If you are like me, and I am willing to bet most freelancers are, I get distracted and I also try to juggle too many things at once.  I found Microsoft Outlook keeps me organized and on task.  I find I can juggle multiple jobs at the same time without missing any deadlines, necessary follow up phone calls or appointments.  The best part of Outlook is it is easy!

Outlook has it all, a calendar, address book, notebook, journal and email. I love it!  Outlook sends me reminders about upcoming tasks, appointments, birthdays and anything else that I want a reminder for.  This in essence, keeps me on task.

Setting up outlook to work for you is pretty easy and doesn’t take up too much time, the time invested in setting this up will save you oodles of time later.  Let’s get started…I guess we should begin with setting up your email account:

1. Open up Microsoft Outlook and go to tools on the menu bar and choose Account Settings
2. Choose New and set up your email account; you will need your email address, user name and password
3. Follow the instructions and Test Account Settings before you select Finish

Setting up your address book or Contacts is another time saving step. When entering your contact’s information, add their birthday, family members, address and all points of contact.  The really great thing about Contacts is that you can categorize or color code your address book.  Just think your Christmas List will be right where you left it this year!  I have a category for freelancer where I keep all my clientele in one place.

I use Tasks DAILY! This is my secret tool for keeping me on task, hopefully it will become your tool, too.  I set up a task for any work that I need to do, I set up a reminder with a start date, a due date and a reminder.  These tasks pop up regularly and let me know it is time to begin something, call somebody, send a birthday wish, or leave for an appointment.  I think you get the idea…I can even press the snooze button if I can’t get right at a particular task at that particular moment!  The best part for me is I can set up a task that occurs often on a recurrence, daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly.

Basically, using outlook to keep me on task has kept my freelance business afloat.  Having the ability to effectively juggle numerous things at the same time makes good time management for me. Freeing up the time I would normally use trying to remember what I needed to complete and when it needed to be done has freed me up to spend more quality time with my family and has given me the ability to take on more freelance jobs.

photo credit: DafneCholet