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maritzaerwin · 5 years

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8 Tools Every New Remote Worker and Freelancer Needs

Working remotely has its own perks as well as challenges. Remote workers surely get the freedom to work flexibly but it is not a laptop-on-a-beach-in-Bali kind of situation always. While in a brick and mortar office, you can tap a co-worker on the back and have an official conversation then and there, remote workers need a lot of planning from various perspectives to make things work like a well-oiled machine.

To achieve an optimal level of productivity, a freelancer has to keep the communication streamlined. A lot of things that have to be kept on track like schedules, availability, time zones, etc. , which cannot be ignored.

If you are someone who is managing a team of freelancers or you are a freelancer yourself or you are someone who is planning to join the workforce of remote employees which is around 56.7 million currently in America and is expected to rise by leaps and bounds, you need to familiarize yourself with the specific set of tools with which you can make sure you and your team never miss a beat.

8 Tools Every Remote Worker and Freelancer Needs:

ProofHub

Zapier

Chanty

Toggl

Google Drive

Acquire

FileStage

Zoom

1) ProofHub

ProofHub is an all-in-one work management software. It is an effective collaboration solution as well. You do not need to spend on different tools for chat, collaboration, time tracking or reporting, etc. as ProofHub replaces multiple tools without being heavy on your pocket.

ProofHub can save a lot of your time by making work easier and faster for you. It has a simple interface and it helps in organizing everything from planning to final delivery of your projects in one central place.

Remote workers can easily understand their tasks, deadlines, they communicate and collaborate on tasks without falling into the email web.

Here Is How Proofhub Helps Freelancers:

ProofHub acts as a central location to place all your tasks across different projects in one place.

You can view your tasks in various views: Calendar view, list view, board view, Gantt view.

You can get feedback on your files directly using ProofHub’s inbuilt proofing tool. You will not need to share files using email, just directly attach files with tasks and get clear feedback using markup and annotation tools. This way a designer can clearly understand the feedback right on the design. He can view the previous versions of files as well.

Collaborating with other teammates is super easy as you can add comments on tasks, move tasks across different stages with a simple drag and drop and everyone is notified.

You can keep a tap on your productivity using the timesheets in ProofHub. You can use these timesheets for the invoicing purpose and also export them to invoicing apps.

Brainstorming sessions with other team members are easy as ProofHub lets you initiate new discussions with teammates.

You can customize ProofHub and set control over who can view what.

While being a freelancer, you will need to constantly communicate, inform, update, collaborate, track time and stay in the loop of all the important happenings if you are working as a remote team member or even as an individual working for a client. ProofHub streamlines all these processes in the simplest and most effective way possible. The mobile app of ProofHub is an added advantage as you can answer queries, reply to comments and provide updates even on the go. ProofHub provides a free trial for you to test drive before making a choice.

ProofHub comes with a free trial so that you can test drive before actually paying for it. The paid plan is for $89/month (limited time offer) with no per-user charges.

2) Zapier

Being a freelancer, you must be a sucker for productivity and this tool called Zapier can enhance your productivity by automating your tasks and saving you from busywork.

Zapier can automate your tasks by developing contacts between 400+ apps. Let me explain with an example- Let’s say you wrote a new blog post about the services you offer as a freelancer, and you are willing to share this blog post on other social media networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

Now, rather than doing it manually, you can automate this task using Zapier such that all your blog posts will be automatically shared on other platforms.

Automation software can unlock new opportunities for freelancers by killing manual work and making space to scale.

Here Is How Zapier Can Help Freelancers:

You can use ‘zaps’ and automate your email alerts when gig listings appear on LinkedIn, AngelList, etc.

You can create a zap to automate all your client information from your onboarding questionnaire form to your CRM, email marketing lists, billing system, etc.

You can create a zap to download all the attachments you receive in email and save them to your drive.

This way you can automate hundreds of tasks which when done manually take a lot of time and are prone to human error.

So uncrazy your email situation, save time and become more efficient with Zapier.

3) Chanty

Communication remains a constant challenge for freelancers and they cannot imagine their day without a lot of to and fro communication happening. If you are looking for a simple chat tool to maintain effective communication with your clients and teammates, Chanty can be the right choice.

Chanty helps in creating a borderless culture among freelancers, remote teams and distant clients.

Main Features of Chanty for Freelancers:

Chanty allows you to send unlimited messages to your team members or clients. Also, you can keep an unlimited number of messages in your chat history.

The feature called ‘Teambook’ keeps everything ( all your chats, pinned msgs, discussions, tasks, etc. organized in one window)

You can mention team members in a comment or message thread to attract their attention immediately.

