//I wrote this entry at the of 2008. I’d been struggling with a sudden increase in workload and decided to find some ways to cut down time spent on tasks that could be automated. A little over a year later – a year in which my workload has increased again, but my stress levels haven’t – I thought it would be good to re-visit it and see what has stuck.

I’m not a company, I’m a freelancer. I work alone and it’s great but… Being a freelance designer can get a bit overwhelming at times.

Sure I can do the design bit, but what about the filing, answering the phone, dealing with email requests and cleaning the office . In an attempt to get a little bit “zen” about things, I’ve been reading lifehacker quite a bit lately as well as zen habits. And they’ve both had quite a profound effect on how I get things done.

It all started with an article about clearing out your inbox (achieving inbox zero) that led me to completely re-think how I managed my email. I followed the advice and haven’t looked back. This led me to look into other ways to automate some of the more ball-achingly boring tasks that were bogging me down, along with some of the stuff that induces the kind of paranoia that keeps me up at night.

Here are the results of my recent lifehack:

1. Gmail. I’m a real Mac nut but mobileme just doesn’t cut it when compared to gmail. So I got a (free) gmail account and now forward all my email to it (I don’t even have mailboxes on my server now, i just forward all messages to gmail). This allows me to keep every email I’m ever sent from all of my email addresses (5) in one place. I never delete them I archive them. I never lose anything and I can grab an attachment from an email that is 6 months old in seconds. And, as I work on a few quite lengthy projects at a time, this has been a massive plus. It allows me to ‘NOT multi-task’ and concentrate on one job at a time. The process is quite simple: I get an email request, book it into my diary archive the message (on my way to inbox zero) and re-instate it when I need it. As apposed to the my old system which would have left said email in my inbox until it was time to do the task, forcing me to read it every morning only to remember that it’s not due yet.

   //This next entry was about Spanning Sync which is a great app and was a lifesaver when I was using my Nokia. However since it was written I’ve got a iPhone and the syncing features of MobileMe made it worth switching to it. Just…

2. MobileMe. may have a lot of faults but it does a couple of things really well, well, ok, one thing then. Whether it’s worth paying for just these features is another story I guess but, in my case, it takes a lot of pain out of keeping calendars, contacts, bookmarks and emails in sync across 3 macs and an iPhone so – for me –  it works.
3. Dropbox. Dropbox allows you to backup and share files online and keep files in sync between machines (each machine must have dropbox installed on it). You can also access these files even if you’re not at your own machine. My ‘work’ folder now lives inside my Dropbox folder, so everything I’m doing is backed-up online and across 3 machines. The 3rd machine is setup to run automated nightly backups to a server in the office so I never have to worry about losing work again.

   //This is a new addition, but I’m slowly finding it my #1 scrapbook app.

4. Evernote. Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer or device you use. For free.

So, there you have it. Since I’ve implemented them, these tools and techniques have saved me so much time that I honestly recommend giving a ‘lifehack’ a go. It may feel a little odd at first but the freedom you get from breaking out of old habits is well worth it.