| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: I organize myself for my projects mostly using: Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "I organize myself for my projects mostly using:".
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| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 05:11
Spanish to English
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A wing and a prayer. And e-mails.
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I created many years ago a monthly paper form containing several columns: date, my job number, client name, PO number or other similar reference, language pair, number of words or hours, type of work (translation, proofing, editing, transcreation, etc.), deadline, invoice number and observations. I still use it and I have never delivered a job late. The power of my mind and memory also helps…
| | | | Mario Freitas 
Brazil
Local time: 01:11
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| A combination | May 17, 2020 |
I have several spreadsheets for several different purposes, virtual sticky notes, my Outlook agenda reminiding me of my commitments, and the good old paper sheet where I take notes. I don't think a single "organizer" can do everything.
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| Really surprised! | May 17, 2020 |
I'm really surprised most of the answerers say they trust their own memory and the power of their mind! When I had just one or two clients, and maybe one or two projects around, this could work. Nowadays -thankfully- I need one spreadsheet that I update each time a new project arrives (daily), with delivery date/time, client, wordcount and amount of PO. I also use my paper daily organizer, just because I love handwriting and the power of ticking things done with a pen!
This spreadsheet, of... See more I'm really surprised most of the answerers say they trust their own memory and the power of their mind! When I had just one or two clients, and maybe one or two projects around, this could work. Nowadays -thankfully- I need one spreadsheet that I update each time a new project arrives (daily), with delivery date/time, client, wordcount and amount of PO. I also use my paper daily organizer, just because I love handwriting and the power of ticking things done with a pen!
This spreadsheet, of course, is the perfect way to have all the information necessary to prepare my invoices at the end of the month!
Have a nice Sunday everybody! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Ana Vozone
Local time: 04:11
Member (2010)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| A calendar, a notebook, and a spreadsheet for invoicing | May 17, 2020 |
I use a monthly calendar (a pdf file downloaded from calandarlabs.com) which I print and keep right in front of me on my desk. I write down all jobs as they arrive, and also other (personal) "events"/commitments, doctor's appointments, deadlines for taxes, museum dates, etc. and it helps me manage my time.
I have a notebook (old unused notebooks from my children) where I write down all the jobs I have completed and check a small box when I send the invoice to the client.
... See more I use a monthly calendar (a pdf file downloaded from calandarlabs.com) which I print and keep right in front of me on my desk. I write down all jobs as they arrive, and also other (personal) "events"/commitments, doctor's appointments, deadlines for taxes, museum dates, etc. and it helps me manage my time.
I have a notebook (old unused notebooks from my children) where I write down all the jobs I have completed and check a small box when I send the invoice to the client.
And I have an Excel spreadsheet for invoicing, and update it every month. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Aline Amorim
Brazil
Local time: 01:11
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| A dayplanner | May 18, 2020 |
A dayplanner helps me plan my day like a pro, save time and focus on your most critical goals.
| | | | Jan Truper
Germany
Local time: 05:11
English to German
client name / project name / due date / word count / rate / PO number / notes / USD amount / EUR amount / invoice number
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Carmen Grabs
Germany
Local time: 05:11
Member (2012)
English to German
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I created folders called Monday, Tuesday, etc., and below each folder there are the job folders for those days. This is how I have been working for the last 5 years or so, and it works fine.
| | | | Jo Macdonald
Spain
Local time: 05:11
Member (2005)
Italian to English
+ ...
Been using Thunderbird for years.
Events are great to keep track of jobs and you can change the percentage you've done, see the deadline date, select which order to view jobs in, add notes to each job, and you're already in your Email program with a great calendar.
Only con is you can't sync with your phone calendar, which would be handy.
[Edited at 2020-05-18 07:57 GMT]
| | | | Châu Nguyễn
Vietnam
Local time: 11:11
Member (2012)
English to Vietnamese
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| I used to wield the power of the mind | May 18, 2020 |
When I first started out, I tried to remember everything. But as the amount of administrative tasks build up (mostly invoicing, payment tracking, deadline monitoring) and I developed a need for insights (as I have more clients, I needed to know which client brings the most revenue, which bring the most work, which month I made the most money, which month I made the least money etc.) I switched to using a spreadsheet.
