I don't think there is anyone on planet earth who hasn't experienced the frustration that comes with
putting something you'll need "somewhere safe" then completely forgetting where that "somewhere safe" is when you need that thing urgently!
I know how thrilled I was to discover there's a solution.
Our last couple of posts have been about home hubs/smart speakers and controlling your home environment with you voice. This week we are dipping into some of the other capabilities of a smart home that can be useful - and for some people, life changing.
Your off-board memory
One of the most simple, yet useful, functions of a smart home hub is the ability to remember everything - you you don't have to.
The scenario we described at the beginning of this post is a great example.
No when you put your spare keys, your wife's birthday present, the password to the wifi or anything else "somewhere safe" all you have to do is tell your home hub to remember where that is.
So you can say to Google or Alexa "remember that I put Mary's present on the top shelf of the wardrobe". And when you've forgotten where you but - and we all have! - just say "Hey Google - where did I put Mary's present". Believe me this is a game changer.
Be alert - not alarmed
Another great function is the ability to set alerts and reminders using you smart home hub. So you can say something like "remind me at 11am on Wednesday that the physio will be here at 12". If you are using you the Google Assistant or Alexa on your phone and have location services enabled, you can also set reminders based on places as well.
Taking Google Assistant as an example, you can set you home address and work address (and any other addresses/locations you visit frequently) and set a reminder based on these places. For example "remind me when I get home to take the chicken out of the freezer". Or remind me when I leave dad's place that I need to call Geoff".
Shop til you drop
Another great insanely useful tool - especially if you are trying to co-ordinate a family or multiple support workers is the shopping list.
You can set up a shopping list in Google Assistant that you can then share in real time with multiple other people. That way anyone can add to the shopping list if they notice something is running low. And anyone can then tick that item off the shopping list if they buy it.
So next time you're standing at the fridge and see that the milk is running low, you can say "add milk to the shopping list". And the best part is that when someone else buys milk they can tick it off the list so that you don't end up with 4 bottles of milk in the fridge because everyone has seen milk on the list and bought it.
So as well as controlling your lights and appliances your smart home hub can help you manage your life and reduce your stress in a multitude of other ways. We will talk about this a bit more in next week's post!
Thanks for listening!
Gregan