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SLT 004: Benefits of Organizing & Having Less, and Some Weird Sounding Simplicity Tools That Might Just Help You Out

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Benefits of Organizing & Having Less, and Some Weird Sounding Simplicity Tools That Might Just Help You Out

Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you!

In Episode 4, we discuss Benefits of Organizing & Having Less, and Some Weird Sounding Simplicity Tools That Might Just Help You Out.

Main Topics:  

Vanessa’s Topic: Benefits to Organizing and Having Less

You’ll save money, have less debt and be better able to handle tough financial times.

  • It’s pretty simple: less stuff  =  less money you’ll have to spend…especially on off-site storage rentals!
  • You’ll cut down on buying duplicates when you’re organized and know what you have.
  • You’ll save on late fees and interest rates if you have a good system of tracking and managing your bills.

You’ll have more usable space.

  • You’ll be able to properly utilize desktops, countertops and your dinner table. And maybe your garage too!
  • Less stuff means you can use the spaces in your homes for their intended purposes and not just for storage.

You’ll help avoid “analysis paralysis.”

  • We talked about this in Episode 3. When you have too much stuff it’s difficult to make decisions.
  • With less choices, there’s less time wasted.

There’s less to clean and maintain!

  • Average home 3 bedroom home has over 350,ooo items in it!
  • Knick knacks and all those other things require lots of dusting, laundering, storage, cleaning and maintenance…and lots of money!

You can invite guests over without hesitation.

  • Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to have them over without feeling embarrassed or in a rush to clean it up?
  • Having simple routines and “a place for everything and everything in its place” makes for easy clean up.

You’ll be more productive.

  • Start getting organized by having scheduled routines(mentioned in Episode 2): laundry, housecleaning, meal planning, etc.
  • Helps ensure the “must-dos” get done…plus allows more  time to focus on other priorities or those…“want-to-dos.”

You’ll  have better concentration.

  • Piles of papers, heaps of laundry and sinks full of dishes are haunting reminders of stuff you still have to do.
  • It’s hard to concentrate when your home and office are a mess.

You’ll save time.

  • The average person wastes about 55 minutes per day searching for things…keys, files, tools, clothes, etc. That’s a lot of time over the course of a year!
  • Again, having “a place for everything and everything in its place” helps speed up the time it takes to clean up or find things.

You’ll have a sense of control.  Control = Confidence = Nicer You!

  • Knowing where things are and when important tasks will get done creates confidence.
  • Most folks are ashamed of their clutter and therefore ashamed of themselves.

You’ll have less guilt

  • Don’t you feel guilty when you buy something when you know you really didn’t need it.
  • It’s way more empowering when you can say “no” to those buying impulses and not bring in more stuff.

You’ll have more Joy and be more content.

  • Striving for more and waiting for the day that you’ll strike it rich will deplete the joy you could be experiencing every day.
  • You’ll never be content if you’re always comparing, striving for more stuff, collecting, etc.

You’ll have more time and better relationships.

You’ll have a feeling of calm and peace of mind.

Dan’s Topic: Backing Up Your Digital Information: Some Weird Sounding Simplicity Tools That Might Just Help You Out

Occam’s Razor: “Of two equivalent theories or explanations, all other things being equal, the simpler one is to be preferred.”

  • Benedictine monk…William lived in Ockham, England from 1285-1349. William wasn’t the person who came up with the idea behind the razor, but he was widely known for professing it’s benefits, so it soon came to be known for him. The first time the term Occam’s razor was used, was in 1852, over 500 years after Occam’s death.
  • Occam’s Razor Take Away: Try to develop the simplest solutions to problems and challenges. Much like the KISS method, keeping processes, workflows, recipes, you name it, simple, helps you to be able to replicate successes.

Next up is Parkinson’s Law which states: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

  • C. Northcote Parkinson (30 July 1909 – 9 March 1993)
  • Storage requirements will increase to meet storage capacity
  • Data expands to fill the space available for storage.
  • Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
  • Expenditures rise to meet income
  • The amount of time which one has to perform a task is the amount of time it will take to complete the task.
  • The Stock-Sanford Corollary to Parkinson’s Law reads, “If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do.” I call that the “Homework Corollary.”
  • Parkinson’s Law Take Away: Realize that the “status quo” can quickly turn into the status “whoa!”  What that big house because you enjoy the extra space? It’ll fill up. 

Pareto Principle: Often called the 80/20 Rule. 80% of the results likely comes from 20% of the effort.

  • Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, observed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population
    • Developed the principle by observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas. This same 80/20 split kept revealing itself.
    • Led ol’ Villy to determine that, generally, 80% of effects likely come from the 20% of causes.
  • Another way to think about isOrganization: Do you keep the 20% of the things you use almost every day in logical places to maximize your efficiency?
    • Are the other 80% of your belongings getting in the way when you don’t need them? Maybe it’s time to look at how much stuff you really need, identify your vital 20% and pare the other 80% down a bit?
  • Productivity: When it comes to productivity you need to think “systems.”
    • Look at the vital few tasks you do that have the biggest impact.
    • Do you have a system in place for your “to do” list, paying bills, buying groceries, filing important documents, home and vehicle maintenance, etc.
  • More about Pareto’s 80/20 Rule at SimpleLifeTogether.com/Pareto
  • Take Aways from Pareto: Use Pareto’s Principle to determine key actions that have the most results in your life, your most important 20% of effort, habits, possessions, etc, to learn where you can pare down what you do, have and use.

Use these tools individually and together to your advantage to simplify your life.

The “Thing” Segment:

Vanessa: Michael Hyatt Blog Post:  The Gift of Today-Lessons from a Monk.  This post featured a beautiful video that Michael Hyatt forwarded and wrote about .  It’s an absolutely beautiful video that’s narrated by a monk where he encourages us to be grateful.  Here’s one of his excerpts:

“You think this is just another day in your life.  It’s not just another day  It’s the one day that is given to you today…It’s the only gift that you have right now.  And the only appropriate response is gratefulness.”

Dan: The Decline of Fascination and the Rise in Ennui (on-wee). A blog post by Seth Godin…a fellow Buffalonian and some consider him a modern day philosopher.  Here’s a quick excerpt from his post:

“The real opportunity, I think, is in trying to build longer arcs. Now that the cycle of new is eating itself in a race to ever-faster, there’s a bigger chance to make long term change by consistently focusing on what works (and what’s important), not what’s new and merely shiny. What’s important, what’s always important, is useful change.”

Closing Thoughts:

If you like the show, please subscribe and consider giving us a good review in iTunes

If you know someone else who might enjoy the journey too, send them a link to SimpleLifeTogether.com

There are links to our Twitter and Google Plus profiles and other contact info on the left side of the website. We’d love to hear from you !

Be sure to leave comments below, send us a voicemail from the little microphone icon on the right side of the page, or you can go “old school” and email us!  Comments, questions, thoughts, ideas, suggestions…they’re all welcome and we’d love to hear from you!

Links we mentioned in the show:

Get Simplifized.com: Vanessa’s article on Benefits to Organizing and Having Less.

Very good article on Occam’s Razor over at You’re Making Me

More about Pareto’s 80/20 Rule at SimpleLifeTogether.com/Pareto

Michael Hyatt Blog Post:  The Gift of Today-Lessons from a Monk.You can find more of Seth Godin’s work at http://sethgodin.typepad.com

Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you!

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Simplify Life Using Pareto’s 80/20 Rule

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All things being equal…well, they’re not! You know that, I know that, everyone knows that. But when was the last time you really took “inventory” of the things most important to you? Not just the “physical” things, but relationships, careers, time…all the intangibles that are the real treasures of life. OK, and your “stuff”, too. Have you lost a little bit of focus on what’s truly important in your life? Maybe it’s time to sit down and do some evaluation. But where do you start? What you need is a sharp Italian guy!

No, it’s not what you think! I’m talking about Vilfredo Pareto. You’ve likely heard of his work even if his name doesn’t ring a bell. The Pareto Principle, often called the 80/20 Rule, states that the 80% of effects likely come from the 20% of causes (see Figure below). Pareto noticed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. He also noticed while walking through his garden that 20% of the pea pods produced 80% of the peas. So where is this going…am I asking you to count peas? No, honestly I can’t stand peas, but I am recommending that you evaluate the things that have the biggest impact on your life. As you do, think about Pareto’s 80/20 Rule to see where it meshes with what you find.

So, using some questions and suggestions, let’s just scratch the surface and look at how Pareto’s 80/20 Rule impacts three areas of your life; Organization, Productivity, Personal Technology:

Organization- You certainly don’t use all your “stuff” every day. Hopefully you’ve organized the things that you do use daily so they’re where you need them, when you need them. It’s no surprise that all the controls needed to fly an airplane are in the cockpit where the pilot needs them, right? Do you keep the 20% of the things you use almost every day in logical places to maximize your efficiency? Are the other 80% of your belongings getting in the way when you don’t need them? Maybe it’s time to look at how much stuff you really need, identify your vital 20% and pare the other 80% down a bit? I know someone who can help!

