In case you're new to my blog, hello my name is Adell and I'm an organizational-workflow freak. If there's a trick for making my business life easier, you'd better believe imma use it.
Here are my top five favorite apps and programs for authors!
Favorite App #1: Todoist
Todoist has been my go-to productivity task app since 2016. Of the many wonderful things Todoist offers, I have stuck with them for so long mostly because of just how versatile of a program it is and the fact that they are constantly vigilant in keeping the program progressive with the times. Here are just a few ways it can work for your author business:
Bookish note taking/organizing
Importing/exporting workflows (i.e. book release tasks)
Integrations with thousands of other handy apps and programs
Collaboration tools w/ coauthors and assistants
After reading this article, make sure you check out some of my advanced tips in my post Nerd Out to These Unique Todoist Productivity Hacks.
Favorite App #2: Text Expander
Back in the day, when I was writing my now complete Daughter of Perdition series, the unique inclusion of Ancient Greek tripped me up while trying to write faster and turn out higher word counts. So, I went in search of a tool that would use hotkeys or abbreviations to correctly type the words for me... accents and all.
Once I added TextExpander to my Mac (Never fear, they have it for Windows too! They don't, however, have it for Andriod phones.) I quickly realized the functionality of this program goes way beyond expanding small words and began to envision a world of text-expanding possibilities.
Obscure Words or Other-Worldly Lexicon
Blurbs and Bios!
Personal Information and Follow Links
Buy Links
The opportunities truly seem endless. Check out my blog post 5 Ways Authors Can Use TextExpander For a Faster Workflow for more detailed examples.
Favorite App #3: Shift
The Shift App offers a clean, one-stop platform for nearly all of your work-related needs. With their workspace feature, designed to condense what is available while working on a given project, the tool has become a force in skyrocketing my productivity. I believe it can do the same for yours!
You can take the full tour directly at the Shift App website, but here are my three favorite features:
Custom workspaces for each book project
1000+ App integrations
Helps refine focus and starve distractions.
Check out my blog post Boost Productivity With Shift for explanations on each bullet point above!
Favorite App #4: Toggl Track
I am a huge advocate of time tracking; knowing where your valuable time is going is incredibly important when running a business. After trying several apps and programs, for now I have settled on Toggl Track. Here are a few reasons why:
Integrates with several popular task apps (Todoist being one of them, of course!)
Has a super useful browser extension
Can track team productivity (i.e. assistants)
Desktop friendly
Favorite App #5: Google Services
I have been a pretty avid Google user since its induction, owning google phones, investing in their cloud storage and business suite services, and so much more. Of their many services here are the ones I have found most relevant to my author business:
Drive (especially with the ability to now access via desktop)
Docs (for interactive editing and beta reading)
Keep (note taking that is accessible directly from within a doc)
Calendar (for eeeeeeverything)
As an independent author and business owner, my main workflow goal has always been to find easy ways to do all the hard tasks. We're often spread too thin as the CEO, President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Every-Hat-Wearer of our businesses. And being spread too thin more times than not leads to burnout.
For that reason, I hope in some small way, this and my other blog posts help lessen the weight of the business-writing balance for my fellow indie authors.
Happy writing and working!