Imagine living in an age where you could get technology or other humans to do things for you automatically. Such an idea might sound very futuristic, but the exciting news is that you can automate various aspects of your life right now!
Automation is nothing new. Human beings have long been looking at ways to make the most time-consuming and tedious tasks action themselves with little to no user intervention. You are likely reading this blog post today because you feel like you’re getting pulled from various directions each day. And you’re probably finding things a tad stressful, perhaps even frustrating in your daily life!
To that end, here’s how to turn your frown upside down and automate your work and home life with six very practical ideas.
Home: Install a smart heating control system
Did you know that you no longer have to adjust a wall thermostat in your home each day manually? More homes are getting fitted with smart heating control systems that you can ‘set and forget’! When you first set one up, you can program in a heating schedule with temperature and day/time triggers or rules. Now you no longer need to turn your heating down when it’s too hot manually, or up when it’s too cold in your home!
Work: Use a document automation system
Do you find that a lot of your time at work gets spent writing documents in Microsoft Word, filling out quotations for customers, for example? If the answer is yes, you should consider setting up a document automation system. It can save you a lot of time and means that you can divert that wasted time towards other tasks on your to-do list each day.
Home: Buy a smart washing machine
Let’s set the scene. You’ve just put a load in your washing machine, the contents of which include the work uniform that you have to wear tomorrow. You then go off and run some errands, and forget about the washing machine. Suddenly it’s 7 am the next day, and you’ve no clean and dry work uniform to wear. And it’s all because you forgot about your washing machine!
If you’re the forgetful type, a smart washing machine can help you to avoid such situations as the scenario example above. That’s because they can message you or even alert you via a smartphone app on your mobile device when the washing machine finishes.
Work: Automate your emails
Most people are aware they can use filters in their email software to direct inbound or outbound messages to particular folders. For example, emails with specific keywords in them can get automatically moved without ever being seen in your inbox. But, were you aware that you could automate your emails even further?
For instance, you could insert templates into new messages with the click of a mouse button. You could even batch-send messages, automatically CC recipients, or even auto-save attachments from new incoming messages. There’s a veritable raft of ways to automate your emails and speed up your processes.
Home: Use a smart sprinkler system for your garden
Do you find that you spend a lot of time in your garden watering your plants, especially ones that are inside of greenhouses? If so, and you wished that you could spend less time doing that, one option to consider might be to use a smart sprinkler system!
In a nutshell, a smart sprinkler will water your plants according to current weather conditions, the time of day, and so on. You could even set it up so that it activates when a motion detector senses movement from unwanted visitors like cats.
Work: Hire virtual assistants for repetitive tasks
Last but not least, one thing you should consider doing for your more repetitive work tasks is to hire a virtual assistant to carry them out for you. Doing so saves you a lot of time, and it’s cheaper than say delegating tasks to your work colleagues or employees.
Virtual assistants can carry out all kinds of things for you, such as data entry, online research, form-filling and scrutinising, and much more.
Final thoughts
There is no denying that most people lead hectic lives these days and will gladly welcome a helping hand. Thanks to advances in technology, there’s a variety of ways where people can utilise automation for home and work tasks. Some automation tasks may need to get carried out by other people, but most can get done with computer software.
If you enjoyed this head over to my 7 Ways To Prepare Your Home For Summer and Protecting Your Home from Cracks and Leaks
When I buy a house finally, I absolutely plan to automate as much as possible. I want to spend time living life, not doing repetitive chores. I’ve already started doing so for work (I’m a virtual assistant and content creator, so I’ve gotten good at streamlining workflow for my clients!) and can’t wait to do it in my personal life.