IFTTT your life
April 24, 2021 12:17 PM Subscribe
What's a cool workflow you know of that makes life easier?
Could be digital, ex. I changed the location of my Downloads folder on Chrome and put it on Dropbox so that I always have access to it.
Could be task-based, ex. I schedule my groceries and meds that I ordered to arrive at the same day/time block to reduce the times I would have to go out of my flat because COVID-cases are still high where I am.
Could be mental health-related, ex. I have a list of to-do's that I cross off + I also write down things that are not on the list but I accomplished, and cross them off all the same because it reduces my anxiety knowing I haven't been completely wasting my day.
Could be product-related, ex. I got one of those 4x-a-day, 7x-a-week pill organiser to keep track of my prescriptions (morning, noon, evening, bed every day of the week).
Or what have you.
Something of a cross between a life hack and a productivity trick, or a hybrid life/work best practices that lessens your stress or simplified what you thought was at first complicated and impossible.
Asking for myself, mostly because I've been having a hard time dealing with life and the pandemic in general for the past year and counting, and I find that having a system/workflow/something automated in different aspects of life helps me cope.
Thank you and please keep safe.
Could be digital, ex. I changed the location of my Downloads folder on Chrome and put it on Dropbox so that I always have access to it.
Could be task-based, ex. I schedule my groceries and meds that I ordered to arrive at the same day/time block to reduce the times I would have to go out of my flat because COVID-cases are still high where I am.
Could be mental health-related, ex. I have a list of to-do's that I cross off + I also write down things that are not on the list but I accomplished, and cross them off all the same because it reduces my anxiety knowing I haven't been completely wasting my day.
Could be product-related, ex. I got one of those 4x-a-day, 7x-a-week pill organiser to keep track of my prescriptions (morning, noon, evening, bed every day of the week).
Or what have you.
Something of a cross between a life hack and a productivity trick, or a hybrid life/work best practices that lessens your stress or simplified what you thought was at first complicated and impossible.
Asking for myself, mostly because I've been having a hard time dealing with life and the pandemic in general for the past year and counting, and I find that having a system/workflow/something automated in different aspects of life helps me cope.
Thank you and please keep safe.
Auto refills of prescriptions by mail.
Recurring scheduled deliveries of household staples. This works better for some products than for others. Dog food has been particularly effective.
posted by commander_fancypants at 1:21 PM on April 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
Recurring scheduled deliveries of household staples. This works better for some products than for others. Dog food has been particularly effective.
posted by commander_fancypants at 1:21 PM on April 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
I just started batch-cooking breakfast burritos. I know "batch cook!" is a bit of a cliche and seems like a lot of work, but it's honestly not that bad in this example. Cooking some beans, eggs, rice*, and grating some cheese, then constructing the burritos to freeze goes quickly if you have a podcast on or something to watch. An hour or so of cooking means I get two weeks of easy breakfasts (just grab one from the freezer and microwave for a couple of minutes).
*A rice cooker is another workflow improvement - any rice cooking is now reduced to "put rice and water in cooker, turn on" and then you can concentrate on whatever else you're doing without worrying about the rice overcooking or going cold.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:31 PM on April 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
*A rice cooker is another workflow improvement - any rice cooking is now reduced to "put rice and water in cooker, turn on" and then you can concentrate on whatever else you're doing without worrying about the rice overcooking or going cold.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:31 PM on April 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
Knowing UI automation is incredibly useful, often fun. Like the other day when my niece discovered the hell site that is POPCAT and insisted that the entire family should start clicking on multiple tablets and phones ("Sweden has to win!"). We did this for a while and at most reach 5k clicks on a single device. Bored, I did what any nerd uncle would do and used AutoHotKey to simulate pressing the keyboard a thousand times each time she pressed shift+n. I would like to think she was impressed.
