Set it and Forget it – How to Automate our Lives

There is a powerful concept I learned recently. It is called the "Principle of Automation," and I want to share the technique with you today.

In our life there are many things that can be done just once by setting it, and you can forget it completely. The system you used to set it will take care of it, and you automatically benefit from it afterward.

Iceberg

If you look at the image of an iceberg on the internet, you can see that only a small portion of the iceberg is above sea level. The majority of the iceberg is under sea level. Our mind is exactly the same way. The top part is our conscious mind. The bottom part is the subconscious mind. The top part is where you do things consciously thinking.

If I ask you the question - "Are you thinking about your right toe?" Now, when I asked that question, you thought about your right toe. But, before this moment, your right toe was not in your mind. It was stored in your subconscious mind. When I reminded you about it, you brought it your conscious mind.

Technology has advanced such an amazing way that we can automate anything in our life. You make everything automatic. Once you set it, you forget it.

Here are few areas in our life when we can automate things.

1) Breaks. If you are planning to study for 75 minutes, you set the alarm for 75 minutes. Then study. When you want to take a break, you set the alarm for that. The alarm - for your 10 min break - is a conscious choice. Now you don't need to engage the conscious on when your break will end. When it ends, the alarm will remind you.

2) Meal-delivery plan. You can automate your meals for you. The meals are prepared and are automatically coming to you. You have setup the system that will deliver meals to you. And now, the system will take care of everything for you.

3) Follow-up appointments. If there is something you have delegated to a team, and they say they will get back to you in two days, then you say, "No problem!" You go to your calendar and enter the information and set a reminder. And then, you basically forget it. After two days, you get the reminder, and life is good!

4) Finances. We can automate our finances. You make a conscious decision when to deposit the money and have your bank do it for you. You come back one day, and you have a mountain of money - grown automatically by the system. For your credit card, you can set up automatic payments..

5) Charity. We can automate charity. If there is a good non-profit organization that you want to contribute to, even if you make a conscious decision to pay it every month, you might forget. Instead, you can make it automatic. You sign up for monthly withdrawal.

6) Workouts. For workouts, get a personal trainer. When you work out with a personal trainer, you will work out six times more than usual. He is like a private coach to you. You have a set date and time for your workout, and you automatically do the work out that time.

7) Facebook and Twitter messages. You might have a business and use social media like Facebook, Twitter, etc. You can automate all the messages for a week, or even more. There are many websites where you can schedule your Facebook, Twitter and other social media posts. I usually schedule them for a week, and the next week, I do the same for another week.

8 ) Email newsletters. You can schedule your email newsletters to be sent at a given time. You prepare your email content, set the content for it, and then you forget it. All my newsletters are scheduled in advance, and they are sent automatically by the email system.

9) Thank you and greeting cards. You can schedule thank you or other greeting cards to be sent at a given time. You know the important dates and occasions, you just enter them to a greeting card system. You set it, and forget it.

10) A mentor for a major goal. You might be preparing for an exam, or you have a specific goal. You can have a personal mentor for your goal, and you can schedule certain days and times to work with the mentor. Once you schedule them, you know you are moving to achieve your dream goal.

11) 24/7 websites. You can create a website that either publishes articles, or have some service that you offer to people 24/7. For my articles, I write once, and they are read multiple times around the world in a single day. Activities like these can be translated to revenue in your bank account. This is called, "residual income." (More on this later)

12) Virtually anything. With the advancement of technology, you can virtually automate anything that you want. You basically set it and forget it. The system will take care of itself.

Now, there is a question, "Should I automate everything?" This answer will depend on what you want. If you like gardening and you truly enjoy it, you can do it yourself. There is no need to automate everything and have it done for you. The goal is to do what you love to do, but for recurring things you don't enjoy as much, or things you may forget, automate them!