Tasks I outsource to Google DAILY!

Outsourcing tasks to our Google Home devices is a game changer allowing me to move faster, be more productive and simplify my life as I can just ask and things get done.

As a busy mum and wife, managing our household all while growing my empire as a successful entrepreneur, time and simplicity have quickly become my greatest allies.

For what purpose would I continue helping create simplicity in the lives of my clients daily, through home organisiation systems, innovations and optimisations and not do the same for myself? That's just silly, right?

Among my friends, family and clients, I seem to be the one who retrofitted the most smart home automations into my home. And I LOVE IT! We went with a Google, though I have witnessed others (namely Alexa) do similar things so while I say "Google" please substitute in which ever smart home device you already have and talk to chat GPT about setting up these routines and automations in your home.

Hey Google, turn the family room lights down low💡⬇️

This is NOT an automation, it's simply a prompt. For reference the "Family Room" is a location I've set up in our home - it's essentially our kitchen/dining/living area. Each night, as part of our wind down routine with the kids I ask google to "turn the Family Room lights down low". Google then dims all lights in the Family Room to 5% which softens the mood in our house very quickly.

Ok Google, turn off the Kid's TV 📺

Those sneaky little tricksters will occasionally turn the TV on in their room. Our kids are great at asking for permission to turn their TV, though sometimes they get distracted playing with toys and each other and forget to turn their TV off when they leave the room. On our Google Home device (with a screen) I can check to see if the TV is on upstairs and at the touch of a button I can turn it off. I can also simply ask Google to "turn off the kid's TV" and voila - it is done.

I'll do another post entirely around how our kids use the Google and what smart home automations they enjoy - as they use it very differently. Keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks.

Ok Google, start a time for 10 minutes ⏲️

Great for cooking and children. I'll use this prompt to set a time for when we need to leave the house by or for when the children need to get in or out of the shower, or even to help them quantify how long until they go to bed. This has also been particularly useful when sharing toys, as the kids take turns for 5 minutes and switch when the timer goes off. It has prevented many an arguement with the kids, they can make sense that the timer will go off and then they will swap toys/take it in turn sharing one toy. - Highly Recommended

Hey Google, boil the kettle ☕️

This one also works with turn on the kettle and it's great to ask google to do this from the other room as I am getting the kids into the shower or bath so I can go and make a cup of tea to enjoy as we all wind down for bedtime. Full disclosure - we have a 'smart' kettle, I haven't come across a retrofit-able item that would have allowed this on a standard kettle.

Ok Google, turn off everything 🏠

Some mornings, getting the kids into the car can feel like I'm hurding cats with peanutbutter. It is heaven sent to know that based on the typical devices and lights we use I can call out google from the garage door "Hey Google, turn off everything" and it'll all get shut down. If things weren't on they still get switched to off which is a great check in case something has been turned on without my knowledge. Google will respond with "Ok, turning off 17 things" (as that's how many smart items we have in our house - presently). Sometimes I don't even wait for the response before heading off.

Smart home automation, in our home, has been a real time saver and efficiency piece. I will admit, there was a cyclone earlier this year and while we didn't lose power, we lost internet, which mean we had to go back to turning lights on and off by hand. The lights were no longer dimmable and cups of tea didn't start themselves in the evening for me. Though that really was a small inconvenience when friends of mine lost power and experienced flooding in their homes and workplaces.

Occasionally, we've set up smart home devices and automations in our clients homes for them too. If this is something that would interest you, put through an enquiry via the contact page on our website and we can chat about what that could look like within your home and how we can help simplify things within your life.

Get in touch here if you want to explore home automation in your home.