I have come across a lot of neat tools and tricks in my time book blogging, so I wanted to share some of those with you all today! These are my favorite – can’t live without – tools for blogging and staying organized. All of them are free except one!

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For Storing and Saving: Google Drive

I use drive to store all of my drafts, ideas, spreadsheets etc. This is super helpful when collaborating with others AND they auto save so I can just copy/paste to WordPress and never have to worry about losing my new thoughts.  I find this much easier than writing in the WordPress program as that gets bulky with multiple drafts going at once.

To Track Tasks to Completion: Trello

I found Trello through Jenny @SoSheTries and I will never go back. She has a great post about how she uses Trello to organize her posts Here.  I coordinate a little differently and move my stuff from stage to stage, with the colors for the type of post, not a task. But it’s a great program that is super versatile. Plus you can work with other bloggers on joint projects. This is a free computer program and app so I encourage you to check it out!

Here is a screenshot of my organization.

For Keeping Everything in One Place: Kal’s Magic Spreadsheet

I LOVE this spreadsheet for keeping my favorite moments and it makes wrap-ups a cinch! Kal is a queen for providing this to us peons. I have tweaked mine since I began using trello, so I don’t use the monthly calendars any longer, but check out this amazing dashboard! Plus, the second tab is all of your stats from month to month in chart form. It just gives you a better grasp than the WordPress generated stats and helps you pinpoint what’s working and what isn’t.

Blog Hopping: Feedly

This is another great tool that Kal introduced me to. It’s an RSS feed of the things you want to read. The great part is that you can check them off and group them! I’ll be transparent that I have a group of Must Reads, Please Reads, and a When I Have Spare Time. I love to read reviews, especially of books I want to read or am on the fence about so I save those to my feedly and read them later.

Too much disappears in the evil WordPress reader. It’s too much to handle and because it’s chronological, I worry that I am missing tons of great content just due to timing. Feedly helps me prioritize and keeps the anxiety at bay.

For Images/Headers etc: Canva

If you haven’t met Canva yet… you should. I love to use this to design instagram stories, Pins, Headers, and everything else you may need. They have awesome templates and most of it is free to use.

For Reading: Leio App

Okay so here is the one that comes with a price. Leio is a phone app that helps me to keep up to date on my reading. I can add any book from the in app catalog and designate how I want to read it (page #, percentage or location). It will then calculate approximately how long it will take me to read it AND if I add a due date, how much I need to read each day to meet my goal.

If you use the tracker as you read, you can record sessions and it will catch on to your reading speed too!

The only downside is that you get one book at a time for free, but it’s $5.99 to track multiple books. It’s a one-time app purchase that I completely forgot I made, but it’s also pricey for an app. I would suggest trying it out with the one at a time before committing to an another app you may not use.

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I hope these are helpful to you. Shout at me if you have any more questions or want something more in depth!

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