How to use an Amazon Alexa products to keep you organised -

Organising your life can be hard especially when you are a family. With birthday parties, clubs and playdates to keep on top of. I was finding that I would agree to do things pop them in my diary and never look at them again until it was too late. Not that long ago I completely forgot it was my friends little ones birthdays until she rang to ask me to pick something up on the way. AHHHH we were all still in our pj’s and no way near ready to leave the house. Something had to happen to make me more organised. My phone calendar clearly wasn’t working for me. Then I got an Amazon Echo dot and Echo show with Alexa and I know it sounds crazy but it’s been a game changer.

Not only have I used it to make sure I dont forget plans I have made. I use it during my day to day life to make sure I keep on top of things. So I thought I would share with you the different ways I use our Amazon Alexa products to keep our family orgnaised and to basically keep ontop of things.

Timers and alarms

I am that person that throws things in the oven to cook and dont even look at what time it was when I put it in. I then go about tyiding things and the dinner ends up being very well cooked. So What I do now is once I put something into the oven so I ask Alexa to set a timer for however long it takes it to cook.

This was particually handy during Christmas dinner. As before starting dinner I read all the cooking times for the different components and then asked Alexa to remind me in how ever long to put in the carrots etc. Christmas dinner went without a hitch and nothing was burnt. To be fair it was all cooked perfectly. Which was a realif as it was our first Christmas dinner at home as we normally eat out.

Another thing I have found handy is to set alarms for certain things. Like the other day for example I needed to remember to take some letters to the post box before going to toddler group. So I asked Alexa to remind me at 1:00pm to put the letters in the changing bag. Which is around the time I would need to start to think about leaving.

Now this may sound really sad but I have set timers in the past to get me to get up and do stuff. So in the morning I would sit down and have a cuppa. If I’m not careful I can sit down for far too long lost in Instagram or Tik Tok. So I would ask Alexa to set a timer for 30 minuites. It’s like a kick up the bum to tell me to stop being lazy and get up.

Shopping lists

I am great at making a shopping list on my note pad in the kitchen. I’m just not too great at remembering to take the list with me. So what I do now is ask Alexa to add something to my shopping list. Then when I’m in the shop I can check my list using the Amazon Alexa app on my phone. I can also then take of the things I have got. So if then Jordan looks at the list he can see what I have been able to get. So we dont end up with 25 toilet rolls like we did not that long ago. As I forgot to tell him I had picked some up.

To do lists

Along with shopping lists I find it so handy for to-do lists. I always write a to do list on my note pad in the kitchen but I do like to have a back up on my Alexa app. Just like the shopping lists . I just talk to Alexa and tell her what to add . I can then ask her to tell me what’s on my to do list . Or check it on my phone . Which is handy if you have lots of jobs to do that are out of the house.

Link your calendars

I have just found out that you can link your calendars to your Amazon Alexa which is a game changer. Like I said before I’m good at putting things in my calendar just not the best at looking at it regularly to see if I have anything on. It’s so easy to do you just go onto your Alexa app. Then go to settings and then scroll down to link calendar. From there you can link a google, Microsoft or apple calendar.

You can then ask her to tell you what’s happening on certain days, reschedule things if needed. Add new events that are happening. What I also love the Alexa in our front room has a screen on it. I can ask Alexa to show me my calendar and it will bring it up on the screen.

This is also really handy if you have a family online calendar as you can all add to it just using Alexa.

Lights and appliances

Now this one doesnt keep me organised but it’s something I have found handy. We have now in the majority of the rooms brought smart bulbs which work with the Alexa. We have then set timers for certain lights to come on. Which with the darks nights is perfect. As we have set the lights to come on at a certain time. Which makes it looks like there is someone home even if there isnt.

A feature the kids love is that the bulbs are colour changing. So instead of having a night light they now have their main lights on. We can dim the lights really low and then also change the colour. This is something they find great joy in doing every night before bed.

The Amazon Alexa’s really have so many great features. Loads more then I have mentioned above. Especially the Echo show that we have in the front room. The kids some great apps on this. So let me know if you would like me to do a post on that. In the kitchen and our bedroom we have the Echo dot and they are great things despite how small they are we find the speakers to be great.