Next time imma teach her how to directly change the HTML of a site using dev tools. 3,000,000,000,000 FAKE CLICKS HERE WE COME BABYYYYY
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:39 PM on April 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
Next time imma teach her how to directly change the HTML of a site using dev tools. 3,000,000,000,000 FAKE CLICKS HERE WE COME BABYYYYY
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:39 PM on April 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
Three (windows) desktop tools I use very often, and which save hours:
Everything Search. Nothing fancy, just a way to run normal and regex searches on file names. Has a favourite tool so you can save searches, has a great manual and it's quite simple.
Ditto [sourceforge] clipboard manager - I found it on here, someone raving about it, it didn't gel for me until I stared using it, now probably use it hourly like: you're reading an abstract and just want the salient bits, picking items out of a list - just select and Ctrl C and Ditto holds them all and you can paste them all at once.
Visual Studio Code (text editor). If you're not a wizard and just wanna edit text it's the tool (I've looked at many and it's fast, and relatively easy), I use for:
• Prose writing
• Case switching
• Line sorting
• Also has calculator, random number tool and does tables (in markdown)
• List editing
• Multiline editing - has a many cursors function
• Text cleaning - leading/trailing space, removing, changing, adding anything, anywhere, any number of times all at once
posted by unearthed at 3:03 PM on April 24, 2021 [8 favorites]
Everything Search. Nothing fancy, just a way to run normal and regex searches on file names. Has a favourite tool so you can save searches, has a great manual and it's quite simple.
Ditto [sourceforge] clipboard manager - I found it on here, someone raving about it, it didn't gel for me until I stared using it, now probably use it hourly like: you're reading an abstract and just want the salient bits, picking items out of a list - just select and Ctrl C and Ditto holds them all and you can paste them all at once.
Visual Studio Code (text editor). If you're not a wizard and just wanna edit text it's the tool (I've looked at many and it's fast, and relatively easy), I use for:
• Prose writing
• Case switching
• Line sorting
• Also has calculator, random number tool and does tables (in markdown)
• List editing
• Multiline editing - has a many cursors function
• Text cleaning - leading/trailing space, removing, changing, adding anything, anywhere, any number of times all at once
posted by unearthed at 3:03 PM on April 24, 2021 [8 favorites]
I brush and floss in the shower while the conditioner is doing its thing in my hair.
posted by phunniemee at 4:11 PM on April 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 4:11 PM on April 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
I have outlook automatically colour code calendar items so I can see the amounts of my to-do’s, social things, meetings for the day or week much more easily. Also, I give my to-do’s fun and motivating names so that I’m more likely to show up to them, and with the right mindset. Content writing becomes Make £1000 Words. Organising files becomes Tetris Admin. You get the idea.
posted by iamkimiam at 4:16 PM on April 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by iamkimiam at 4:16 PM on April 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
I automatically schedule my credit cards and loan payments to be made at the appropriate times. I still review my statements each month, but I have literally never had an issue and I am surprised at how much time I save from making payments each month.
I use autohotkey to define a number of "form emails" for common issues (password reset requests at work, questions about event registrations for a nonprofit I volunteer at, that kind of thing).
I learned Power Query, Power Automate, and VBA to streamline my work life. Reports that used to take 20-30 minutes now can be done in seconds. I can send customized follow-up emails to people that attend specific work events by dropping an attendee list into a folder. These tools are crazy powerful and there is a big payoff even if you only learn a couple of tricks.
Whenever I use a computer program consistently, I spend a little effort to look up shortcut keys. There are almost always a couple of commands that I do all the thing, and saving even just a second or two each time adds up.
I really lean into Getting Things Done for managing my non-digital life. There are two items that make a huge difference for me: processing "stuff" into next actions, and keeping an incubator list so I don't have to keep looking at tasks until they're relevant.
posted by philosophygeek at 5:01 PM on April 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
I use autohotkey to define a number of "form emails" for common issues (password reset requests at work, questions about event registrations for a nonprofit I volunteer at, that kind of thing).
