Self-Employed? Your Time IS Money. How Do You Spend It?
Sometimes the hardest part about being self-employed is simply getting things done. As a solopreneur you juggle lots of hats– especially when you first start your business. And until you can start to delegate tasks, and build a team to support your one person show, you have to be ultra-disciplined and organized if you plan to set yourself up for success as a solopreneur.
Today, I’m going to share some of my favorite time management and productivity tools on the web that will help keep you and your business in-line and on task. One reason I like online tools is because you can access them from anywhere, and usually on any device. This makes it very easy to stay on top of everything in your business no matter where you are or what you’re facing.
Here are my top picks:
Google Calendar – Google offers and incredible number of apps along with their Gmail e-mail service, and one of those apps is Google Calendar.
Google calendar (aka Gcal) is great for the solopreneur because it allows you to create multiple calendars within one account. This means you can have one calendar for business, one for personal, and one for marketing activities, etc.
Gcal also syncs with your mobile devices (so you can access it anywhere) and you can setup both e-mail and text reminders. My all time favorite feature on Gcal however is its ability to convert natural language text into organized appointments. All you need to do is use the “Quick Add” feature and type “Meeting with J. Smith, 12 pm Friday for one hour,” and it will formally document the appointment on your calendar FOR YOU! Most importantly, Gcal makes it easy to share your calendar with other people. This is great because as you grow and expand your business you may need your team to have access to specific calendars. Gcal does that with the click of a button.
Action Method – I first learned of Action Method working with one of my VAs who preferred the system. At first it seemed kind of foreign and redundant, but once you get into the system everything becomes second nature. Action Method is a project management system that allows you to centrally manage all to-dos, projects, and events that you and your team may be working on. Action Method allows you to choose what you delegate to whom, and makes it easy to upload files for instant access.
At first I thought Action Method would be redundant – I mean why couldn’t I just delegate tasks using e-mail? But once I started using it, its virtue became readily apparent. Going into e-mail is a bit like dancing with the Devil when it comes to productivity. If you’re batching e-mail tasks (as you should be), then going into your email account to delegate tasks can really trip you up when you spot hat really juicy e-mail from your friend with the subject line “Pictures of last night.” Using a system like Action Method helps you avoid the distraction all together.
Grammarly – Grammarly is the solopreneur’s right-hand man when it comes to writing well. An advanced grammar and writing support software, Grammarly is a great tool for those of us who aren’t the best writers. If you are submitting proposals, writing articles, or sending out letters, Grammarly can give you the peace of mind to know that your writing isn’t ridiculous. You can select the style of writing you seek to attain, and Grammarly will check for errors and explain how to correct the errors it finds. Grammarly is not perfect, especially if you do a lot of casual writing like I do here on marleeward.com, but it will catch glaring error that your word processor would otherwise overlook. Until you can afford a professional proofer, Grammarly is the self-employed professional’s best friend.
Ta-da Lists – I’m a HUGE lists person. I live off of lists. Admittedly I prefer hand-written lists because I like the feel of physically crossing a task off of my list. There’s a sense of satisfaction that just can’t be replaced with the click of a mouse. That said, if you don’t need the vindication that comes along with putting a line through your to-dos, Ta-da Lists by 37 Signals is the way to go. With Ta-da Lists you can make multiple lists, share them with others, subscribe to lists, and email yourself a copy. Accessible via mobile and from any computer, Ta-da Lists let’s you know what you have to-do anywhere, anytime.
myMemorizer – As a solopreneur, you can have a lot on your mind. Reminding yourself and your team to do things can sometimes get overwhelming. Enter myMemorizer. myMemorizer is a reminding service that allows you to add events or specific dates to shared groups. Then, it will send out a reminder as scheduled via e-mail or text message to your mobile phone.
Pandora – Yes, Pandora, the online radio station that rocks! I know it’s not a time management tool per se, but I have to tell you nothing keeps me pumped like some good music while I work. Here’s the super cool thing about Pandora. Have a favorite artist or genre? Well, you can build a custom radio station around them! Just put their name into the station selection and Pandora will populate songs like the artist or genre you chose automatically. It’s a gem. There are mobile versions too.
That’s all great and all, but I can’t get a handle on time-management to begin with!
