Consultants: 5 useful tools to be more productive
Being a freelance consultant means being free to work from wherever you want, whenever you want to. But it also means that you have to be organized, efficient and disciplined. So, in order to make your life easier and optimize your time, we listed 5 amazing tools that will help you be more productive in just a few clicks!
Trello
Whether you work by yourself or with a team, Trello is set to become your new best friend. This online organization tool works like a kanban, making it a great ally for project management! What we love most is that it gives you an excellent visualization of the tasks and their progress, thanks to smart options like the setting up of deadlines, the personalization of color tags or the assignment of “cards” (tasks, basically) to specific people. Trello makes it super easy for a whole team to edit cards and participate in real time in one project. It’s the perfect tool for consultants who don’t work on the spot all the time!
Get started on Trello.com
Nomadlist
Just because you’re a freelance consultant doesn’t mean you have to spend your days in pajamas sitting on your couch. Nomadlist helps digital nomads and freelancers around the world to find the best coworking spaces around. Thinking “nah, I like working from home in my pajamas”? Think twice : productivity also comes from healthy habits, like getting dressed in the morning, exchanging about your work with like-minded people, taking coffee breaks and actually separate your personal life from your professional life.
Get started on nomadlist.com
Tide
When you’re a consultant working by yourself, efficient time management and focus can be major challenges. Tide is an app with a very simple principle : work according to the Pomodoro technique — perform a task for 25 minutes then take a 5 minute break — with a background noise. But how will this make you more productive? The idea is that having a limited time to work on a task stimulates you and forces you to be more efficient. The background noises (Forenoon, Rain, Forest, Muse, and Cafe) have relaxing virtues that help you focus. And it works.
Todoist
Are you a to-do list maniac? If so, you’ll love Todoist. And if not, Todoist will turn you into one. I hear your cynical voice : “but it’s just a digital to-do list, what’s the big deal?”. Yes, but God is it perfectly built and thought out! You can manage a lot of different lists, add tasks in each list, assign tasks to other people… Think about Todoist as your second, outsourced brain. And that’s the goal of any task management tool : to free up some available human brain time, store the info and remind you about it at the right time.
Get started on todoist.com
Zapier
Ever wished “if only I could automate this little yet time-consuming stupid task”? Well, wish no more, Zapier does that! In short, Zapier is a web service that helps you link the different web apps you use every day in order to automate actions between those apps. Not quite clear yet? Imagine being able to create Trello cards from new Gmail emails, or to save Gmail attachments to Dropbox, or even share your latest WordPress posts to your Facebook page. Zapier does the link between all of these apps and more for you, in order to make your life easier.
Get started on zapier.com .