I learned Power Query, Power Automate, and VBA to streamline my work life. Reports that used to take 20-30 minutes now can be done in seconds. I can send customized follow-up emails to people that attend specific work events by dropping an attendee list into a folder. These tools are crazy powerful and there is a big payoff even if you only learn a couple of tricks.
Whenever I use a computer program consistently, I spend a little effort to look up shortcut keys. There are almost always a couple of commands that I do all the thing, and saving even just a second or two each time adds up.
I really lean into Getting Things Done for managing my non-digital life. There are two items that make a huge difference for me: processing "stuff" into next actions, and keeping an incubator list so I don't have to keep looking at tasks until they're relevant.
posted by philosophygeek at 5:01 PM on April 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
We keep a roll of masking tape in a kitchen drawer for labeling leftovers and freezer meals. A few years ago we started sticking a little piece of tape on the lid of any food items that we have extras of in the pantry, so we would know that we don't need to pick up more. That way we can put ranch dressing or dried basil or whatever on the shopping list when those things are starting to get low, but not entirely gone. The new, unopened bottle goes in the pantry, and as we're unloading those groceries we put tape onto the almost-empty bottles. Maybe the current bottle of ranch will run out this week, or maybe we'll go grocery shopping 3 more times before it's finally empty. But we won't need to keep checking whether we need to get more ranch, because the tape tells us there's an extra bottle in waiting.
posted by vytae at 5:21 PM on April 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by vytae at 5:21 PM on April 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
I have Anylist on my phone as a grocery list app, and it integrates with my Amazon Echo Alexa in the kitchen- so I just say "Alexa, add Cilantro to my shopping list", and it shows up when I'm in the store. Jeff Bezos will know that I have an inordinate fondness for gazpacho, but hey, who doesn't?
posted by jenkinsEar at 5:27 PM on April 24, 2021
posted by jenkinsEar at 5:27 PM on April 24, 2021
iOS Assistive Touch can do a lot. Combined with Shortcuts I have a translucent dot everywhere that I’ve set up to take a screenshot or go to Settings or, with simple Shortcuts open a game at a specific volume.
posted by bendy at 5:46 PM on April 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by bendy at 5:46 PM on April 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
We signed up for platejoy and not having to think about what or when to eat or making grocery lists or planning food at all has been great. It’s made a whole section of our life go from difficult to really easy.
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 6:08 PM on April 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 6:08 PM on April 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
As a rule I don't take sheets off my bed unless I have the time/energy/clean set to put new ones on right then. This doesn't necessarily simply my life but it avoids late night "I'm exhausted and need to fall into bed but there are no sheets on the bed" situations which tend to lead to procrastinating on going to sleep and/or sleeping on a bare mattress, neither of which make the next morning feel good.
posted by needs more cowbell at 7:49 PM on April 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by needs more cowbell at 7:49 PM on April 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
Based on this comment I downloaded the Tody app for household chores and three weeks later my life is changed. It takes a little bit of work on the front end thinking about and setting up individual tasks, and then a little bit of tweaking for when you've inadvertently scheduled 10 tasks for one day. But I love that this breaks a tedious job into manageable bites, and that I don't have to think about what needs cleaning when.
posted by Preserver at 5:17 PM on April 25, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Preserver at 5:17 PM on April 25, 2021 [3 favorites]
A text expander browser add-on for my PC, such as text blaze, if you have phrases you write often. For example I have to send a weekly email with my time sheet, so I made it so when I type /timesheet, it automatically expands to a full, formatted email, complete with a hello and sign-off. I often have to write the same phrases over and over in emails, often have to type several long generic drug names that are easy to misspell, so I made shortcuts for myself. I also often have to type jalapaño so I made it autocorrect jalapeno to the ñ version so I don't have to remember the ñ code.
I do the same on my phone keyboard, I programmed a few shortcuts, such as to expand a short code to my son's name, and ## expands to a series of hashtags I often use.
