5 Great Apps To Level Up Your Content Creation

Use these apps to level up your creative output & project management while on the go.

My phone of choice, the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Hello friends.

How are you doing? I’ve crafted this post for you over the last week or so while I’ve been isolating due to catching COVID-19. I’d dodged it since the pandemic hit back in 2020 but it finally got me. I’m grateful to say the symptoms have been very mild at their worst, and my isolation is now finished and I’m symptom free for 4 days.

With a little extra time on my hands I was thinking of ways I can contribute more back to those of you who have followed my work, and have been listing out ideas during the odd periods of brain fog over the last week or so.

One way in which I believe I can provide greater value to you is in sharing more tips & tricks, insights, and more into how I do my work, and the tools & systems that work best for me.

I’m kicking things off today with a few tips for those running social channels for themselves, their passion project, or for work. These tips are all about maximising your phone in your content development workflow.

For context, my phone of choice is an iPhone 12 Max Pro. I won’t get into any debates around iPhone versus Android. Quite frankly I find the debate online around it to be nauseating. The fact of the situation is there are brilliant phones on both side of the fence and all can be used to create or craft great work. It’s fair then to preface this by saying the apps mentioned in this piece are ones I use on iPhone. While many will have an equivalent version on Android, it may not apply to all, so check the developers’ sites if you can’t find it on the Play Store.

NOTE: Click the headings/names of any of the apps below to go to their official website & learn more.

1. Unfold

Unfold is an app for creating beautiful story content for Instagram. The app includes templates ranging from film frames to different paper materials, and features great in-app controls for changing colour & typography. In addition to that, if you subscribe to their premium plan (Unfold+) you can upload your brand colours & fonts and have them featured across all projects you make in-app. In recent times they’ve added features for using their templates & assets in posts & Reels. You can also connect your Instagram feed and plan content using the app — ideal when you want to keep your feed looking consistent and on brand. They also launched a Linktree equivalent which allows you to have a small site with links out to your most important announcements/links at any given time. To see an example, check mine out here.

The app was purchased by website service Squarespace in 2019 & has gone from strength to strength since.

Best used for:

• Easy creation of beautiful story content.

• Planning your Instagram feed.

• Linking to your most important links currently, from one site.

2. MOJO

Mojo is a lot like Unfold, except it was designed for animated/video content first & foremost. With the advent of TikTok & Reels, Mojo has kept pace by offering many templates for creating Reels, TikToks, YouTube Shorts, Twitter videos and so much more. These templates are beautiful and if you want to make them uniquely yours you can subscribe to Mojo Pro, which enables you to upload your custom fonts, logos & more. If you’re new to Reels and want a relatively pain free way to turn your photo content into beautiful videos for Reels, Mojo is worth a look. Where Unfold added many other features beyond just content creation, Mojo has stayed focus and true to their course, and it shows in the great tools they offer in-app.

Best used for:

• Creating beautiful content for your social media channels.

• Friction free content creation.

• Those lacking in video/content creation skills.

3. Notion

Notion is one of my favourite apps. It’s where I’m writing this post currently, and where I plan content, manage projects, create & store SOPs & key docs for my business, track my moods, plan trips with my girlfriend, and so much more. It’s a blank canvas built for building systems out that work for you. It’s also a very simple straightforward text processor. Everything in Notion starts from a block property. You want to add a photo? Great, that’s an image block. Simply add new image block and choose your image. Want to add a heading? Great, choosing a Heading block — there are 3 different sizes. Want to create databases and connect them to each other? Great, Notion’s got you covered. The other huge benefit is the community. Notion has built a vibrant community and there are templates for EVERYTHING. I’ll be releasing some later in the year, but you can check out Notion’s curated collection here.

Notion is at it’s most powerful using databases. For example, I plan my social media content in Notion. When I used to admin the Ballybunion Tourism page I planned the content in Notion too. Each database can have a multitude of views on it. From a standard table (like an excel doc), to lists, to kanban boards (my favourite) and more. See the screenshot below for an example for some bits I had last year on the Ballybunion Tourism page.

Notion can be pretty much whatever you need it to be. On mobile I mostly use it to check any content, write down new ideas, manage my tasks on the go, and track lists of anything I need. The mobile has improved massively in the last year or so and I find myself using it more and more. There’s a bit of a learning curve to get the most out of Notion but there’s so much content on YouTube and on Notion’s own channel, so you’ll have a ton of support once you start. Some of my favourite Notion videos come from Thomas Frank, Ali Abdaal, and Mariana’s Corner. While big fancy dashboards and more may seem great as you start to learn more about the app, remember this is a tool to help you get things done. Reduce friction and don’t add functions for the sake of it. Be critical and figure out works for you, ultimately this is what’ll serve you best.

Best used for:

• Content creation & planning.

• As a CRM.

• Project management.

• Task management.

4. Apple Notes.

As a direct contrast to all things system driven in Notion, and really what I consider to be one of the most understated apps going — Apple Notes is a phenomenally simple and powerful tool for capturing and organising notes, documents, ideas, and more. It’s so great at these things in fact that it lives on the bottom row of icons on my home screen. If I need to scan a document a long press on the icon opens the quick launch menu, where I can tap Scan Document and launch straight into the document scanner feature & capture my document. Level of friction here - about zero! If I need to photograph something and make some notes about it (say a serial number on a lens), I can do that too with ease from quick launch. Need to make a checklist of bits I need from the shop, great, quick launch > New Checklist > start typing. Or if I just want to start a new note I can do that instantly without even first tapping to open the app.

Apple Notes quick launch features are a game changer for quick capture of ideas, checklists & documents.

Folders & Smart Folders provide a friction free option for organising your information. These paired with tags & system-wide search integration make it a powerful option for anyone using an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

To organise files you can folders within folders, within folders. Anything in Notes is searchable from your home screen. Just pull down and search - iOS will search through your notes for anything that contains your search words. Beyond standard folders you can also create Smart Folders, where all notes that contain a hashtag (or series of hashtags) will be pulled into one folder. Sometimes I’ll jot ideas for social content down in Notes and tag it with #IG-Shares and the app will automatically pull those into the smart folder. You can also just search by tags. The editing tools are great and the app never gets complex. For a straight up friction free note-taking experience I can’t rate it enough.

Best used for:

• Friction free note-taking.

• Quick capture of checklists, documents, ideas.

• Easy search & access of content.

5. Photo Pills:

Photo Pills bills itself as an essential app for photographers, and I couldn’t agree more. If you’re planning landscape shots and more then this app is a must, allowing you to plan for Milky Way shoots, star trails, sun location planning and much, much more. Even if you’re not interested in all of that, knowing the direction the sun’s light will be coming from in your planned location is always important and Photo Pills has a brilliant planner built in.

Bonus Tip: Know Your Lighting

If you’re relying on natural light then it’s best to be informed on the weather. I typically use 3-5 weather apps and derive conditions a look across all the apps. Cloudy and overcast days will give you a flat light, which will see your subjects evenly lit. Sunset & sunrise will provide warm golden light when there’s no clouds in the way, and midday sun will create harsh light on your subject with little to no shadows in summer time.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for your time & attention. As a small thanks get 10% off your next purchase between today (24.06.2022) and July 08, 2022 on my store with code: READ10

I’ll be back soon with more tools & app recommendations, and much more.

Have a great weekend (or day if you’re reading this on a weekday)!

Jerry 👨‍💻