Eleven (11) Lifehacks for Working Parents & Other Busy People
Use your iPhone & other technology to save time, reduce clutter & streamline your life
“When does life ever calm down?”
That was the salutation in a recent email from a colleague. Most people I know, especially working parents, feel overwhelmed by the sheer busy-ness of life. We juggle multiple schedules, a mountain of paperwork, and still manage to feed our children EVERY single day!
A tech geek with little patience for inefficiency, I am always looking for ways to simplify, eliminate paper, and save time. While I do have a weakness for Productivity Apps [not a new affliction - see an oldie but goodie from Open Salon Days -- What’s On Your iPhone for Dave Cullen & Others], you don’t have to be a tech-geek or iPhone addict to use these time-saving tips. These recommendations mostly take advantage of smartphone technology to reduce physical STUFF (paper, cards, lists) and to stay organized across devices (work computer, home computer, iphone, ipad) but a few are decidedly old-school and low-tech. Most apps I mention are available for Android, Windows Phone or on the web.
Here are my 11 Lifehacks for busy parents that may help you save time, reduce paper or be a little less harried & a little more Zen:
1. Take pictures of your prescription labels with your phone
I thought of this when I went to renew a prescription acne cream and the Rx refill number was on the box (that I’d thrown away) and not on the tube. Having a photo with the Rx number and store phone number can also be useful when you’re at work or driving by the drug store and remember you need to call in a refill.
Store the photo in a good note-taking app on your phone. You can also take photos of your kids’ clothes & shoe size tags, class schedules, whatever. I am a big fan of storing information electronically. Choose an app that backs up to the “cloud” (or a website) and syncs across all your devices.
I use Awesome Note on my iPhone, which syncs with Google Drive and Evernote. Other popular note-taking apps are Remember the Milk, Springpad and Cozi Organizer.
2. Manage &/or share family calendars in the cloud
An electronic version of a shared family calendar is a must for on-the-go families.
Create a shared family calendar using Google Calendar or another online calendar. Subscribe to it from your desktop calendar or use it as your primary calendar.
If you have teenagers, they can create their own Google Calendars to which you can subscribe.
A more comprehensive option may be an app like Cozi Family Organizer. It includes a shared calendar, shopping lists, to-do lists, family journal, and more which are accessible from any mobile device or Internet-connected desktop computer.
Zoho Calendar is a free online shared calendar alternative to Google. It can be accessed from mobile platforms, syncs with Outlook calendars or allows you to send events to iCal. It also links to other Zoho applications for project management, collaboration, and business management.
3. Order your groceries online
Investigate grocery delivery services in your area. Safeway, Peapod by Giant, and various organic/local food options or community supported agriculture (CSA) delivery services are available here in the metro DC area. Amazon is an option for many products, including groceries.
One advantage of online services is they keep a record of your most recent purchases (both online & in-store) for re-ordering or you can create a master list of frequent purchases. Giant, for one, offers online ordering for pickup at your local store (usually next day). If you hate grocery shopping, this is a big time- and sanity- saver.
New moms can join Amazon Mom for discounts on diapers, laundry products and other essentials. You can also sign up for Subscribe & Save which lets you specify auto-delivery on a monthly or other frequency for recurring purchases, like diapers and wipes.
Bonus Tip: you don’t actually have to be a new mom to take advantage of Amazon Mom, according to Slate’s Matthew Yglesias, How to Save Money on Amazon with a Fake Baby
4. Automatically update the kids’ allowance
There are various schools of thought as to whether kids’ should get allowance or not. That’s up to you.
In our house, the conversation went something like --
“Mom, can I have $50 for new shoes (jeans, dress, trapeze lessons, ______)?”
“Don’t you have money from your allowance?”
“You haven’t given me my allowance in 3 (or 6) weeks”
“Oh!”
Several allowance tracking apps are available. I use Kids’ Rewards, an older app, which keeps an account for each kid. It automatically updates the balance each week (or biweekly, monthly). You can add other money kids’ earn or receive (e.g., for extra chores or birthdays) and keep track of payouts.
Some apps allow kids to check off their chores or share balances across devices. Apps to consider are:
To help you choose, see this Forbes article — Need to Manage Your Kid’s Allowance? There’s an App for That.
5. Take all those Loyalty & Gift Cards out of your Wallet
Store your loyalty cards on your phone. I use KeyRing app, which backs up to its website. It allows you to scan in the card’s bar code and take a picture of the front and back of the card.
It is also great for storing both my and my kids’ Library Cards. It works with most scanners, including the grocery and library self-checkout, PetSmart and DSW.
For gift cards, I use Tango Card. This is a great app for keeping track of gift cards, especially the ones the kids’ receive as gifts. Tip - you might also set a reminder in your phone’s calendar to use them before they expire.
