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8 Online Organization Apps That Beat Unicorn Magic

8 Online Organization Apps

It is hard to beat unicorn magic, but having the right online organization apps will beat that magic for me every day! Life is crazy sometimes. Between work, school, extra-curricular activities, managing a business and managing a home, plus all the things in between, there’s really not a whole lot of time left. Do you ever feel this way? I definitely need some organization in my life to keep everything straight and scheduled.

The only way I find the ability to stay (somewhat) organized is by employing an entire gang of systems to do a load of the work for me. Automated organization that I can just put into practice and then let its magic run my life is the way I do anything these days. Technology is my organization BFF! That being said, I wanted to share a list of the best organization apps from blogging apps, to family organizer apps to photo organizer apps, including specifically my favorite one for Instagram. All of these I use daily for keeping everything in my ever-changing, fast-paced life organized. Here we go!

If you are looking for organization apps specifically for blogging there are more I’ve written about right here.

Power sheets review

power sheets goal setting

Why should you choose online apps over paper planning?

The first thing we need to talk about is what to do with that beloved paper planner you are still holding onto. You know the one with coffee stains that you always forget at the exact second you need it. ;) I feel your pain. I am a die hard paper planner first type gal and it’s been a huge shift to get all my organization streamlined online. But now that it’s done I feel so free and more in order all around.

It’s not that there is no room for paper planning though. We’ve found the perfect system that works for both our business and family organization. This last year I purchase my first set of power sheets and the paper planning system has revolutionized how we set goals and run after them daily and monthly. I’d highly suggest working through a version of this, here’s a preview you can snag for free.

We take our actionable goals created here and input them into our monthly tending sheets and then this tending sheet gets implemented into our google calendar, I’ll show you how below. So I can still feel the joy of paper in my hands at the goal setting level, but am able to see it played out sustainably with our online organization apps daily.

The Best Organization Apps I Could Not Exist Without

So here are the apps we use on the daily. I’ll go into more detail on each one below, why I love it and how I use it’s magic to organize my entire life. The apps are not listed in any particular order, just by how quickly they came to mind. :) Do you have any organization apps you use daily that didn’t make my list? I’d love to know which ones are your favorite.

Coschedule organizational appCoschedule

Since installing the CoSchedule app/WordPress plugin into my life, my social media game has not managed to disappoint! It might be the single most effective of the blogging organization apps that I have found to date! There are so many things I love about using Coschedule to organize my social media life

First, the plugin keeps a calendar for me right on the backside of my WordPress site – so I can add to it when drafting posts, or updating older posts. Also, the calendar connects seamlessly and is easy to view so I can make sure everything is scheduled where it should be. Much more organized than random post-it notes cluttered all over my desk!

I can schedule almost all my social media through CoSchedule (except Instagram which I use Grum for – easy upload of pictures for posting from the computer). It feels so great to have one location for all of the posts for all of my accounts. And speaking of posts, I love that CoSchedule prompts me to share posts now, and also in the future, so I can set up my calendar to continue sharing a post, say every month or so. Because let’s be honest, I am not going to remember these important business steps on my own. ;)

Finally, there is an analytic component which tells me which posts are doing well currently, in the last month, and of all time. This component is one of the most important I’ve found in all of the organization apps I’m sharing today. Being able to quickly and easily view my analytics is a game changer for our blogging business. It also allows me to easily continue sharing my posts… you guys did say you wanted more, right?! It’s so fun being able to check in on what everyone is really digging and then post accordingly.

photo organizer app

How To Schedule & Organize Instagram Posts With Grum

My favorite photo organizer app for Instagram purposes is Grum. The app is a desktop to Instagram app. Meaning I schedule the posts through their website on my computer or phone and they run on Instagram. Although I could technically schedule my Instagram posts in CoSchedule or even Tailwind now, I still do it through Grum daily. Plus it works as a killer photo organizer app, storing and saving all my future post ideas, drafts and edits in the process. Back on this post I also shared a great photo app for editing purposes.

The reasons I adore Grum as a photo organizer app for Instagram are so many, here are my top 3:

  1. I like to be able to see my photos in real time, with the crops and filters attached Grum doesn’t just show me a preview – It shows me my actual post.
  2. I like using Emojis in my text descriptions and Grum allows us to do this in the drafting section.
  3. I wanted a schedule and forget it organization app. Many of the other Instagram apps make you go in and approve a photo before it posts. In Grum though they post for you – so once you’ve scheduled content you never need to look at your phone during dinner to make sure it posts.

google editorial calendar Google Calendar

It’s no secret that Google is all sorts of awesome. So obviously our Google Calendar is no different. In the list of my favorite organization apps this is my go-to for editorial scheduling to make sure I’ve got everything set for publication. we keep a full line up of what posts are going up when during the month to keep the entire blogging team on track. You can see an example of this editorial planning above. It allows me to always know what is coming up next and we can easily move things around as needed.

