Reading time: About 4 minutes
Spending a bit of money will sometimes save you a lot of time (which, funnily enough, translates into money). Check out these free or cheapish apps for writers to improve your effectiveness….
I like to work in a fast, focused way so I have more time for the other things in life I like to do — reading, cooking, walking, spending time with friends.
As a result, I’ve carefully curated a group of apps for writers that help make my writing and business life more efficient and effective. Cast your eye over this list and see if any could help you boost your productivity (and possibly your sanity) as well.
1-Feedly: I track some 80 blogs about writing each week. I know this sounds like an overwhelming, undoable job that would make normal people weep into their coffee, but it’s easy thanks to Feedly. This brilliant aggregator compiles news — including blogs — from a variety of online sources. Create your free account and then subscribe to the blogs you want to follow. They’ll all be there in one spot, and you can scan through them quickly. I try to review my list every day, but when I’m travelling, it’s especially handy to return home to Feedly and be able to review everything I missed with minimal time and effort — like having a personal assistant who never asks for a raise.
2-Busy Contacts: My tech-savvy friend Peter introduced me to Busy Contacts, and I’ve been very grateful ever since I met it — the app, not Peter, though he’s lovely, too. This inexpensive ($49), easy-to-use app is a contact-management system that allows me to enter the names, addresses, phone numbers and emails of clients. The best thing about it? It scans my email account and links to their record all the emails I’ve sent or received from them. Absolutely handy. Too bad it’s only for Mac users.
3-Evernote: Isn’t it wonderful how the Internet has made research so easy? But isn’t it horrible how troublesome it is to copy and paste information you collect from these websites? It’s like having a library at your fingertips but needing to transcribe everything with a quill pen. I no longer have to endure this painful process thanks to Evernote. This remarkable storage tool allows me to load a “clipper” onto my browser (I use Chrome, but there are clippers for every browser). Then, I click one button to save the entire page to my Evernote file. Even better, I apply several “tags” — words that are like index entries — to each document I save, and I’m able to find the document again whenever I need it. This versatile service also allows me to save PDFs, photos and notes to myself. Evernote is free for the first 50 notes, so be sure to give it a try. And even when you pay, the cost is reasonable ($14.99/month USD or $129.99/year for up to 150,000 notes.) Also, storage is cloud-based, so all your research is accessible wherever you have an Internet connection. By the way, if you’re an academic, don’t use Evernote. Instead, use a system that combines research storage with citation management. The tools you should consider are Citavi, Mendeley and Zotero.
4-1Password: My adorable husband has a list of passwords in a Word document on his computer. Generating new passwords — and remembering existing ones — irritates him and takes him lots of time. Do you fall into that category too? Are you also using “password123” for everything? This challenge is not only about efficiency, however. It’s also about safety. If you use the same password for multiple accounts or if your password is too easy (e.g., Madison — if Madison is your daughter’s name) then you’re putting your security at risk. Please do what my husband won’t, and get yourself a password manager. Such a piece of software will allow you to use one complex (but easy to remember) password for all your accounts. Then, it will generate individual and hard-to-guess passwords for each site. I use 1Password, but there are lots of other password managers out there. Choose one. Your future self will thank you.
5-ProWritingAid: This software is much less expensive and much more sophisticated than the popular Grammarly, so I always suggest writers choose ProWritingAid instead. It’s like getting a sports car for the price of a bicycle. Give the free version of ProWritingAid a try first (the trial will limit you to 500 words at a time), and my hunch is you’ll want to use it again. It not only corrects grammar and spelling, but it also deals with a host of style issues, such as sentence length, word choice and sloppy diction. Check out my full review of ProWritingAid versus Grammarly.
6-TextExpander: Be sure to get yourself a copy of TextExpander. (You can also try PhraseExpander.) This software allows you to create abbreviations representing larger blocks of text. Type the abbreviation you’ve assigned and, voila, the larger block of text will appear in your document. For example, whenever I receive an email telling me someone has bought a copy of my book, Your Happy First Draft, I send them an email. Do I write it out from scratch each time? Certainly not! I’m not a masochist. I type the abbreviation “;mybook” and, voilà, a 140-word message immediately appears. (I use XXXXs to mark the spots that need to be customized.) I like the way the app saves me time and ensures my messages are consistent and thorough. I figure using this software saves me about 15 minutes every 24 hours. That’s 75 minutes per working week or 3,750 minutes (62.5 hours) per year. Amazing how the time adds up, isn’t it?
7-Zenkit To Do: Not everyone uses a to do list, and not everyone needs one. But if you do, have a look at the list manager Zenkit To Do. I like a couple aspects of this simple piece of software:
- It allows me to assign all the tasks I need to do into specific categories. When I started, I used a project-based way of organizing (e.g., Client A, Client B, Client C). Now, I’ve switched to a “type of work” system (30-minute tasks, 5-minutes-or-fewer tasks). This “batching” allows me to be ultra-efficient — like a productivity ninja.
- I’m able to assign a date to each task. The record then “disappears” until the date it is due. No more guilt-inducing tasks staring at me accusingly!
- When I complete a task, I get to tick a box and the software emits a cheery “ding,” allowing me to feel suitably accomplished.
A personal version is free. I have a paid one that costs me roughly $4/month. Cheaper than a fancy coffee.
8-Google Sheets: Of course, I’ve known about Google Docs for a long time, but for many years, I was blind to the existence of Google Sheets. Somehow, my brain just skipped right over it. This nifty program allows you to save and share lists, budgets or data (basically, anything you might store in an Excel spreadsheet). I use this tool to record the efforts of writers in my Get It Done group. I like that it’s super easy to use, and I can share it with an assistant when I need to travel and cannot track the group’s progress myself. Thanks to my friend Hester for introducing me to it.
9-Buffer: I post to LinkedIn at least once a day, and I usually do it live. But whenever I need to be on the road, I schedule my posts in advance. How? I use Buffer. This app allows me to enter my posts (and accompanying photos) well in advance and then have them appear at a specific date and time. I respect the value of social media, but I truly appreciate the way Buffer can take over for me whenever I need it to.
These nine apps all help me work better, not more. Or as the wise Dolly Parton put it: “Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” Words to live by from a woman who knows a thing or two about productivity — and awe-inspiring hair.
If you liked this post, you’ll also like Nine business tool recommendations for writers.
This is a substantially updated version of a post that first appeared on my blog on Aug. 30/19.
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Need some help developing a better, more sustainable writing or editing routine? Learn about my three-month accountability program called Get It Done. There is turn-over each month, and priority will go to those who have applied first. You can go directly to the application form and you’ll hear back from me within 24 hours.
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My video podcast last week addressed whether blog posts can be repurposed into a book. You can watch the video or read the transcript, and you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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Do you use any apps for writers that make you more effective? We can all learn from each other, so please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the comments section, below. If you comment on today’s post (or any others) by Aug. 31/25, I’ll put you in a draw for a digital copy of my first book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. To enter, please scroll down to the comments, directly underneath the related posts links, below. You don’t have to join Disqus to post! Read my tutorial to learn how to post as a guest. (It’s easy!)