Productivity- When it comes to productivity you need to think “systems.” Look at the vital few tasks you do that have the biggest impact. Do you have a system in place for your “to do” list, paying bills, buying groceries, filing important documents, home and vehicle maintenance, etc. Take a hard look at your routines and see if they are really systems. If not, work on developing some Standard Operating Systems (SOPs) so you can have a greater impact with less effort, like in the figure above. For example, if you were asked to produce your Birth Certificate would you know exactly where to go to get it? Would it take you less than 2 minutes? If not, you likely don’t have a true system, you have a routine. Here’s another huge tip: batch tasks! Checking email 30 times a day is counterproductive, especially if you take action on every email as it comes in! Batch checking your email (and probably Facebook, too) down to twice a day. The bottom line is to strive to have the vital 20% of your tasks systematized.

Personal Technology- Technology promises to make things simpler…but does it? Are you really using it to your advantage or has it become part of the 20% of things that cause 80% of your frustrations? Sometimes we tend to “over do” it, even with the best of intentions. If you’re a smartphone or tablet user, what are the 20% of apps that you use 80% of the time? Are they on your home screen? Do you actually use all your apps? You can find the top apps from my home screen and why I use them here. My iPhone has replaced my GPS, the clock on my nightstand, my watch, my little book of passwords/logins, my answering machine, home phone, notebook, pen, calendar, still camera, video camera…and that’s just with the apps on my home screen! What part of the 80% of your “stuff” that gets in the way can you cut by maximizing your vital 20% with technology?

The key takeaway here is that it’s often a small percentage of things that have the most impact on your life. It may not be exactly 80/20, but it is likely skewed in that direction. Have you done all you can to become more organized, productive, and use technology to your advantage? What are the things that really matter and bring the most happiness to your life? Your challenge is to figure those things out and focus on the fabulous. And our old friend Pareto’s 80/20 Principle is there to help!

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SLT 003: Why We Can’t Let Go of Our Clutter, Backing Up Your Digital Information, and A Little About Dropbox

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Why We Can’t Let Go of Our Clutter, Backing Up Your Digital Information, & A Little About Dropbox

Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you!

In Episode 3 we discuss reasons why some people can’t seem to let go of clutter and some tips that may help you decide what to keep and what to let go.  We also talk about some lessons learned from a catastrophic hard drive crash which sparked the “Your Backup Strategy’ strategy segment, and we wanted to sing a few praises for Dropbox. Dropbox is one way to save documents to the cloud and sync them across all your devices simply.

Main Topics:  

Vanessa’s Topic: Why We Can’t Let Go of Our Clutter

  • We feel the need for abundance. We are a consumer-driven society and conditioned to think more is better…it’s all about quantity over quality.
  • We’ve lived a life “without” and find security with having more. Living through the Depression, growing up in a modest or poor  household, or surviving a rough financial patch can play a huge role in why folk don’t ever want to “live without” again.
  • Forget Justin Bieber…we’re more influenced by Justin Case.  You know, “I might need this someday…just in case.” Some folks want to be ultra-prepared for any scenario. It’s ok to be prepared, but try to be realistic…especially if all that stuff is getting in the way.
  • We feel a sense of obligation. Many feel a sense of obligation to keep every gift. It’s ok to hold on to things but you do have the ability to say no.
  • We fear losing the memory if we get rid of something. Many of us have had wonderful and meaningful experiences throughout our lifetime but we fear that if we get rid of a gift, we’ll forget that person, experience or important time in our life.
  • We want to pay tribute to our past experiences.  Like from our childhood, past careers or travels.  It’s easy to go overboard on collections but try to be mindful of collecting too much.
  • We’ve spent too much money and feel like it’s a waste if we give it away. Let’s face it. We’ve all probably spend a good fortune on things that we never used or never really liked. Boy does that sting! Chalk it up as a lesson learn, be more frugal and research before purchasing another product and find comfort in donating your goods to folks who are less fortunate.
  • We’re holding on to the past. We tend to keep things that remind us of times when we were happy, the most confident, or the most successful.
  • And sometimes we hold on for a deeper reason...like allowing our things to define our self-worth…or define our happiness.  Many folks believe that shopping and having more makes them happier but often times it’s just a temporary fix to “fill the void” of something else that’s missing in their lives.

