1099 Lyfe: 6 Apps and Tools You Need to Be Your Most Productive
Consider us your work from homies.
Photo: Ekaterina Bolovtsova from Pexels
Oh, the freelance world. Charming in its lack of predictability, cutthroat when it comes to competition, and total chaos when it comes to organization.
When it’s you vs. your inbox, deadline, receipts, mileage, and hustle there is a lot that can get lost in the fray. Until now.
It’s 1099 problems, but an app ain’t one. We’re rounding up some of our favorite apps and tools for freelancers to make life, organization, and even next year’s taxes that much easier. That way you can focus on the important stuff: like entrepreneur world wide web domination.
WriteRoom
Are you prone to distraction? Symptoms include: checking Instagram before reading a full paragraph, shopping online, vanity googling, googling exes, checking your RSS feed, and getting in Facebook arguments with your grandma. When you’re a freelancer, everything and anything is a welcome diversion. WriteRoom is a full-screen writing environment to minimize distractions and is super helpful when it comes to re-disciplining yourself. It’s obviously great for writers, but it also works when brainstorming ideas for brands. It’s a way to block out the noise and focus on the ideas in your brain.
“Block out the noise and focus on the ideas in your brain.”
MileIQ
If you use your personal vehicle for work, every mile you drive is worth 58 cents in tax deduction of mileage reimbursement. But logging that? Forget it. (And you do.)
The average MileIQ customer is logging $6,900 in mileage deductions. It’s an app that catches every drive, easily classifies drives as business or personal, and gives you a report with the push of a button.
Receiptmate
This is a fully integrated companion app for Evernote (also useful) that allows you to scan your receipts directly into Evernote, enter the amounts (or highlight the total and the app will read), organize and tag, and report on the totals. You don’t need an overcomplicated filing system or that shoebox under your bed (or worse, the center console in your car) because you can throw your receipts away after you scan them. Bless.
Apple Notes (yes, Apple Notes)
The notes app has come a long way. (Remember when everyone was jumping Apple ship to use the aforementioned Evernote?) You can collaborate with multiple people, live, in the notes app. For a freelancer, this means you can create interactive checklists and save time bouncing ideas back and forth in email. Even if you work alone, collaboration is crucial.
Stay Focusd
Have you ever thought, “Gosh, I would be so successful if it weren’t for the internet? Stay Focussd is a tool that blocks the amount of time you can spend on time-suck sites. It’s an app you manage yourself and is customizable. The way it works is simple. You choose the sites you want to block for a specific amount of time. If you are a freelancer who is chronically obsessed with social media, this app could help you immensely.
Toggl
If you need help tracking your hours, Toggl is the leading timesheet app for tracking hours. You can set multiple billable rates for various projects and you can organize as many projects as you can possibly juggle. They say that if you can measure it, you can improve it. Knowing exactly how long it’s taking you to complete certain projects will help you adjust billing and helps increase productivity.
Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.
This story was originally published on June 16, 2016, and has since been updated.
MORE ON THE BLOG
The 5 Best Free Apps to Help Your Job Hunt Now
Get the career edge on yourself.
photo credit: Sarah Natasha Photography
JOB HUNT.
There are few words that cause such considerable strain, anxiety, and YES! Heartache. Searching for the right job is as time consuming as searching for Mr. or Mrs. Right. But just as the dating world has gone the way of the app, so has the job search. And these 5 apps will help you land the career of your dreams instead of your career of right now.
We have faith in the system.
Good & Co.
Cost: Free
Let’s start at the beginning. Maybe you have NO IDEA what you want to do. The good news is, you can’t be stuck in a career rut, until you find yourself a career. Good & Co. wants to help you get there (to the career, not the rut.)
"Good news: you can’t be stuck in a career rut, until you find yourself a career."
Tweet this.
This app is designed to help you find a cultural company fit. What does that mean? It’s a personality quiz that asks you a series of questions based on measuring eight personality factors, including the academic, clinical, and organizational psychology gold standard ‘Big Five’ – the five basic building blocks of personality, supported by a wealth of empirical research reaching back many decades.
It’s like career day at school, but the counselor has been replaced by an app.
According to the Wall Street Journal, it’s a “personality test that raises the bar” and hopefully your salary when you find your niche and hit your career stride.
Resume Star
Cost: Free
Writing a resume doesn’t have to be difficult, but it is a crucial component of the job-seeking process.
Resume Star is credited as one of the easiest (and free!) resume builders on the app market. It is a precision targeted and professionally typeset resume-- which, two LA-recruiters will tell you is key to scoring the interview. (Find their tips on NAILING that interview here.)
You type in your information and Resume Star produces a clean, correctly formatted PDF that you can email, post, or print. It’s the first step in standing out.
Jobr.
Cost: Free
Swipe right on your career? That’s the idea with Jobr.
