Five ways to automate and organise your life

I’ve wanted to write this blog post for a while, as I use so many different apps, websites and applets to organise the way I work and juggle homelife (everything from Evernote to Pocket), but there’s one that I just wouldn’t be without – and I’m surprised by how many people have not heard of it...

IFTTT (stands for 'If this then that' pronounced like "gift" without the "g").

IFTTT is a web-based service that allows users to create chains of simple conditional statements, called "recipes", which are triggered based on changes to other web services such as Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

So what can you use it for?

Raising your social media profile
Automatically publishing our company blog pieces to Twitter and LinkedIn.
 
Posting my Instagram images to Twitter as a photo instead of a link.

If your Facebook profile picture changes, update your twitter picture too.

     
Collating memories into one place
I have several recipes running, so that whenever I post a picture to Instagram, or am tagged in a post on Facebook, then it automatically puts that photo in my Dropbox (which in turn syncs with my photobox should I then wish to print them).

Triggering events
Nearly home? You can trigger a Twitter DM to a person when you enter a specific geo-cell to put the kettle on! My favourite ;o)
      
Alerting you
The traffic alert recipe means that I get a text message whenever there is an accident on the M40 (you enter your preferred motorway) – it takes a feed from the Highways Agency and SMS’s you when this matches.

Organisation
Save your favorite tweets in Pocket!

Speak notes to Evernote using Siri and iOS Reminders.

When someone emails me photos, name, save, and organise in my Dropbox.
 
They have just released new DO buttons. DO recipes run with just a tap so you can create your own personalised button, camera action, and note actions.

      
I’ve not really bought into these yet on my phone, as I still have to open the specific DO app on my phone to then use the button, so the step removed (by forwarding a photo to an email) is actually a step gained (by having to take the photo with this specific app!), but it works  well on my apple watch to quickly turn off lights (using Phillips hue), save voice memos to Evernote etc. Take a look at a few of the recipes available.

This piece was written by Emma Fisher, Head of Business Development and Associate Director @TheHPSGroup Marlow, a passionate e-marketeer, Social Media lover... and mummy.