Smart technology and subscription services are becoming the norm in American households.
From groceries to light sensors, these tools can help save you time and money.
Read on to figure out how automating the boring stuff can improve your life.
1. Smart Home Tech
Can you imagine the simplicity of not having to adjust your thermostat, turn on your lights, or even manually open your garage door?
All these features and more can be yours with smart home technology.
- Thermostat: Control and automate thermostat temperatures from your smartphone. Schedule heating and cooling for appropriate times during the day and year.
- Lights: Install sensors to turn on lights as you enter specific spaces. Some systems even allow you to automate these controls from your phone.
- Garage Door: Set up your garage door to open and close as it senses you coming and going. Many systems will connect to GPS location services in your phone or car.
- Doorbell Camera: Set up your smart doorbell camera to alert you anytime someone approaches the door. You’ll be able to spot package thieves and greet expected guests without ever opening the door.
2. Automatic Bill Pay
While it may seem basic, you’d be surprised how many people don’t opt for automatic billing for regular expenses.
Take every opportunity to set up auto bill pay for items like utilities, streaming services, and debt payments. That way you’ll never have to worry about these services being turned off or terminated.
Make a spreadsheet that accounts for automatic payments and makes sure that they fit within your budget. If you set up auto pay but don’t have enough in your account, your bank could slap you with overdraft fees.
3. Automating the Boring Stuff: Investing
There are several apps and services that will automatically invest or save small amounts of money at regular increments.
This takes the hassle out of having to set aside big chunks of money or meet with expensive investment pros.
If you’re looking for an easy way to automate your savings goals check out acorns or similar apps. They round up to the dollar on every purchase you make and invest the change for you. They have upgraded services that allow you to contribute as little as $5 a month into a savings account for retirement.
4. Go Paperless
Automating your life includes reducing the amount of clutter and paper waste in your home and mailbox. Switch all of your bills and statements to paperless and receive emails instead of bulky envelopes.
If you get frequent ads or junk mail from specific sources, contact them and ask to be removed from their mailing list.
Having fewer papers to sort, shred, and dispose of will simplify your life and declutter your home.
5. Electronic Medical Records
Having 24/7 access to you and your family’s medical records can be handy and smart.
If you own or work for a medical practice, having an EMR (electronic medical records) system allows you to securely and easily automate your record keeping and requesting processes.
As a patient, you can request access to patient portals that store your medical information including visits, lab results, etc.
You can find more info here on electronic medical records.
6. Automated Groceries
You’ve seen the ads for meal planning sites like Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, or Plated. These meal plan subscription services make last minute, junk food dinners a thing of the past.
You can plan ahead your meals for the week, avoid grocery shopping, and have a healthy diet all in one easy step.
If meal subscriptions aren’t your thing, try Amazon’s subscribe and save feature which allows you to get regular deliveries of the staples in your pantry and home. You can subscribe to flour, oatmeal, and even diapers.
As long as you maintain a few subscribed items, you’ll save a percentage on each purchase.
7. Clothing
Some of us don’t have the time to spend several hours shopping, and the rest wouldn’t enjoy it anyway. But did you know you can have a professional stylist send clothes to your door based on your preferences, budget, and occasion?
Stitch Fix and other clothing subscription services will send you packages on a schedule or on-demand filled with clothes they think you’ll like. You can keep the pieces you like and send the rest back.
You’ll only be charged for the items you keep, and the rest you put in a pre-paid envelope to be returned.
You can take the pain out of clothes shopping and let someone else do all the hard work.
8. Toiletries
Have you ever been preparing for an important date or event and realized your razor blade is dull and you’re out of refills? No one has time to go to the store for a fresh razor. So you’re left with a bad shave or razor burn.
Not anymore! There are many subscription services for toiletry items like razors, hair product, perfume, and more. You’ll receive packages with the items you need just in time for a refresh. That way you’ll never be stuck without the important toiletries you need!
9. Health
Who knew that one accessory could count your steps, measure your heart rate, and alert emergency services of a major fall?
Wearing a smartwatch can give you access to a multitude of health tools. All you have to do is put it on in the morning.
No more counting steps manually, measuring your physical activity or taking your own blood pressure. The watch will do it all for you!
Bye, Bye Boring!
Say goodbye to the boring activities that suck up your valuable time. Use these automated lifestyle hacks to save time and improve your quality of life!
Who knew that automating the boring stuff could be so exciting?
See our blog today for more info on all things health and lifestyle.