After hosting a “My Favorite Things” party, I realized we all use cool stuff every day, but never share it with friends cuz we think everyone just knows about it! At the party, we all swapped three of our favorite products (think: makeup brush cleaners, beauty products, coffee makers) with the group so everyone left with a three new goodies. I’m still mind blown by my new makeup brush cleaner!
So, to continue the theme of sharing, I’ll regularly post My Favorite Things (blogs, podcasts, products, apps, workouts) so you are always getting new ideas to make your life simpler, cleaner, healthier or more efficient!
This Month – Apps to Make your Life Easier (A-Types listen up!)
Do you set a reminders when you get an email to follow up in a few days or read it later? Boomerang does it for you. Attach the app to your gmail and set it to automatically remind you to follow up on a sent email (ex: you email a friend to get back to you about an event by Friday, boomerang will send you a reminder in 3 days if no response is receieved) schedule reminders and delay messages. The BEST PART – if you set up an email to be “boomeranged” back in a few days as a reminder, it hides it from your inbox until the date you set. Hello zero messages!
Okay, I know this is a business productivity app, but it’s changed my life for communicating with work people, study groups, and volunteer committees. Think of it as a group text , but in a separate app. You can upload docs, create channels like “event planning” to keep your convos on point and set reminders. Bonus: you can set a sleep timer to hide messages during the day (stay productive at work), or at night (when you should be getting your sleep)
They use what are called “applets” to create an automated command to connect your devices and apps. Anything that automates your life needs to be on your list! Some of my “applets”: 1) I ask Alexa to add Almond butter to my shopping List. My IFTTT applet sends me an email reminder to buy Almond Butter. 2) I flag a receipt email in Gmail for my Lululemon purchase. My IFTTT applets create a reminder in Iphone Reminders to check the status in a few days when it should be on my doorstep. No more manual reminders, or lists, etc!
BEST.TRAVEL.APP. Period. Mic Drop. I’ve used this app since 2013 (I checked it today!) and can’t travel without it. What makes it so amazing?? Well.. let me tell ya….
It stores all flight, hotel or car rental confirmations for every upcoming trip in one app. No more searching or printing your confirmation numbers, going to Southwest.com, Hilton.com and Hertz.com to pull your confirms. Its all in ONE SITE.
How does it work? When you get the confirm email from the booking site – email it to plans@tripit.com and the app automatically saves it. Flight delayed? Tripit Pro alerts you (typically) BEFORE the airline does. Flying Southwest and need to check in when the clock hits 9:02am (you all know that routine)? Tripit reminds you to check in AND you can do it from their site! WHAT?!! Seriously the best travel tool and a must have!
Organize every link, recipe, picture, article or note in your life. Do you always find a recipe online and don’t know where to save it? Create a “recipe” notebook in Evernote and save all of your recipes in one spot for easy searching. Doing research on a topic for work and finding lots of website and info? Save them to your “research” notebook for easy review later. You can even install Evernote as an Extension in your web browser, so you can quickly save a webpage to your Evernote for later! The MUST HAVE productivity app for your life!
Inspired Best Self 