6. Set up a separate Email account for shopping
While we’re on the subject of shopping, create a separate email (get a free Gmail or Yahoo address) and use that email for all your online shopping, loyalty cards or at brick&mortar stores to email you receipts. It will keep promotional emails out of your personal or work inbox. You also won’t have to reset all your email or send spam to your boss if your address gets hacked. Make it somewhat generic if you’re uncomfortable giving out your name/email address in public.
To reduce the emails in your inbox, subscribe to Unroll.me. This service scans your inbox, identifies subscription emails and rolls them up into a single daily email. Unroll.me is a great tool if you want to keep receiving the Old Navy 30% coupons but don’t want them cluttering up your inbox.
7. Go buy or dig out your Crockpot
A slow-cooker can be a working Mom’s secret weapon. Throw a bunch of stuff in the night before or load it up in the morning before work and have a hot, cooked meal ready when you get home.
This tip is decidedly old-school and not very fancy tech. Some of the fancier crockpots do have automated timers.
Feel free to supplement your repertoire with iPhone recipe apps, including the All Recipes Dinner Spinner.
I also use Springpad (note-taking app) to keep recipes that I find online and to make a weekly meal plan.
8. Travel apps
Two must have travel apps even if you don’t travel frequently: Tripit & a good packing app.
TripIt organizes your travel plans in one place. Forward your airplane, hotel, car rental and restaurant reservation confirmation emails from your inbox to Tripit and it automatically creates a detailed itinerary for your trip. Tripit will automatically scan your inbox and update your itinerary if you have a Gmail address. The itinerary is available on both your mobile app and TripIt.com.
A good packing app lets you create and store various Packing Lists for yourself and your kids. For example, you can have a Beach Week packing list or a Girls’ Weekend master list. It will also remind you to cancel the mail or print your boarding passes.
Check out: Packing Pro, TravelList, Pack & Go, Pack the Bag (free)
9. Keep Track of your Teens & Tweens
Deep breath. This is a big subject of debate both practically and philosophically -- at what level & how much to track your kids electronically. I hesitate to wade into that debate because I don’t wish to further inflame the “mommy wars” and really, haven’t we all heard enough about helicopter parents, Tiger Moms, free-range parents and the rest?
If you’re interested in reading more about the pros and cons regarding the question of whether parents should spy on their kids, start here →
Debate — Should Parents Spy on their Kids? (ZDNet)
Parental Dilemna: Whether to spy on their kids (USA Today)
Parental Spyware: Is Remotely Monitoring Your Kids the Right Way to Parent (readwrite.com)
How you parent is a personal choice and should not be subject to judgment or scrutiny. </soapbox> The good news is that your parenting style doesn’t have to be all or nothing and that there are apps for various ends of the spectrum.
Personal Disclosure: I tend to parent along the free-range end of the spectrum. I would rather share more information than less with my kids, teach them about possible dangers and consequences, and allow them a fair amount of independence.
I realize my fairly liberal approach isn’t right for everyone and may not be comfortable for many families. I provide recommendations below for various parenting styles and offer my opinions without judgment.
GPS Tracking
If you err on the side of more supervision or have a higher need for communication, various mobile tracking devices are available to put on your kids’ phones for tracking 24/7 (as long as their phones are on, with them & in some cases, the app is running). Most require a monthly or annual subscription fee.
Popular GPS Tracking Apps include:
- Family Tracker—lets you track family members’ locations once the app is installed on their devices. You can “ping” them and the app will send the location coordinates as soon as they acknowledge.
- Life 360 — similar to Family Tracker. This app also allows you to create various “Circles” to keep friends and family separate or create temporary circles to share location data (for a field trip, for example).
- Verizon’s Family Locator
- AT&T’s Family Map
- Find my iPhone
For more information, this article from Mashable outlines 8 Apps and Gadgets to Keep Track of Your Child.
More Comprehensive Options
More comprehensive options include remote control of your kids’ phones, including the ability to turn them off and control access to apps. This level of control may be appropriate for younger kids or useful for shutting off the phone while a teen is driving.
Apps available include:
- Mobiflock provides a child safe browser, allows you to set time limits, provides remote locking and location services. For Android phones, it also allows text and call monitoring.
- MMGuardian Parental Control (for Android) lets you lock your kid’s phone via a simple text message, set time restrictions, block incoming calls and texts, control apps and receive daily reports.
- ParentKit - Parental Controls for iOS
See the linked articles above for more hard-core spyware options.
Other Curfew & Location Management Options
I am not a big believer in spyware - for various reasons, one is building trust and independence; the other is that tech-savvy kids will find work-arounds. Plus, my kids’ phones are off or out of battery half the time. I believe some of these apps can provide a false sense of security. One of my daughter’s friends, for example, leaves her spyware-tracked phone at a friend’s house when she goes out.
