Most content creators, whether YouTubers, Instagram influencers, or famed bloggers, tend to have a small-scale team working for them. But I don’t.
It’s not because it’s a dumb idea.
In fact, outsourcing and automating specific tasks is the right path to scalability. It reduces your workload, frees up your time, and helps you focus on tasks that matter the most. Then how come I don’t do it?
Well, it’s more about personal preference. I would rather invest the money in stocks and do it all by myself for now.
That is because I have these free android apps to speed up the process significantly and be as productive as a small-scale team .
Spotify
It’s a pain to hunt for topics to write about. And even when you have zeroed in on a subject and the headline, you still need to dedicate hours to researching to find your talking points.
Now, if I throw in the entire spectrum of keyword research, it’s a whole new massacre.
I prefer taking a far simpler route, leading me to my kitchen sink. Then I do the dishes. By the time I get back to writing, I don’t have to go through most of the boring tasks I mentioned earlier.
Oh, by the way, I like to put on my headphones before I wet my hands and listen to various Spotify podcasts the whole time (in case you were wondering).
How does it help?
For me, a self-improvement blogger, a good starting point is common yet meaningful questions such as: “How to sleep better?” “Should I quit my job and start my own business?” “Where does all my money go?”
Questions that people ask to make their life better and easier.
Now, all I have to do is take a question and ask myself three more questions:
- Question 1: What problem is the person asking these questions going through?
- Question 2: What is preventing them from solving it?
- Question 3: How would I solve it?
That’s the bedrock of my content.
But it doesn’t take me days to figure them out. I get most of it just by listening to Spotify podcasts. And if that’s not enough, all I have to do is tap on…
Quora
I learned this one from Ayodeji Awosika.
Before, I used to use Quora as most people do. As a go-to place to ask questions and get answers. So much so that this website helped me get my website approved in Adsense more than the Google experts.
However, I was yet to make the most of it as a content creator. How? As Ayodeji puts it:
It’s a perfect place to figure out exactly what’s on your reader’s mind. If you master Quora, you’ll learn how to write about topics people want to read.
So here’s all I have to do: follow the topics I write about or something I’m generally interested in. And it gets me all the questions, keywords, and pain points I will ever need — right in my notifications.
Zoho Notebook
It’s no use taking in all the info if you can’t form something meaningful out of it. But there’s a problem. You don’t always come up with all the good ideas when you are in front of your computer.
Also, you can’t just try and remember them for long.
As David Allen likes to put it:
Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.
But fortunately, we take our smartphones wherever we go. So if you have a reliable note-taking app that can sync well with your other devices, you will never miss any of your ideas again.
Now, there’s a reason I pick Zoho’s Notebook over Microsoft OneNote or Google Keep. It is because of its sweeping free features.
- I can easily organize them by using #tags.
- Differentiate them by using different themes.
- Trust their privacy policy.
- Use their chrome extension for more flexibility in syncing.
- And collaborate with my clients for free.
Now, how does it help? It gives me much-needed flexibility.
I can brainstorm ideas or type in a few paragraphs (even when I’m relaxing, traveling, or away from my workstation). It saves me substantial time and effort when I’m back to do my job.
Canva + Remove bg
Being a painter, I have a flair for visuals. For my paid gigs, I charge extra for placing relevant infographics, gifs, and custom banner images.
And even for myself, I only use stock photos when I absolutely get what I am looking for.
The only problem is: I’m not a graphic designer. Yes. I did try to learn photoshop, but it had my head thumping till the next day. But that has never stopped me from making an extra few bucks.
- Remove bg helps me cut out human subjects from their usual backgrounds in minutes which could take hours of precise work in photoshop.
- On the other hand, Canva lets me use those cutouts however I deem suitable in a design.
As a result, I can easily make good enough designs in no time for absolutely free.
Freedom
Sometimes, the best way to use your smartphone to boost your productivity is to put it away. But that is not a viable option for most people, is it? You might miss an urgent call or email.
No. You need a more efficient system to keep your phone from distracting you. That’s where Freedom comes in to save the day.
It lets you block specific apps and websites from your phone for a set time. That’s how you focus more on your work, without missing any urgent calls or emails.
I had been using their recurring session feature before switching to my new Moto device recently which already had a focus mode in-built.
So can these android apps really make you more productive? To be honest, it does heavily on your work style and preferences. I spent months, if not years trying; to figure out ways to do a task better and faster.
After countless trials and errors and trying several combinations, these are a few apps that have not only stuck with me but also helped me make the most of my working days.