Jobr lets you advance your career by easily browsing for jobs and connecting with employers without the hassle of a formal job search. Engage with recruiters at top companies and only spend time on those interested in hiring you! Jobr shows you positions it thinks you’d be interesting and allows you to anonymously “Like” or “Pass.” If a hiring manager is interesting in you, Jobr makes the introduction and allows you to chat within the app. It works the same way for recruiters.
It’s a simple and informal way to get to weed out jobs that don’t make sense and chat through the ones that do.
BumbleBizz
Cost: Free, but Bumble does have plans to monetize their apps in the future
This one is from the genius of Whitney Wolfe. The Founder of Bumble wants to help you network, professionally. With Bizz, every swipe you make is an opportunity to expand your professional landscape and make empowered career moves.
BumbleBizz, like Bumble, will require the female users to initiate conversation. The app will exist within the Bumble framework and users will be able to move back and forth between dating on Bumble, career contacts on Bizz, or making friends on BumbleBFF. (Who needs to go outside!?)
This is one beehive that wants you connecting and making plans for your future-- in more ways than one.
Glassdoor
Cost: Free
Do you know what your earning potential is? Glassdoor job search not only gives you the latest job listing, it also provides applicants with an inside look at company reviews, salaries, benefits, and office photos by those who know the company from the inside out-- the employees.
It’s a comprehensive career community that gives you the edge on yourself.
MORE FROM OUR BLOG
Wait, What?! How This Founder Is Applying the Tinder Model to Motherhood
Motherhood used to be about wiping, not swiping.
We're not going to mince words. The solo dolo doldrums of new motherhood is real. Too real. We'd say it's almost harder to find your #momsquad than to master breastfeeding (which, power to all breastfeeding mamas and your boobs; it's no walk in the park).
This thinking is exactly what drove Michelle Kennedy, the former deputy CEO of European dating app Badoo, to develop Peanut, a social app aimed at platonically connecting mothers who feel isolated, alone, and often cut off from friends and their old lives. It's a pain point for many women (which means, there's a solve). "When you're up for a 2am feed and your friends are just leaving the club, those feelings can compound and you wonder 'What does Michelle the mommy look like? Do I have to change?'” the founder shares. The answer the mom and business woman arrived at was no. You certainly don't have to change. But that doesn't mean you have to feel alone.
Taking what she learned from the dating app space, Michelle applied to the same thinking to motherhood. As a generation armed with a fleet of apps at our disposal, from transportation to shopping, to dating and streaming music, Michelle, who was the first of her friends to give birth in 2013, decided that moms "should be able to have that too." And it didn't have to be through a patronizing or unsexy product. "I really learned a lot from working in the dating industry," she says. Including, a unique understanding of how, why, and when people use social apps. It's why the app includes a poll feature and a scheduling feature, making it easier for moms to meet up-- which is highly encouraged.
The founder says Peanut is not meant as substitution for grabbing coffee with a mom friend in person, but rather, the point is "break down the barriers to make it easier to have the conversation." For Michelle that means any conversation. "Yes, sometimes it is not all roses when you become a mommy and that is OK. It's safe to say that. It won’t make you a bad mom and no one is going to judge you. And sometimes you drop plates and you feel like the worst mom in the world or employee, or partner. Whatever it is we can keep having those conversations and it is all OK."
Peanut is the barrier to entry for many moms who are too anxious to approach strangers in the park. When she became a new mom, Michelle says, "I could never approach those groups of women who looked like they really have it together and like they were all so close. I couldn't put myself out there in case I got turned down. I used to mentally exhaust myself, as I judged them thinking about them judging me."
She recalls a bad experience in a Starbucks when her own son was tiny. She saw a woman who looked like she had it together and so Michelle gathered her courage and asked if they might want to get together. "She then said to me, 'You know what I’m so busy at the moment I don’t want to take your number incase I never get back to you.' I was so traumatized by this. So I thought is there a way to erase all of this and make it easy?"
"Sometimes you drop plates and you feel like the worst mom in the world...it is all OK."
Tweet this.
It's also why Peanut uses the double opt-in model favored by dating apps. "You have to think about a woman and the position she's in and how rejection would feel-- especially if it's her and her child. It's one thing for you to reject me for a date, but if you reject me and my baby, that's a whole different ballgame." Michelle insists that the way Peanut works protects "your dignity and your pride. You can put yourself out there first and swipe right. The other mom will never know unless they swipe right on you too."
Though meeting a mom through an app might initially feel impersonal, it's the way we operate. And in this case, Michelle insists that a picture is worth a thousand words. "If you see another woman's profile, it is never about her picture. You are looking for the clue in her picture. Like is she wearing hiking boots, is that part of who she is, or is she eating food, where is she eating, what is she eating? You are always looking for those social cues, that look and acknowledgment that says 'let's play next to each and play together.'"
