In a world where we are supposed to be immediately accessible at all times because of email and texts and social media, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the noise technology brings to our lives. The flip side is that technology and automation can bring a lot of freedom to our lives if we use it well.

My mission over the last year has been to automate more of my work and create flexibility in my schedule so I can still run my office, but not have to BE in my office nearly as much. I have managed, over the course of that year, to be on top of my work and coordinated with my assistant while still spending close to three weeks on vacation this summer and no more than ten hours a week physically in my office between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Here are some of things I’ve incorporated to help my day to day (not just my work day) be more flexible and less time consuming.

Day to Day Life:

1. Google Calendar – I’m cheap when it comes to technology. I have always used google calendar for my work and life calendar. I’ve learned that you can add tasks, not just events. So now when there’s a particular document I need to review or email I need to send, my assistant makes me a task on google calendar and includes any specifics I need to know so that it’ll reach me on my phone wherever I am and I can follow up that way. Fiance also lives off of his google calendar. We’ve started sending one another invitations to any events we’ve talked about that we’ll be doing together – a movie night, a dinner with friends, a camping trip we’d planned etc. This way it shows up on our calendars, it tells us the dates, the times, and when either of us are scheduling things individually we can look at our calendar and see what else we are already committed to.
2. Shared Notes – Fiance and I both have iphones – I’m sure there are other apps and ways to do this across other phones and platforms, but this works for us and gives you the basic idea. We’ve created grocery lists, Home Depot/Lowe’s lists, clothing sizes etc. That we can share! The notes app on iphones allows you to share a note (similarly, you can share a photo album). Rather than having to call or text back and forth about what groceries people need or what size shirt they wear, you can have the information in your notes app and both access it at any point. If he’s going to the big box store, I can ask – and even include screenshots – for a particular item whenever I’m thinking of it, not when I’m thinking of a million other things and he happens to be headed to the grocery store and wants a list. This works well for kids too.
3. Dictation – The concept of dictation is old – like Mad Men old. But now we all have cell phones, click on the little microphone button on your phone’s keyboard and all of a sudden you can dictate texts, notes, emails, anything you need. I have an app that keeps my case files digitally. After meeting with a client or having a court appearance, I can hop in my car and dictate a note to my case file in seconds – even while I’m driving if I’m using my headphones and being safe. It takes moments and then my assistant is updated, the physical file is less necessary, and it takes much less time or energy to keep my info where it needs to be.
4. Auto-Responses – Set a part of your email signature or even an auto reply on your inbox that tells people when they can expect a response from you. Managing expectations is the most important thing about communication – let people know what to expect and they can work around that. If you include a line that says “I check my emails twice a day at 10 am and 3 pm. I usually take 24 hours to reply to an email. If you need a response before that please call my office directly, otherwise I will get back to you within 24 hours.” Similarly with a voicemail message – you can have your message state “I rarely respond to voicemails, please email or text me if you have a question.” A short five minute phone call can turn into a ten second text/email conversation that you respond to when it’s convenient to you in your own day.

Your day to day life can be much simpler and details much easier to remember if you set up systems that work for you. Build in free time, build in catch-up time, and let technology streamline things for you.

I’ll include a follow-up post about automating financial decisions to help reduce stress there as well.