But – I’ve found an app that is so handy and simple and FREE, I just had to share.

I’ve always been one of those guys that just sort of ballparks time when billing or quoting, and old habits die hard. But, after my 4-hour-a-day epiphany, I decided I’d go for a few weeks and really track the amount of time I spend on projects. Do logos REALLY take me 8 hours? Does a WordPress website take 5? I had guesstimates, but that’s not going to cut it when you try to track every minute of the day.

Enter iClockr from Kedisoft. (and no, I’m not getting any kickbacks!)

It’s a free piece of software, and it’s quickly become indispensable to me.

Using iClockr is über-simple. You set up categories of work (design, communications, blogging, wasting time, etc) and then go in and add individual jobs or clients under those categories. Once that’s done, you’re ready to really start tracking your time. When you start working on a client’s job, before you open the client folder (you DO keep things organized, right?) you click on that client’s name or job, click “start timer” and work away.

iClockr sits in the background, being totally unobtrusive, and times your work. It doesn’t stop automatically, but it’s as easy to stop as it it to start. Get a phone call? Stop the timer and hit the communications tab and start the call. Need to go to the john? Stop/start.

It’s amazing how many projects I have that I spend 5 minutes on every day – but I spend 5 minutes 30 times a day. That can really add up. My brain can’t keep it all in order, but iClockr will.

You’ll be amazed at how little time you spend working on some projects and how much time you spend on others. It can help you change your pricing structure, and it can help you stay productive, especially if you have a daily nut of hours to meet.

It doesn’t print out invoices (you can tie it to Invoice 3 and do that, but Invoice 3 isn’t free) and it’s Mac only, so I’m sorry for all you Windows people out there. It has weekly/monthly/yearly reports by client, so it’s a snap to go back through and bill clients for ACTUAL time. Kinda cool.

The other thing that it does is help you be more realistic about how much time it takes you to do something. That helps in a couple of ways – it lets you restructure your rates, and it also allows you to see what projects are truly the most profitable. If you know what’s more profitable, you can gear your business towards that type of thing. If it’s a time-sucking black hole (we all have them,) you can steer clear of those things in the future.

iClockr also helps you see which of your clients are eating holes in your day and keeping you from being profitable. It also will show you how much time you’re wasting watching The Big Lebowski or playing around on Kongregate.

Knowing where your time goes is crucial to freelancing – not just for billing, but for efficiency and business planning.

iClockr – it’s got some downsides, but the upsides are HUGE, and the price is right.

So now you know. And knowing is half the battle… (sorry, getting giddy over the G.I. Joe movie. Sue me.)

The answer? NetRender…

What does it do? It shows you a screen grab of what your site looks like from different browsers (Windoze, only – thank you.) It’s pretty slick, and it’s totally free. It’s an actual screen grab from an actual machine – not emulated.

Check it out. Might save a minute or two on your next project. Plus, it can keep you from having to switch machines from one beautiful piece of super-sexy design machinery to a bland, drab horrible box of wires.

See – it’s a good thing! Check it out here…

My son (5) spilled a cup of apple juice into the keyboard of the Mac Mini that we use for home schooling and fun for the kids. Keyboards don’t like that, oddly enough.

It fried, and I decided that I’d give my trusty white Mac Pro Keyboard to them and buy myself a new keyboard. I’m just generous like that. Besides, the eject button was shot and the command key was getting a little wonky from years of abuse from my left thumb.

Went online and found that the local BestBuy had the new Apple Aluminum Keyboard in stock, and I thought that $49 was a pretty good deal. I’ve read good reviews, and I could just go grab it. So – 15 minutes later and I had the pickup confirmation. Online ordering and in-store pickup is grand!

I got it home, unpacked it and started in on abusing it. After a 4 day trial – here are my thoughts:

• Very small. But only sort of. It’s actually the same size as the Pro, but without the tray.
• Very sexy. It’s typical Apple design fare. Sleek, minimalist and stylish.
• Nice key feel. Really smooth action, and a small distance between down and up, so you don’t have to press hard. Very nice for folks like me with arthritic joints and carpal-tunnel syndrome.
• Not adjustable. The only thing I don’t really dig. I prefer to have my keyboard cocked up at a slightly higher angle (again with the fingers and wrists.) But, not bad at it’s default angle.
• 19 F-keys. Huh? Wow. That’s a lot of function. Photoshop only uses 15. I’ve got more functions than a Swiss Army Knife.
• iTunes Control. Very, very nice!
• Quality Materials. Much nicer than the very plasticky Pro. Feels like quality.

I gotta have the new MacBook Air.

How much can I get for a kidney? Does Apple take children in lieu of payment?

The only thing that would make it better would be a built-in back scratcher and espresso machine.

Must. Have. One. Now.

Check it out here!

Thanks. That means a lot. You’re a saint.

I’ve had a busy few weeks for such a lazy person. I’ve made the switch to Mac OSX 10.5 – and I must say I’m a little impressed and a little underwhelmed.

For the most part, it was a very smooth transition and I’ve found that all the software I use is compatible – to an extent. InDesign had a little hiccup to start with, but it went away after a restart and permissions repair.

