Gadgets for Writers

Gadgets to make your writing life easier and more productive.

Organisation and Planning for Writers

Written by The Gadget Man

Organisation and planning is often just as important as talent when it comes to achieving all that you are capable of achieving as a writer. Not only do you need to plan each writing project that you choose to take on, you also need to organise your time effectively so that you can produce the work required to a given – or self-imposed – deadline.

There are as many approaches to planning and organisation as there are writers, so in this post we will look at a variety of tools which can be used right across the board. Whether you thrive on the specificity and precision of Getting Things Done, prefer to put First Things First, or are someone who just likes to plan things out in a Bullet Journal, at least one of the following should prove useful…

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Erasable Wall Planner

One of the most effective ways of scheduling projects for the year ahead is to mark them up on a wall planner so that you can see the coming twelve months at a glance. This allows you to mark holidays and other planned absences from your work, and to fit projects around them. It also helps to ensure that you use your available time effectively without trying to do too many things at once. An erasable wall planner is ideal for this purpose, as it allows you to make amendments as and when required without causing an unsightly mess.

Wall Mounted Whiteboard

Another way of turning wall space into useful organisation and planning space is to install an erasable whiteboard in your office. This can be used for a wide variety of purposes, from planning the structure of an article or book, keeping lists of blog post ideas or even keeping track of important To Do items. Because the wall mounted whiteboard is meant to remain in situ for the long term, it is a good idea to choose the best you can afford, and one which is large enough to accommodate your needs not just this year, but in the years to come.

Bullet Journal

Those of you who like to plan your days, weeks, months, plot beats and word counts using good old-fashioned pen and paper, but who don’t fancy having to maintain a separate diary, journal, planner and so on, could consider using a Bullet Journal to keep track of everything in the same place. The advantage of a Bullet Journal is that you can use whatever type of notebook happens to be your favourite, but if you’d like something specifically designed for the purpose, you can buy those too, saving you precious time when setting things up.

Index Card Box File

Writers who organise themselves using index cards can often find it difficult to keep track of them properly, especially when they have more than one or two hundred. A good solution to this problem is to invest in a purpose-made index card box file which will allow you to sort the cards in whatever order makes sense and store them away neatly, but still have them available for quick and easy reference. There are quite a few different styles and sizes to choose from, so if you use index cards on a regular basis, they may well be worth exploring.

Get Equipped and Start Planning Today!

Whether you are a novelist, a non-fiction author, a journalist or a blogger, getting organised and planning ahead can seriously improve your productivity and, as a result, your bank balance. Consider using the tools discussed here to help you in that task, and happy planning!

Computer Keyboards for Writers

Written by The Gadget Man

Computer keyboards aren’t something that many people pay much attention to, but when you’re in the business of writing for extended periods, having a good keyboard can make a big difference, both in terms of productivity, and in terms of your health.

Your productivity as a writer does of course depend on a number of things, but the ability to type fluidly is certainly one of them, and having a good computer keyboard will always help in this respect. Unfortunately, the keyboards that come bundled with PC’s are not usually of a particularly good quality, so if you want something better you will need to make an additional purchase.

 

>> Explore Computer Keyboards at Amazon <<

 

The good news is that keyboards aren’t very expensive and a relatively minor investment could have a major impact on the number of words you manage to produce.

Consider the scenario where you switch from using a cheap keyboard to one that has been designed specifically for long-term use. Even if you only increase your output by a single word per minute, you’ll be churning out an extra 60 words an hour. If you write for four hours a day, five days a week, that adds up to 62,400 words a year of additional output! And if you bill your work per 1,000 words that’s a lot more income for a fairly trifling investment!

The health aspect of computer keyboards concerns two things: RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) and bacterial contamination. In the case of RSI, the longer you work on a poorly designed keyboard, the more risk you have of injuring your tendons and/or developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

As for bacterial contamination, keyboards are notorious for harbouring all kinds of germs, which isn’t surprising when you consider the fact that many people eat and drink as they work, and that crumbs never fall where you want them to. If you want to see how much dirt your keyboard is holding, turn it upside down over your desk and give it a shake. Unless you’re already careful about eating and drinking at the desk you’ll be amazed at what emerges, and that visible dirt represents just a fraction of what lies beneath.

I have to admit, I didn’t quite realise how important my choice of computer keyboard was until years of tapping away at poorly designed models led to aches and pains in my wrists. Those aches and pains slowed me down – not something I like – so I did some research and discovered that my symptoms pointed directly at the keyboard. After testing a few alternatives I settled on a Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard and I haven’t looked back since.

Ergonomic keyboards are better than standard keyboards because they allow you to type for long periods without your wrists getting tired. They achieve this by supporting the wrists themselves and by having the keys set in a more comfortable configuration for your hands. An ergonomic computer keyboard will take you an hour or two to get used to, but once you’ve gone ergonomic you’ll never go back!

Recycling Gadgets for Writers

Written by The Gadget Man

Gadgets for writers are fantastic when they are brand new and can provide the maximum amount of usefulness, but technology progresses rapidly. That means today’s cutting edge device could well be outclassed within a matter of months, and certainly within a year or two. Although few of us will want to upgrade every gadget we possess just as soon as a better model becomes available, most of us will upgrade from time to time, and that leaves us with a variety of old gadgets that tend do little more than gather dust in cupboards and drawers.

The question of what to do with these old gadgets is one that is worth thinking about. A gadget that is a few years old or lacks the processing power or storage capabilities of the latest devices has not automatically reached the end of its useful life, and many old gadgets can be put to new uses very effectively.

Consider a laptop bought six or seven years ago. Instead of simply casting it aside when you upgrade to a brand new laptop that makes the predecessor look like a toy, think about alternative uses. You could use it as a WiFi access point in your home, as a media hub that stores your MP3s, photographs and video files, or as a larger than usual external drive that you use for data backup purposes.

