UVA professor Jane Friedman collects her favorite digital media tools for writers

Jane Friedman, who teaches digital publishing & media at the University of Virginia and offers lots of great advice for journalists on her blog, posted her favorite digital tools for 2014 Monday.

You can subscribe to Electric Speed, Friedman’s monthly newsletter in which she “focuses on tools and resources for writers, usually digital media tools.” This post rounds up her favorite ones she started using this year.

The only one of the six that I use—a result of my ignorance of the other five—is Evernote. It’s hardly a slick new player. Friedman admits that she’s been hearing about it for years and finally figured out how to work it in to her life in 2014. I had a similar experience, finally giving in to the nagging of certain friends and co-workers in 2011—at which point I commenced kicking myself for not having started using it in 1983, whether it had been invented or not.

I am by nature a disorganized, chaotic person. Evernote hasn’t solved that problem, but it’s helped me a lot. I am much more likely to be able to find a note, a document, an idea, a receipt or anything else that can be saved in Evernote than I was four years ago.

The first item I saved in Evernote was a reservation for my kid’s birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese’s. It’s been all uphill from there.

Friedman’s other recommendations are for Zoom, Canva, CrashPlan, Scrivener and Asana, all of which I plan to at least try.