1. Planners & Binders
In my house, I keep two calendars - my planner, which lives in my purse and keeps track of the family's commitments and a wall calendar (I like this one by Sandra Boynton) I keep in the kitchen. Actually, I keep a business-only wall calendar as well in my studio, but the important dates there are duplicated in my personal planner.
One of the most important things I do to keep everyone's schedules straight is a bi-weekly "calendar dump" with my husband. We sit down and make sure our calendars (he keeps his schedule digitally) both have all the important dates - kids' activities, business trips, vendor events, etc.
I'm also obsessed with binders. Here are all my binders currently in use:
2. Canva & VSCO Cam
VSCO Cam is a free iPad/iPhone/Android photo-editing app. It comes with several pre-loaded filters, but also many tools for editing your photos. I'm certainly no photographer, but I find VSCO easy to use.
Canva is a free graphic design site with apps for iPhone and iPad. My absolute favorite thing about Canva is that it has templates for pretty much any social media you need to design for - Instagram posts, Facebook cover images, etc. Canva also has several print-sized templates and give you the option to save your designs as either an image (for digital layouts) or a high-quality PDF (for print). I've used Canva for everything from Facebook posts to printed invitations. The banner for my newsletter was created in Canva.
3. Viralwoot & If This Then That
If This Then That (IFTTT) is another great social media tool I use. IFTTT allows you to create "recipes" or connections between items. When I post to Instagram, IFTTT will automatically post to Twitter. Now, I know you can do that from Instagram, but IFTTT makes your image actually show up in the Twitter feed, instead of just a link.
4. Evernote & Google Drive
I use Google Drive for items I need to share with others. Evernote has a sharing capability as well, but I feel that Google Drive is easier for people to grasp. I use Drive for keeping membership lists, budgets, etc.
5. GoDaddy Bookkeeping
6. Polyvore & Covet Fashion
7. CreativeLive and my local library
Now it might seem silly to include a game in a post on business tools, but I find that it is a great way to see trends in action, and see which outfits people are responding positively to.
The other great tool I use weekly is my local library. I'm also pretty sure I pay somebody's salary in late fees, but that's a different story. Not only does the public library have a wealth of books available on pretty much any topic, many also have digital resources available for their patrons - classes, services, etc.
Now it's your turn - What do you use to stay organized? Did any of these spark your interest? Which ones? Leave a message in the comments!