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 5:38 PM on April 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
I do the same on my phone keyboard, I programmed a few shortcuts, such as to expand a short code to my son's name, and ## expands to a series of hashtags I often use.
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 5:38 PM on April 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
A few concepts that I've put into use over the last few years:
- Create reminders for when/where I need them.
Shower thoughts is a meme for a reason. "I must remember that!", but it's not like I can pay my electricity bill whilst in the shower. The reminders app on my iphone is surprisingly efficient for this. I use it for things like reminding myself to pack something for a trip in three months (I set it to pop up the night before). A shopping list for groceries, and one for non-groceries, so I have one list to check when I'm at a shop. "Check the work fridge" on a friday afternoon. Quarterly/Annual bills - I get the bills of course, but it's nice not to be surprised. Anything that makes me anxious about forgetting when I'm driving or in the shower, and can't actually do anything about, I try to create a way to be reminded of it at the appropriate time or place.
- Store things where I look for them. Get rid of things I don't want.
This is both digital and physical things. We had a running joke growing up about putting things in a "safe place", and then not being able to find it when you need it. Christmas presents in particular. Now I try really, really hard to store things so that they can be found. "Where would I look for the bug spray? In the laundry, next to the mozzie repellent, or maybe under the kitchen sink". So I store it in one of those two places.
- Do the easy things first.
I got this from a decluttering book (How to manage your home without losing your mind), and works well in many (though not all) situations. Given the choice between multiple important things, particularly if the choice is hard or the list is overwhelming, start with the easy stuff. With cleaning/decluttering, rubbish and dirty dishes are easy, and even if that's all you do, the space will be better. I'm meant to fill in a timesheet every week. It's easy, it's also important, doing it instead of one of the hard things on my list is not actually a cop out. It's doing something on my list, which reduces overwhelm and can start a productivity roll, instead of feeling bad about not doing the hard thing, procrastinating and not doing anyway.
- Efficiency isn't everything
Yes, it's more efficient to do one trip to the hardware store and buy all the things, but it's not that hard to go to the hardware store, and going for one thing is not a waste of my time if that thing is important. I have a system to reduce forgetting stuff (a shopping list on my phone), but I try to reduce spiralling about making everything I do as efficient as possible.
posted by kjs4 at 5:14 PM on April 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
- Create reminders for when/where I need them.
Shower thoughts is a meme for a reason. "I must remember that!", but it's not like I can pay my electricity bill whilst in the shower. The reminders app on my iphone is surprisingly efficient for this. I use it for things like reminding myself to pack something for a trip in three months (I set it to pop up the night before). A shopping list for groceries, and one for non-groceries, so I have one list to check when I'm at a shop. "Check the work fridge" on a friday afternoon. Quarterly/Annual bills - I get the bills of course, but it's nice not to be surprised. Anything that makes me anxious about forgetting when I'm driving or in the shower, and can't actually do anything about, I try to create a way to be reminded of it at the appropriate time or place.
- Store things where I look for them. Get rid of things I don't want.
This is both digital and physical things. We had a running joke growing up about putting things in a "safe place", and then not being able to find it when you need it. Christmas presents in particular. Now I try really, really hard to store things so that they can be found. "Where would I look for the bug spray? In the laundry, next to the mozzie repellent, or maybe under the kitchen sink". So I store it in one of those two places.
- Do the easy things first.
I got this from a decluttering book (How to manage your home without losing your mind), and works well in many (though not all) situations. Given the choice between multiple important things, particularly if the choice is hard or the list is overwhelming, start with the easy stuff. With cleaning/decluttering, rubbish and dirty dishes are easy, and even if that's all you do, the space will be better. I'm meant to fill in a timesheet every week. It's easy, it's also important, doing it instead of one of the hard things on my list is not actually a cop out. It's doing something on my list, which reduces overwhelm and can start a productivity roll, instead of feeling bad about not doing the hard thing, procrastinating and not doing anyway.
