Productivity

How I’m Planning to Read 52 Books This Year

January 23, 2020

I’ve always loved reading. Even in college, I’d try to read for fun outside of class, homework, my social life, and my 4 jobs. Over the past few years, I’ve been trying to beef up how much I read, and this year I’m going for my biggest goal yet: 52 books in a calendar year, or one book per week. 😳

Reading seems to have gotten popular again in the past few years (I assume it’s thanks to our collective technology burnout), so if you’re also looking to make a bigger dent in your To Be Read pile this year, these tips might be useful!

Plan With Me: How I’m Using the Passion Planner and Passion Planner Daily Together

December 27, 2019

This post contains affiliate links that I could make commission off of. All opinions are my own. Learn more.

When Passion Planner announced the Passion Planner Daily this fall, I wasn’t super into it. I wanted to be into it, because it’s a Passion Planner product, but I didn’t see how it would fit into my life. I had already bought a 2020 Passion Planner, so I’d need to use them together, and I already have a to do list going in the Notes app on my phone. Did I really need a second planner?

But then I printed out the sample pages to test them out… and fell in love with them. A few days later, I ended up ordering my set of four Passion Planner Dailies (I went with Tranquil Tones!) on Kickstarter and began testing out how I would use them in conjunction with my regular Passion Planner.

I have the feeling this will evolve over the next year, but I wanted to share my current set up in case it inspires anyone else currently struggling to balance the two!

Plan With Me: A Mid-Year Update

June 11, 2019

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We’re almost halfway through the year, so I thought it would be fun to do a mid-year review of my 2019 Passion Planner!

I did an original post back in January that goes through how I had it set up. I’ve been using it for 5.5 months now, and for the most part everything is the same. But I’ve definitely learned some lessons along the way!

6 InDesign Tools That Will Speed Up Your Ebook Creation Process

February 19, 2019

InDesign is an amazing tool, especially when it comes to creating ebooks. You can seamlessly flow text from one page to another, add interactive elements like links, and you can set up your document so specific elements repeat on each page.

But if you don’t know how to use these tools, creating an ebook in InDesign can be a little, well… clunky. But that’s why I’m here! These are 6 basic InDesign tools that will make your ebook creation process at least a little faster.

How to Start a Blog: 11 Actions You Can Take to Kill It at Blogging Without Getting Overwhelmed

February 12, 2019

This post contains affiliate links that I could make commission off of. All opinions are my own. Learn more.

Often, it feels like it’s “too late” to start blogging. The market is already so saturated, how is anyone supposed to start something new?

The good news is, it’s absolutely not too late. In fact, you can kill it at blogging right from the get-go, as long as you keep your goals relative and your organization system in check!

4 CoSchedule Hacks to Get More Out of Your Editorial Calendar

January 22, 2019

This post contains affiliate links that I could make commission off of. All opinions are my own. Learn more.

I’ve talked about my love of CoSchedule many times before. It’s no secret that my blog would be far less organized without it. But the price has been increasing since I first signed up back in 2014. So a question I often get is… is it still worth it?

Back when it was $10 per month ($5 per month if you wrote a review), it was a lot easier to justify paying for it for the editorial calendar alone. But with it now reaching $40 per month for the cheapest plan ($20 per month if you write a review), you better be exploring all of the other amazing features CoSchedule offers!

That was one of my projects for my 101 in 1001 list—I’m spending a lot on my editorial calendar, so I might as well utilize everything it has to offer! And I’m so glad I looked into more features, because it has made the investment that much more worth it.

If we’re honest, I’d still spend the $20 per month on CoSchedule for the editorial calendar alone. But these extra features make that pill a lot easier to swallow.

Plan With Me: How I Set Up My 2019 Passion Planner

January 10, 2019

This post contains affiliate links that I could make commission off of. All opinions are my own. Learn more.

As much as I love digital tools for keeping myself organized, I’m a sucker for paper planners. And for the fourth year in a row, I’m using the Passion Planner!

I first started using it in 2016 when my friend Angela recommended I try it out. I had been using a cheap planner from Staples up until then, and I’ve been a loyal member of the #pashfam ever since!

How to Balance a Job, a Blog, and Your Family

September 25, 2018

I’m a big supporter of having a blog as a side hustle and keeping it on the side rather than trying to turn it into a full-time gig. But when you work full-time, blog on the side, and have a family and social life, it can be really hard to balance everything.

Over the past few years as my life has evolved and my responsibilities have changed, I’ve learned some things about balancing a job, a blog, and a family. It’s not an easy task, but when you keep a few main things in mind, it gets much easier.

How to Easily Update Text in Multiple Blog Posts in WordPress

June 27, 2018

How to Easily Update Text in Multiple Posts in WordPress

Hey—want some one-on-one help getting this set up? Book a 20-minute consultation and we can work through it via video chat!

When you have a full-time job, there are only so many hours in a day that you can devote to your blog. And unfortunately… there are never enough. And ironically, you’re likely spending very few of those hours actually creating new content.

Website updates, blog post updates, bookkeeping, etc. take up way more time than we want them to. So how can we cut down on that time?

You’ve probably had a few blog posts where you needed to go back and update some outdated text. Whether it’s a guest post bio, a promotion that’s no longer running, or an old signature image that you want to update, wouldn’t it be nice if you could update text in multiple blog posts at once?

Good news, friend. You totally can! With shortcodes.

How to Design Productively Without Compromising Your Design

March 13, 2018

This post contains affiliate links that I could make commission off of. All opinions are my own. Learn more.

Design is a really important aspect of marketing and blogging. But it can take so much time to create attractive designs!

Throughout the 12 years that I’ve been using InDesign and Photoshop, I’ve discovered some awesome ways to design productively that don’t compromise the design. They’re shortcuts that do exactly what I’d already been doing — but Adobe does it for me!

Here are my favorite tricks to design productively.

How to Find Time to Blog When You Don’t Have Time to Sleep

January 2, 2018

It seems like everyone is busy these days. With work, relationships, pets, kids, a social life…. it’s hard to keep up. Throw a blog into the mix and time management goes out the window.

So how do you find time to blog when you don’t even have time to sleep?

How to Get All of Your Work Done AND Enjoy the Holidays

December 19, 2017

The holidays are such a wonderful time of the year. Friends and family are in town, there are parties to attend, and… you’re stuck at work again. womp.

It’s important to complete all of the work (and hours!) expected of you at work. But how can you set yourself up so you’re able to accomplish everything and enjoy the holidays?

Productivity

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