by Joe Wallace

At the time of this writing, the great midwestern snow-ma-geddon hasn’t happened yet, at least not in Chicago…but I thought it would be a great idea to discuss how a busy freelancer can stay on top of those deadlines, two feet or snow or no.

I’ve prepared myself on both the high-tech and low-tech fronts. On the stove I have a massive pot of homemade chili simmering away, which should last the next three days all by itself, never mind the other groceries. Tomorrow, blizzard day if the weather forecasters are to be believed, will be a productive day free from food prep concerns altogether.

On the high-tech front, I have just finished charing up my iPhone and a snazzy new external battery iPhone case to go along with it. I’ll review my new Mophie Juice Pack Air for the iPhone 4 after I’ve put it to the test

during the blizzard, but for now I’ll just say that I am very happy to have the Mophie’s estimated nine to 12 hours of additional online time should I need it.

I’ve also got my external bluetooth keyboard synched to the iPhone, ready for writing should I need it. When I write on the go, I like to compose articles in Gmail using the Rich Text feature, then copy and paste them into blogs or send them to myself for later conversion to Word files.

On the iPhone I have all my social media tools installed including the mobile version of Hootsuite, Facebook and Twitter accounts, I’m basically ready to fall back on my mobile device in case the power goes out here for an extended time and I need to fall back on the iPhone to get work submitted.

It’s not the quickest or most productive way to submit freelance projects, but I have the tools at my disposal even in the worst case situation with power outages or other problems. Going on the offensive is the best way to handle the weather. Deadlines will still get met–and that’s my security even as the white stuff starts piling up round here…