Starting from Vladimir's article on TOM ( here ) about converting emails into tasks or to-do list items, I thought it would be nice to chat about the way we translators manage our daily activities, which of course are not limited to translation but encompass several different duties, from household and family to accounting to (hopefully) hobbies and personal interests. How do you cope with this? Do you have walls covered with post-its or paper sheets scattered around, or do you use one or more of the several task management apps available nowadays? Do you need tools to keep track at all, or do you feel you have it under control?

Nice idea, I'd love to know how everyone copes with the huge amount of tasks we have to deal with as "entrepreneurial linguists"! Personally, I am a big fan of task management. I use: - a bullet journal to list tasks (I even wrote an article about it, in French) - time trackers on my computers and phones (Toggle, RescueTime) Every Friday, I gather all information and evaluate the time I needed for every project/client/task. This helped me realise I needed and accountant! Usually, I try and divide my week in "typical days". Wednesday is a free day, usually dedicated to billing, learning, etc. Monday and Thursday are big productivity days (for hard tasks like translation, writing, editing, etc.) and Tuesday and Friday are less productive days (fewer hours, easier tasks like tendering, social media writing and planning, marketing, prospecting, etc.). Whenever possible, I do no work-related activities during the week-end. Finally, I structure every day as much as I can: I wake up early to do a bit of sport, then I eat properly and get ready to work. I work for a few hours (with the Pomodoro Technique , which forces me to take several breaks). I stop for lunch time and a nap (love it!) and then resume my work doing lighter tasks (I am less efficient in the afternoon) until late afternoon. The evenings are free: work, chill time, sport, reading, household... I do whatever I fancy. All these little tricks help me tackle more tasks than before. I think knowing yourself is the key to get organised and to feel more relaxed!

Owlet Wow, impressive! You are really focused on productivity! I do agree that we have to really know ourselves to be productive, there is no "unique" method and we are all different from each other, so one method may not work for others. I for one have found that the Pomodoro Technique only works for me if the breaks are short and distant in time, otherwise I lose concentration for good ? I recently discovered bullet journaling and I already have the feeling it will be a revolution in the way I organize things! Anyone else using the ol' good pen and paper? ?

I discovered this cool chrome extension this year called Active Inbox . It totally works with my brain to organize tasks directly in my gmail.

mindlinker Does that sort of integrate task lists in your inbox? It must be pretty cool if you use Gmail ?

Task management is always a struggle for me, especially considering that I have so many things that I need to do on a daily basis. Here are some key takeaways: Morning routines are the best way to start a morning, be it a show, a cup of tea or coffee, a walk in the park or 30 minutes at the gym. Anything is better than waking up and reaching out straight to your laptop/phone to check for new messages; Priorities. For me family comes first, then my clients, then my side projects and related activities. As far as tools go, I've noticed that time-tracking does help me stay focused. I use a cool app called: Toogle. It's free and it allows me to keep track of everything. At the end of the week I get a report where I can see how much time I've spent on my translation business, The Open Mic, Translators on Air, and Dmitry's Rebel Club.

FrancescaDAsdia If I was using post-its my room would look something like this:

Task management tools and tips

eleonorang

FrancescaDAsdia there's nothing wrong with using post-its ? But productivity is also about good everyday life practices, so feel free to share some tips or just your experience about what made your life as a freelance translators easier. We're all ears! Eyes.

aaronhemmers

I use a free web based task management tool at Fluxes.com I usually create a project board for different clients and create task list with deadline. I like this tool since I can assign tasks to other members without any hassle and have live chat with them inside the tool.

eleonorang

aaronhemmers Thanks for recommending Fluxes! Looks a bit like Trello, doesn't it? Or is there any difference? It surely looks helpful for teams, a bit less for solopreneurs maybe ? Unless you convince your clients to use that too...

_marocca

I usually tell my friends that if it doesn't beep, I will forget. And that's for everything, including food in the oven!
So I put everything in my calendar app. I use the Google calendar, because I use Gmail, and I can add/edit stuff from both my laptop and my phone.
My days are usually: morning = work, lunch, collect kids in school, some housework (one task a day is as much as I can fit in), and afternoons are split between my kids classes and some Bible studies that I run. I have it all down in my G calendar, and for my kids to know what day it is, I have a white board on the kitchen wall with the "normal week" tasks/activities. Both my app and my board are Color-coded, because I'm very visual, so each child's activities (classes, birthday parties etc) are written in a different color marker, and so are mine and my husband's. So when there's something out of the usual routine, even the kids notice ? (they are great accountability partners btw!)
Oh, and the app gives me reminders (it has to beep, otherwise I'll forget!) about 30 min before each commitment, then I have time to pack a last-minute bag and leave ?

I realized that I am great at making to do lists. Like breaking down tasks and dividing them into smaller processes. But I'm rubbish in following my own lists ? So I realized that the calendar and the reminders help.
I also have a OneNote Notepad, so I can scribble quick notes, or even take note of what I have done already! And make some to-do lists that I hope I will follow ?

eleonorang

_marocca I realized that I am great at making to do lists. Like breaking down tasks and dividing them into smaller processes. But I'm rubbish in following my own lists

Sounds really well-organized and it's definitely a start! I need to set reminders too and to write down everything... Ugh! When did my memory become so faulty?

