7 Tools That Will Save You 5+ Hours Each Week
Most of the time, when people say they’re too busy, they’re just not organizing their tasks properly. I hear people tell me all the time how hard it is to keep up with their email or social media or about a million other things, but it’s not if you use the right tools and approach it strategically. There are lots of tools that will help you make the most of your time but these 7 tools easily save me 5 hours per week at the very least. That’s a bare minimum of 20 hours per month or 240 hours per year. Imagine what you could do with that kind of time!
Unroll.me
I subscribe to a lot of emails and I love reading them but they can be distracting. Unroll.me has allowed me to create an actual system for going through all of the great emails I get. Every afternoon, Unroll.me sends me a digest of the emails I got in the form on 1 single email. That allows me to take 30 minutes to go through it all at once at a time that works for me. If you use Google Apps to host your email, check out Unroll.me here.
Buffer
Google Calendar
In order to make sure I get everything done, I use Google Calendar to manage my schedule. I actually make appointments with myself and treat them as appointments with other people. Let me explain. If I know I need to write 3 blog posts this week, I’ll put a 2 hour appointment in my calendar. Now I’m not meeting with anyone but if I schedule it, I know I’ll do it. Also, I’m horrible in the morning so if I don’t have my day planned out the night before, I’ll just be totally lost until about noon. When I start my day, I can see exactly what I need to do and when so I don’t have to waste any time figuring that out.
ScheduleOnce
iDoneThis
SelfControl (Mac only) or Freedom
When you don’t have self control, these apps force you to. Both of these apps will block out distractions (like Facebook, email, whatever you choose) for a set amount of time and they will not allow you to access them until that time is up. No more getting sucked into Facebook or watching cat videos and wondering where all the time went!
Trello
Trello is a great tool that allows you to see everything that you need to do, are working on and have done already at a glance. It’s incredibly flexible and works like a digital whiteboard. Creating a board for each wedding you’re working on could be a great way to stay on track.
Am trying out Trello – love the concept!
I love Trello. It just makes sense to me. Let me know how it goes!