Tools of the Trade: Pens

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I’m going to try something new. I’m always super curious about what other bloggers use, how they work, and what works best for them. You’ll often see Pinterest pins with phrases like “Everything you need to start a blog” or “Must have blogging tools”. But, when you actually read the post, it gives very little information. My goal is to create these semi-regular posts about tools of the trade – different things that I use, both software and physical, that are really helpful or things I just really like!

Let me start off by saying I still get excited about Back-to-School sales with new planners and notebooks, pens, and pencils. I love it! And then when at the beginning of the New Year, you’ll often see calendars and planners. I love every bit about it.

I’m also one of those people who like to work things out on paper and then transfer it to the computer. I don’t do it as much with blog posts. But, if I’m trying to work out a problem or keep track of things, I’ll often do it in a notebook first. Then, once I figure out what I want the process to look like, I’ll convert it to a digital format.

Tools of the Trade: Pens

One of my new favorite tools of the trade right now are my new Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip pens. What I love most about them is that their bright colors write like markers, but don’t bleed through paper. I was extremely skeptical when I first purchased them, but I love how smooth they are to write with and they really don’t bleed. The ink also dries really quickly, so they don’t smear either.

There’s a total of 32 colors – which is crazy, but I didn’t want to buy a million pens if I hate them, so I went with the 16-pack. They also have a fine point option, but with fewer colors. I think either of these options would work really well for people who like to bullet journal – another concept I tried but just couldn’t maintain easily.

Current Work

I’m currently using these pens to better track my posts in terms of word count and views. Recently, I’ve been reading a few articles about how to keep people on my site longer. Surprisingly, longer posts do better in terms of statistics. I love looking at numbers and statistics, so this has been fun for the past few weeks! I’m learning that a lot of my posts are actually fairly short – between 250-400 words. So, my new project is to try and expand my writing a little more and see how it fairs.

Granted, this would be an easy spreadsheet on the computer. But, I like being able to write it down by hand and really look at the numbers. Plus, getting to do it with a different color every day makes me smile. I’m also trying to plan more of my posts throughout the week. Rather than sitting at my computer for an hour wasting my time while wracking my brain for a new idea.