Why I switched to ClickUp in the first place
When you’re solo and juggling client work, admin, invoices, and, in my case, a slightly out of control personal to do list that includes fixing my shed door, the temptation to find one magical tool is strong. I landed on ClickUp after Notion felt too slow for task switching, and Trello just sat there looking too empty. The promise of “everything in one place” got me.
The first time I opened ClickUp, I remember staring at the sidebar thinking, okay… where do I even start. There’s Spaces, Folders, Lists, Views — and that’s before you even touch Automations. I made the mistake of jumping straight to creating a Space called ALL THE THINGS, which I do not recommend to beginners. It turns into an unscrollable mess within a week.
One thing I liked right away — I could make a task for literally anything. Client meeting notes? Task. Grocery reminder? Task. Half baked landing page idea at 3am? Task. That freedom is great, but also easy to abuse, and soon I had a click-heavy maze instead of a manageable workspace.
How I structured work without drowning in spaces
At first, I did exactly what every YouTube tutorial tells you — client folders, then project lists inside them. Problem was, when I had two or three smaller client jobs coming in at the same time, I was constantly diving in and out of folders, losing track of what was urgent today vs. something I could push to next Monday.
So, I ripped it apart. Now, instead of a folder per client, I keep a single LIST for all active paid work, tagged by client name. This way, I can open my Today view and see everything that actually matters without remembering which Space it lives in. I keep another list for admin and finance tasks (invoice follow ups, renewal reminders, end of year spreadsheet clean up). For purely personal stuff? I stopped pretending I’d keep it in ClickUp — I use my phone’s native reminders and just move on.
ClickUp’s filter-and-save feature has been the only reason I didn’t ditch it altogether. I’ve saved one view that filters by my tag “⚡ HOT” (yep, I actually use flashy emoji tags for urgency), and another filtered by due dates in the next three days. If you’re new, these saved filters are your lifeline.
Where automations actually saved me time
I’ve had automations in ClickUp misfire on me — one day, I woke up to every single admin task from the last quarter getting marked COMPLETE for no reason. It turned out the trigger I set up “when task status changes” was seeing a status change in a different list as a signal to close everything. Not my best morning.
That said, some automations are worth the setup. My most-used one moves a task to my HOT list whenever I set a custom priority to URGENT. Another assigns the task to me automatically if I drop it into my Active Work list — this prevents that awkward moment when I realize I’ve been looking at a task all week but never officially assigned it to myself, so it never shows up in my Today view.
One little tip: name your automations like you’d label something for a forgetful roommate. “Turns on light in hallway” is better than “Hallway trigger.” Future you will thank you when you wake up in three months wondering why 12 tasks jumped lists overnight.
ClickUp versus just using Google Sheets
When I get burnt out by too many bells and whistles, I’ll sometimes throw everything into a basic Google Sheet for a week. Literally, a column for Task, Due Date, Status. And you know what? It works, but only until I miss some tiny but crucial thing like recurring tasks.
The reason I keep coming back to ClickUp is that it handles repeating stuff fairly well — I have an invoice reminder task that recurs monthly, and after marking it done, ClickUp automatically rolls it to next month’s date. No extra thinking from me. Sheets could do that with scripts, but I’d rather not.
Still, if you’re a solo operator just starting, it’s worth running a week in Sheets before committing. If your week is smooth without automations, dependencies, and subtasks, maybe you don’t need a big workspace tool yet.
Managing clients without creating chaos
Client data scattered across email threads is painful. The fastest fix I found was to create a simple client dashboard in ClickUp. Each client got a main Task that linked directly to their Google Doc folder, Zoom links, and the invoice folder in my Google Drive. Every meeting note became a subtask with the date in the title.
I keep statuses dead simple: To Do, Doing, Done. The moment you add statuses like “Waiting for Feedback” or “In QA” for solo freelancing, you just create more clicks for yourself. Those statuses are gold in team environments but overkill when you’re managing clients alone.
If you need to share progress with a client, I actually skip the ClickUp sharing feature and instead send them a screenshot of my list. Less login hassle for them, less settings confusion for me. The one time I invited a client as a guest, they clicked around and accidentally removed the due date from half their tasks. Never again.
Integrations that are worth turning on
I tried connecting ClickUp to Slack, but all it did was turn Slack into an anxiety feed about overdue tasks. I shut that off within a day. What actually works is connecting it to my Google Calendar — any ClickUp task with a due date shows up right inside my calendar.
The Zapier integration is also useful if you’re disciplined. I have one Zap that listens for new form submissions on my website and instantly creates a ClickUp task in my HOT list. This means leads don’t get lost in my inbox. Another Zap just sets a high priority and slaps my name on it so I never forget to respond.
If you plan to integrate email, be warned — ClickUp’s native email connection is… twitchy. Sometimes the thread shows up in the task instantly, sometimes it’s MIA for hours. I’ve had better luck with a direct Gmail to ClickUp automation using Zapier.
When ClickUp actually slowed me down
ClickUp’s biggest downside for me is load time. Sometimes, especially in the browser, changing views feels like dragging a couch up the stairs. There’s also the distraction factor — I’ll open it to check a deadline, and next thing I’m in their Template Center looking at Kanban boards for marketing teams I’m not even part of 😛
For quick adds, the desktop app Quick Create shortcut is a lifesaver. Press the shortcut, type the task, hit enter, done. No navigation, no sidebar, no shiny distractions.
I’ve learned that if you treat ClickUp as the place to plan everything, you’ll waste half your day “organizing” instead of doing the actual work. Mine works well as a jump-in and jump-out tool, not as a permanent workspace I stare at all day.