{Discussion} #BloggingOnATimeCrunch :Ask a Blogger (spreadsheet secrets)

Be sure to check out all my other Blogging On a Time Crunch Posts here:

Day 1: Intro

Day 2: Time Management (printables)

Day 3: Essential Tools

Day 4:  Ask a Blogger (spreadsheet secrets)

Day 5: The One with all the Resources

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Today I have asked other bloggers to share their tips, secrets, (YES! spreadsheets!) for how they stay organized blogging and how they get everything done that they want to!

One of the biggest issues bloggers seem to run into is keeping track of their books. (their review books, their ARCs, their ebooks, etc. Not to mention all the new releases)

I have shared with you how I keep Organized, and how I keep track of my upcoming ARCs, but let’s see how other bloggers do it.

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First, I want to say a HUGE thank you for all these great bloggers offering to share their tips and practices with us today on Book Briefs. And if anyone else would like to be featured, let me know in the comments or feel free to email me 🙂

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Nori @ ReadWriteLove28
Shelly @ Read. Sleep. Repeat
Kindlemom1 @ My Guilty Obsession
Ani @ The Eternal Bookshelf
Other Bloggers Spreadsheets

Nori @ ReadWriteLove28

Nori is such a sweetheart and she has a great ARC spreadsheet. I saw someone tweeting her about it awhile ago, and then I started talking to her. She was happy to sent it to me, and she what she emailed was not only the excel spreadsheet, but also a really wonderful set of instructions/tutorial on how best use it to keep track of your ARCs. I love her spreadsheet and I find it to be perfect for what I need.

Nori is here today to share her method with you and to give you her spread sheet.

(You can grab Nori’s ARC tracker spreadsheet HERE)

Note: This is an abbreviated version of Nori’s rules, to see her rule instructions for the spreadsheet, you can grab a copy of them HERE

 Whether you’re a new book blogger, or an old book blogger, there is one thing that everyone agrees upon- it’s hard to keep track of all of the ARCs and books for review! After all, it starts with one, but then grows bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until you end up with a pile that is ridiculously out of control. I will admit- I was one of those people who had a ridiculously huge pile, but NOT anymore. I have learned how to organize myself in a way that keeps my review pile manageable.

So, are you ready to learn? If so, I have the perfect spreadsheet for you!

It may look a bit daunting at first, but I promise, it is really easy once you get started.

I am going to break down the spreadsheet into a couple of parts. 🙂

PART ONE:

Month: Put the MONTH of the release date for the book

*MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE NO MORE THAN FIVE ARCS PER MONTH*

With that being said, if you currently have more than 5 ARCs due in the same month, that’s okay. There is nothing that you can do about it now. But… make sure, for the future, you do NOT EXCEED 5 ARCS!!!

Pub Date: Yes, I know that this may seem silly since you are putting the month in column one, but this column is important as well! This will allow you to prioritize which ARC has the closest release date.

Type/Where From: Acronyms

PPR: (physical publisher requested- you specifically requested from the publisher)

PPU: (physical publisher unsolicited- you did not specifically request but the publisher sent it anyways)

PG: (physical giveaway- you won a physical ARC from a giveaway, NOT from the publisher)

NG: (received eARC  through Netgalley)

EW: (received eARC through Edelweiss)

EO: (received eARC through some other source)
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PART TWO:

Read: This one is easy! Just put a “No” until you read it, then change it to a “Yes”

Reviewed: Put a “No” until you review it. Once you review it…YOU CAN DELETE IT OFF OF YOUR SPREADSHEET AND DO A HAPPY DANCE BECAUSE IT IS ONE LESS ARC FOR YOU TO READY!!! WOOHOO!
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PART THREE:

Need to Read Total: Okay, this one is pretty self-explanatory, but I’ll explain it nevertheless. 🙂

This is where you should keep track of the total # of ARCs that you need to read for a certain month.

You may ask…why is this necessary if you have the first column? Well, the answer is- this shows you an overall outlook where you can see just how many ARCs you need to read, rather than counting how many rows you filled.

Also, notice that the denominator should be FIVE OR LOWER. This relates back to my original point about how  you should never request more than five ARCs per month.
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PART FOUR:

I promise, this tutorial is almost over! I just want to say a couple of quick, closing remarks.

While I know that this may seem daunting right now, I promise that it is easy once you have it set up! It might take you a bit to plug in all of your current ARCs, but it will be worth it! Once you have this, you will be able to stop yourself from requesting too many ARCs, which will then allow you to read more books for pleasure and get less stressed out.

