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Ask HN: What tools do you use to manage your freelance projects?

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Re: Ask HN: What tools do you use to manage your freelance projects?

#12

Post by hyperbrainer »

nuc1e0n wrote: post #9

Git for source code control. A notepad and pencil for listing out the TODOs. I write "Done" next to a bullet point when it's done. I might rewrite the list occasionally without the done items for clarity or write numbers next to the bullet points to prioritise them. I think if you can't write out a task description as a short sentence then it's either not well understood enough or too broad in scope to accomplish eas…

The same as you, but for TODOs, I have a simple macro on my neovim setup because then I can keep the todos with my version control(it is a single text file, newline separated) and see what changed and why I added something. Really helpful if I come back to something after some time.

Re: Ask HN: What tools do you use to manage your freelance projects?

#13

Post by mgirkins »

I built Tatask.com for this! I want to have easy visibility over everything but quickly drill down into specifics so it uses a tree structure for tasks.

You can break down any project into smaller and smaller sections to whatever degree you like and it makes it super easy to visualise everything and make progress.

Re: Ask HN: What tools do you use to manage your freelance projects?

#14

Post by jvanderbot »

hyperbrainer wrote: post #12
nuc1e0n wrote: post #9

Git for source code control. A notepad and pencil for listing out the TODOs. I write "Done" next to a bullet point when it's done. I might rewrite the list occasionally without the done items for clarity or write numbers next to the bullet points to prioritise them. I think if you can't write out a task description as a short sentence then it's either not well understood enough or too broad in scope to accomplish eas…

The same as you, but for TODOs, I have a simple macro on my neovim setup because then I can keep the todos with my version control(it is a single text file, newline separated) and see what changed and why I added something. Really helpful if I come back to something after some time.

I do something similar. Simple highlights on to-do items helps a lot.

And using bullet journal style to-do markers help organization.

- [ ] todo

- [x] done

- [-] failed

- [v] dropped

- [>] migrated

- [^] scheduled

- [Easy to set up vim highlighting on those patterns.

I have some examples here:

https://jodavaho.io/posts/bullet-journalling.html

And a bash setup here

https://github.com/jodavaho/bashlog

Re: Ask HN: What tools do you use to manage your freelance projects?

#15

Post by nuc1e0n »

jvanderbot wrote: post #14
hyperbrainer wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same as you, but for TODOs, I have a simple macro on my neovim setup because then I can keep the todos with my version control(it is a single text file, newline separated) and see what changed and why I added something. Really helpful if I come back to something after some time.

I do something similar. Simple highlights on to-do items helps a lot. And using bullet journal style to-do markers help organization. - [ ] todo - [x] done - [-] failed - [v] dropped - [>] migrated - [^] scheduled - [ Easy to set up vim highlighting on those patterns. I have some examples here: https://jodavaho.io/posts/bullet-journalling.html And a bash setup here https://github.com/jodavaho/bashlog

I wasn't aware what I've been doing is named bullet journaling by some, but thanks for this info.

Re: Ask HN: What tools do you use to manage your freelance projects?

#17

Post by sandreas »

I wrote a tool based on my own custom markdown format / file structure. The file is always called `project.md` and part of the project as well as my personal invoice generator git repository, which is basically a parser + pdf generator.

The md file contains customer information, todos and time tracking. Based on this format I can generate an invoice with a detailed table of every task including the time required. And it even looks pretty good in the markdown view.

It can be edited in any IDE / text editor and even in the online editor of the git management.

Works pretty well so far. An example:

  # Customer
  ```
  Company Name
  Magic Avenue 12
  Zip-Code City
  Project name with short description
  30 day terms
  ```

  # Todo
  - [x] create project
  - [x] init git
  - [x] add build scripts
  - [x] draw UI concept
    - [x] Home
    - [x] Settings
    - [ ] Choose icons
  - [ ] Build prototype
    - [ ] Choose UI framework
    - [ ] ...
  
  # Time tracking
  
  2022-04-26
  - 17.42-18.02 project creation and git initialisation
  
  2022-04-28
  - 11.55-13.23 basic project setup and build scripts
  
  2022-04-29
  - 16.47-17.08 new UI concept (drawing and design, HomeView)
  - 17.20-17.42 new UI concept (drawing and design, SettingsView)
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