Spring clean your workflow 🌼

Tools to organise your audio work

Clare Wiley

Apr 5, 2023

I’m decidedly old-school when it comes to organisation. I still use a hard-copy diary to manage my to-do list, I meet invites to Slack channels with a sigh, and the backbone of my work structure is a labyrinth of frenetically colour-coded Google docs. But in the interest of spring clearing, I wanted to share a few organisational tools I’ve found particularly helpful for working in audio…

Ideas and pitches

Staying on top of your story ideas and what stage of development they’re at – that’s actually where the colour-coded Google doc really comes into its own. Google Slides is a great option for building pitch decks, and Figma is a free easy-to-use tool for collaborative brainstorming.

Keeping track of tape

I once heard Sarah Koenig say that she logs all her tape in a spreadsheet. For each piece she types in a summary, meaning all the clips become searchable. A tape database, if you will. Seems especially sensible for large projects with lots of characters and plot-points.

Story structure

If you’ve got the wall space to spare, map out the beats of your story using Post-Its on a wall or table. It’s what my friend producer Sarah Ventre calls a “murder wall” (presumably as it’s modelled on what they do in TV crime shows, not because you’re going to put a hit out on your characters). It’s particularly helpful if you’re a visual thinker. A great online version is Mural.

Show bibles

When it comes to podcast show bibles or playbooks, Notion is a good tool for laying out all the details of your show - from logline through to marketing. It’s clear, logically structured and easily shareable.

Workflow

If you’re working on a show with multiple producers / contributors, Google Drawings is a really simple option for creating straightforward diagrams of workflow / tasks.

How do you keep your workflow organized? Let me know 💌

Jobs

🐚 Senior Producer ~ American Public Media ~ Remote, US

🐚 General Assignment Reporter ~ St Louis Public Radio ~ St Louis, MO

🐚 Floating Producer ~ WBUR ~ Boston, MA

🐚 Production Internship & Apprenticeship ~ Pineapple Street Studios ~ Remote ~ begins 10 July; deadline 1 May

Events, workshops and more

📼 Podcast PR workshop ~ Podcast Garage workshop at KQED in San Francisco ~ 6 April

📼 60 Second Radio ~ competition for radio art and sonic collage ~ deadline 9 April

📼 Expanding audio mixing skills for content producers ~ Online Audiotrain class ~ 14 April

📼 Adjusting to a Changing Audio Industry ~ AIR panel ~ 14 April

📼 LinkedIn Optimization for the Audio Industry ~ AIR workshop ~ 18 April

📼 Birmingham Podcast Festival ~ 22 April

📼 University of the Arts London storytelling fellowship ~ programme runs from September 2023 to June 2024 ~ deadline 15 May

Thanks for reading audio storytellers! Appreciate your support by buying me a coffee or forwarding this newsletter to a friend.