Get Organized!: Automate Routine Tasks with IFTTT (If This Then That)

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Automate Routine Tasks with IFTTT (If This Then That)

We all have routine tasks which keep our lives going. Sometimes, those routines involve small things which take little time. Added together, small things can become big things in terms of their cumulative benefit. At the same time, when we add the time required for these individual routines, the total required can be significant.

What if we could put some of those tasks on "autopilot"? For example, examine these routine tasks:

I want to check the weather each day, and it would be nice if it simply arrived in my e-mail.
If someone retweets one of my tweets, I want to thank him/her.
If someone includes me in a #ff (Friday Follow on Twitter), I want to thank him/her.
If someone follows me on Twitter, I want to follow him/her back.
If someone follows me on Twitter, I want to send a greeting.
If one of my scheduled blog posts appears, update Facebook.
If one of my scheduled blog posts appears, update Twitter.

A free site called "ifttt.com" does the things listed above for me. "Ifttt" stands for "If this, then that." After signing up for a free account, you can explore the "recipes" others have crafted (such as having the weather forecast e-mailed to you each day). If you are interested in the tasks which I had automated, clicking the above links will let you choose those same tasks for yourself.

Again, each of these tasks are small things, but small things add up to big things both in terms of their benefits and the time required to perform them. "If This Then That" takes care of the time and lets you enjoy the benefits.

If you already used ifttt, what tasks do you have it performing for you?

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Comments from Workshops

This morning when I returned to the office I did my first ever drag and drop to my calendar on Outlook - wahoo! The tickler file will come next week!

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Practical, down-to-earth user-friendly content. Excellent!

Dr. Buck did a great job. I learned LOTS of things about Outlook that I did not know.

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I was in your organization session yesterday. It was excellent. Came back to work today and set up my tickler file! I also moved all my messy (and vague) to-do lists into my iCal program and synced it to my Blackberry. Progress!!! Thanks for a very clear and applicable session. I'm excited to keep making the ideas come to life for me!!

Awesome ideas to get my life on track. Thank you so much!

You changed my life!

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