She also insists that, "Anything we do on our phones has to be an extension of what we are doing in our every day lives, otherwise we aren’t going to use it." And using it women are. After all, we all get by with a little help from our tech.
Follow Peanut on IG here. Photo credit: Peanut
Feel like sharing your struggles as a new mom? Comment below. We got you.
MORE FROM OUR BLOG
Instagram Just Released Snapchat-Like Feature, But Here’s Why You’ll Use It
Carbon copy cat? Maybe. But it's in the prime position to work.
Gather 'round, it's story time kids.
This morning Instagram introduced Instagram Stories, a new feature that lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile. As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear together in a slideshow format: your story.
In a blog post the app announced, "With Instagram Stories, you don’t have to worry about over-posting. Instead, you can share as much as you want throughout the day — with as much creativity as you want. You can bring your story to life in new ways with text and drawing tools. The photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on your profile grid or in feed."
Instagram has long been the "curated" social media. It's where users, brands, and influencers give the public a highlight reel of their life. No more. TechCrunch scored an interview with IG CEO Kevin Systrom who admitted to publication, “They deserve all the credit,” while insisting, “This isn’t about who invented something. This is about a format, and how you take it to a network and put your own spin on it.”
Stories is the spot where you can upload all of the stuff that isn't great for your grid-- because from a brand and gaining follower perspective we've heard over and over again how important it is to "get your grid right."
With Stories you can doodle, draw, and like Snapchat, they'll disappear after 24-hours.
At the top of your feed there will be a bar featuring stories from your best friends and favorite accounts. When the user adds something new to their story the profile will have a colorful ring around it. To see said story you tap the profile photo.
The feature follows the privacy settings on your account. You can also hide Stories from followers you don't want checking in.
According to the post, "Instagram has always been a place to share the moments you want to remember. Now you can share your highlights and everything in between, too."
It also solves the "too many apps, NO MORE!" crisis that many people have expressed anxiety over. Instagram Stories is the first useful attempt to consolidate the overwhelm of social. Clone or not, people will use it simply out of convenience. Snapchat showed that people wanted more than a highlight reel-- IG followed the crowd.
"Instagram Stories is the first useful attempt to consolidate the overwhelm of social."
Tweet this.
It will also prove useful for brands hiring influencers for campaigns to engage followers in BTS footage or event photos. Bloggers and influencers wont have to switch back-and-forth between apps and they'll be able to share moments on their IG without overcrowding the feed.
However, unlike regular posts there are no likes or public comments, so for the time being it might be difficult to measure engagement. But that's not going to stop the social platform's 500 million users from jumping on board.
Instagram Stories will be rolling out globally over the next few weeks on iOS and Android. Your move Evan Spiegel.
More from our blog:
NBD: Michelle Obama Is a Fan of This Duo's Newsletter
And they just released something else you need now. Right now.
Boss ladies are always looking ahead. Some of them even seem like they have the ability to see into the future.
Take Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, for instance, the co-founders of The Skimm.
3.5 years ago, the two said NBC'ing you later to their producer jobs and began sending emails from their couch. Their strategy was simple: ask anyone and everyone (and everyone else's everyone) to sign-up for the The Skimm. A daily newsletter presenting a solution to keeping up with the (Dow) Jones, the Times, the HuffPo, the never-ending news chain, ad infinitum. The result was curated aggregation at its finest. A one-stop read of headlines and need-to-know info for on-the-go-get-em women. (AKA, your busy boss self.)
From their couches to Oprah's, their risk paid off. They now have over 3.5 million (#yaycongurentnumbers) active and highly engaged subscribers, the likes of whom include the two biggest Os in the game: Michelle Obama and yes, Oprah.
So this week when they announced their newest venture, we knew it would be good.
While The Skimm focusses on keeping you up to speed on current and relevant headlines, their new app, Skimm Ahead, takes the concept one step further-- literally.
What is it? Skimm Ahead puts the future into the palm of your hand, synching everything you need to know with your iPhone Calendar. For just $2.99/month, Danielle and Carly are making it easier to be smarter (BLESS), Miss Cleo style. It's an app, yes, but they "think of it more as a utility" that integrates fully into your calendar. As they say, "It's like your calendar ate a smart cookie."
Why should you use it? Well, you'll know just when to purchase those Beyoncé tickets. Or keep you on top of the 2016 Presidential Debate schedule. It'll make sure you're Slytherin line for the much-awaited Harry Potter release. And it might even help you drop some knowledge on your boss when you suggest a campaign perfectly timed with this summer's "Orange Is the New Black," season 4 premiere.
In short: they've got Skimm in the game. And their new app is a force multiplier for keeping you ahead of yours.
Download Skimm Ahead in the iTunes App Store.
More from our blog:
