5 FREE Online Resources That Just Might Make Your Life Easier

A random collection of apps, sites, and plug-ins that have improved my workflow/skills. Great for students, creative entrepreneurs, freelancers, and anyone who works on a computer, so basically everyone.

It’s a one-woman show over here at my “home office” aka a new-ish IKEA Knotten standing desk that I’ve given a makeshift spot in the living room.  It doesn’t particularly match with the decor, but I justified the purchase because I insisted that a standing desk was precisely what I needed to boost my motivation and improve my posture.  Maybe it will, likely, it won’t, but so far I have used it a reasonable amount and the rest of the structure has become a perfect catchall desk area in our home.  This actually isn’t supposed to be a post about a standing desk though, so I digress.

All that to say that my best friend started her own business recently (and she’s killing, it. Hi, Jess, love you!!!) and I found myself sending her a few free resources that have actually saved me on a number of occasions and thought, “Hey! I should share these.” Maybe it’s my old hoarding ways, but I am a wealth of information that I’ve selfishly been keeping to myself. It’s time, my friends, to pass on such wisdom to the masses.

You might already know and use these apps/plugins/resources. If so, high five and please let me know if there’s anything else that I should be using because help me? But, if you don’t know about these, prepare to make your work life a little bit easier! This is definitely not sponsored (HA! It’s January, the slowest month in terms of partnerships, so get ready for a few months of only the weirdness that spews from my mind) but let me know if you download/use any of these and what you think!

Grammarly

Let’s start with a bang! Grammarly is a free writing assistant app that edits as you type. I didn’t realize how much I needed this in my life and honestly, how terrible I really was at catching errors. Grammarly absolutely saves my ass from seeming like an unprofessional, possibly day drunk businesswoman when sending out and replying to emails. The amount of silly little typos that would have otherwise gone missed, ugh, I cringe just thinking about it. Grammarly is also hard at work as I type this blog post. It has simplified my blog editing process, catching those basic grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.

Canva

I used to waste so much time trying to make decent looking graphics in Photoshop and though those were valuable skills to learn, I knew there had to be a better way. Canva is basically like having a graphic designer on your team. I have never been so quick at creating social media graphics and boring old documents are now aesthetically pleasing. It’s really easy to use and there are so many amazing free templates to choose from!

Airtable

So far, I used Airtable purely for the colour coordinated, simple to navigate spreadsheets. If you do client work though, Airtable is definitely worth taking a look at, as it can also be a great way to keep your work organized for you and your team members. I only downloaded this one a few months ago, but I really like it so far.

Pinterest

This might seem ridiculous, but hear me out. If you’re just using Pinterest for recipe ideas, then you are seriously missing out.  Pinterest is my favourite search engine tool.  When I’m looking for anything business, travel, or blog related, the Pinterest search engine takes me to all sorts of blog posts and information I would have never found otherwise. I also hear it’s a killer way to drive traffic to your own website. Shameless plug, you should totally follow me on Pinterest if you haven’t already!

Yoast SEO

I know so little about SEO, it’s honestly a miracle that you’re reading this right now. How on earth did you even find me? This one is pretty blog specific, but if you also use WordPress, the Yoast SEO Plug-In is a must-have. It’s like SEO for dummies! I’ve already learned a ton about Search Engine Optimization and how I wasn’t really using it properly, or at all. So, if you’re using WordPress, it’s something you should definitely look into!

Photo by the lovely Lesa Astifo