4 absolutely FREE & Simple IFTTT applets for better work-life balance

In this modern world, everyone is struggling to maintain a work-life balance. 

And it needn't be a struggle at all. But hey who am fooling? It is a tough life and most of us, in reality, do not have a life-work balance. Not even close.

Let's make some "smart" use of our "smartphones" to help get through life in a better manner.

 Here are 4 IFTTT applets I use to make my life a little bit more bearable.

1. IF notification to take out the trash

This IFTTT applet from murraytommy - reminds me of disposing the garbage at my preferred time and day in the week.

I use this applet not because I'm lazy but because I don't really like doing this chore of mine. And hence, forget it most of the times.


You too can use this applet here -

https://ifttt.com/applets/64592192d-if-notification-to-take-out-trash.

2. Missed call alert in slack

I use slack a lot while I'm at work.

And usually, prefer keeping my phone at the desk.

But I carry my laptop around for all the client meetings.

Plus, my phone is in silent mode while I am at work to help me focus better (Honest!).

You can always get back to texts, Whatsapp, etc. when you are free and have some time to kill.

That being said I do not really like to miss answering important phone calls, especially, if it's my family calling me.

So, I made this neat little IFTTT applet to get a notification to my personal slack channel.
https://ifttt.com/applets/ESxzK3wU-missed-call-alert-in-slack

Use it, to see how effective it is.

In the slack message, I get the contact name.

That really helps me to prioritise the missed calls I want to get back when I'm out my client meetings and crucial work tasks.

Photo Credit: Pawel czerwinski, fezbot2000, Brooke cagle and Vladislav muslakov

3. Log the hours you spend at work and home

Everyone talks about work-life balance.

But the first step in getting the balance is by knowing the amount of time you spend in these locations physically.

To get this data of the hours spent by me at work and at home, I use this applet from Google - https://ifttt.com/applets/XnveYFDL-log-how-much-time-you-spend-at-specific-locations-like-the-office-or-home-in-a-spreadsheet.

It works seamlessly and helps me take things in the right perspective.

I personally do a weekly review of the time I have spent at home and at work. Trust me, the insight I get is crazy most of the weeks.

Now you might be thinking, why should we even track these hours?

Remember the saying - what get's measured, gets managed. You need to know when and where your time is being spent if you want to manage your time.

4. Fix your sleep quality & quantity

I use Fitbit Ionic to track my sleep.

The sleep stages and benchmark data helps me understand the quality of my sleep every night.

But the initial requirement for good quality sleep is to go to bed at consistent hours and for 4 to 6 hours every night.

How often do we do that?

Most of the times our office work usually gets stretched into the late night.

If not work, friends and family request favours and helps - all at late hours.

The only remedy then is to sleep early the next night.

But the usual rush of the day does not let us remember the sleep deficit.

Hence, I use this applet to remember me if I have to go to bed early tonight.
https://ifttt.com/applets/50660979d-when-your-fitbit-records-a-sleepless-night-remind-yourself-to-go-to-bed-early-the-next-night

Well, these are just 4 of the IFTTT applets I like using to simplify my daily life and hit a better work-life balance. But there are obviously much more interesting ones out there.

Thank you for reading my blog, please do feedback. 

In case you want to discuss an interesting IFTTT applet please add information about it in the comments section. I'll surely check and get back to you.

Want to read more on IFTTT applets? Here is another article - 6 easy IFTTT Applets to make your mornings better