Writer Mom Life Episode 24: Mary Castillo and WML’s favorite Organization Tools

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Mary Castillo  is a hybrid author. She had some books traditionally published before the 2008, then self-published a few more, then tried erotica, and now has been focusing on her audiobooks. Mary talks a lot about her process of recording and releasing her own audiobooks, along with:
 

• How she makes her living as a writer
• How she structures her days to get in both client work and her work
• If she writes her own fiction every day
• How her schedule in the 40s compares to in her 20s
• How she markets her audiobooks

Mary’s links:

Mary’s Books
Mary’s Website

J. R. Frontera’s Tips and Resources

Today’s tips focus on some of the various organizational tools we’ve found to make a writer mom’s life easier! 

Whether it’s keeping track of random ideas for blog posts, scheduling out your days for maximum efficiency, or trying to stay relevant on social media, things can get overwhelming and out of hand very quickly, especially in the writer mom’s already hectic life!

In the tips for today’s episode, Daphne and I list out some of our favorite organizational tools to help you manage a multitude of tasks. Those tools are:

• Evernote – great for jotting down ideas, saving websites and links for later use, or clipping bits and pieces of online articles. It also uses tags to categorize whatever you save, so you find it again easily later!
• Buffer and Hootsuite – these two platforms are very similar, but have different restrictions on what you can do with a free account, and different price points for paid accounts, so look into each and choose which fits better for you. Both are great for scheduling posts across various social media platforms, making your life WAY easier!
• Notebook and pen – well, yeah, duh, we know. But sometimes you just really can’t go wrong with a paper and pen! And, as our favorite guy Michael Hyatt has talked about, there’s something about writing things out on paper that can actually help boost your productivity!
• Memo app on your phone – another basic tool, but sometimes simple and basic is better! If you don’t like the thought of yet ANOTHER app to download/clutter up your phone/learn how to use, chances are your phone already has some kind of memo-like app. It works just as well to store all those random thoughts and ideas and links as other, fancier apps!
• Plum Paper Planner – this beautiful semi-customizable planner is great for writer moms, especially their Family Planner, as it breaks down each day into seven sections, and then you can customize what each section is for. Give a section to each family member, a section to writing, a section to business tasks, self-care, house chores, meal planning… whatever you want!
• Erin Condren planner – another planner that’s less structured, more flexible, and well-known for it’s prettiness, lol. 
• Full Focus planner – this one is great for the more business-minded, or for those with jobs that have many daily tasks that need to be done at specific times throughout the day. The best thing about this planner is the Weekly Review questions at the end of each week, the Big 3 goals it has you focus on each week, and it’s dedicated space to making sure you’re making enough time for self-care, too. It might be worth ordering at least one of these just to see how those things are done, so you can incorporate them into your other planners, if this one’s daily structure doesn’t work out for you!

Remember, just because you have the tools doesn’t mean your life will automatically be more organized! You still have to actually utilize the tools, and figure out which ones will best fit your life, and how to use them in ways that most benefit you. 

So try some of these out and see what you think, see which are your favorites, and let us know if you have other great tools you love to keep your Writer Mom Life at least semi-organized!

Good luck!