to-do record regardless of the place I’m or what machine I’m utilizing.
Options
Throughout the device, you possibly can create initiatives, priorities, labels, duties, sub-tasks, reoccurring due dates, reminders, and extra. Versatile views permit you to hold a fowl’s eye view of upcoming work or concentrate on what it’s essential to do on a sure day, relying on how you want to visualise your workload. Equally, you possibly can change between record, calendar, or board views for simpler planning and monitoring. For instance, in case you are engaged on a challenge for a shopper, you possibly can view the place every job lies on a calendar view or simply check out your to-do record for the day (or upcoming days) to see what duties it’s essential to sort out to maintain your challenge on monitor.
One in all my favourite (and most used) options is the flexibility to drop vital notes and particulars right into a job description that I don’t need to slip via the cracks. It’s extremely helpful to maintain duties open on my telephone by way of the app after I’m on shopper calls, so when a shopper is throwing a bunch of small particulars and deadlines my method, I can jot them down in duties that they apply to. Irrespective of how you favor to view and sustain along with your work or how detail-oriented your work duties are, options like this one, plus the options beforehand talked about, make focusing in your most urgent to-dos a breeze.
Pricing
For a lot of entrepreneurs, the free model of this app provides sufficient options to seamlessly handle your work; nonetheless, there are two paid choices if you’d like extra capabilities. The Professional plan is $4 per thirty days and offers you entry to extra initiatives, an AI assistant, an extended exercise historical past, and among the extra useful options like setting reminders. The Marketing strategy is $6 per thirty days and offers you entry to all of these issues, plus the flexibility to create a shared workforce workspace and collaborate with workforce members. I attempt to hold my enterprise bills good and lean, however after utilizing the free model of this device and realizing it was the saving grace, I upgraded to the Professional plan, which, to me, is a small worth to pay for a way organized it retains me.
How you should use Todoist to handle self-employment
Maintaining with deadlines
I like digital group device, however I’m additionally a paper planner lover via and thru. The bodily and visible aspect helps me to remain clear-headed. Nevertheless, if I attempted to write down down each to-do I had on the horizon, my planner would simply overwhelm me.
That is the place Todoist is available in. I don’t use it to trace my greatest deadlines, like the ultimate product of an article. As an alternative, I take advantage of it to sort out all of the tiny deadlines that lead as much as an enormous one. For instance, let’s say I must interview a dermatologist for an upcoming skincare story. I might write the article deadline down in my planner, however I might add mini deadlines in regards to the interview to the app: a deadline for after I want to achieve out to potential interview topics, a deadline for following up with them, and a deadline for prepping for the interview. Including all of these tiny deadlines to my planner can be overkill, however it’s fast and simple in Todoist.
It might appear a bit overkill to make use of a paper planner and a digital task-planning app, however I discover having these two techniques in place helps me keep away from lacking any deadlines. By placing the ultimate challenge deadline in my paper calendar, I at all times know what huge to-dos are on the horizon, however Todoist makes it a lot simpler to remain on prime of the smaller duties that make up these huge initiatives. I like that I can simply shift round mini-due dates digitally, which might be a large number if I attempted to consistently make modifications in my bodily planner. That being stated, many individuals will discover that Todoist is all they should keep organized—particularly since you possibly can sync it with a digital calendar. I simply can’t assist my love of paper planners.
Managing admin work
On prime of task deadlines, I even have a variety of admin-related deadlines that may be simple to let slip via the cracks. Working with a variety of completely different publications and types (we’re speaking round 30 yearly) may be very enjoyable, but additionally requires staying on prime of various admin deadlines—like remembering what day of the month every shopper likes to obtain invoices. Any time an admin request comes via from a shopper (like signing up for brand spanking new software program or sending them knowledgeable bio), I add it to the app ASAP so I don’t neglect about it.
On prime of client-related admin duties, I hold monitor of all of my private admin duties in Todoist that hold my enterprise working easily, equivalent to:
- Quarterly tax fee deadlines
- Canceling free trials or subscriptions to software program
- Following up with shoppers on overdue invoices
- Following up with potential shoppers, interview topics, and many others.
- Circling again with previous shoppers to re-engage
- Cleansing up my inbox
- Checking in with my accountant
- Refreshing my enterprise web site
Organizing larger initiatives
My favourite aspect of Todoist is how one can arrange your duties right into a “challenge” as a substitute of getting one huge record of duties. This function doesn’t have to use to a selected challenge you’re engaged on (though it could)—as a substitute, it permits you to break your work into classes. For instance, I create a challenge for every shopper I work with, a challenge particularly for my private admin work, and a challenge that homes all of my invoices. I discover breaking down my duties by challenge (or class) helps me keep extra organized. In actual fact, one of many causes I pay for a subscription is as a result of it offers me the flexibility to create much more initiatives.
A few of your assignments may be easy and gained’t require you to construct out a challenge, however let’s say you’re engaged on an book for a shopper, for instance. You possibly can title your challenge “[client name] book” after which create a collection of duties that would embrace creating an e-book define, researching matters, submitting the primary draft to the shopper, making obligatory edits, and so forth.
By preserving all of my like duties collectively, I discover that it’s simpler to view the standing of a challenge and see the place I may be falling behind. Equally, I can simply view a challenge and replace a shopper on its progress. Whether or not you may have a variety of project-based work or simply merely like to prepare your work into buckets, you’ll actually love this function.
Balancing tasks exterior of labor
Once you work for your self, it may be simple to let the hustle and bustle of working your small business distract out of your private life. Because of this I additionally use Todoist to remain on prime of private duties. For instance, I’ve duties to set physician appointments or purchase birthday presents for family members. I even have duties that remind me to pay my payments or cancel subscriptions.
Life will get busy, so having one clear place to remain organized and pleasant reminders to nudge you alongside generally is a huge assist. For those who’re planning a marriage, overseeing a house renovation, or tackling any type of huge private endeavor, making a challenge throughout the app to deal with all your to-dos shall be a sport changer.
It’s really easy to seize a Put up-It notice or random pocket book, write down issues it’s essential to get to, and promptly neglect about them. Having my tasks entrance and heart (and in a single place) has made managing each my skilled and private life extra environment friendly. Plus, it saves me a variety of time and helps me obtain a greater work-life steadiness, and who doesn’t need that?
Supply: The Every Girl
