Now and then we need to stop cutting wood and sharpen the saw.
This little story explains exactly what I mean:
A man sees a woodcutter furiously trying to cut down a tree with an obviously dull saw. So he asks “Hey, why don’t you stop for a minute and sharpen your saw? Your work would go much faster!” The woodcutter replies, “Stop and sharpen my saw? I don’t have time for that! Look at all these trees I have to cut down!”
A social journalist, or any journalist for that matter, cannot possibly accomplish his/her job without a few hacks. In the old days, this might have consisted of a little black book full of phone numbers for great sources. While that’s still a valuable resource, the Web has given us access to a nearly unlimited pool of information and a treasure trove of tools.
It’s great but also overwhelming.
If you don’t find a few ways to streamline your workflow, you’ll spend hours performing tasks that a computer can do faster. So stop sawing for a few minutes, sharpen your blade and check out these tools that will help you embrace technology, do your job better and maybe even sleep better at night.
1. 3 tools to save content for later
You don’t have time to read every article you stumble across throughout the day. Some of those articles will help you do your job better and others satisfy a guilty pleasure. (I mean, who doesn’t enjoy a 2,400-word article about the Southeastern Ohio Bigfoot Investigation Society? Great piece, BTW.)
In any case, there is a way to save all that great stuff you find on the Internet to read later. A number of services have popped up recently that allow readers to save articles to tablets, e-readers and smartphones. Most allow for offline reading so you can indulge on the metro or even a park bench. Readability also allows writers to create Readlists, making it incredibly simple to package some articles for your site readers to take on-the-go. Instapaper and Pocket also received rave reviews and cost nothing (or very close to it).
2. Scheduling simplicity in Hootsuite
Scheduling social media posts seems like a simple task, right? Well, it is until you start managing multiple sites, each with multiple social outlets.
Most Web journalists use at least one tool to help them manage multiple accounts, track hashtags and build their audience. Hootsuite has created a simple tool to save you a step when it’s time to schedule tweets. Just type your tweet into the Hootsuite.com interface or browser extension and select “Autoschedule.” Hootsuite examines your followers to find out when they are most active and schedules your tweet to make sure you get the most impact.
Also check out the BufferApp. It makes tweet scheduling easy, and you can select the times yourself. Simple, right? You won’t believe how useful it is until you try it.
3. Markdown to change plain text to HTML
My friend Ernie Smith already covered this topic in his epic post Minimum Viable Awesome: 6 Ways To Simplify Your Web Writing Workflow so I won’t drone on about it. But seriously, it’s life-changing if you write content for the Web.
4. Text Expansion to stop typing words over and over and over…
Are there words or phrases you find yourself typing out over and over again? STOP! There are applications that allow you create your own shortcuts on both Mac and Windows.
LifeHacker has an in-depth guide to text expansion, but to get started, create a shortcut for your name and email address. You type a simple key or string of characters and it populates the rest. You’ll find especially useful if you dabble in HTML and CSS.
5. Pixelmator, Photoshop’s little brother
Photoshop is the king of image editing but it’s expensive and bulky. For $35, Pixelmator (Mac only) delivers almost all of the power at a fraction of the cost. It’s also much faster than Photoshop.
Whether you simply need to resize images for the Web, create graphs or charts to accompany your posts or completely overhaul a photo, Pixelmator is your tool. Even if you don’t need the advanced functionality, it’s still one of the best image editing tools.
6. Timing App to keep your tasks on track
This app keeps track of everything you do on your computer.
Yea, I know that sounds scary but it’s actually really useful. You can categorize your tasks to make filling out timesheets easier. For example, the app knows that if I’m using Mou, InDesign, Pixelmator or Drupal that I’m posting new content. You’ll discover trends that can help you streamline your day. You don’t even want to know how much time I spend with email.
Timing App reminds me to leave the inbox so I can get back to writing or social media.
7. 2Do/Things for Mac/Omnifocus for a modern to-do list
These apps all take slightly different approaches to the modern to-do list.
A to-do list is wildly important and should be addressed multiple times throughout the day. I use 2Do because of the clean interface and flexibility but each of these applications syncs with other devices, categorizes tasks, allows you to build out projects and reminds you when things need to get done.
There are tons of apps and services like this. Just pick one and stick to it.
8. IFTTT—putting the Internet to work
Its motto is “Put the Internet to work for you” and this service delivers.
If This, Then That allows users to connect social media sites, search engines, RSS feeds, text messages and email into amazing, customized actions. IFTTT sends every article I write into my Delicious account and also schedules new items to be posted to Twitter. When I’m looking for an item on Craigslist, I use IFTTT to alert me via email or SMS so I can be the first to jump on it.
You can automatically save articles from your favorite author to your Pocket account or sync your Facebook photos to Dropbox. The possibilities are literally endless and you are guaranteed to save yourself some time.
9. Clipboard Cleaner for seamless clipping
If you post content to the Web, you know that plain text is really important. When you copy text from a Microsoft Word document or email, you are often surprised by insane strings of characters that totally screw up your formatting.
You probably open up a TextEdit or Notepad document to clean out it out but there is a better way. Clipboard Cleaner automatically clears all formatting from your clipboard so that you can post from any application into any other application seamlessly.
What’s the key? Choose the tools that will give back your productivity and decrease inefficient processes. So, stop what you are doing once in a while and sharpen the saw.
What tools do you use to increase productivity?
[Image: orcmid]
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