This article was provided by JP.
With all the new devices coming out daily, every tech-savvy professional should consider these tools for starting their day. The days of manual anything are long gone. There’s no time to waste, so join me in automating your morning!
Wake-up Light Alarm Clock
Tired of being jolted out of bed with that annoying beep, beep, beep every morning? Do you feel like someone might as well have hit you over the head with a baseball bat? You can get around it by using a wake-up light alarm clock, sometimes called a sunrise alarm clock. They wake you through a simulation of the sun rising by increasing its light intensity in your bedroom over a period of time (video example) rather than the abrupt BEEEEEEEEEEEP! The higher-end models let you adjust how gradual the light feature comes on for an easier wake-up.
Home Weather Station
How much time do you waste waiting for the weather part of the morning news to come on? Home weather stations provide real-time, hyper-local weather data in your own backyard! No more guessing what to wear to work. These devices can be easily mounted outside your home and will provide you with all sorts of weather data. They’re also useful for proving the weatherman wrong and being able to answer your grandmother when she asks you how much rain you got last night. There are many home weather stations to choose from. The start around $100 and many connect to the cloud so you can show your friends or check the weather from anywhere in the world.
Smart Speaker
Are you checking a news feed, or worse yet, reading a hardcopy newspaper in the morning? Save time by listing to your news using a smart speaker. There are several apps that will read you the news in the morning and even more options for smart speakers. I like “News Feed: Alexa Skills” paired with the Amazon Dot. It provides a quick burst of news and you can even ask it specifically about certain topics.
Espresso Machine
Who doesn’t enjoy a hot shot of coffee in the morning? There are myriad smart machines that are blue-tooth and WI-FI ready. They can be set to automatically have coffee brewing and ready for you when you wake up in the morning. It’s like having an assistant.
With an espresso machine like the Nespresso Expert, you’ll be quick out the door even if you forget to set it the night before. Its heat time is only 30-seconds, so it can pump out your cup of Joe in a jiffy. The price-point on some of the WI-FI machines has come down, making them more reasonable for the average Joe (pun intended).
Smart Invert for iPhone
Ok, #5’s not actually a gadget, but more a gadget feature. This is a little-known feature of the iPhone that inverts many of the colors on your phone so as to not strain your eyes. This is especially nice right after waking up in the morning! Not all colors change as images and other media remain the same. To get to “smart invert”, grab your iPhone, then navigate to: settings > general > accessibility > display accommodations > invert colors > toggle “smart invert” to on. Try it and see what you think. What’s the harm? You can always change it right back.
Don’t ignore technology, embrace it!
There’s no need to be late or grumpy heading off to work. Each of these gadgets will either save you time or make your morning a bit more relaxing. Now, go check the weather and grab some coffee while listening to the morning’s news. If you have extra time, check this article for additional quick morning routine ideas.