Even though technology makes things much easier for us, that doesn’t stop us from wanting things even easier. For this reason some of us look towards automating some of the tasks that we seem to be doing repeatedly. It’s the whole basis behind IFTTT.
For that reason, we asked some of our writers what mindless tasks they automate on their computers or mobiles to make things easier for them, whether it’s with IFTTT or through a different process.
Our Opinion
Trevor uses IFTTT to move tagged articles in Feedly to various Trello boards and columns. He also uses it with Craigslist to have it scan for items or freelance work. Outside of IFTTT, he uses DropSync for Android to sync his download folder and images with Dropbox.
Derrik has IFTTT set up so that every time he changes his profile picture on Facebook, it will automatically do the same to his Twitter profile. He also scans RSS feeds for keywords and searches Reddit for news articles and tweets them with an account so that he can see them better. Additionally, he has written a few bash scripts to automate Linux tasks such as updating and networking stuff.
Jeffry leaves all the post processing of his screenshots to Hazel by saving the images with certain tags. Hazel will move them into the correct folder and resize and optimize them. He just needed to set the rules once, and now his screenshots are always ready for him. He also uses IFTTT to add articles to Evernote with certain tags to make into a writing list.
Similarly, although I just started using IFTTT, I have a recipe that sends every news article I’ve saved to Pocket into an Evernote list. I also have some news sources send their articles directly to Pocket and others directly to my email. So far IFTTT doesn’t support Inbox, but I’m waiting for that so that I can send some of my emails directly to Evernote without having to have a paid subscription.
I also have a receipts app that I use that automates much of that process for me. It allows me to scan in the receipts and automatically grabs all the info from it. I can also forward emailed receipts to it, and it will add them that way. And the app automatically backs up all the receipts to Evernote.
Your Opinion
We’re sure that you probably have some interesting IFTTT recipes or otherwise automated tasks as well. Aren’t we all looking to make things a little easier? What mindless tasks do you automate on your computer or mobile? Let us know in the comments below.
Laura has spent nearly 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with more than 10 of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past three decades. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.
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