 Simple Steps to Help You Let Go:

  •  Start with the space that’s causing you the most grief or anxiety. This could be the home office, the kitchen, the laundry room, the bedroom etc.
  • Then start small. Pick a small area to work on like a drawer, a shelf, a cabinet, one spot on the kitchen counter, one filing drawer.  You wouldn’t eat an elephant in one sitting right?  You’d take small bites and eat a little at a time.  (Not sure I like that analogy…the thought of eating an elephant is stomach wrenching but you get the point right!)
  • Then ask yourself these questions when deciding what to keep or not to keep:
    • Do I love it?
    • Do I need it?
    • Do I use it?
    • When was the last time I used it?
    • When do I plan on using it?
    • Can I borrow it?
    • Can I rent it?
    • What’s the worst that will happen if I got rid of it?
  • If you answered “yes” to the first three questions then you should probably keep the item. If you answered “no” then considered letting it go.  If you’re still struggling then ask the other questions and you’ll more than likely find your answer.

Dan’s Topic:  Backing Up Your Digital Information and an Intro to Dropbox

Backing Up Your Digital Information: 

  • As anyone who has experienced an unrecoverable hard drive crash knows, your first thoughts are “oh my gosh…what files did I just lose forever?”
  • The reason I lost some files is boils down to one thing…I failed to make the process simple.

Negative Lessons Learned

  • I took too long to make my decision on which backup system to use for my huge video files
    • Foolish rookie decision making mistake.
    • George S. Patton: “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” (when it’s too late)

Positive Lessons Learned:

  •  My routine of using Dropbox (and Google Drive) for all my important work docs proved a complete success.
  • While all docs, pics, vids, etc, that were hosted in my iMac are gone, every single one I had on the Cloud (whether Dropbox or Drive) are intact and those workflows are seamless.
  • I use Dropbox and Drive as much for convenience as I do as a part of my backup plan. I love to have my docs accessible wherever I am and it’s so convenient to be able to share docs with clients.
  • By having everything in Dropbox intact reinforces a solid backup strategy: again, ensure you have your info backed up to an external drive, and be sure you also have an off site/cloud storage backup, as well.
  • Ensure you test your strategy from time to time.

 Your big takeaways!

  • Follow the 3 S’s…Make your backup Simple, Seamless and Solid.  
    • Simple…so you don’t have to think about it, it just happens in the background. If you do have to think about it, set reminders in your calendar. If you use Google calendars, send text message reminders to yourself.
    • Seamless…if you have regular backups to an external drive, make sure that drive is also backed up off site.  Initial backup to the Cloud can take up to a couple weeks, depending on your connection speed and how much data you have, of course.
    • Solid…evaluate that your system works. Try to download files from your backup system and see if there are bottlenecks or barriers to your system. How easy would it be to do a complete system restore if you lost your hard drive?
      • As I reevaluated my backup strategy, I added immediate (and blazing fast Thunderbolt external backup) that can handle my huge video files, followed by nightly off site backup with DollyDrive.
      • As I mentioned in Episode 002, I chose Dolly Drive because they’re Mac specific and I really couldn’t find any complaints about them anywhere!
      • I can’t endorse DollyDrive yet because I just started using it, but I’ll be sure to give updates.
    • Make sure your backup plan is simple but complete…
      • On site backup to an external drive
      • Cloud backup off site.

A Little Bit About Dropbox

  • Dropbox is probably not your total backup solution. Use Dropbox to supplement a good backup plan by storing docs there.
  • You can earn up to 18 Gb of additional storage through referrals, too.
  • They have paid plans if you use LOTS of storage space (that’s what we use)

How It Works:

  • What dropbox does is simply add another folder on your computer that acts as a virtual drive.
  • You can load Dropbox on your PC, Mac, smartphones, tablets, etc, and have everything synchronized on every device.
    • If you change or edit a document in Dropbox while working on your laptop, it will automatically update everywhere else.
    • Even if you’re on someone else’s device, you can log in to your Dropbox account on the web and access your information there.
  • You can even share documents or folders with others so they can have access, too.  And it’s all done seamlessly…on the Cloud.
  • You can use it for photos and videos, too.
While Dropbox isn’t our backup plan, it supplements our plan since I host most of my everyday documents on it, making them always available on every device and always synced.

The “Thing” Segment:

Vanessa: ANALYSIS PARALYSIS: Too many choices can be overwhelming and frustrating…life is much easier and simpler when choices are few.  This strategy works great with kids too!