Team managers can convert any message into a task and assign it to the concerned person in a second.

You can set custom roles and control who can start a conversation or who can participate in a discussion.

Notifications keep you updated with everything happening in your team, get status reports and automate tasks.

4) Toggl

Productivity remains the major concern of all the remote workers. Since they don’t really have scrutiny over them all the time, they tend to succumb to distractions more often. Toggl can be one such tool that can help them keep distractions in check.

Toggl is a time tracking tool that can help remote workers keep a proper record of how much time they spent on doing what. Apart from this, remote workers can stay focused at work with the help of Toggl.

Here Is How Toggl Helps Remote Team Members:

It allows you to track your daily activities across different platforms.

It is available as a web application, browser extension, desktop apps, and mobile apps.

It does not only track time, rather it has powerful reporting capabilities.

If you forget tracking time, toggl button and toggl desktop apps remind you to track time. In case, you forget to stop the timer, Toggl will calculate idle time and let you decide what to do with it.

It allows you to easily switch between tasks and track time.

The project dashboard lets you see if you are progressing as per your time estimates.

Freelancers can choose Toggl if they want to keep track of their time in an effortless manner.

5) Google Drive

Google Drive is a powerful platform for freelancers to organize their documents free of cost. All you need is a google account and you are good to go.

Google Drive is a cloud-based platform that acts as a secure and centralized location to keep all your files. Remote workers can save all their shared documents, slide presentations, spreadsheets, etc. in one place. You can use Google Drive to report on your weekly metrics.

Main Features of Google Drive are:

It is cloud-based so it can synchronize with all your devices and systems and can be accessed from anywhere.

It provides 15GB free storage.

You can convert your docs in other formats like PDF or Word easily.

It provides a number of free templates that help you make resumes, budgets, reports, proposals, etc.

You can easily collaborate on files with clients as they can directly provide feedback in your google doc by adding comments. No need to fall in the email chaos.

Most freelancers use Google Drive as essential for streamlining their work. Try for yourself if you have not already as you don’t even need to spend a penny to use this awesome platform.

6) Acquire

Acquire is a live chat software that can make the life of a freelancer easier by streamlining their conversations with their clients. It helps the customers and clients engage better with you.

It overcomes the limitation of being able to attend only one client call at a time which consumes all your energy and tires you enough to not attend all clients equally well.

So, with Acquire, you can talk to many clients simultaneously without compromising with quality.

Acquire is a multi-channel customer communication software.

Some of the Main Features of Acquire Are:

Acquire has co-browsing features, text chat with screen sharing, video call, and live video chat features.

Instant file sharing, speech recognition, live call recording are some other features of this tool.

Full chat history and proper analytical reports on the traffic and visitors is yet another capability of this tool.

7) Filestage

Filestage is a tool that lets freelancers have control over their feedback and review process. They can easily collaborate with stakeholders on various kinds of files like images, PDFs, websites, etc.

Main Features of Filestage Are:

Your team members or clients can give feedback on designs, videos, audio files, documents, etc. with a simple click and comment.

Secure links let your reviewers provide feedback without even signing up.

The integrated documentation system lets you keep track of all the versions of a document and all the comments.

You can customize Filestage with your own logo and make it a vital platform for client interactions.

The easy and intuitive interface of Filestage makes it easy for all kinds of clients to handle it easily.

For remote workers, showing projects to clients in person is not possible. In this situation, resorting to emails for such communications can lead to a lack of clarity and misunderstandings. So, with Filestage, clients, as well as colleagues, can mark their annotations directly on the file.

The review process is easy, efficient and clearly documented with Filestage.

8) Zoom

Zoom is a cloud-based service that allows users to conduct online meetings, share content and do video conferencing, webinars, live chat, etc.

Zoom’s video platform helps in humanizing the participants for freelancers who have hardly seen a picture of clients or other team members. Being able to see your clients via a video call will lead to better connections and an empathetic relationship.

Collaboration is of utmost importance for remote workers. You might already be carrying out all the important communication with clients and other team members through email or you might also have a CRM to manage some parts of your client communication, but these solutions are not good enough.

Main Features of Zoom Are:

It makes a freelancer productive and responsive as they can communicate with clients on the go even on their mobile devices with Zoom.

The ‘whiteboarding feature’ of Zoom supported on iPad allows freelancers to draw mockups for clients in real-time.

It frees you from tons of text and attachments being shared via email, you can rather simply share your screen with the client via Zoom and annotate directly on what is happening and what needs to be done. You can carve out a particular point or area for the client to focus on using Zoom’s annotation tool.

You can quickly have meetings with new clients in real-time using a simple procedure without having to wait.

