5 easy ways to automate your small business and life - tech.co

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5 EASY WAYS TO AUTOMATE YOUR SMALL BUSINESSAND LIFE

Guest Author June 3, 2012

Automation has been integral to my career. In my digital marketing agency, I use m

Macs automator actions to convert file types, quickly move files from my crowdedesktop into my Evernote account, and batch resize pictures after an event for quick d

tribution. Automation has empowered my workflow and sanity, and it continues

geek me out as I erase one mundane or just simply unnecessary-for-the-growth-o

my-company activity after another.

My latest automation discovery, FileThis Fetch, has given me accounting freedom b

retrieving my bank account, utility, and even Amazon statements and importing the

automatically into my Evernote account. You cant imagine how much I dread searchinfor my statements, exporting them, and then importing them into Evernote for safekee

ing. Better yet, you cant imagine the energy I waste psyching myself up to do th

monthly.

In celebration of this preservation of mental health, I share with you 5 easy steps for a
http://techcocktail.com/5-ways-automate-small-business-life-2012-06http://techcocktail.com/5-ways-automate-small-business-life-2012-06http://techcocktail.com/5-ways-automate-small-business-life-2012-06http://techcocktail.com/5-ways-automate-small-business-life-2012-06http://techcocktail.com/5-ways-automate-small-business-life-2012-06http://techcocktail.com/5-ways-automate-small-business-life-2012-06http://techcocktail.com/5-ways-automate-small-business-life-2012-06http://techcocktail.com/5-ways-automate-small-business-life-2012-06http://techcocktail.com/author/guest-contributorhttp://techcocktail.com/5-ways-automate-small-business-life-2012-06http://filethis.com/fetch/http://evernote.com/http://techcocktail.com/author/guest-contributor


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tomating your life:

1. Spend a week getting automated. Think about, then write down the things that yo

do daily, monthly, and even annually. If your time can be better spent doing somethin

else, search for an automation solution. Condition yourself to have this mentality of a

tomation, and instead of whining when its time to do something again, think: what s

lution can I find to do this for me?

2. Explore some automator apps. At the top of my list are FileThisFetch; IFTTT, whic

lets you create custom automator actions; WappWolf, a tool that integrates Dropbo

Box, Google Drive, and more to help automate these tools you probably already us

and CardMunch, the LinkedIn mobile app that lets you take pictures of business card

to import contacts, and sends a LinkedIn request to them (seriously!). Also, if you use

Mac, check out Veritrope.com for their great Apple automator resource directory ansome AppleScripts that make automating your Mac folders and media easy as pi

Though Im a Mac girl, I found an app called Do It Again by Spacetornado that can he

my Windows brethren in their automation pursuits as well.

3. Spend another week on IFTTT. You just dont know what you can do with this ap

My favorite as a marketer is my social media automation workflow that distribut

posts to over 9 social media channels, with tags that exclude the posts that dont need

go where I dont need them to go. Ooh, selective automation!

As a human, my favorites are my weather alerts delivered via SMS, since I forget

check the weather every day of my life and have ruined so many innocent shoes, and

course my Evernote automator actions. They have allowed me to save my Pinterest pin

in an Evernote notebook, read my RSS posts in the place where I spend most of m

time, and even republish the posts to my website and through social media. IFTTT a

lows you to create virtually any automator action you can think of, and it even showca

es some great suggestions from users called recipes if you arent that imaginative. Atomation is even for the unimaginative.

4. Get to know email filters. Using filters in your native email client or Gmail will aut

mate your email workflow and clear clutter. I set my filters to forward the information

emails that I want to read later to my Evernote, but you can also use the folders in you
http://www.spacetornado.com/DoItAgain/http://veritrope.com/tech/applescript-automator-resources/http://veritrope.com/http://www.cardmunch.com/http://wappwolf.com/dropboxautomatorhttp://techcocktail.com/automate-online-chores-if-this-then-that-2012-05


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email client if you prefer. I spend a few times a day breezing through these categorize

emails and forego constant interruption throughout my day.

5. Find someone else to do it. Yes, thats a form of automation as well. Train a virtu

assistant to alleviate some of the stress that one of the free solutions doesnt. TaskRa

bit is a site that summons angels from heaven, or just really great experts in whatever

is that you need. TaskRabbits can answer your virtual phone line or do your grocer

shopping; check out SayMMM.com, the cutest recipe/grocery list planner that int

grates with Evernote, allowing you to share a grocery list with your TaskRabbitaut

mated! These super bunnies can also perform single projects like cleaning your closet

delivering a package.

I hope that this helps you become one step closer to enjoying your job again, gives yo

more time to spend with your friends and family, or simply reassures you that a littprocrastination is okay as long as you set an alarm to snap you out of it. Enjoy!

Guest author Lindsey C. Holmes is the CEO/Lead Strategist ofLCH Business SM & Tech, a di

ital marketing firm based in Newark, NJ, with an office in Washington, DC. LCH specializes

social media marketing campaigns and strategy, mobile application development and tech/ GTD

Evernote workflows. Lindsey is the Evernote Small Business Ambassador, a self-taught develo

er, a proud geek, and mom of a shih-tzu named Banks; she spends her free time converting t

masses to understand and apply the technology that will make their lives better. Follow her oTwitter @lindseycholmes.

CodeEval: Helping Startups Find Developers Through Programming Challenges

About the Author Guest Author

Tech Cocktail is a literal "cocktail" of tech, startup, gadget, product and peop

news. If you are interested in writing for Tech Cocktail please apply here.
http://techcocktail.com/write-for-tech-cocktailhttp://techcocktail.com/author/guest-contributorhttp://techcocktail.com/codeeval-find-developers-programming-challenges-2012-06http://twitter.com/lindseycholmeshttp://lchbusiness.com/http://saymmm.com/http://www.taskrabbit.com/

5 easy ways to automate your small business and life - tech.co

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