If all those tools sound great to you, but you just can’t see how you can use them, or if you really don’t know how to organize your time to start, try Manic Time. Manic Time is time tracking software that actively tracks what you are doing on your computer so that analyzing your daily work flow is easy. Taking control of your time starts with becoming aware of how you spend it. Manic Time makes that easy to do. Check out their video tutorials to see Manic Time in action.
You can also put some tools in place to help discipline yourself when it comes to time-management. One simple solution is to use a stop watch while you conduct certain tasks. This simple online stopwatch is a great tool for allocating a certain amount of time per activity. Once it buzzes – your time is up!
Or, if you really want to get serious about getting focused try a distraction blocking software like Concentrate for Mac or iFreeFace for PC. Both programs allow you to block websites, games, and e-mail for specified periods of time. This way even if you’re tempted, you can click to your heart’s content to no avail.
A Few More Things You Might Find Helpful
Staying focused is essential to success when you’re self-employed. When there is no one looking in on you, and no one to “report to” in real-time, it’s easy to fritter away your time. If you struggle with staying focused, read this article from Harvard Business Review – I think it will set you in the right direction.
And if you manage time okay, but often feel overwhelmed. Here’s a method for kicking overwhelm to the curb, and a resource for making to-do lists doable.
Lastly, if you didn’t see any time management tools that would be useful to you on this list, check out this list of 100 online project management tools. But be sure you don’t get off task and waste a bunch of time there! Maybe you’ll want to use the stop watch method for that link. 
Do you have a time management application or software that makes your life easier as a solopreneur? If so, let us know in the comments below!
P.S. Are you part of the KAT crew? If not, you should consider it. Sign up here and get instant access to my free e-mail training program designed to help you build your business totally free!
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
thanks for sharing such informative stuff..
My favorite management tool is IQTELL. It is extremely customizable and new, useful features are constantly released.
thanks for the list. I enjoyed reading this!
Great reminder about the action method, I really have to get back into using it. Also turntable dot fm is a good music site.
Whoa! Awesome resources. I do wish Grammarly was a completely free app (I have a thing for open source), I need it, but its not worth the money just yet. Do you know of any similar, free apps like Grammarly? Thank you
Great choices and focus.
One of the ironies of time management and task management applications and tools is how often or how easy it is to fall into the trap of a death by a 1,000 paper cuts. That’s where our ability to take a look from the balcony and see the forest for the trees can save us every time.
I like to say that there is no way we can manage time because time will keep on ticking weather we like it or not. Instead we should learn to manage ourselves in time!
Wow, so many cool tools Marlee!
The one that I really like ( I don’t think I saw it here) is Self Control – http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/31289/selfcontrol (For Mac Users only).
This tool is pretty cool for those that have a hard time getting of social media or other sites that are time wasteful.
Are you do is type in the site name and how long you want the timer to block that site for and your set.
Not even a system reboot will help reset the timer or allow you to access the site. Once you set the timer you MUST wait for that time to lapse.
In other words, it forces you to be productive!
I hope this helps someone out there! PS: It’s FREE!
Thanks for the addition to the list, Hector! Much appreciated.
Being a project manager in my square job, I appreciate this post a lot. Organization is key to productivity.
Personally, here are a few things that I use.
Project Management
*Smartsheets. This is a Google Apps software for collaborative project scheduling.
Collaboration Tools
*Google Docs. Everything you could ask for in creating documents, spreadsheets, slide shows, forms, etc. Multiple people can work on the same document at once!
*Drop Box. Drop files anywhere and retrieve anywhere and share with anyone.
Task Lists
Evernote. From the PC to Android this software allows you to make and collaborate on notes, tasks list, deliverables, etc.
I certainly use Google Calendar and will be checking out Action Method as soon as I hit submit.
Thanks for sharing these gems Marlee.
I’m going to checkout Ta-Da List too!
Awesome list of tools. ManicTime looks great; I especially like the way it automatically tracks the document you are working on.
I read through the post but I have to go back again and try all of these. First thing was signing up for Ta Da list, I love to do lists too and I have piles of them and forget to look at them, but still keep making them
Is the Action Method free app? I am trying to see before I sign up but seems I am missing it?
Action Method looks pretty cool! And it works with Android so that’s the icing right there.
Grammarly could definitely be a lifesaver. I know a few peeps that could/should be using this. Including myself
Especially since using the service on my comment here found “7 critical writing issues” that I need to address. Oh, the shame.
Thanks for a great write-up!
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