UPDATE: Congrats to Julie and guyb for winning this giveaway! You should be receiving an email from Leslie with details very soon. Earlier this week, I shared how I use online bookmarking to organize my writing clips. Getting (and staying) organized is often among a freelancer's biggest challenges, so for this week's open thread, I'd like to share some strategies. Do you use an Excel spreadsheet or a Google document to keep track of assignments? Project management software like Basecamp? Or good ol' pen and paper? What are your other favorite tools? As a bonus, my colleague Leslie A. Joy is offering free spots in her new 15-week ecourse, Get Your Workday Together, to two lucky readers. To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post (and be sure to include your email address or a link to somewhere we can contact you) before midnight EST on Sunday, July 31. Tell us about your favorite organizational tool or tip. Or if you're still figuring this stuff out, leave an organizational question for Leslie or myself. Curious about Leslie's workshop? Read on or check out the full description! Get Your Workday Together Workshop designed to teach you the best ways to organize your business, create your business processes, and review how everything is working FOR YOU. Registration Deadline: August 12, 2011 Course Start Date: August 15, 2011 Course Price: $125 (two lucky readers will score a free spot!) WHAT'S INCLUDED IN THE COURSE PRICE:
- Before the course, I will be sending out a detailed course-overview PDF including things like why the order is the way it is, how to get the most out of the course, etc., along with a pre-course worksheet.
- Every Monday for 15 weeks, I send out an information PDF including an overview, information on the topic, related links to the topic, and a worksheet.
- Every Thursday, I send out an email answering an questions, posting an ideas people taking the course had, anything I thought of throughout the week-that sort of thing.
- The worksheets are designed to help people taking the course figure out the best way to make things work for them-what methods they prefer, what works for them, what doesn't. For example, with organizing files, some people like to organize by date, some people like to organize by content. The worksheet would help decide which method is best for each person. I'm over simplifying this a bit, the worksheet is much longer and there's more to file organization then that, but you get the idea.
- Students are encourage to contact me through email or IM/Skype to ask questions, etc. If they need any additional help, I'll be offering a discount on different services. [ie. Let's say for the week on organizing files-they don't have the time to organize the files themselves, they would be able to hire me at a discount and I'd organize the files based on the worksheet.]
- I'll be using the Twitter hashtag #getittogether, so people taking the class can post updates using that as well.
- After the course, I will be sending out a detailed how to continue to reap the benefits of the course and a post-course worksheet.