The Best Tool For Organizing Your Blog or Anything!

This post may contain referral links, this means I get a credit when you sign up and no additional cost to you, all opinions are my own.

I have had a casual blog for many years, posting here and there, never taking it seriously. My 2019 goal was to take it to the next level. I set out to learn all I could about blogging. I knew I wanted to be ready and organized so as the blog grew I wasn’t scrabbling with trying to back track and get organized. I am sure you can all relate to the hours spent on Google and Pinterest looking for the perfect tool or product to make this life easier. I can safely say I spent DAYS looking for the right tool to organize my posts and other pertinent blog info.

I played around with the tools that ship with my Mac. While I found these tools very handy I needed more. I also needed something that complimented my thought process. The search continued.

Evernote? No. Great but… not perfect.

Random apps in the app store? None were a good fit.

Pin after pin of “how to organize your blog” and nothing was seeming to work.

Wasting time on Facebook, I mean, working on social media… an ad I love to hate popped in my feed. Of course, it was relevant to what I had been searching because Facebook is a creeper. The ad discussed Trello.

Trello is a great tool! It uses the Kanban Method of organization to help keep things organized and neat. Queue another 3 hours lost looking up what the Kanban Method is and other types of organization methods. Of course, I watched the video all about it on Lynda.com, now Linkedin Learning. Which is my favorite learning platform ever.

Once I finished that I went on to learn about Trello which I also just watched the Linkedin Learning Video on.

I proceeded to download the app and get started after a half hour I realized. I don’t like this either! I wasn’t feeling more organized and I couldn’t see using this tool on a regular basis. I can see why the majority of people love it but I gotta say, I just couldn’t get on board. I do recommend checking it out, it might work for you!

Defeated, I gave up for the day and did something else.

The next morning I woke up and glanced at my Pinterest and low and behold there it was. Well, I didn’t know that yet, but it would be just the thing I was looking for. Thanks for actually working for me algorithm. I clicked yet another “this is the only tool you need” pin and at this point figured it would be yet another pin about Trello, but it wasn’t!

I clicked the link and read all about it. Ooo! I like that, and that and ooo that is helpful! Bam! downloaded it. I spent the next few hours brain dumping. Now. I will tell you there is a bit of a learning curve to this handy tool. At first, I was just making lists, it took a little time to learn how everything interacts with each other. If you are familiar with spreadsheets or databases you will have an advantage. I, for one, am a spreadsheet nerd so this program was right up my ally.

What was the magic tool you ask? AIRTABLE!

Essentially, it’s a speadsheet meets database tool. It is really flexible in that there isn’t really a right way to organize things. It’s whatever makes sense to you. the only real rule is that each line is a record and all that information pertains to the record.

One of the best ways to learn how it works and how everything is related is to find a base in the Universe that is close to the kind you want to make. Explore it and see how things work together. You can even copy the base as your own and modify it to fit your needs! You can find the exact base I use for Life Beyond Zebra here: Travel Blog Organizer Base

You can set up forms, view lists, filter by different things in the records, all calendar dates and view them on a calendar and even see them in a kanban/trello-like view. I rarely use this view but its there. Different sheets can link in various ways to other sheets. The possibilities are truly endless.

It also integrates with google docs, dropbox and more so you can pull drafts and things from other places on the web.

Another great feature I don’t take full advantage of is sharing your bases with others. This tool is so helpful if you are part of a team. Everyone has access to everything and you can leave comments on the records and everything. It’s truly indispensable.

The best part?

IT’S FREE!

You can use the tool totally free and not be pestered by tons of adds or really low limits to force you to upgrade. Upgrading has its benefits though, more colors, fun backgrounds for the bases, a handy view feature called blocks that helps see things more visually and most storage for images and things.

Be warned, this tool is addicting. I am now always thinking: “maybe THIS needs a base!” I have started bases for trips, recipes, expenses… it’s getting out of hand… but it’s organized!

Give it a try! CLICK HERE TO TRY AIRTABLE

Have you used Airtable? What did you think? Comment Below or share your favorite tool for staying organized