Dan:  EVERNOTE!  We both use and LOVE Evernote!  It is what they say, an external brain.  If you’re into David Allen’s Getting Things Done system, or any other productivity system for that matter, then you know how every system touts “ubiquitous capture,” aka “getting everything out of your head or your environment and getting it recorded somewhere (notebook, 3″ x 5” cards…or Evernote). We plan on doing a future podcast(s) dedicated to how we use Evernote, but in the meantime, check out Evernote.com and see if it might just rock your world like it has ours.

Closing Thoughts:

If you like the show, please subscribe and consider giving us a good review in iTunes

If you know someone else who might enjoy the journey too, send them a link to SimpleLifeTogether.com

There are links to our Twitter and Google Plus profiles and other contact info on the left side of the website. We’d love to hear from you !

Be sure to leave comments below, send us a voicemail from the little microphone icon on the right side of the page, or you can go “old school” and email us!  Comments, questions, thoughts, ideas, suggestions…they’re all welcome and we’d love to hear from you!

Links We Mentioned in the Show:

Get Simplifized.com: Vanessa’s article on Letting Go of Your Clutter

Dropbox: You can learn more and download Dropbox at SimpleLifeTogether.com/Dropbox

Evernote: Your “external brain”

Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you!

 

 

 

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Why Organize At All? Benefits To Organizing And Having Less

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I first posted this over on my organizing website at Get Simplifized! but I wanted to add it here because it is so relevant to the podcast and I knew you’d want me to share it with you here. So, here goes:

Did you know, the average home in the United States has doubled since the 1950’s? Did you also know the number of household members has decreased? Yet, 1 in 11 households has to rent a storage unit. So basically…houses have gotten bigger, families have gotten smaller, yet we still don’t have enough space for all of our stuff and have to find additional storage elsewhere…yikes!!! Here’s another staggering statistic…the average 3 bedroom home has 350,000 items in it. What?  Really?!!!! That just seems insane, doesn’t it?  And that’s a heck of a lot of stuff to manage and take care of.

In my last post, Why We Can’t Let Go Of Our Clutter, I discussed some of the sociological and psychological reasons why we have so much stuff. In this post, I’m going to suggest we combat those urges to have more stuff and offer you some benefits to organizing and having less.  Are you interested?  Ok…here we go:

You’ll save money! It’s pretty simple: less stuff = less money you’ll have to spend…especially on off-site storage rentals! Also, knowing what you have and where things are located you’ll save money because you’re not rushing out to the store to buy duplicate items of things you have but weren’t able to find. You’ll also save money on going out to eat if your kitchen is organized and you’ve planned your meals in advance. And how about this? You’ll save money on late fees and intrest rates if you have a good system of tracking and managing your bills.

You’ll have more usable space. By having less stuff you’ll be able to properly utilize desktops, counterspace and your dinner table. You can have adequate space for your children to play and do homework instead of having to search and clear a space for them to use.

You’ll help avoid “analysis paralysis.” When you have too much stuff, sometimes it’s difficult to make decisions. Take clothes for example. When you’ve got too many clothes sometimes you waste time figuring out what to wear. Ladies, you know what I’m talking about don’t you? Yes, I’m stereotyping but I know some of you have spent 1-2 hours planning for a trip because you couldn’t decide what to wear and pack in your suitcase. Am I right?  Hey…I’ve been there too. And what about your kids? Give them a hundred options of what to play with and they’ll be frozen trying to decide. Give them only 3 and the choice is pretty simple.

There’s less to clean! I used to have a lot of knick knacks and a lot of plants. Those extra things used to cost me time and energy having to clean, dust and maintain them. I don’t know about you, but I am not a fan of dusting. Yes…it’s necessary, but I don’t enjoy doing it. So the less I have to dust the quicker I can get on with cleaning and the quicker I can finish!

You can invite guests over without hesitation. Most of us love spending time with friends and family. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to have them over to your welcoming and comfortable home without feeling embarrassed or in a rush to clean it up? Well, you can have that. By getting your home organized and by setting up simple systems and routines to maintain your organized home, you can easily have guests over without breaking a sweat!

You’ll be more productive. By having systems in place like a weekly schedule of chores, a dinner plan, allotted time to run errands, a combined family calendar, and clutter cleanup routines, you’ll know what times are reserved for specific tasks and what times you’ll have to work on other priorities in your life. Sporadically running errands and doing chores makes it very difficult to manage your time. Instead, if you have a firm grasp on your time, you’ll be a heck of a lot more productive.

