One of the Christmas presents that I got this year that I’m really loving is my Amazon Echo Dot. I’ve found many different ways to use it, including a few that help me stay focused and productive when working from home. In this post, I’ll share some of the ways I use the Echo Dot when working from home.
Get focused with Be Mindful or Peaceful Habit.
Enable the Be Mindful or Peaceful Habit skills, and then ask Alexa to ask one of these services for a meditation of a certain amount of time – I usually use five minutes. Alexa will guide you through the meditation and let you know when it’s over.
Stay focused with Prime Playlists and Rain sounds
One way I use it is to play the Prime playlists Scores for Focus or Nature Sounds for Focusing. I find these particularly helpful when I’m doing work that particularly helpful when I’m doing work that particularly helpful when I’m working on a project that doesn’t require a lot of helpful when I’m working on a project that doesn’t require a lot of helpful when I’m working on a project that doesn’t require a lot of concentration, such as the new Lionbridge project I was hired to work on recently. If you don’t have a Prime membership, however, Alexa does have a skill called Rain sounds that can be enabled, which is also very helpful for staying focused. The Rain sounds skill will only play for an hour however, then it stops. You’ll have to ask Alexa to open it again to start it again.
Stay focused with Timers and Alarms
Two skills that come automatically enabled in the Echo Dot are Timers and Alarms. This is really helpful for anyone who likes to use the Pomodoro method to stay on task, but doesn’t like to look at a Pomodoro timer constantly. Ask Alexa to set a timer for a certain amount of time, then work until the timer goes off. You can check the number of minutes left on the timer by asking Alexa how many minutes are left on the timer – she’ll respond by telling you how many timers you have and how many minutes are left on each. If you’d rather set an alarm for a specific time, you can do that instead. Just ask Alexa to set a timer for a certain time – if you forget to say AM or PM, she’ll ask you. Your alarm will go off at that time.
Be more productive with multiple timers.
This one is great for people who want to work on something for a short time while dinner is cooking. Just ask Alexa to set one timer for a specific amount of time for your first task, and the second timer for a specific amount of time for your second task. For example, if you have something that needs to cook for 30 minutes, you could ask Alexa to set a timer for 30 minutes for your meal, and then set a second time for a shorter amount of time so you can focus on whatever you need to do.
Use the Echo Dot to manage your to-do list.
If you use Any.do or Todoist, you can link those apps with the Echo Dot and then ask Alexa to add tasks to your to-do list or tell you what’s left on your to-do list. Be warned, if the Echo Dot can’t understand what you’re saying, it may end up getting your to-do wrong, so be sure to check it after you’ve added it and edit if needed.
These are just a few ways to use the Echo Dot when working from home – there are many others. If you work from home and have found other ways to use the Echo Dot to be productive, feel free to share them below.
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