You can get freedom from the evils of note-taking while meetings as you can record your meetings for future reference and send over a copy to your client as well.

Conclusion

There is no dearth of technological solutions for freelancers to become more successful by streamlining their processes.

We hope that you understand after reading this article how the right technological solutions can increase the scope of your work as a freelancer.

Do tell us what are your favorite tools to organize everything related to freelancing and which of these in the above list are you already using.

The post 8 Tools Every New Remote Worker and Freelancer Needs appeared first on CareerMetis.com.

8 Tools Every New Remote Worker and Freelancer Needs published first on https://skillsireweb.tumblr.com/

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mykiiliu · 8 years

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My colleagues at Photofocus have heard me and seen me say some very choice words during a time, not so long ago, when I had a monitor that wouldn’t or couldn’t calibrate! At first, I couldn’t tell if it was the calibration tool I was using, or the monitor itself!

Monitor Calibration

Now color calibration is super important– it makes it simple for you to edit your images on your machine and basically have it be seen on other color calibrated devices they way that you intended it to. There’s a standard called sRGB that was developed to help a bunch of different displays, printers, devices, cameras and so forth, all see, print, and otherwise display the same color.

I’m sure you’ve seen the differences in colors for a picture that you’ve edited and displayed on a TV, laptop, or another machine. I see it all the time– try hooking up an iPhone to a Samsung TV. The colors are all sorts of wonky. And basically, that’s what I was dealing with.

For that very long and frustrating time, I had a 29″ LG Ultrawide monitor 21:9 — which is great for the horizontal space and interesting resolution for gaming (if you’re into that sort of thing.) When I first bought it, I noticed that it was exceptionally darker than my other monitor– an Apple Thunderbolt Display (a now discontinued display which calibrated really well.) I calibrated it with my Spyder Elite and went on my way. After my first gig with it. I decided to finalize everything and export images from my computer to my iPad Pro (which is relatively close to what I see on my calibrated machine.) That’s when I realized that all the time that I had put into the edits was a complete waste.

The images were nothing close to what I saw on my iPad, or even on another calibrated MacBook (that’s the joy of having calibrated machines, you can tell when something is off because they all look the same). I was furious. I spent hours trying to recalibrate the monitor with the Spyder Elite.. then tried all the different viewing modes on the LG followed by a calibration. Then I tried manually tweaking the color to hopefully make it look closer to a calibrated screen (I used the MacBook I had as a reference and iPad Pro as a second reference). I tried another calibration system– and it didn’t help either.

ViewSonic to the rescue!

My new pair of displays. The ViewSonic VP2468 is pictured on the left.

Did you know that ViewSonic has a professional line of monitors for photographers and videographers?? And they’re pretty dang affordable and packed with a bunch of features!

I found a 24″ professional 1080p IPS display (IPS technology helps a screen be more consistently viewable from different angles), called the VP2468 at $250 from B&H… and boy is it pretty!!

A ViewSonic VP2468 ended up arriving on my doorstep shortly after I boxed up my LG to sell. This little VP2468 is fascinating for a couple of reasons, and those reasons are why this is one of my favorites.

Nearly Frameless Design

I’m a sucker for sleek aesthetics — so this is top on my list. Would any customer trust someone who is using a really clunky and out-of-date looking piece of technology? It really makes all of my technology look out of date now that I think of it…

This thing is nearly frameless! It really is just so pretty. I can see myself getting another one or two of these displays and having a super stunning setup on my desk. I think the bezel is about 3mm or so thick– or that’s what it feels like.

Image of the monitor shot with one light, just to give you a feel of the beauty of it

Sometimes the bezel can distract from the image displayed on the screen (especially if it is super thick, all black or even worse, silver). Since colors are perceived to be to be brighter or darker than the surrounding colors, it is relatively important.

When I asked around, some people were more affected by things like that than others. If you don’t believe me and you have Lightroom, try changing the background color from gray to white or black, and tell me that the perceived brightness of don’t colors change because of background.

Color Calibration

The most important thing for a monitor (besides awesome looks) for a photographer, videographer or digital artist, is color rendition! These monitors come pre-calibrated out of the box. A print-out of values from when the factory calibrates it comes with the monitor. The pre-calibration is pretty dang nice and it matches my other monitor that I bought at the same time– which also happens to be another ViewSonic.