You’ll  have better concentration. I would say for most people, clutter can be very frustrating and very distracting. That’s probably because those piles of papers, heaps of laundry and sink full of dishes are haunting you and reminding you of all the stuff you still have to do. Personally, I cannot concentrate on work when my office is a mess.  In college, I vividly remember my sister and I cleaning our apartment before we studied for exams because we couldn’t concentrate. Clutter is a concentration killer!

You’ll save time. They say the average person wastes about 55 minutes per day searching for things…keys, files, tools, clothes, etc. That’s a lot of time over the course of a year! One of the key components to being organized is having “a place for everything and everything in its place.” By knowing exactly where things go you won’t waste time searching for items.

You’ll have a sense of control.  Control = Confidence = Nicer You! Professional organizer, Elizabeth Hagen has a book and gives speeches about how to, “Organize With Confidence.” She tells a story about how disorganized she was at one point in her life and how that disorganization really affected her self-esteem and her relationships. She admits she wasn’t a very pleasant person to be around. But once she started to get organized, she noticed she had more confidence and was a lot more pleasing to be around.

You’ll have a feeling of calm and peace of mind. In one of my graduate courses, the professor asked all of the students to introduce themselves and tell everyone where their favorite place in the world was. Folks rattled off places like the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Swiss Alps, Ireland, Japan and so on. When it was my turn I simply said, “my home.”  No matter where I lived…an apartment, a dorm room or a a house…I’ve always been able to make it a beautiful, comfortable and relaxing place to be. My home has always been my sanctuary…my escape from the hectic jobs and life I lived outside of it. The last thing I wanted after a 10-15 hour day at work was to come home to a place that caused me more stress and anxiety. So I made it a place of peace and calm…that’s what having an organized home is all about.

So there you have it.  At least 10 reasons and benefits to organizing.  And if that isn’t enough, here’s one more reason:

It’s better than sex!!!  According to a New York Times article in 2001, IKEA did a survey of customers in which 31% reported they were more satisfied after clearing out their closets than they were after sex. Hmm….I’m surprised there aren’t more clutter-free closets out there!!!!

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Save Time with Text Expander on Mobile Devices

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I’m a huge Text Expander fan. Call it genius or call it laziness, but nothing beats saving a little effort when you’re typing info on your mobile device.

!n case you’re not familiar with text expansion, it’s simply a way to type a short abbreviation (called “snippets” in the Text Expander app and simply called “shortcuts” in iOS) and it automatically expands out into full versions of the text the code represents. For instance, if I want to text someone my email address I simply type d.d and it automatically spells out daniel.hayes@dahava.com. Matter of fact, I had to disable my text expander to be able to type the code as I was writing this! One of the default shortcuts in iOS in “omw” which expands into “On my way!”

I use the Text Expander app quite a bit on my desktop and laptop to create shortcuts when I’m writing. Sadly, the mobile app’s functionality didn’t cross over to iOS devices in the mobile version. But later updates for iOS devices (iOS 5 and beyond) text expansion is built right in!

Save some time. Take a look through your sent messages and see which ones you send frequently and create a shortcut for yourself! Here are some quick shortcuts I’ve developed for my iPhone that you can start out with:

– Each of my email addresses
– Address and gate code, to my house for visitors. I use the complete address so it will pop up as a link
on their device to their Maps/GPS function. I add my cell phone number just in case so they have it handy.
– Salutations to the people I text the most (Hi Mom!, Hey Baby…etc)

Once you get the hang of it, it’s so easy that you’ll probably use it for regular emails or texts you send often, such as:

– “Great working with you today…”
– “Looking forward to our session tomorrow…”
– “So glad we were able to help…”
– “If you find the time, please comment on my Google+ page at…”

You see? You’re limited only by your imagination…and I’m sure you have lots of imagination! So give it a shot and save some serious time with tech!  Just a note, you might be tempted to use this function to save your passwords but I wouldn’t recommend it. Just sayin’…

So, how do you get in on all this goodness? It’s really simple.

On iOS devices: Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts.

On Android devices:  There are Apps you can install such as Smart Keyboard PRO (the best text expander I’ve seen for Android so far).  You can also use an alternate keyboard like Swype to add custom words to a personal dictionary for faster typing.) For Android 4.1 users (JellyBean) and beyond use the native app. Go to Settings > Keyboard and Input > Personal dictionary.

On Blackberry: Go to Options > AutoText and enter text expansions.

On Windows Phones: Go to Settings > System > Keyboard > Typing Settings.

For iOS users, here’s a quick video to get you started…enjoy!