Many more of us have found ourselves living the freelance life these days, with the perks of flexible hours and work from home potential, not to mention a far less stable jobs market, prompting a major shift in how we choose to earn a living.
It’s easy to glamorize the life of a freelancer, of course, but it comes with a whole bevy of new demands on your time and resources, not to mention a fundamental irregularity to your workload and income. The following apps are the perfect tools to help freelancers manage things a little better.
Upwork [Free]
One of the biggest challenges for any freelancer is finding a steady stream of work. Aimed explicitly at freelancers, Upwork is a popular hub that helps you to search, save, and apply for jobs. It’s essentially a way to connect freelancers with the companies that employ them, covering across more than 70 categories of work. The global reach of Upwork helps you expand your possibilities considerably, while the Upwork Payment Protection feature helps you to get paid on time.
Meeter [Free]
Freelance life can often feel like a series of video conference calls across several competing services. It can be tough to keep up, which is where Meeter comes in. The app lets you manage your calls across several major video call services, including Zoom, Teams, Hangouts, and Webex. By connecting up your calendar, Meeter will pull all of your scheduled call information together into one place, so you’ll never miss an important virtual meeting again.
Outlook [Free]
It’s hardly a niche app, but looked at from the perspective of a freelancer, Outlook is close to a must-have app. By pulling two of the most important things together into one app – email and calendar – Outlook makes communication and scheduling a single gloriously integrated task. Add in a smart inbox that helps you filter out the white noise inherent to email, one-tap meeting availability sharing, and of course seamless Office integration, and Outlook makes a powerful case for being a freelancer’s best friend.
Slack [Free]
Working as a freelancer can often find you essentially working as a part-time member of several established office-based teams. It can be hard to juggle these competing demands whilst maintaining that ‘part of the team’ spirit. Slack has been an absolute godsend here, letting you hop between multiple virtual offices. It goes well beyond a simple DM service, with easy file sharing, integrated calls, real time huddles, and tight integration with many of your favourite apps.