- Efficiency isn't everything
Yes, it's more efficient to do one trip to the hardware store and buy all the things, but it's not that hard to go to the hardware store, and going for one thing is not a waste of my time if that thing is important. I have a system to reduce forgetting stuff (a shopping list on my phone), but I try to reduce spiralling about making everything I do as efficient as possible.
posted by kjs4 at 5:14 PM on April 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
I subscribe to Daily Harvest, which takes care of 2/3 of my meals per day. The smoothies really do require a high-end blender, though.
I have Google Home remind me to have a dance party every day at 5pm (this usually means getting out my hula hoop and putting on some nostalgic trip-hop). Sometimes this means the end of the work day, sometimes it just helps me get my second wind.
I have now upgraded to a whole-month-at-once day/night pill box, which has the added bonus of reminding me what the date is!
I'm thinking seriously about implementing ClickUp for time/task/project management and some sort of ticketing system for work email management, or at least the 15% of my job that quickly becomes "oh wow I am so sorry I missed this email, here is the very simple thing you asked for that I didn't do 2 weeks ago because it's not a High Priority Action and those are the only things that get done these days."
posted by All hands bury the dead at 6:24 PM on April 27, 2021
I have Google Home remind me to have a dance party every day at 5pm (this usually means getting out my hula hoop and putting on some nostalgic trip-hop). Sometimes this means the end of the work day, sometimes it just helps me get my second wind.
I have now upgraded to a whole-month-at-once day/night pill box, which has the added bonus of reminding me what the date is!
I'm thinking seriously about implementing ClickUp for time/task/project management and some sort of ticketing system for work email management, or at least the 15% of my job that quickly becomes "oh wow I am so sorry I missed this email, here is the very simple thing you asked for that I didn't do 2 weeks ago because it's not a High Priority Action and those are the only things that get done these days."
posted by All hands bury the dead at 6:24 PM on April 27, 2021
Particularly in my work life, but also in my personal life, I've been a fan of the Getting Things Done methodology, or at least the major prongs: try to pare down to one "inbox" (for me, it's my work email inbox for work and my personal email inbox for personal life), and tackle things that will take less than 5 minutes immediately. Things go a lot smoother for me if I don't have minor tasks nagging me in the back of my mind.
I also have a single calendar, and everything that gets planned out in advance gets on the calendar. Work colleagues can see a filtered version of the calendar (with personal stuff blocked off, no details) so they can set appointments and know they're setting them in open space. If I need prep time etc. for something, I block it off. If I'm on vacation, I block it off. Etc.
For all of their ills, having an always-on smart device that can play music at a voice command means I listen to a lot more music than I used to. I like music.
posted by craven_morhead at 7:45 AM on April 28, 2021
I also have a single calendar, and everything that gets planned out in advance gets on the calendar. Work colleagues can see a filtered version of the calendar (with personal stuff blocked off, no details) so they can set appointments and know they're setting them in open space. If I need prep time etc. for something, I block it off. If I'm on vacation, I block it off. Etc.
For all of their ills, having an always-on smart device that can play music at a voice command means I listen to a lot more music than I used to. I like music.
posted by craven_morhead at 7:45 AM on April 28, 2021
ColorNote for Android phone. A really nice note/checklist (and calendar, but I haven't used that function yet) app.
My wife would tell you Calendarscope - she color codes appointments etc. which I realize is available in some other programs too.
And for one obvious optimal algorithm: when you remove keys from your pocket, place them in the same place _always_ to optimize the 'getting my keys' routine.
posted by TimHare at 11:00 PM on April 28, 2021
My wife would tell you Calendarscope - she color codes appointments etc. which I realize is available in some other programs too.
And for one obvious optimal algorithm: when you remove keys from your pocket, place them in the same place _always_ to optimize the 'getting my keys' routine.
posted by TimHare at 11:00 PM on April 28, 2021
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posted by whitewall at 12:52 PM on April 24, 2021 [18 favorites]