The system is pretty and some of the little changes are quite nice. Spaces is groovy, and makes it easy to bunch applications into groups – communications, design, web publishing, etc. Pretty sweet.

Time Machine is a great idea, but it’s a bit of a resource hog, so I’ve turned that one off until they have a more robust scheduling option.

Safari 3.0 and the new Mail is very nice, and all the applications talk to each other a little better than before.

Most importantly, the system seems a little snappier, speed-wise. Not a huge jump, but a little extra zip.

So, while some of the updates are great, there are still a couple of little things that leave something to be desired. It’s worth the price of admission – just don’t expect too much. It’s stable, it’s pretty and it’s Mac, so it’s cool.

Coming soon – more updates! More freelance! More fun! 

Huzzah and huzzah!

I must admit to being excited – but also somewhat guarded. I’m always a little hesitant to be the first one on the block to upgrade to the “latest and greatest,” and I’m still looking to err on the side of caution on this one.

From a business standpoint, I’ve gotta guard my assets and hedge my bets when it comes to upgrading ANYTHING. I must make sure it works, and that it works right from the moment I install it. I can’t afford a few hours of being dead in the water, let alone a few days. I want to make sure that the upgrade will play well with all my stuff – printer, external drives, software, routers, etc.

I resisted OSX for almost 2 years after it came out, because of non-native programs and what-not – but this one might be a little harder to resist. It’s sexy, there’s a lot of core updates, and it’s very interconnected, which is nice.

Mail got a big overhaul with some nifty project-management features.

For me, one of the biggest new features is the Time Machine thing. Using an external hard drive, your Mac keeps a log of the changes on your machine daily – and you can flip through folders and applications as they were a day, a week, a month ago. How many hours would that have saved me after ditching folders full of source files or catalogs of images? Sheesh!

Spaces looks promising, as it’s sort of like having unlimited numbers of monitors to keep your windows and sets of applications open and available, but without cluttering up your main monitor. Sweet!

They’re not saying how much of a resource hog it’ll be – but it’s going to have to be pretty hefty to allow for some of the features. The system itself is getting a few new underpinnings, which will be good.

But – and here’s the lesson for the day – I’m not sure about the stability (yet) and I want to remain productive, so I’ll have to put this one on the back burner for a day or three…

Staying productive is more important than bells and whistles, even if those bells and whistles are really cool and slick and could wind up saving a lot of time. As a freelancer, your billable hours have to take precedence over your desire to have the latest and greatest.

Still – somebody – quick – send me $129 and some Red Bull and a couple of days off. I’ll let you know how awesome Leopard is…

But, at the same time, you’ve got to admit that they make rather ubiquitous software, and as a freelance designer, I have to keep copies of everything that clients and potential clients might use. Don’t ask me about Publisher – I won’t answer.

Microsoft Office is NOT free – quite far from it – but there are a couple of really nice, really slick and totally compatible office suites out there.

First up is a Mac-only product – NeoOffice. It’s got pretty much anything you could possibly be looking for with the actual Office suite – word processor, spreadsheets, database and presentation software, plus it’s totally compatible with all of Microsoft’s products. You can open and save directly to Word files, PowerPoint files, Excel, etc. It doesn’t contain an email client, but there’s a million of those out there that are better than Entourage. Best of all, it’s free – and it keeps my beautiful brushed aluminum machine free of the scourge of Microsoft.

Secondly is a great free product – an open-source project called OpenOffice. It’s got versions for all the operating systems under the sun, including Sun. The only problem is that some versions require X11 if you’re on a Mac, but it’s free, it’s compatible and it’s slick. Plus, if you have a Mac, you can install X11 free anyway, and OpenOffice even shows you how.

Both of these pieces of software are funded solely by donation, so if you can afford 5 bucks for a latte and a Red Bull, you can afford to support the folks out there who support us with killer software for zilch.

Sometimes, the best things in (the freelance designer’s) life ARE free…

Click here to download NeoOffice (Mac OSX only)
Click here to download OpenOffice (All platforms)

ArtRage 2.5 is a really cool program. Very natural, nice tools, pressure sensitive if you have a tablet, and it works on all platforms. And it runs smoothly without a ton of ram or the latest processor. Works on laptops and little machines. Sweet! Free!

Well – the started edition is free. The full version is $25. But the starter edition is really pretty stinking cool. It’s not Photoshop – but then again, what is? It’s got lots of tools and feels pretty natural. If you’re into painting and illustration (like I am) you’ll appreciate the ability to be fluid. I think I’m going to pony up and get the full version – just to have a little bit of fun. It’s cheaper than canvas.

Here’s a screen grab of a self-portrait in progress – click for full resolution:

And here’s a little detail. There’s almost as many brush strokes as wrinkles:

Again – you can download it by clicking here.

As a freelance graphic designer, you can never have too many tools (especially free ones) and it can really be cathartic to push a little bit of paint around. It’s much more fun than pixels. Although I guess this is pixels. Praising painting while complaining about pixels while painting with pixels…

Man, now I’m confused.