Thomas spends a lot of time researching and talking to me about the topic of “time.” He’s always reminding me about how our time is the single most valuable resource we have. After all, the better we use our time, the more choices we will have about how to use that leftover time. At this stage of our life, we’ve chosen to focus most of our time on growing Gal Meets Glam. Luckily for us, it’s something that we both have a passion for.

Everyday our goal is to bring happiness to your life through our content. We’ve made it our mission to go above and beyond to create things you don’t see anywhere else. As a small team, we put in long hours to get the job done, but we also rely on a collection of amazing software that enable us to maximize our productivity. Before getting into that list, it’s worth noting that Thomas spends a lot of time researching new software to use. We’ve tested dozens of different programs and only a few (this list) has stood the test of time. Through this, we have developed a rough criteria for what we are looking for in something new. It must be easy to use, easy to integrate into our workflow and drastically increase our productivity.

Slack

Slack has been a huge game changer for us. For those that have never heard of it, it’s a messaging app built for teams. It’s great for sharing files, communicating on relevant topics and saving hours and hours thanks to quick messaging vs internal emailing. It even allows us to collaborate with people outside of our company, such as our Developer and Designers.

Trello

We’ve given Trello a few attempts and it’s finally stuck. Trello is a project management tool that anyone can use. What’s great about Trello is it’s super flexible. We use it to capture and collaborate on content ideas, manage big projects like our Charleston Guide and to build new features for the website. But you can use it for any project or team, for instance my mom and sister use it for meal planning for the week.

Canva

Canva is a super easy design platform that we use all the time. We use it to build collages, presentations and any other designs that combine text, images and graphics. It’s even turned Thomas into a hobbyist designer.

G Suite (Google)

I’m not sure where we’d be without G Suite (Google’s combination of Gmail, Calendar and Drive). There’s no substitute for the amazing search-ability of emails in Gmail and shared Calendars and Docs that we can all contribute on.

Shift

The chances that you are on Gmail are pretty high, and the chances that you have multiple Gmail accounts are probably just as high. Shift helps you manage your multiple accounts without the annoying hassle of logging in and out, or keeping multiple tabs constantly open in Chrome (our favorite browser). It’s especially annoying with Google Drive.

And if you are a self-described nerd like Thomas, checkout Product Hunt, that’s where we’ve discovered some great new apps. Do you guys have any tools or apps you use to stay organized and save time?