Let’s not pretend I’m organized. I can forget what I’m doing as I’m doing it. I’m all over the place… but I’m also obsessive about wanting to be organized. So I spend a lot of time looking for fancy new tools that might help me get a handle on things. These 5 are my favorites right now.
Feedly // Google Reader is going away (cue the violins). When I heard the news I almost died. Until I found Feedly. The thing is that Google Reader was kind of boring. And the app version was… well, kind of nonexistent. Feedly is fantastic, whether you’re using it on your iPhone, tablet, or desktop. It’s pretty, it streamlines your content, and it helps you get through WAY more blogs than Google Reader ever did (sorry Reader, I love you… but maybe this was a blessing…).
Bloglovin’ is pretty great too (and, of course, you can follow A Thousand Threads on whichever you like best – on Bloglovin’ here and on an RSS reader like Feedly here.)
Things // The best to-do list around. Things allows you to break your list down into bite-size chunks and tackle each one by one. You can put a time limit on tasks and group individual jobs into larger projects.
Hootsuite // I’m sure a lot of you use something like Hootsuite (maybe Tweetdeck?) but the reason I include it here is that it can be an invaluable tool if you use it to schedule your tweets. I don’t know about you, but every time I wander over to Twitter I spend at least an hour gawking at all of the amazing links and catching up on the latest news, the this and that… it’s a swirling vortex of procrastination, the Twitter… so anything that can cut down on my exposure is welcome. Scheduling tweets is a fantastic solution. I can schedule the important stuff, then come over to Twitter myself when I have time to catch up (something I can schedule for myself… remember, working in spurts is actually more productive). Hey by the way, are we friends?
Pocket and/or Evernote // I’ll be honest and say that I’ve only just begun to use Evernote, so I can only speak to the fact that at first glance it looks pretty amazing. But I use Pocket almost every day. Pocket is a great visual bookmarking tool, sort of like a private Pinterest, but it saves your whole article or web page. It’s perfect for those times when you want to come back to a piece later (or for saving those link lists you might share on your site!).
Mindnode // An awesome way to organize your thoughts. Mindnode allows you to use mind mapping to brainstorm. Best of all, it allows you to create a visual alternative to the same old vertical list. The idea is that mind mapping makes it easier to build connections between tasks and hide those tasks that don’t fit in with the problem at hand.
Bonus: iNo // Do you have a hard time saying no? Ya… me too. This little app will take down the who, what, and why, then give you options for how to say no — both the nice, and the not so nice. Too bad it can’t do the talking for you too.
So what do you think? Do you use these? Am I missing any that I need to check out?
