As a freelancer, you’ll need to figure out ways of saving time when you have to deal with tasks other than translation or copywriting. This may be difficult when you begin freelancing because you don’t realise that some of these tasks are very time-consuming. This is why, here at Acolad Community, we test useful apps and tools that can make a freelancer’s life easier. This month, here are three more tools that can help you find inspiration for new articles, create colourful and customised icons or ease your administration burden.

 

Hellosign

Paperwork is one of the freelancer’s worst nightmares. What is particularly frustrating and time-wasting is printing and scanning an invoice over and over again because each modification requires a signature. With HelloSign, you don’t have to do this anymore! This tool lets you sign documents from any source, including email and apps like Dropbox, with legally binding e-signatures, in a very user-friendly drag and drop interface. All you have to do is upload your document, create or upload a signature and insert it in the document, before clicking on the “send” button. This is an excellent tool if you hate wasting time on administration!

 

Mindmeister

Some of you may experience a lack of inspiration after big projects, especially if you’re a web editor. Mindmeister makes brainstorming  easier.  It’s a free mind mapping tool with a bright and user-friendly interface, and various functionalities. You can change and customise the connectors and share your mind map with your colleagues by e-mail. Plus, Mindmeister is available on many platforms, so you can work from your computer, your mobile or even offline. Now there’s no excuse for a blank page with Mindmeister!

 

Illustrio

This application is useful if you need edit your website and add icons to illustrate some pages or articles. Illustrio is a free icon library with an incredibly large number of icons. With the tag search functionality, you can easily find the icon you’re looking for. Icons are also available in several sizes, colours and layouts, such as 3D and square or round background, as well as app icon formats. The icons are downloadable in SVG and PNG, so they are very easy to use on different projects. No need to be a designer to have great icons on your projects or websites!

 

If you’re a freelancer, what other useful tools do you use? We’re such fools for cool tools!