How to Stay Organized as a Writer — Living Through Writing
By: Holly Huntress
Tags: Writers Life, Writer, Writing Tips, Organization, Authors

As a writer, I am more often than not searching for certain points I wrote down or typed up. It can take up precious writing time to find what I’m looking for. Keeping my space and all of my writing supplies organized is key to making sure I’m not wasting any time. Here are some of my tips on how to stay organized as a writer.

Digital Files

Let’s start with the computer files. As a blogger, author, and member of most social media platforms, my files can get pretty jumbled. What I do to help keep myself sane is to create files for my books, my blog, side projects, and social media. This way if I’m looking for a certain image or writing piece, it takes a few seconds to locate it.

I go through my files about once a month and delete any that I no longer need. This is important because my files can become overloaded and unbearable to look at otherwise. I gather a lot of duplicate files from multiple downloads for different uses, so I make sure to weed those out.

Utilize google drive and docs as well. This frees up your computer space so you don’t slow it down. Use the same process with your google drive and make separate folders for your different projects.

Scheduling Tools

Another tool that is on the computer to help keep you organized as a writer, is scheduling websites. Tailwind is the one I hear the most about. This can be used to schedule Instagram posts and Pinterest posts. This helps you keep things moving without having to be online all day. I used tailwind for a month, and it worked out really well!

Twitter has its own built-in scheduling option for posts. This is helpful if you want something to post at a time you won’t be available to go on Twitter.

If you’re a blogger, whatever site you use has the built-in option to schedule your post (I’m pretty sure they all offer this). That way you can do a bunch of posts at one time and schedule them for the next few weeks, rather than having to write as you go. I prefer to write as I go, but it’s nice when I get on a writing kick to be able to just schedule out my posts.

Calendar

This goes along with the scheduling piece. Make sure to keep a calendar close by at all times. I have a mini planner in my purse and a dry erase calendar on my wall. This way you can keep track of deadlines, releases, events, etc. There are so many different dates to remember as an author and blogger. My calendar makes sure that I am remembering my reveals, posts, giveaways, and everything else! Here is a great dry erase calendar option.

Journals

To stay organized as a writer, make sure you have lots of journals! Designate a new journal for each new writing project. In the past, I’ve used the same journal for multiple projects and it becomes a scavenger hunt each time I’m looking for a specific note. Now that I use different notebooks for each project, it makes it that much easier to pick out what I’m looking for.

Journals are also great for keeping track of your ideas. As a writer, I have new ideas for new books all the time. It’s important to write them down or else they disappear from my head, never to return. I also use a digital recorder sometimes if I’m somewhere without my journal. You never know when inspiration will strike!

Folders

I have binders and folders to help organize loose notes that didn’t make it into a notebook. Sometimes I jot something down in the wrong notebook, or just on a scrap piece of paper. So, to keep those organized, folders and binders come in handy.

Also, once in a while, I have a notebook that I don’t need anymore. So, I’ll pull out the pages that I want to keep and throw out the rest. This helps keep me from being overloaded with notebooks. It’s similar to how I weed out my digital files. Sometimes I write down the same notes, or I can consolidate them, so I ditch the rest!

Writing Space

Keep your writing space organized. This is hard for me sometimes. I have dozens of journals, books, pens, pencils, snacks, drinks, etc. on my desk (or my bed) when I’m writing. It can become overwhelming fast. I make sure to try to only keep the journals out that are relevant to my current project.

As for books, I try to keep only my current read on my desk, otherwise, the stack becomes a hazard. I also allow for one or two books that I like to use as a reference for writing tips or techniques. It helps to have them handy so I don’t have to keep going to my bookshelf to find them.

The pens and pencils can get out of control for me. When my writing space is in my bed for the day, I lose about five pens among the covers and pillows. I try to keep one pen that I use for the day, so if it gets lost, I have to find it. Otherwise, all of my pens end up lost and I have none left when I need them.

Throw it all together…

Utilizing all of these tips should help to keep you somewhat organized as a writer! Do what works best for you, and keep up with it. Staying organized helps to keep me from becoming overwhelmed and keeps the anxiety at bay.

If you want to read more about writing spaces and how to create one, check out my post here!