_marocca

eleonorang I don't know about you, but mine was after having kids. Definitely ?

eleonorang

@_marocca No kids here. Just getting old I guess ? But I still want to do something about it so I'm considering approaching a Mindfulness course which is supposed to improve my concentration skills, and my attention and focus levels...

ninagruenewald

Owlet a bullet journal to list tasks

That sounds cool! I tried bullet journalling when I finished Uni but then I realised that for normal life stuff I don't even need a calendar anymore. but using bullet journalling for the business sounds really nice! I was a bit intimidated by the creativity that people put in it...

Can you tell us a bit more about how you structure your bullet journal?

As for me, I use pen and paper, a booklet, the really simple app by apple called notes. I love it because there is no fancy stuff in it, really just writing things down and making lists and it synchronises between my phone and computer. I guess I like it so much because it is just a digital version of pen and paper. I recently discovered an app called Waiting List, and I can add deadlines to it. It has a tiny symbol at the top of my screen and when I click on it a list with deadlines in front of pretty backgrounds folds out. ? http://waitinglist.site/

I have Gmail, but I use their site Inbox which I find quite useful to check of emails and organise emails in folders.

My partner loves using Todoist. I haven't tried it out much yet but he says it is really good for productivity.

I also use Excel for many things - mainly because I haven't found a good management tool yet, I assume. I note down from when to when I work and in the next field what I did during that time. I use one line per day.

_marocca

ninagruenewald For my translations management, I've been using Protemos and I recommend.
I would probably get lost if I had to keep track of all the info on Excel, so Protemos was great for me to see what info I need to know from each client, and for each project.
I use it for quoting and invoicing as well, so it reminds me to keep track of my payments too. It sends me e-mail reminders when project deadlines are close, and when invoices are due, and, believe me, I NEED the reminders ?

Maybe you could try it and tell us if it works for you.

eleonorang

ninagruenewald Can you tell us a bit more about how you structure your bullet journal?

I'll tell you how I structure mine! I use a bullet journal both for business and personal use. As regards personal uses, I have collections for Movies I've watched, Restaurants and joints I'd like to try, a Gym list so I don't forget anything when going to the gym... ? As regards business, I have a "Next 12 months" view at the very beginning of my BuJo I use to plan in advance conferences I want to go to, incoming payments or projects for the months I haven't created yet (I'm very slow at creating my BuJo, I don't do it all in advance but keep on adding pages everytime I get a chance).
Then I have, for each month, a welcome page with a nice drawing or colour (such as 'Hi, January' and things like that ?), a monthly calendar view, a weekly view for each week and then seven daily views (although I bring together Saturdays and Sundays on one page). Each daily view is divided into two columns, one for my To do list for that day and one for the actual deadlines or appointment (it has hours marked on the left side). Below the two columns, there is a section for General events, two fields for Lunch and Dinner plans, and a field for tracking glasses of water ?

ninagruenewald

eleonorang Oh wow, thanks for this detailed insight! That sounds really cool! I am only just getting to the stage where I feel that I REALLY have to PLAN A LOT!! Haha. So, I am seriously considering giving the BuJo another try ?

Kit_germanloc

I use https://ticktick.com/ for checklists with sub-checklists, both for business and private things that I have to get done, and Google Calendar for appointments and meetings with friends and family etc. For project tracking, I use https://www.lsp.expert/, because it's tailored to language service providers. For super important things that I absolutely can and should not forget, I set a reminder on my Amazon Echo, so that Alexa will pester me about it when it's due.

I'm really bad at structuring my day, and I have a really bad case of the ooooh-shinies (meaning I get distracted easily), so lately I've been considering using RescueTime, but I'm not quite there yet (mentally), and as disorganized as I am, I am making enough money to live comfortably, so I guess I'm not yet hurting enough to kick myself in the butt and actually use it. ?

ninadepalma

Kit_germanloc I just started a free trial of LSP Expert, and I'm really liking it so far. Glad to hear others use it and find it worth the money. It's been weird detaching myself from my Google Sheets, but ultimately I think it's the right thing for me to do.

Kit_germanloc

ninadepalma I'm still in the trial period, but I don't miss any features in comparison to my old billing software, plus I have the very useful tracking feature that comes with LSP.ex. I really like it so far!

ninagruenewald

Just last week I got very inspired by this thread so I went through a few apps and tried out a few things. I started using an app called TIMING instead of putting everything on an excel sheet, and I really can recommend! It takes maybe 2 hours of getting used to and customizing in the beginning but it is really good! It creates overviews, productivity percentages, tracks your app usage, you can add projects and tasks within projects and finally export a customized sheet to send to clients or save with other documents! https://timingapp.com/

eleonorang

ninagruenewald Looks nice! I was wondering whether I should try and use it, but then I realized it's for Macs LOL In case you guys are interested, I've been using Timely timelyapp.com since the beginning of the year, it's not for free (there are several plans available) but it's really working for me. I'm looking at the time I spend working from a whole new perspective, understanding how much my time is worth, which project I need to avoid because they require too much time, etc. Now it also has a kind of AI that is supposed to create a timeline automatically based on the activity it registers on your computer! DIdn't try it yet, though

ninagruenewald

eleonorang I realized it's for Macs LOL

Oh no! I didn't even check that! Sorry! I think I heard about timely, as well. Now I am kind of used to TIMING, so I might stick with that for a while ?

But I agree, at a really early stage I started noting down everything I did and when because there were days when I thought... wait a minute, I worked all day but I have no clue what I did. Haha. It really helps.