Tech tools you need in your life (free & paid)
As you know, although I’m big on nature, healthy living, and generally getting away from screens, the contradiction to that (or maybe the reason!) is that my day job is tech-based.
I work as an in-house social media manager for a pretty big company, so I get to try out all kinds of tech-based tools and services. So without further ado, here’s a list of my favourites.
Miro
I only found out about Miro recently, but it’s quickly become my go-to for creating diagrams. It’s really easy to create all kinds of attractive diagrams, plus you can use the library of user-generated diagrams to speed things up even more.
If you’re planning to use it regularly, you’ll want to upgrade to the paid version so you can export your diagrams at bigger sizes and create more of them without having to delete the old ones. The free version is pretty limited in saving/downloading, which is a big downside.
Notion
I’ll be honest, I’m still getting to grips with using Notion as it’s such a powerful tool. I’m working on getting my work life and workflows integrated into it so that I have all my recurring tasks and projects set up for optimum time organisation.
I’m excited to delve into it more as I just know I haven’t unlocked everything Notion has to offer. I definitely recommend giving it a go!
Lightroom & Lightroom Mobile
A lot of people talk about Canva, but I honestly prefer Adobe products. For quick photo editing, you can’t beat a Lightroom preset. I buy my presets from Etsy; they’re only a few quid, and you can use them to help create a consistent look across all photos.
If you like the photos I use on my blog, you can get the same look by applying a matte filter in Lightroom. It takes just a couple of clicks!
Lightroom Mobile is fab for on the go editing; you can import photos straight from your phone’s photo gallery to speed up your workflow.
Smarter Queue
There are tons of social media scheduling services out there, but I really like Smarter Queue. It caters for all the main social networks, and it lets you create evergreen posts and have them cycle through. This saves a TON of time. Plus, I always feel like Smarter Queue always has my back, like it stops me from potentially coming across as spammy or breaking some social media network’s terms accidentally.
There are cheaper tools out there, but not many of them have the same features (because the automatic re-queuing and the ability to assign different text to a link easily is so so useful).
Trello
Trello is an old favourite of mine; I’m currently using it in the style of a column for each blog and client I have, with content planned and deadlined as cards. I love the kanban style of working and it feels super intuitive to me, which makes life a lot easier.
One thing I especially love about Trello is that the free version is amazing and offers so much functionality. It feels like such an asset that I wouldn’t be without it.
Unfold
This is an app for making pretty Instagram stories. You can use the preset backgrounds and drop in your photos to create beautiful stories in seconds. There are lots to choose from, and the free version of the app is more than enough.
I liked it more before Squarespace bought it out because it had better UX, but it’s still a good tool to have in your arsenal if you’re an Instagram stories user.
Grab it from the Android or Google Play store.
WordPress
Where would we be without WordPress?! It’s the number one thing that powers my blogs, and I’d honestly be lost without it. Once you get past the learning curve, it’s an incredibly powerful and versatile bit of software and I’d recommend it to anyone. It doesn’t have to be a blog you create with it – you can create any kind of site, from an online shop to an art portfolio.
I’d love to hear your must-have tools, and maybe find and try out some new ones for myself. Let me know your essential tech tools and services in the comments!