We can do all we want, have the skills and awesome personality but without the right tools, our work would appear shoddy and no one will stick around after that.PERIOD.

A workman is only as good as his tools. A freelancer’s toolchest is an armoury of skill related tools and productivity tools. Lets delve into them shall we?

  1. Skill-related Tools: These tools depend on the service you offer. A graphics designer’s tools differ from those of a writer. To do quality jobs, invest in quality tools.
  2. Productivity Tools: These are your arsenal. Not the football club. These tools will lessen your workload and give you more time to handle the needful things. There are tools for time management, scheduling, task management, note taking, social network management, etc.
  • Time Management Tools: As a freelancer, time is often your worst enemy. You will have several deadlines to meet. You must therefore,  master time and put it to good use when working on tasks. There are a number of your apps to help master time such as Klok, RescueTime and Timely. Many of these apps are cross-platform, allowing you manage your time on and off your PC.

Read more: 9 Time Management Apps to Organize Your Life and Keep You on Track

  • Scheduling Tools: A freelancer needs his deadlines and meetings. Scheduling tools are similar to time management tools but they offer a broader scope and time frame, allowing you plan events, tasks, meetings and deadlines weeks and even months ahead. Calendars app such as Google Calendar, Calendly, Doodle, Assistant.to shine in this area. You’d do well to pick a free version as you start out. 

Read more: Best meeting schedulers

  • Task Management Tools /Note Takers: Sometimes its difficult handling the many aspects in a project. Type this, read that, clear that, get this …it can go on and on and it seems like you are not getting any headway. Don’t worry, Task managers to the rescue. Using a Task manager with checklists and to-dos can help you organise much of the clutter in a project. I for one use Google Keep to handle my bill payments. There are others like Wunderlist who do good jobs at managing tasks.

Note takers on the other hand provide a quick and easy way to make and save little bits of information for future reference. Many are free and some also come with sync capabilities to write once, see everywhere. I personally favour Evernote for my note making. I’ve switched phones severally and I don’t have to worry about losing my notes and write ups. You can make your pick from the link below.

Read more: 40 of the Best Task apps

  • Social Media Management Tools: It’s no good being a skilled freelancer if there is no evidence to show. Social Media platforms offer an avenue to show your work and meet clients outside of your business platform or website but keeping all the platforms in line can be hectic. SMMTs as they are called, help align all your social networks in order, take the load of micromanaging each social media account and let you provide consistent content all round. A few like Hootsuite, SproutSocial, MailChimp helps sort out varying aspects of the social network.

Read more: 12 Social Media marketing platform.

Need more insight? Read more: 25 Productivity tools for freelancers

A freelancer’s tools are an extension of his skill just as a sword is an extension of a warrior’s prowess. A fine sword cannot save a poor warrior just as excellent tools can’t beautify poor work. Pick and use wisely.

Thank you for following through our freelance course. It’s been wonderful and insightful. We hope you gained some knowledge to improve your work and guide you into being a freelancer. Goodluck and Godspeed. CLASS DISMISSED. 

If you want to know what freelancing is all about, check our previous posts here.

If you are already a freelancer, share your favorite work tools with us. We would love to hear them.

Want to know what MySkillDomain is about? Just Google!

Or just Sign up on MySkillDomain.