Image provided by ViewSonic – color.viewsonic.com

This monitor displays 99% of sRGB according to ViewSonic, but my calibration kit says 100%, so… believe what you will. Having a screen that shows all the colors that I expect it to sure makes my editing headaches go away. Since every display will have a color shift over time, it is important to have a way to recalibrate the screen. Thankfully this monitor provides a method of hardware calibration via their Colorbration Kit — which is developed with their partner for this series of monitors, X-Rite– a company that is known for their tools that help devices display consistent color across all sorts of devices. You can also use X-Rite’s CS-XRi1, I1 Display pro, and I1 Pro2 calibrators instead of the Colorbration Kit.

One specification that is really neat to know about this display is the Delta E value, which is the measure of change in visual perception of two given colors. It basically is a term for how the human eye perceives the difference in two colors. The Delta E value is less than 2 for this display. Basically, that just means this display is really awesome. For comparison, EIZO displays, for instance, ship a Delta E value of less than 3. So yeah… that reinforces that just means that this display is really really awesome for the price point.

Connectivity

Lots of monitors in the price range of this ViewSonic, support HDMI– and only HDMI (like the happily sold LG I had). Kind of a bummer if you have other methods of connectivity from different computers. So to me, it was a surprise when I saw all these ports:

4 USB-A 3.0 ports that stem from an upstream USB-B port to the computer– So that’s a 4 port USB hub! A Headphone jack (I guess if you were getting audio from HDMI) DisplayPort out as well as Mini DisplayPort and a regular Display Port, which support daisy-chaining! HDMI of course, just in case you want it to– but not just one! Look! There’s two!

Ports for days… or lots of wires… or whatever you need!

I’m seriously not used to having a 4 port hub built into the display at this price point! I feel that every monitor should include those extra USB ports– I HATE bending under my desk to plug in a USB flash drive, calibration kit, mouse, keyboard or even Apple’s Lightning cable to charge my phone.

Screen Rotation

This monitor is able to rotate from a horizontal position to a vertical position, both in clockwise and counter-clockwise rotations. If you like shooting portraits, like me, having the portrait orientation image displayed full screen on a 24″ monitor is ever so helpful. I use this as a second display for Lightroom and having the secondary display available to show quick previews of whatever I’ve selected in my Library makes me so much more efficient.

90º or 270º– you pick!

Besides having it work in Lightroom, having the vertical position makes it easy for me to keep my distractions isolated on the side. When I’m working in Photoshop, the VP2468 holds my Facebook page open allowing for endless scrolling when I need a break. While this isn’t something super new, it is nice to see on a sub $400 monitor.

#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Convenient handle– it’s pretty light weight as well. This is the column that raises and lowers depending on what you need.

A solid and pretty base plate anchors the display and provides the ability to swivel.

Suggested Uses

If you’re looking for a stand-alone display, by all means, this absolutely works well! Where I think this display really shines is in the role of a secondary display to a laptop or even a desktop. Because of its weight and size, I’d probably use it in the studio when I want to shoot tethered. The IPS panel provides great and clear imagery from ridiculous angles so that you and your subject can see what is going on.

Currently, I’m using it as a secondary display. It fits so well when I work with apps like Lightroom (when it doesn’t blank a screen out– more on that sometime else). I’ll tend to have a grid view on one of my screens, and either the Develop panel or the Library panel open depending on if I’m culling, editing or searching through images.

Using that Secondary Display in Portrait Orientation, providing a larger view of all those portraits I shoot.

I’m happy with this display– like SUPER happy!

It may seem that I would be super happy with any display after the horrible LG display I had, but the VP2468 really surprised me with all basics I cared about as well as a bunch of ridiculous advanced stuff I could change if I ever needed to. It is more advanced than I ever need it to be.

The display looks super crisp the frameless design is pretty dang sweet. The stand is pretty nice as well since it can rotate to be vertical, tilt, swivel, and the display can change height– so if you don’t need a vertical display, you can at least adjust the display to be an optimal height!

This is the column that raises and lowers depending on what you need.I know that some people would argue that I opted for a smaller display as a replacement. Well, yeah, they’re right, I did. But I’d rather have a display that I know I could rely on to display colors correctly and has a boat-load of inputs than a super wide and ultimately strange display that only had inputs for 2 HDMI, for $230.

At a price point of $250, this is almost a no-brainer. 24″ is adequately large enough for most people out there, but if you’re itching for something bigger, you can get the 27″ bigger brother that includes a whole bunch of other features that I haven’t had a chance to play with! Perhaps in the future, when I find the need, I’ll pick up one of those too!

Check for the lowest price here.

Finally! A Monitor that Displays Colors Correctly! My colleagues at Photofocus have heard me and seen me say some very choice words during a time, not so long ago, when I had a monitor that wouldn't or couldn't calibrate!

#color calibration #I-1 #monitors #user experience #viewsonic #X-Rite

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