Do you have an ‘Alexa’ device, or maybe a Google device in your home? Do you use a calendar app on your phone? Do you ever forget about important…well…anything!?

If you use any kind of technology throughout the day, why not use your technology to help you stay on point, productive, and most of all, use it to remind you of the things you need to do.

Use a virtual assistant!

If you have an Echo dot, or home Google device, use it! You can even use your phone’s built in assistant like Siri. If you’re going about your day, and let’s say it suddenly occurs to you that it’s someone’s birthday and you want to remember to send them a message or call them later because right now you are knee deep in laundry or whatever – just ask your device to help you. Call on your device and say remind me to send a message to someone for their birthday. You may need to go so far as to pick a time that your device will remind you, but it’s great to know that you don’t have to worry about holding that reminder in your own mind anymore. You are free! Your mental space is no longer cluttered with that reminder! With some of the home devices you can even drop in and have a conversation with another person in another room. Or make an announcement to one of your other devices!

Use your phone calendar!

If you use a digital calendar, you can take it up a notch by adding reminders for all kinds of things! Any event, birthday, anniversary, etc! Anything that you make a calendar or task entry for, you can set a reminder! You can even customize how far in advance you receive your reminder. Need it a day ahead, or 5 minutes ahead? You decide! Use it to help you stay on top of when kids need to be where, or doctor appointments, or community events (especially registration deadlines!!), even reminding yourself to see an old friend for coffee!

Use your phone clock!

Did you know that you can also use your clock app on your phone for a variety of alarms or reminders?? Need to remember to pick the kids up from school? Maybe it’s not worth putting on your calendar, but you can still set an alarm to go off for when you need to start wrapping up your stuff and head out the door. You can even use it to shop more efficiently! Have you ever been in a store that you could just get lost in, you know…browsing up and down every aisle, only to check you watch and realize 2 hours have passed?? Give yourself a time allowance for the store instead. Use the alarm as a reminder to pick up the pace if you want to see every section of the store – maybe give yourself 20 minutes in each department, or give yourself an hour for the whole store. Whatever time you give yourself at least you are taking control of your time!

Maximize your time by setting limits on it. There’s truly no need for me to browse a store slowly enough to spend 2 or more hours in it!! There are so many other things I would really rather be doing, so why would I spend that much time in the store? I just get home and am hard on myself for wasting the time. By setting a timer, and limiting my time in the store, I can get home and still spend time on the things I actually need or want to be doing!

Everyone has so much technology at their finger tips – so why not use it to help you with your mental clutter. How many times have you walked into a room and forgotten why? It’s because we keep all these mental check lists and reminders in our heads and we get overwhelmed because we worry about forgetting it. Meanwhile, because we are keeping so much in our heads, we are forgetting that the coffee pot needs water, or the stove needs to be turned on in order to work! Ok maybe these are extreme examples – but anything we can do to get rid of some of that mental clutter will inevitably help us get through our day!

Thanks for coming home!