Similarly, if you have an old MP3 player (as I have after upgrading from an iPod Classic to an iPod Touch) then you could wipe it clean and use it as a portable storage device. You could even install Portable Apps, which is exactly what I have done, to give you a mobile desktop that you can plug into any PC you happen to be around.

This kind of ‘recycling’ is far better than allowing your old gadgets to sit unused for months or years, and finding new uses for old gadgets actually maximises the value for money you get from every gadget you own.

Of course, if you really can’t find a practical use for an old gadget, the next best alternative is to sell it on a site such as eBay and use the proceeds to help fund your next gadget purchase. You’ll also enjoy less clutter in your office!

Apple iPod Touch for Writers

Written by The Gadget Man

An Apple iPod Touch as a gadget for writers? I have to admit that the notion hadn’t occurred to me until recently, when one of my clients asked me to obtain one so that I could write about a new range of iPhone and iPod Touch applications that they were creating. I don’t need to hear that kind of invitation twice, so I quickly discovered the world of the iPod Touch and was surprised to find that it really is a handy little gadget that writers can benefit from in several ways.

The iPod Touch is primarily an MP3 player, and comes in 8Gb, 16Gb and 32Gb capacities. What sets the iPod Touch apart from previous iPod MP3 players from Apple is that it has a hi-res touch screen, it can run various games and applications and it can be used to browse the web and send and receive emails thanks to WiFi internet capabilities. You can even use the iPod Touch to listen to internet radio – something that will appeal to anyone who wants to listen to any of several thousand global stations without having to use a mains-only dedicated internet radio receiver.

As far as writers are concerned, it is the iPod Touch applications (which are generally referred to as ‘apps’) that make the device most useful. There are hundred of apps available for download from the Apple iTunes Apps Store and they cover every conceivable purpose. You can find apps to help you create and use To Do lists, organise your contacts, set personal and professional goals, make notes and even read e-books and PDF files on the move (though I still think the Plastic Logic Reader is worth waiting for in that department).

The range of iPod Touch apps and features is so large that even specialist writers will find something directly relevant to their interests. Travel writers will delight in the ability to look at maps on the internet, or download and refer to travel guides. Journalists will no doubt enjoy the fact that they are never more than a WiFi hotspot away from the latest headlines and breaking news stories. Sports writers can listen to radio commentaries or obtain results from various events that they aren’t personally covering… the list of potential possibilities really is endless.

Add the ability to listen to music, display photos, watch movies and use the iPod Touch as a general data storage device and I think that I might have found the PDA device I was looking for to replace my Handspring Treo 600. Making the leap from an old Palm device to a brand new Apple gadget is not the most obvious of moves, but for me the iPod Touch does everything I want it to do. And for those who would like a mobile phone built in then the Apple iPhone is the obvious solution.

Buying a PDA

Written by The Gadget Man

A useful gadget for writers is a PDA or Personal Digital Assistant. The Psion 3a that I referred to in my Six Essential Gadgets for Writers post was my first PDA, and I have since worked my way through a Compaq palmtop and a Handspring Treo 600. I am now looking to upgrade to a new PDA within the next few months and thought it would be a good idea to identify exactly what I need from the new model, because many other writers will probably want similar things.

NOTEPAD – First, I need a notepad or memo facility so that I can jot down ideas, observations, possible plots for my fiction work and any snippets of dialogue that come to mind. Ideally, I would like to be able to secure individual notes where necessary, but it would be sufficient to be able to secure the PDA as a whole with a password to keep my data secure.

AGENDA – Being able to have my calendar, diary and to-do lists in the same place is another important feature. I like to plan my personal life as well as my work, so having everything together rather on a single device that I have with me at all times is pretty much essential.

TOUCH SCREEN – Although PDAs with physical keyboards are sometimes useful, unless the keyboard is of a decent size I find it much quicker to enter information using a stylus, touch screen and virtual keyboard. A touch screen device also tends to be easier to carry around – something that I didn’t fully appreciate until I switched from palmtops like the Psion and Compaq to the Treo.

FULL COLOUR – Monochrome PDA displays are perfectly functional, but in the 21st century there is no reason why I shouldn’t enjoy the benefits of a high resolution full-colour screen that can display images as well as text. Actually, there is one possible reason why I would still choose a monochrome over full colour and that is…

BATTERY LIFE – If an ASUS Eee PC had a battery that lasted several days then I would happily take it everywhere. Although the battery life of new-model ASUS netbooks is impressive as far as netbooks are concerned, PDAs still win hands down. I need a PDA that will serve me for at least a few days of average use before requiring a recharge, and if a monochrome device would give me 100% or more additional life between recharges then I would certainly consider skipping the full-colour features.

EASE OF BACKUP – No gadget for writers or anyone else is foolproof, and so I need to be able to back up any data that I input to my PDA with as little fuss as possible. Backing up to an on-board SD card or similar would be the most convenient option for me here.

There are other features which would be nice to have (the ability to play MP3s, play games and maybe even watch videos) but the above features are the ones that I consider essential.

Of course, other writers might well have slightly different needs. For example, a photo journalist might view a full colour screen as being far more essential than I do. And a music journalist would probably insist on MP3 playback.

The golden rule when buying a PDA is to sit down and identify exactly what functions you need your device to have. If you don’t do this you could easily find yourself being dazzled by sleek curves, high specs and bells-and-whistles features, only to discover later that your new gadget doesn’t actually do what you bought it to do. By all means enjoy bells-and-whistles if the PDA you buy has them, but make sure the essential features are there first. After all, gadgets for writers are meant to help us be more productive, and not simply entertain us!