How to stay organized as a freelancer? Work paperless!
Being a freelancer comes with its own set of pros and cons. The decision of taking an independent charge of your professional self and becoming your own boss may sound exciting to many but it is prone to get equally messed up if work is not organized in the right way.
Once you decide to step into that zone of freelancing, it becomes essential that everything is done with a smarter approach. One has to keep track of the core tasks making sure that minimum resources are involved. Organizing your work in the right way is crucial for managing time efficiently.
One such approach for smarter organization as a freelancer is going paperless. It has already been incorporated by many digital nomads and freelancers out there and we are not surprised! It paves way for better productivity and effective time management. We‘ve done our research and came up with five reasons why paperless working is a must for every freelancer who wants to stay organized:
1. Easy accessibility of important documents
Imagine yourself surrounded by loads of files and documents sorted by the name of the client, the year, the department etc. No matter how much a person may try to organize these piles of papers over the time, the whole arrangement is bound to get messy. Going paperless offers an amazing solution to this problem and it works pretty smooth. One can easily access all kinds of documents with a click. You don’t need to carry the physical files everywhere, instead, you can simply search the same in your laptops / mobile devices and get the work done. Also, the concept of cloud storage available online makes most things hassle free. Options like Google Drive, DropBox, Box etc. can work wonders for freelancers and help them get a better storage management option.
2. Improved organization of meeting notes and ideas
Jotting down important points in a meeting is indeed crucial. This is to ensure that you keep a track of all the requirements and understand the crux of the meeting once you review the notes later. Here, going old school with a diary-pen set up may not result greatly as they may get lost, misplaced or torn out. Instead, with a smarter approach, one can go for tools like our app GoodNotes where you can note down everything and have access with a single click. You can share these notes with your clients effortlessly and give it a better visual value.
3. Higher productivity & better time management
These two factors carry the utmost importance for any professional. Freelancers often have to deal with procrastination and productivity issues when they get indulged in work. Going paperless offers an unmatched support to people where they do not have to worry about any sort of physical files, document back-ups, or disruptive file management. Once these things are sorted, you can focus on your core job without getting into stress about the other things. Setting up the right organizational structure in the beginning, is a huge time-saver down the road. This, in turns, improves your productivity and results into a better time management system.
4. Complex things made simple
When one opts for going into freelancing, it is essential that everything is kept simplified in order to make the best out of time. Going paperless offers similar convenience. It lets you have all your important documents at one place and helps you strategize with a better perspective. This, in turn simplifies your business processes giving you a scope of better focus on your work.
5. Convenience in closing deals
We are living in the times of electronic signatures. This provides a hassle-free way out to manage agreements and contracts. Online files are very easy to share and with the concepts like e-signatures, it saves people a hefty amount of money and time that is invested in sending and receiving physical copies of documents. When it comes to freelancing, professionals choose to work remotely from any location when their clients are in some other part of the globe. In such cases, embracing the idea of going paperless and e-signatures can help beyond one’s imagination.
The world is going online and going paperless takes us one step closer to the same. With the kind of benefits that it offers, there should be no second thoughts on whether or not should you go for it. It may not come to one’s realizations, but with this method, you’re actually contributing your bit to nature as well.
Going paperless is the latest trend that is proving itself beneficial for businesses. When it comes to yours, we’d say, give it a shot and decide for yourself!
Happy freelancing!
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