All those little things that seem like no big deal when they arrive in your inbox or on your to-do list can become a huge chore after piling up for a year or so. Let’s not let that happen again this year! To kick of 2016 right, let’s explore some ways to stay organized and efficient so your lists remain short and manageable. Here are six ideas to help you start off 2016 in good order.
1. Organize Your Closet
As a fashion blogger, your closet organization can make or break your ability to efficiently crank out personal style or review posts. A way to store your clothes that makes sense for you, you’ll spend less time hunting down pieces and contemplating what you’re going to wear for posts or to events.
Consider dividing your closet into sections, perhaps use the front section for your most stunning, fashionable pieces, and place everything else in the back. Or for by by color or genre, i.e. all blouses then skirts then pants then dresses.
2. Cull Your Contacts
Depending on which email client you use, it might be easy or like finding a needle in a haystack to search for previous brands or people you’ve emailed with and would like to work with again. The start of a new year might be the perfect time to add those people to your contacts.
You may want to create a document—a spreadsheet in Google Docs or Evernote, to create lists of your blogger friends, designers, publicists, brands, etc., and update the contact information when necessary.
3. Delete Photos and Videos
We all know, what with perfecting every selfie and outfit photo, the images stores across all our devices can get seriously out of control. Spend some quality time deleting unnecessary photos and videos from your phone, tablet and computer. If you’ve uploaded images to your blog or social media, evaluate whether you need to keep another copy of them on your device.
If you do personal style photos, delete all of the photos that didn’t make the final cut in your shoots, and use a software program to help organize or identify and delete duplicate images files, such as The Duplicate Finder or Gemini. You may want to organize your image files on your phone better with the use of an app. I have an iPhone and like Private Photo Vault, since I can title the folders instead of just having them all in the phone’s default continuous chronological stream.
4. Declutter Pending Posts and Pieces for Review
It’s VERY easy to have product and “to-do” lists running amuck, so putting in place a system and sticking to it will save you time, AND you’ll always know where to find those lists.
With actual product to check out and review, I find that it gets overwhelming fast if everything is up on my desk as it comes in, so I bought a stack of large bins that I keep next to my desk to plop them into instead.
The top two drawers are for items to review ( I usually break it out into one for fashion items and the other for beauty products), and the bottom one is where I put them once reviewed, if I haven’t had time to put them away in my closet. If items are urgent and need to be a top priority to review, I place them on top of the bins. This is what works for me and my blog, and it will hopefully inspire you to find your own way to organize pending items.
When it comes to the writing part, I’ve been known to write lists on actual sticky notes, on my laptop’s sticky notes app, in my phone, in a draft post, and in the “tasks” option of my Gmail. Honestly, it’s too much, and things get lost and fall through the cracks. Keeping it all in one place is key, so recently I’ve dedicated my attention to the Gmail “tasks” pop up, creating a writing list ranked by priority, and a shooting list of products I’d like to photograph. Whatever you find works best for you, keep it streamlined and use it exclusively to list your to-dos.
5. Find Apps, Plugins and Software to Simplify Your Life
There is often something overlooked that may have a simple solution or remedy—at a cost. Sometimes, however, it is WORTH it! Think about what would make your blogging life easier and more enjoyable, regardless of price, and weigh out the breakdown of the cost versus the amount of times you may use it and save because of it.
There may be an application out there (like CoSchedule, for example) that will help you to schedule social media, edit posts, touch up images, etc, that has a monthly or flat fee. And it may be totally worth it.
See if you can do a trial or cancel if you don’t like it or use it, but there may be a way to cut down on that thing that takes up the most amount of time, and gives you the least amount of pleasure when it comes to blogging.
What have you used that has made you a more organized blogger?
[Image credit: Shutterstock.com]
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