I know that you can do it! And if you need any help along the way, be sure to ask. 🙂

Nori is the blogger at www.readwritelove28.com. She is obsessed with books (of course), especially YA contemporary and fantasy. She is also a beta reader and offers developmental editing services on her blog. In addition, she is the founder of UBUbiz, and will be hosting Bookitcon, a charity book event in August 2015. You can find Nori online at:

www.readwritelove28.com
Twitter: @ReadWriteLove28
Instagram: ReadWriteLove28
GoodReads: ReadWriteLove28
Pinterest: ReadWriteLove28
Polyvore: ReadWriteLove28

 Shelly @ Read.Sleep.Repeat

I have loved Shelly & Octavia’s organization features on their blog, so I was super excited when Shelly responded to me on twitter and said she wanted to participate in my organization feature.

Here are some of her great tips on how to stay organized while blogging.

My #1 tip for bloggers is Wunderlist. It’s a free app that you can get on The Apple store (for all devices), The Google Play store and you can even get it on the Windows Store. Basically: it’s everywhere. I love it because it helps me keep separate lists and folders for myself. I use it for school and other work as well so I have a personal folder, a blogging folder, and a miscellaneous folder. In my blogging list, I have every single ARC/review copy and I set the “due date” for the day it’s releasing. The great thing about Wunderlist is that you can set reminders for yourself so if you get a book that’s publishing all the way in December, you can set a reminder for November that you should probably get on it. You can also put notes on each item/to-do so I usually write the source of the book there.

I also have a very basic ARC spreadsheet that I use to just keep track of the ARCs I have. It has very simple headers like Title, Author, Source (Publisher and Format), Release Date, When to Read By, Status.I use the “When To Read By” option on my spreadsheet because some of my e-copies expire rather quickly so I need to keep track of those. I also highlight the ones that expire soon in yellow and I put the ones that I’ve finished reading in a light green. And that’s it!

If you liked my suggestions or are interested in more info, you can tweet me @shellysrambles or email me at Shelly@ReadSleepRepeat.org

Also be sure to check out Shelly’s posts on her favorite organizational tools and grab a copy of her ARC spreadsheet over at her blog! You can learn more about Shelly HERE

Shelly of Read. Sleep. Repeat.

Infecting the world with her love of books via:

KindleMom1 @ My Guilty Obsession

My Guilty Obsession is probably the best at commenting ever. I am so serious, she leaves thoughtful kind comments on every post on all the blogs it seems like. And you can tell from her comments that she is such a genuinely nice person. And she writes great reviews and posts of her own. I bow down to her commenting skill. She is everywhere. Everyday! You rock!

And I love the tip she gives below for prescheduling her week and how she frees up her time during the week for commenting and interacting with the blogging community.

“The biggest thing with me is that I have to plan out my ARCs, not what I will read when, but I have to have a list of all that I have to read and when they release otherwise I feel so disorganized. Another thing for me that works is that I usually set aside one day a week to preschedule my posts, usually on Mondays. I have found that if I do that then usually I have more time during the rest of the week for everything else and if I’m at least one to two weeks ahead in posts then I can relax and get more read because I’m not worried about what or when I will schedule a post next.

I don’t have a spreadsheet, I’m old school and use a notebook LOL! I like being able to scratch out each book I read when I get it done!”

You can find KindleMom at:

Her Blog / Twitter/ Bloglovin

Ani @ The Eternal Bookshelf

You can find Ani at:
Email: ani.sharmin@gmail.com
The Eternal Bookshelf http://eternalbookshelf.wordpress.com/

Other Blogger Spreadsheets/Book Trackers

Here are links to some other blogger spreadsheets and ARC/Review book trackers that I have found. (All of these have been shared on their blog. These are just links to their posts)

Carina @ All About Books has shared 3 spreadsheets:

• ARC spreadsheet
• Series Tracker
• 2015 reading tracking

Book Riot’s Ultimate Reading Spreadsheet

Kimba @ Caffeinated book reviewer has a great post on organization & avoiding blogger burnout . And you can see all of her tips and tricks HERE

Alexa Loves Books on Organization

Rhinn Reads Review books Spreadsheet

Snuggly Oranges:

• Series Spreadsheet
• TBR spreadsheet
• other bookish spreadsheets
• how to manage a blog & reading schedule

Let me know what you think! What blogging tools do you use? Have any questions for me or some other topic you would like me to address, let me know in the comments below.

And take my blogging on a time crunch challenge! (details below)

I want to know how you do it all.

So I challenge each and every one of you bloggers to grab the button below, and show us your tips/tricks and best practices for how you make blogging work with your life.

And then come back here and share the link to your post with me. I would love to see it!

Also be sure to use the hashtag #BloggingOnATimeCrunch

Find out tips and tricks for making blogging work with your busy life #BloggingOnATimeCrunch @BookBriefs Click To Tweet

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If you would like to be featured on the ask a blogger day, or if you have a blogging tips.tricks post or feature, or a tutorial and would like me to include it in the resource list (linking to your blog of course) send me an email. I would love to showcase you and a your blog!

michelle.bookbriefs@gmail.com

 Did I miss your amazingly cool spreadsheet? Know of another blogger that has great tips posts? Let me know in the comments below and I will link to them!

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