Human > Robot

Tips for using your smart home hub without giving up your soul

The ubiquity of smart technology in modern living is staggering. We are subjected to new developments so frequently we hardly have time to assess if any given innovation will make life better or more complicated. By the time we process something, it’s obsolete. And yet, to completely ignore every change makes us obsolete.

I didn’t sign up to have my freedom to think taken away, but on some days I feel like this is happening.

I miss the days of sending a friend a letter affixed with Lisa Frank stickers and a 29-cent stamp. I miss the days when people didn’t change or cancel plans because there was no easy way to communicate that with you. I miss the days when “calling on” friends meant showing up at their front door. (Okay, I wasn’t alive during those days, but I wish I had been.)

Do you remember how in the 2010s there was so much concern about raising a generation of kids who can’t hold a conversation in real life because all they do is text?

And then the joke was on us, when in 2020 and 2021, access to and comfort with internet communication was prerequisite for connection during quarantine.

I’ve tried really hard to intentionally manage the encroachment of technology in my family’s and my life. I didn’t think we’d become a family that uses smart home speakers, but after visiting my friends Stephanie and Sam a little over a year ago, I started to see the appeal. I loved the idea of being able to save electricity by turning off lights by voice; and I thought we might add more music to our lives if it were as easy as delivering a command out loud.

We don’t need Google—I mean, scientists—to tell us that music is good for us. We’ve all experienced a mood lift or an improvement in our focus and productivity as a result of listening to the right tunes.

Resistant as I am to change, I now accept that smart speakers can be tools that support our wellbeing. Voice-only activation of a playlist is a distraction-free way to add more joy and flow into my life. (The last thing I need is to be side-tracked by incoming texts on my phone when trying to open Spotify.)

So now we have a fleet of Google Home devices.

These are super easy to find on eBay for <$15.

I wanted to share about the features we utilize the most. There’s surely many more functions we’ve yet to implement. I’m okay that we don’t use every feature; it’s meant to serve us, not the other way around.

That said, if there’s a cool hack I’ve missed, please feel free to share it with my readers and me.

Music

It’s really nice to be able to turn on an album or playlist handsfree, especially while cooking. It helps keep me screen-free (if I want to be) while with my kids. I’ve even classically conditioned my children such that if I turn on our “art class” playlist, they ask if we can do watercolor.

Podcasts

Listening to podcasts is a great way to make doing the dishes a little more pleasant. During one of my many tackling-the-garage sessions (why does it never stay clean?), I brought one of our Google Home Minis into the garage, and utilized hands-free play/pause when I went back-and-forth between rooms.

Pro tip: If you have a task you are not looking forward to doing, start a podcast or audiobook, and then tell Google, “Turn off the podcast in x minutes” and work until the audio ends. You get to listen to something you want to, you get an unpleasant task done, and there’s a built-in end point.

Timers

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Whether it’s a reminder that the pasta is done cooking, or an announcement to the kids that it’s time to start playing and come up for dinner, sometimes it’s nice to have a “public” announcement.

I let my kids set themselves timers for clean up or screen time, etc. (When we first introduced smart speakers into our home, I told my kids that the devices are tools, not toys, so there are certain purposes/times I allow them to use them.)

Pro tip: Name your timer when you set it so that Google can tell you what it’s for. E.g., “Set an 11 minute timer for pasta” or “Set a 10 minute timer to pick up kids from school.”

Making lists

Google Home can keep notes for you in Google Keep (works with iPhone!). For example, I’ve created lists for Costco shopping and Christmas gift ideas and can add to those lists with my voice. The lists in Google Keep can be shared with other people.

Turning on/off smart devices

We don’t have smart lights (yet!) but there are a few devices we use our Google Home to activate. It’s nice to control the thermostat from the basement, and my favorite ever is commanding Google to turn off the TV, because who even knows where the remote is?!?!

Pro tip: Set up delayed commands such as, “Turn off the TV at 4:30pm” (I use this with my kids when they are watching PBS Live since the shows end on the hour or half-hour) or “Turn on Toby in 10 minutes” (if I want the robot vacuum to run after I leave the house).

Meet me in the comments!

How do you use a Smart Home device if you have one? Do you have any tips for me on using the Google Home for calendar schedules / reminders / routines or for phone calls and texts? I’m especially curious if you have family members with ADHD who use it to help them with executive functions.

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