One app to consider for managing curfew and location without using spyware is aWareAbouts Curfew Manager. It provides a notification and reminders to your child to check in via phone or a text with their location coordinates. From their website/app store -
“aWareAbouts a great tool for any parent looking to build a strong foundation of trust with their child, while making sure they are safe.” – www.BlogWithMom.com
CurfewAlert is a simple, smart alarm that teens can use to alert them when it’s time to leave.
10. Teen Drivers
A whole new subset of parental paranoia and rightful apprehension begins when your teen starts to drive. Beyond simply keeping tabs on their location, you want to make sure they are driving safely and are not texting or talking on the phone while behind the wheel.
Canary - Teen Safety is a nice app (for both iPhone and Android) that alerts parents in real time with details of their kids’ activities, including volume of calls, locations, and driving speeds. Canary can alert a parent when a teen driver is:
- Talking, texting, emailing, using social media or any other phone use while on the road
- Speeding (or riding in a speeding car)
- Traveling into areas set as off limits or beyond areas defined as safe
The app requires a subscription and installation on both the parents’ and teens’ phones.
Other apps help record and log the details of your Teen’s progress during the Learning Permit stage.
Time to Drive app keeps track of mileage, driving time required for their student driver log, which is printable for the DMV/MVA. It and also tracks conditions and hard stops and provides tips for parents.
Other similar apps:
11. Organizing Groups
This last tip is for all you PTA Moms & Dads or the ones organizing the Soccer Snacks or end of year banquet. No more phone tag and endless rounds of reply-all emails. Simple, effective and free tools exist to help you organize volunteer activities.
Sign-Up Genius is a free on-line tool that lets you create a sign up list, send an email asking people to sign up for an event. If you’re coordinating a class party, you create the sign up form, indicate how many of each item you need or what time you need volunteers and email parents asking them to sign up. They get a direct link to the Sign Up Genius form where they can select what they will bring or sign up for a time slot.
VolunteerSpot is another free, online tool for parents, teachers and organizers. It allows you to create a schedule of jobs or items needed and invite volunteers to sign up for a day and time. It creates a calendar for the organizer. Volunteers get a confirmation and reminder of what and when they’ve signed up.
I have used Sign-Up Genius for football meals, wine festivals and potlucks. From reviews I’ve read, VolunteerSpot is preferred for longer-term recurring activities like classroom volunteers, while Sign-Up Genius is great for one-time events.
For coordinating meals or support for new parents, people going through illness, or others requiring support from a community, two websites stand out.
- LotsaHelpingHands makes it easy for each person to know what to do and when. A coordinator creates a schedule that lets volunteers sign up to do tasks such as meals for the family, rides to appointments, and visits. Other features include message boards and updates to the private network so that people can keep in touch and offer messages of support.
- Caring Bridge is an online service that lets those suffering from illnesses (and caregivers) set up a private, interactive site for keeping friends and family members up to date. It also offers Support Planning - similar to Lotsa Helping Hands - for organizing errands and support tasks.
Miscellaneous
- Doodle Polls are a quick and easy way to coordinate schedules or pick a date for a meeting, say for Book Club or a family dinner. Basically, you (the organizer) create a meeting and propose up to five possible times. You email the meeting participants who can select their available times. For the organizer, a calendar-like interface highlights the times where participants are available and shows which time is best for everyone. That’s it. It doesn’t coordinate invitees or ability to bring stuff like Evite or SignUp Genius but is a quick and easy way to pick a meeting time.
- Wiggio is a little bit of everything for group management. It is a free web-based tool for coordinating group projects, planning and organizing events, or online collaboration on documents or via web conferences. Wiggio’s platform includes tools for group text messaging, a Wiggio group calendar and to-do list, an online poll taker, a space for uploading and sharing documents, and the ability to hold virtual video and audio conferences and chatrooms.
Wiggio’s interface is simple to learn and intuitive. Although it was designed for students, it could be used to run an online or small business. In my opinion, it is best suited for academic groups and volunteer organizations. Numerous other free or low-cost alternatives offer more sophisticated task management and project planning features for business.
Bonus (#12) -- Stop sorting socks
No matter how tech-savvy your household is, laundry is the bane of every Mom’s existence. One #lifehack that has worked at various ages when sock-sorting became overwhelming: throw away all the colored, unmatched socks and refuse to buy more. Simplify. Buy only black or white socks in the same brand/style. I keep three boxes of socks in the laundry room: white socks, black (Daddy) socks, and ankle socks.
My kids -- who don’t love the white-sock, black-sock regime -- created their own work-around. They one-upped me in this #lifehack - they kept their colored socks but stopped worrying about matching socks. Thus, since we share, nobody (except Daddy) wears matching socks. It’s all good.
