10 Tips for the iPhone

Did you get an iPhone for Christmas? Depending on when you are reading this, you might not know yet. Regardless, here are 10 tips to get you better acquainted with your new device.

1. Using your Head Phones

The EarPods that are shipped with the newest iPhones are great for listening to music, making hands free calls, and navigating your phone. There are the obvious features as shown on the headphone remote: (+) volume up / (-) Volume down, and the centre unlabelled button is Play/Pause. But there is more than that packed into the centre button. A double-click will jump to the next track. A triple-click will go to the previous track. And a press and hold will start a conversation with Siri.

2. Take better Selfies

Does the length of your arms interfere with the quality of selfie you are able to take? Not to worry Apple has an accessibility option for that... well kind of. Your EarPods can give you a wired remote shutter button. Simply open your Camera app and with EarPods plugged in use the (+) button to activate the shutter. This can be especially useful to get the group shot selfie without having any faces cut off.

3. Shutter Button

In keeping with the camera, you do not need to use the on-screen button to snap photos. Just as the EarPods can be used as a shutter button, the iPhone's (+) volume hardware button will also activate the camera's shutter while that app is open. It's function does not stop there either, the same works with the stop/start recording of video. I particularly like this feature as it promotes proper orientation for capturing video. Together we can stop VVS, the key is awareness!

How-To: Stop Procrastinating

There is plenty of information online about how to stop procrastinating (here, here, here, and here to name a few). The difficulty is they are encouraging the behavior that needs to be corrected. By reading all available information about putting off procrastinating, you are still procrastinating (unless you have been assigned the task of researching how not to).

If you really want to stop procrastinating it is one simple step: Start the task. With that said, go start the task you are avoiding. By starting the task, your procrastination is cured.

Do you put things off, or get them done instantly? Leave your comment below.

Tips: Internet Automation - ifttt.com

Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pintrest...) are all platforms to share information. Many of us have multiple accounts in order to interact with different groups of people. The difficulty is managing all these accounts while staying on top of other repetitive tasks. That's where ifttt comes in.

How-To: Email

No Offense

I admit, the title for this post is slightly condescending but allow me to explain. Email is one of the cornerstones of computing both in our work and personal lives, yet most of us neglect to foster good habits to ensure our inbox remains user-friendly. Surprisingly there is very little time and energy involved in making sure your digital mail experience is both friendly and rewarding.

Inbox Analysis 

How many messages are in your inbox? And I am not referring to new or unread messages.

At the peak of my email neglect I had over 2000 messages in my inbox (the email address was less than 2 years old)! All of them were marked as "read" and all of them were in various stages of completion. Now I hope that you are not in a similar situation otherwise this comic is probably an accurate representation of you email habits.
If you can relate with any of this, or are just looking to improve your own management system, keep reading. There is hope.