Even though you don’t necessarily need the latest and greatest in technology in order to be successful as a professional blogger, Internet marketer, or other online professional, it’s definitely not a bad idea to leverage technology in your favor if it means you can be more productive and your business can be more profitable.
The Amazon Echo family of products isn’t exactly new anymore and that’s a good thing, because there are more developers than ever before who are interested in creating excellent Alexa Skills to go along with Amazon’s smart voice assistant. It can be really daunting to select which Alexa Skills to enable, so here are several that should help you make the most of your dot com day.
Find Your Phone with Tile
Our phones are so much more than “just” our phones these days. They’ve become our lifeblood, the thing that connects us to the rest of the world no matter where we are in the world. Now if only we can figure out where we left it. If you’ve invested in a Tile tracker, then you should definitely enable the accompanying Alexa skill.
You can use it not only to find and ring your phone, but also to track down the various Tile trackers you may have attached to your keys or in your wallet. Alexa can help. If you don’t have Tile, a good alternative is Trackr, which simply works in coordination with the corresponding mobile app.
Get Caught Up with Flash Briefing
Everyone has a slightly different morning routine. Maybe as a dot com mogul, you’re not even a morning person and your day doesn’t start until noon. Maybe you’re an early bird who gets up at 6 a.m. to get an early start to the day. Whatever the case, you can get the audio version of the morning paper by way of Alexa on Amazon Echo too.
Select for a great variety of Alexa Skills that can then be bundled together into your daily flash briefing. Personally, I like to include the weather, a couple relevant news sources (like CNN and Engadget), and a dash of entertainment for balance.
Control Your Nest Thermostat
Maybe the room is a little too cool for your liking. Maybe it’s a little too hot. Whatever the case, you don’t need to reach over for your phone and go through the trouble of finding and opening the Nest app to change your thermostat settings. Just ask Alexa to do it. This way, you don’t have to get up from your desk to stay comfortable and productive.
Turn on the Lights with TP-Link Kasa
Continuing with the theme of the smart home and the Internet of Things, there are Alexa skills available for a great number of smart home brands and ecosystems. One of my favorites is Kasa, which works with the TP-Link family of products.
I can ask Alexa to turn on the lights to my office, change the color of the LED light to blue, or dim the lights to 50% if that’s what I want. You’ll find a similar set of options if you prefer the Belkin WeMo family of smart home products.
Grab a Pizza with Domino’s
Sometimes, you find yourself getting into such a great groove, such a compelling sense of flow, that you just can’t be bothered to interupt your work session. When you work from home, you’ve got to treasure and maximize the benefit from these occurences.
And that might mean that you don’t want to bother getting up to make yourself some lunch (or dinner). It may not exactly be the healthiest option, but you can use the Domino’s skill to order some pizza without ever getting up from your chair or opening another browser tab.
Get Fit with 7-Minute Workout
After loading up on the meat lover’s pizza with extra cheese, after sitting at your desk for hours on end, you really need to combat that sedentary lifestyle with a little bit of physical activity. If you don’t have the time or motivation for something more substantial, the 7-minute workout will get you moving and help you burn off a few of those calories.
Exercise has the added benefit of boosting your endorphins (the “happy” hormones), which can in turn bolster your productivity and creativity too.
Calm Down with Guided Meditation
On the other end of the spectrum, mindfulness meditation can be a remarkably powerful tool in your arsenal as a solopreneur. When you’re getting especially anxious or stressed out about a project, take a few moments to go through a calming guided medtitation with a little help from Alexa. You’ll feel refreshed and better prepared to tackle any challenges that come your way.
Check Your Car with My Tesla
The dot com lifstyle dictates that you need to have a dot com ride. And if that dot com ride happens to be a Tesla, you may be interested in picking up the unofficial My Tesla Alexa skill.
While the skill is not officially developed or endorsed by Elon Musk’s electrified baby, the My Tesla Alexa skill can you let you interact with your hot electric car in all sorts of interesting ways. Ask about its charge status, its current range (“how far can I go”), or its current location. Tell it to honk the horn or set the driver temperature. Pretty cool, huh?
Call a Ride with Uber or Lyft
When your dot com lifestyle takes you away from home (or maybe your dot com lifestyle dictates that you don’t need a car of your own at all), you can always take advantage of the growing community of ride-hailing services to call someone to pick you up and drive you safely to your destination.
Both Uber and Lyft have Alexa skills for precisely this reason, ready to take you wherever your dot com journey may take you.
Do you have any favorite Alexa skills that I missed? Let everyone know by commenting below.