3 Free Tools That Increased My Freelance Earnings
You don’t need special software to minimize your distractions
I’m a total dork for productivity hacks.
The problem is I’m too stubborn to integrate a dozen apps into my workday. I want efficiency, not clutter, after all.
After a few months of working on my own, I’ve found ways to improve my productivity, which indirectly makes me more money.
Here’s the thing: not all of these tools are sexy 21st-century productivity apps. None of them will print money automatically for you. What they will do, however, is provide you with a currency priceless to freelancers: more time.
Extra time on your hands is conducive to spare cash in your pocket. Even an additional 15 minutes per day adds up. That’s time you can spend wrapping up contracts or finding new clients on Upwork.
Instead of wasting time manually doing tasks, I use these tools to help me.
Clockify
I used to input my billable hours manually. Ugh, what a chore.
When I started working, I timestamped my billable hours on a Google Sheet and timestamped it again when I stopped for breaks. I’d do this each day for every month.
Then, at the end of each month, I’d total however many days I worked per client and spend 20–30 minutes tallying everything and triple-checking my math.
Then I found Clockify. It’s a mobile app and website that tracks your working time. It also tracks your billable hours, so you don’t have to do all the annoying math once you’re ready to send your invoice. Now, I tap the Clockify timer when I’m ready to edit or write and specify which project I’m working on.
Not only does it save me time, but it’s a visual reminder of the work I’ve done. You can even set your rate per project to see how much money you’re making in real-time. That’s huge for me because it gives me peace of mind knowing I’m on track to pay my bills for the month.
Additionally, you can use Clockify to track your work habits. How long does it take you to accomplish a particular task? You can time yourself to see.
Binaural Beats
Here’s a free tool you can find on Youtube.
Binaural beats are a productivity game-changer. I’m listening to one right now while I type. How meta of me.
If you’ve never heard of binaural beats, they’re songs that loop the same sounds in and out. They trick your brain by making it lose track of time. Since the song is essentially a loop of the same sounds, you can’t mentally timestamp the music. This increases your focus on the task you’re working on.
I use binaural beats for my writing and all the types of editing I do. Regular music is distracting. I mean, how can you get work done when you’re singing your lungs out to the new Lord Huron album you’ve already listened to five times? You can’t! But maybe that’s just me.
Binaural beats provide one unique way to enter the flow state.
When you reach this state, you work more efficiently. When your work becomes second nature, money has a way of finding you.
Multitasking
Before you say, Ryan, what the hell? How is multitasking a tool? Just hold your horses, and I’ll explain.
If you’re like me, you have a lot of projects on your plate. Here’s what I’m working on in a given day:
Blogging
Video editing
Web design
eBook writing
Zoom meetings
Time spent finding more work
Mix in cooking, cleaning, working out, and some alone time; there isn’t much wiggle room throughout the day.
Enter a little thing I like to call, well, what we call multitasking. The trick is to combine two things you don’t necessarily like doing.
Here’s an example:
I hate tanning. It’s boring, and I don’t like feeling hot. The problem is I’m going to Miami in a few weeks, so I need to fix my farmer’s tan.
To convince myself to go outside for an hour and a half, I decided to knock out a blog post or two in the meantime. I put on some binaural beats and the time went much quicker than I expected.
Honestly, it’s great because I killed two birds with one stone. I finished tanning and didn’t feel pressured to stay up into the late-night writing.
When I knock out the writing task early in the day, I’m left with more room to accomplish other goals.
Those goals could be one of many things. From experience, time is a priceless currency I wish I had more of. The days go by fast, and if I don’t meet a certain quota, I feel unwell by 9 PM. Multitasking, a tool as I refer to it, saves me from putting unnecessary pressure on myself.
Give it a shot. What two tasks can you put together?
Final thought
Freelance tools don’t have to be fancy software peddled to you by influencers with affiliate links.
The important thing is to figure out what works for you. This is a shortlist of ideas, but I like it this way because it’s simple. If you want to earn more, you must minimize your distractions.
Save your time for finding more high-paying clients. This mindset 3x’d my freelancing income.
Tools are a means to an end. When productivity hacks become the focus, where is the time for work? Try these for yourself and earn your precious time back.