To Do – to-do app and task manager
If you liked using Wunderlist before it was discontinued, you’ll like the To Do app too. It’s another Getting Things Done app, but this one will help you balance out work and life – when you work freelance, lines can get a little blurred.
As a Wunderlist’s natural successor, To Do has a lot of features Wunderlist had. It lets you:
make to-do lists and share them with your family, friends, and coworkers
assign tasks to collaborators
add attachments to tasks
prioritize tasks
add notes if you want to include extra information
You can also add tags to your tasks to keep them organized, for example, #work or #personal. It facilitates finding tasks in each category, all you need to do is click on the hashtag or type it in the search bar.
Cushion – planning app
Cushion is a planning app built by freelancers, so you can expect it caters to freelancing needs. You’ll be able to schedule and plan your work, control your budget, as well as manage your projects, emails, and expenses, all in one place.
Specifically, you can:
plan your work in a Calendar
view all your tasks (deadlines included) in a Gantt-like chart
send and track invoices
estimate the final price for clients
keep an eye on your financial goals
generate graphs showing your client work, projects, and lists
This app also helps you maintain a work-life balance – there’s a separate section where you can plan, keep track of, and schedule vacations.
Bidsketch – proposal app
Every freelancer needs to know how to craft a winning proposal – and Bidsketch helps you streamline your pitches to clients.
This app promises to cut the time you need to create and send out proposals in half, with:
reusable content features (with the option to have new client information inserted automatically)
data showing whether clients have opened your proposals, when, and for how long they viewed
You can also increase your proposal approval rate – the electronic signature feature may prompt potential clients to accept your pitches easier and faster.
Postbox – email manager
Emailing is a huge part of every freelancer’s life, and Postbox is designed to help you manage your inbox workload. You’ll have a place to store, organize, and group all your email accounts in one view.
Among other features, you’ll get:
a simple search engine to quickly find what you’re looking for (across accounts)
a “focus pane” that helps highlight only important emails
numerous shortcuts to help you navigate through your correspondences
You’ll also gain access to 70 response templates, for when you quickly need to send out various types of emails, such as job applications, introductory greetings, and outreach emails.
Oh My Zsh – an open-source framework
Oh my Zsh is an open-source framework (there are currently over 1000 contributors) that helps you streamline work on your command-line.
You’ll get to enjoy:
themes that offer various additional information to your editor
plugins for various packaging systems and programming languages
auto-completion for paths
various fonts
spelling correction
kill tab completion
easy setup for environment variables
shared command history where you can search through all your active shells
You’ll also get a number of features meant to speed up your work:
automatic tab completion to help you quickly find the tab you want
typing <UP> and part of a command to find a previously used command
a list with all your favorite git command aliases
a red/green arrow meant to indicate whether your command
