If you haven’t discovered it yet, IFTT or If This Then That, is a service that lets you schedule things to happen automatically between apps you use all the time.
IFTT has “recipes” you can “program” to make these apps talk to each other or consolidate all the different notifications, feeds, updates you get into your favorite app.
For example, I use Gmail, Google Calendars, Evernote and much much more to manage our life with kids plus work. Like everyone else I need to know the weather first thing in the morning, check our schedule, the latest news, and things I planned to do that day. Before I started using IFTT, I was opening/checking at least 5 apps.
I set up an IFTT recipe to send all that information to Evernote first thing in the morning. When the alarm on my phone goes off, all I need to do is
- See the weather for today – and delete the note
- See a digest of my daily calendar from gmail – and delete the note
- Read my daily Skimm of news – and delete the note
- Scan my notes with reminders due that day in case I need to add to my calendar or send a text/email.
By that time, the kids are awake and my “alone” time is over. The rest of my apps will have to wait their turn to get any attention, if there’s any time left before bedtime.
About Us
We have five children including 2 sets of twins. Currently ages 7,7,5,2,2. That’s 2 fraternal twin girls, a single boy, followed by 2 identical twin girls. Life After 5 – kids that is, has definitely changed.