I also my google calendar for tracking invoices to keep the financial side of my business in order. This was one of the most business changing organization tactics I learned from another online business owner a few years ago. Since I work freelance and get paid monthly by a number of different companies it can be easy to lose track. Instead, as soon as I close a sponsored campiagn, I input the expected payment on the expected payment date. This way I always have a tracking of what is coming in when, and it allows me to be aware if a company is paying late (it happens all the time!) so I can follow up quickly.

Probably the best part of Google Calendar is that it’s so easy to access! Whether I’m at my home office sitting down at my computer, waiting to pick up my kids from school and wanting to check something quickly, or on vacation getting a little bit of work done, my Google Calendar is at my fingertips at a single touch. I can use the app from any device and my calendar automatically syncs across all of my devices. It’s pretty sweet and definitely a must-have for anyone running a business in the online world.

Family Organizer appUsing Trello As Our Family Organizer App

So Trello is my latest and greatest new discovery. I am seriously obsessed with the program and all of its amazing features. Not only does it help me run my business more smoothly, but I totally use it for family organization too. It is literally more useful than a unicorn would be as our family organizer app.

If you’ve never heard of Trello before, let me break it down for you…it’s a free program that organizes your projects into “boards.” These boards help you keep track of the big-picture as well as the teeny-tiny details of your projects, with the option to add “cards” aka notes, reminders, checklists, comments, labels, and more. There’s options that allow for sharing so that you can work on projects as an entire family! You can delegate certain tasks, and share progress updates as you go. This has served us so well for our family home renovations and our international trip planning, it has quickly become one of our  most necessary organization apps!

If there’s anything that needs planning- a kid’s birthday party, work event, home renovation project or something that requires a checklist; groceries, to-dos, heck, even just day to day parenting goals –  Trello is there to help me as our family organizer app. Plus, they let you select from beautiful images or upload your own custom backgrounds for each of your boards. I am all about making everything look pretty, so this is an added plus in my book!

Sign up for your free Trello account right here, and we will be launching a series of FREE to swipe Trello boards later this month. You don’t want to miss it! Get on our email list right here to get them all.

Tailwind

Tailwind is 100% necessary for managing my Pinterest account. It’s in charge of handling all of my scheduled pins and has an amazing analytics tool that has been a key factor in the development of my current Pinterest strategy.

I typically spend a good bit of time simply scheduling my pins on a monthly basis. By doing all of the work in advance, I leave it up to Tailwind to handle the actual pinning. As if that weren’t enough, Tailwind lets me know how my pins + pinboards are doing. It rates them based on both virality and engagement to properly evaluate how people are receiving and interacting with my content. I love that Tailwind doesn’t just stop at handling the job, but gives me solid data to improve my work and up my game.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive has become my sales funnel mastermind. Whether I am talking about adding new contacts for our product launch team, keeping future blog partners, or tracking current sales activity, it truly is an invaluable asset to my business.

Within the sales focused organization apps, I am able to create my own sales “deals” with customizable stages. For example, I have a deal for each sponsor I’ve worked with and another for current projects that I’m working on. Within each deals, there are different tasks, or stages, to be completed. As the tasks are checked off my list/stages completed, the deal is moved through the pipeline until it’s considered a “closed deal,” meaning the project has come to full completion.

Pipedrive allows me not only to host my sales activities but also to prioritize them in order of urgency and importance. It also helps me keep track of my follow-up; it’s a place I can store detailed information on how I want to continue doing business with someone and when to contact them. If you’re in the sales biz, I would absolutely recommend giving Pipedrive a test drive ;)

Hello Sign

Hello Sign is one of my most long standing digital organization apps for signing and sending docs. It’s fast, efficient, secure, and reliable. Want to know a secret? It’s offered free! Of course there are software upgrades if you’re doing some serious e-signage, but if you just need a doc signed here and there, you may get away with the freebie option.

They also offer Hello Fax to ensure you can communicate with businesses however they like + Hello API if you’re a super techie and have some application programming needs + Hello Works if you’re signing multiple pages on multiple documents (i.e. rental agreements, new employee contracts) and want to get it done as simply as possible.

I’ve talked about this amazing blogging app before right here. For me, Hello Sign is my trusted source to get contracts send, signed, and returned in a timely fashion. I prefer to keep it digital, because nobody has time to wait around for a pen and paper signature rolling in via snail mail!

Well, that’s a wrap for my strategies and secrets of an organized online life. Find the best organization apps you can & get everything in place. I hope you learned something new about one of the apps I mentioned – maybe this will be your first time using a photo organizer app or a family organizer app. I promise they will change your world! Would love it if you shared with me your tips and tricks on keeping it all together online. Drop a comment below and let’s have a chat!

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