Product Review

Freelance writing is chaos by design. One day you’re juggling three client deadlines, the next you’re pitching five new ideas while trying to remember which client prefers AP style and which one wants Oxford commas.  Throw in invoicing reminders, research rabbit holes, and the constant battle to focus, and you’ve got a recipe for dropped balls. I’ve tried the usual suspects for managing my work, from Notion to Trello to various other productivity tools. Notion felt like building a spaceship when I just needed a car. Google Tasks was too basic. Trello worked until I had seven boards and couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Then I found TickTick, and something clicked. I’ve been using it for the past year to manage my freelance writing business, everything from client projects, article pipelines, invoicing reminders, and deep work sessions.  This review covers how I use it day-to-day, what works brilliantly, and what still frustrates me. Bottom line upfront: TickTick has become my command center for freelance writing. It’s the first task manager that’s flexible enough to handle my chaos without creating more of it. What is TickTick? TickTick is a task management and productivity app that combines to-do lists, calendar views, habit tracking, and focus tools in one place. It’s designed for people who need more power than Apple Reminders but don’t want the complexity of full project management software like Asana. The platform works across every device you own—iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, web, and even Apple Watch.  Screenshot from Apple Watch Browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari let you quickly add tasks from any webpage without opening the full app. Everything syncs instantly, which matters when you’re capturing article ideas on your phone at 11 PM and need them on your laptop the next morning. For freelance content writers—especially those working with B2B SaaS clients—TickTick sits in a sweet spot. It’s structured enough to manage multiple clients and deadlines, but flexible enough to adapt to how you actually work. You’re not building databases (like Notion) or managing Gantt charts (like Monday.com).  Instead, you get to organize your tasks, block focus time, and get reminders when it’s time to invoice your clients, not that you need the reminder 😅. Most task apps make you choose between simplicity and power. TickTick gives you both—a clean interface that reveals more capabilities as you need them. You can start with basic to-do lists and gradually adopt features like smart lists, calendar view, and Pomodoro timers as your needs grow. TickTick consistently receives favorable ratings from independent reviewers, including a 4.6/5 score on G2,  4.7 stars out of 153K reviews on the Google Play Store, and 4.8/5 on the Apple Store. How I use TickTick as a freelance writer Here’s my setup, the one I open every morning before I start writing. One project per client When I sign a new client, I create a dedicated project or “List” in TickTick. Simple as that. Each project becomes a container for everything related to that client—article tasks, deadlines, notes, and reminders. Inside each client project, I add individual tasks for every article I need to write. So if I’m working with three clients and each needs four articles this month, I’ve got twelve discrete tasks spread across three projects. This keeps everything separated and prevents those “wait, which client was this for?” moments. Client notes at the top The first thing I do in any new client project is create a note pinned at the top. This is where I dump everything I need to remember about their style preferences: Do they want AP or Chicago style? What’s their preferred article length? Any topics to avoid? Which editor do I send drafts to? Having this visible at the top of the project means I don’t waste time digging through old emails or Slack messages. It’s just there when I need it. Client style guides and preferences are pinned at the top of each project to eliminate the need for constant email searches. Recurring invoicing reminders This might be my favorite feature, and it’s so simple it’s almost boring. I set a recurring reminder to invoice each client on the 30th of every month, the last working day, or whatever day I’ve set with the client. Ngl, before TickTick, I sometimes forgot to send my invoices on time.  Recurring invoicing reminders ensure freelancers never forget to bill clients on time. Calendar sync: Everything in one view I’ve connected both my Google Calendar and Apple Calendar to TickTick. The connection means I can see my tasks and calendar events in a single unified view. Client calls, article deadlines, co-working sessions, doctor appointments—all on the same calendar. Planning my day is easier now. I can see that I have a client call at 2 PM, an article due at 5 PM, and a gym session at 6 PM, and I can block time appropriately instead of overcommitting. Pomodoro timer for deep work Writing requires uninterrupted blocks of focus. TickTick has a built-in Pomodoro timer that I use for every writing session. I adjust it depending on the work, sometimes 30 minutes of focus with 5-minute breaks, sometimes 45 minutes with 10-minute breaks. When I start a writing session, I fire up the timer, put my phone face down, and write. The timer keeps me honest about focusing instead of “researching” (aka scrolling Twitter) for hours. The built-in Pomodoro timer helps maintain focus during writing sessions without switching apps. The timer tracks how many Pomodoros you complete per task, giving you data on how long different types of work actually take. Stats and analytics for accountability TickTick’s stats and analytics section shows me how much time I’m spending on each project and gives me productivity graphs over time. It’s like a fitness tracker for work. I check it weekly to see whether I’m balanced across clients, or if one client is eating up 60% of my time while paying only 30% of my work. This kind of