Let's get automatic!

Automating stuff

I'm a lazy person. Period. Back when I was young (LOL), I was so lazy, I never cleaned the house. I relied on my aunt or mom to do it for me. Now that I'm older & attached, I cannot stand dirt and hair on my new white tiles. Maybe it's a sign of aging. Also my cats pee on anything plastic or made of cloth if it's left lying around. So that's an incentive to pick my things up.

I'm a firm believer that if a thing is repetitive, it should be automated. Time is precious. Why spend it doing the same thing over & over again. I always quote this:

Insanity is doing the same thing over & over again & expecting different results

So I try to automate whenever I can. Aspects of my life that I have and plan to automate:

1. PC
I'm sure you have a set of fav programs that you always open when you turn on your PC. For me it is:

• Chrome which opens Facebook, gmail
• Teamviewer (so I can remote from my ipad)
• Photoshop 
• Notepad (for doodling & jotting notes)

So I set this to run on startup so that I dont have to click & wait. In fact, my PC turns on @ 7:00 pm so it's just waiting for me when I reach home. Here's how to do it

2. Alarms

If you read my previous post, you would know i'm always late.

So I decided to put my life (my oh so predictable life) on my ipad so that it will always remind me :

• to wake up at 830am on Mondays -> Fridays
• to pay bills on last week of every month
• to wake up at 8am on Saturday for karate class
• to wake up at 930am on Sunday for karate class
• to go for karate class at 800pm on Wednesdays & Fridays
• to clean the house on Saturday noon
• to start reading books on my ipad at 11pm every nite
• to do my current projects at 9pm every nite

I use Any.do ipad app for this

3. Home stuff

How cool would it be if I arrive home, scan my thumbprint, the doors unlock, the lights turn on, curtains draw back, air purifier + air conditioning turns on, TV turns on, kettle (with water inside) heats up?

Some folks are already doing this using arduino & other home automation systems.

4. Finance

Yeah yeah, I have a career in IT, yet I'm apprehensive about automating my finances. This is due to a bad experience where I automated my car instalment payment and it didn't go through, causing my car to be towed. I can still hear my buddy Tee laughing at me when I thought my car was stolen. Once bitten, twice shy. I'll just manually transfer my funds every month. Thank you very much.