Your online workspace as a freelancer is quintessentially something that you use on a daily basis. An online workspace is what the name entails–it’s something that you (and potentially other collaborators use) to communicate within a virtual environment. It allows you to synchronize all your work within one location and if you’re collaborating on a specific project or choose to share the progress of your work with clients, you can do so quickly and easily. As freelancers, you’re dependent on a solid online workspace because even before the great switch to remote and hybrid work during the Covid-19 pandemic, freelancers work independently and remotely.
An online workspace allows you to quickly and efficiently manage all your work content and document, communicate quickly with collaborators and clients, and promote your work to attract more clients. Online workspaces should help you better manage your work and communicate collaboratively with others as needed. In essence, working through an online workspace as a freelancer is unique to many other industries because freelancers work independently the majority of the time. There are various workspace software available to download and use but it’s driven towards a larger company setting. An online workspace for freelancers are more nebulous, but that doesn’t mean that it’s disorganized. Freelancers create online workspaces for mainly two reasons. The first is to of course to be organized and the second is to promote their work and business. Using the work that you do as a way to get more clients is efficient and brings results, which establishes your online visibility.
With that said, creating an online workspace as a freelancer is something you should be doing and here are a couple ways that you can get started and why.
1. Streamline your work through a specific medium
The first thing that you want to do is choose a couple of mediums to work through. For example, programs such as Google Suite or Adobe Suite (depending on the industry that you work in) help to streamline your work by keeping things more organized. You’re able to quickly find all your work documents, organize them into folders, and work collaboratively if needed. Working and communicating through Google Drive allows you to work efficiently while also simultaneously creating a way for your to quickly get organized.
2. Promote your work on your personal websites
Personal websites are always a great way to drive attention to your work. In addition to easy branding, building a personal website allows you to professionally display all your work in one place! When you have a personal website, it adds a layer of professionalism and further establishes your online visibility as a freelancer. On your website, remember to personalize it through consistent imagery, vivid and clear colors, photos if relevant, and event reviews from former clients. Additonally, think about the logistics of your website like user experience. Makes sure its easy to jump from one page to another and your content is accessible. By building a personal website, you inadvertently maximize the efforts of your workspace which effectively contributes to your online visibility.
3. Get organized through calendars
Getting organized means knowing your deadlines and going to necessary meetings with clients. One of the things that you must do is create a calendar. Freelancers know that no one else hold you accountable besides yourself and the best way to that is to create a work calendar and to stick with it. When you manage a work calendar well, your workflow will improve and you’ll even have more time to discuss potential work with clients. Online systems like Notion and Google Drive offer you free access to basic work calendars that you can personalize! As a hardcore Notion user, I love how Notion allows you to personalize tasks and add links to your calendars. For example, you could add a task and date it for a deadline. After you complete that task, you can add a link to a Google folder with all the related documents for that specific assignment or task. This gets you super organized fast and quickly search for any documents when needed.
Why you should use an online workspace as a freelancer
Using an online workspace as a freelancer gets you more than organized–it helos you to efficiently work and is basically a legitimate workstyle that proves to be successful. As freelancers, it get gets difficult at times to streamline your work because you might be using multiple systems and software. But that can be easily resolved if you think about what things you can use you get organized. Using Notion and Google Suite together helps you to get organized fast. You can still use multiple different systems to work through, but take it an extra step by linking to those documents through your calendars or filing them within a online work system. An online workspace should helo you get organized and build your personal brand. When used efficiently, an online workspace will transform the way you work forever.