I wonder if there is any software for freelance translators around... See more When I first started out, I tried to remember everything. But as the amount of administrative tasks build up (mostly invoicing, payment tracking, deadline monitoring) and I developed a need for insights (as I have more clients, I needed to know which client brings the most revenue, which bring the most work, which month I made the most money, which month I made the least money etc.) I switched to using a spreadsheet.
I wonder if there is any software for freelance translators around that help with these purposes?
[Edited at 2020-05-18 07:59 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:11
Member (2008)
Italian to English
I mainly organise myself for my projects using my brain.
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 05:11
French to English
Magdalena Altieri wrote:
I'm really surprised most of the answerers say they trust their own memory and the power of their mind! When I had just one or two clients, and maybe one or two projects around, this could work. Nowadays -thankfully- I need one spreadsheet that I update each time a new project arrives (daily), with delivery date/time, client, wordcount and amount of PO. I also use my paper daily organizer, just because I love handwriting and the power of ticking things done with a pen!
This spreadsheet, of course, is the perfect way to have all the information necessary to prepare my invoices at the end of the month!
Have a nice Sunday everybody!
I think it depends on the kind of work you're doing. If you're juggling several projects at once, you probably need a spreadsheet. If you're working on one long-term thing without fitting quickies in, your to-do list will only consist of "do my daily quota for job".
I use a spreadsheet, and I also keep files open so that I don't forget them, and I make my to-do lists on the back of printouts I no longer need.
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:11
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| Embed the information in the structure | May 18, 2020 |
ProZ.com Staff wrote:
This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "I organize myself for my projects mostly using:"
"Other." I use a directory or folder on my PC to organise myself. All my project folders have a strict naming convention, like this:
A _ 2020-05-19 0900 JST _ 2020-05-16 1100 JST _ Agency name, PM name _ order number, End client name _ document type e.g. "financial report" _ 2831 All the necessary information is contained in the structure of the name of the folder itself. The underscores in the name delimit the different items of information, so you can see there are seven "fields" in a folder name.
The first field is a flag, either A for active, U for scheduled, or "-" for complete. Directory Opus, which I use as a replacement for Window's File Explorer, will colour file and folder names according to the criteria you set. In this case I have told it to show active jobs in red, scheduled jobs in blue and completed jobs in a light grey, so that the projects I need to worry about pop out of the screen, and the rest are de-emphasised.
The first date and time in the folder name is the deadline, the second date and time is when the project was received. The rest of the items should be self-explanatory, except the figure at the end, which is volume in characters. So at one glance I can see when something is due, who it's for, what it's about, and the amount of work involved.
If I sort the main "Ongoing" folder (in which all my current projects sit) by name, everything ends up listed in deadline order, which is why I have the due date at the beginning of the folder name, and not after the received date. This month I have 33 projects (so far) in the "Ongoing" folder, so I need to track what's happening quite carefully. I expect to get a few more before the month is done.
I wrote a little script in R that goes through each folder in the "Ongoing" folder, checks the agency name against its internal database, applies the correct rate for that client, multiplies this by the volume figure, and derives an estimated value for each job in the local currency. For jobs in yen or euro (i.e. nearly all of them), it then pops online and grabs the appropriate current exchange rate to translate to GBP, which it then displays, along with stats on average job size and so on. This allows me to get a feel for revenue for the month.
When I invoice jobs, I move them out of "Ongoing" and into a "Done" folder elsewhere, with each client having their own folder within "Done" for their projects. Having dates and times in the folder names makes some quite sophisticated processing possible, such as creating a Gantt chart from the projects to give me a visual sense of where the pinch points are in my schedule.
Works for me, anyway.
Regards,
Dan
| | | | | Not my brain, definitely | May 18, 2020 |
My brain is too busy working on the translations, so I use Protemos for projects and my Google calendar for reminders
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