How I Stay Organized

Today’s edition of Wishful Working is a 4 minute read.

Last week, I shared about how, in an effort to reject the toxic trappings of traditional employment when I started freelancing, I ended up throwing out some really helpful and necessary things. Like structure and organization.

Oops. 😅

Today, I’m sharing some of the processes and tools I’ve since added back in to manage my freelance workload and stay on top of deadlines — without sacrificing the freedom and flexibility I desperately crave.

But first, a disclaimer: This is intended to be informative, not prescriptive. I am endlessly curious about people’s processes and routines, so I figured other people must be too. What I absolutely hate is clickbaity advice that pretends to be universally applicable when it’s not.

Repeat after me: There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to freelancing, consulting, or entrepreneurship. What works for me may not work for you — and vice versa.

With that out of the way, here are some things that do work for me:

A project management platform

At the start of my freelancing journey, I was using Toggl for time tracking, Wave for accounting, and I had yet to find a suitable project management platform, but I was leaning toward Trello. What I really wanted was a platform that could do everything. And I found it in Moxie.

For two years, I’ve used Moxie (formerly Hectic) for almost every admin-related task, including project management, time tracking, invoicing, project proposals, meeting scheduling, and more. Here’s a snapshot of my Projects dashboard to give you a feel for it.

I can’t say enough good things about Moxie. Moxie 4 life.

A paper planner and notepad

In addition to Moxie, I like having just a little bit of analog organization in my life. I use a paper planner to do a very rough form of time blocking, and I use a notepad to make handwritten to-do lists. Nothing beats physically crossing off tasks on a list, imo.

Here’s a peek at my planner:

The rigidity of regular time blocking doesn’t sit right with me, so I use these little sticky notes to color-code and roughly schedule meetings/appointments and time to work on certain projects. I like using the sticky notes because I can move them around if my plans change!

I’m really proud of this little system I created for myself. 😁

Working evenings and weekends

This may be a controversial/unpopular opinion, but I like working on evenings and weekends. Not all the time, mind you, but it works quite well for my current routine and lifestyle. 

My husband is a farmer, so he’s often busy during odd hours. We also like to take random weekdays off to run errands, and I like to spend lots of time outside during “working” hours in the spring and summer. ☀️

And here are some things that don’t work for me (but may work for you!):

Getting up early

I am not an early bird. I love sleeping in, and I love having slow mornings. Most days, I sit down at my desk and start working around 10:00am — sometimes later! Hats off to those who rise early, but it won’t be me.

Subcontracting

At this point in my freelance career, I have zero interest in subcontracting. I know lots of freelancers hire other freelancers, and many even have aspirations of scaling their businesses into an agency. That’s just not for me. I don’t want to manage other people. Luckily, there’s more than one way to grow your business as a freelancer, and many of them don’t involve hiring.

Pomodoro

Last year, I bought one of those cute cube timers and convinced myself I was going to become a Pomodoro girlie. Yeah, that hasn’t happened, and my cube timer has become dusty desk decor. 

One of my favorite things about working for myself has been hand-crafting a work environment that perfectly suits my needs and interests. I love this topic, and I would love to hear about the tools, systems, and routines you use in your day-to-day work — or things you’ve tried and decided weren’t for you. Hit “reply” if you feel like it.

See you next week,

Kara