Use Tech to Beat the Clock

Lisa J. Whaley knows a thing or two about balancing life, work, and family. She has a husband, two college-aged daughters (one of whom lives at home), a teenage son and a 19-month-old granddaughter. She’s also the president of Life Work Synergy L.L.C., a Woodbridge, Va.-based coaching firm, a technology consultant, and an avid exerciser who squeezes her workouts in before her workday starts, and her last client call of the day.

So how does Whaley manage all of these responsibilities and still find time to read a book, enjoy a cup of tea, or spend time chatting with her girlfriends? “Technology has allowed me to create a good work-life equation,” says Whaley. “I’m able to intermingle work and life activities (such as running her business on her BlackBerry while shuttling her son back and forth to school) pretty effectively thanks to technology.”

Here are eight ways that you can create balance in your life with the help of technology:

Handle small stuff on the fly: Whaley’s workday is consumed with phone calls, email communications and face-to-face meetings with clients. The

rest of her day is made up of doctor’s appointments, school meetings and time spent watching her granddaughter. She handles small tasks on the fly– instead of letting them pile up for the next day — with her Blackberry. “I can check my email from anywhere and address client needs and other pressing issues quickly,” says Whaley.

Write it Down … Digitally: Up until a couple of years ago, Whaley lugged around a 6” X 9” Daytimer, which housed her calendar, lists, and notes. Today, all of those important documents are stored on her BlackBerry, and synced regularly with her office computer. With this tool, Whaley can manage every corner of her life (business, family and play), including the household groceries. “This is so much better than using the old paper lists on the refrigerator,” she says, “which you can easily forget when you’re walking out the door.”

Invest in a wireless card, if you need one: Depending on your occupation and the time you spend away from the office, a wi-fi card for your laptop could pay off handsomely. “If

you find yourself driving around town a lot, looking for a Starbucks network to connect to,” says Whaley, “then the $60-or-so a month spent on a wi-fi card could be a big time-saver for you.”

Use online photo-sharing: Relatives who live more than a few miles away want to see pictures of you, your children, your pets and pretty much anything else that keeps them “close.” Keeping up with these requests used to be impossible for Niloufar Molavi, chief diversity officer at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York, who discovered Kodak’s Ofoto as a good way to easily upload photos and “share them with family around the world,” says Molavi. “They can’t be here all the time, but they still get to watch my kids grow up. It’s an invaluable tool.”

Create an Internet calendar and share it: Using an online service such as Google Calendar, you can keep everyone in your life informed about your schedule, and about his or hers as well. “I share a Yahoo calendar with our childcare provider,” says Heather Cabot, editor at Yahoo! Web Life in New York.

“I can update her schedule with notes about kids’ activities, play dates, vacations, etc. This is an easy way to keep track of her hours and for us both to plan ahead.” If you have teens, Cabot says, “have them add their own activities and commitments to the family calendar.”

Pay your bills online: Do away with the envelope stuffing and stamp licking once and for all and sign up for your bank’s online services. This will allow you to check balances (from your desktop, laptop or PDA), transfer funds and pay bills much faster than the traditional way. “We did a recent study that found that nearly 70 percent of people use online bill-pay, up from 4 percent in 1995,” says Cabot. “Of those people currently using the service, 45 percent said they couldn’t live without it.”

Use digital tools for dinner: Avoid dinnertime stress by subscribing to a recipe planner newsletter or blog. NoTakeOut.com, for example, is a free daily e-mail that lists all the ingredients you need and a game plan for fast, easy meals. Other sites that list helpful ideas for quick meals include MomsWhoThink.com

, FoodNetwork.com and KitchenDaily.com.

Do your grocery shopping online: Technology can also help you find your way out the weekly grocery-shopping grind. “I’m a big fan of the Fresh Direct iPhone app,” says Cabot. While not every grocery chain has a mobile phone app, many do have sites where you can shop and order items for delivery. There are also sites that cater to specific customer groups, such as Diapers.com for new parents. “As a mother of twins, I wish I had used this service,” Cabot says. “It would have saved me a lot of trips to the market!”

As you integrate some or all of these technology tools into your own life, Whaley says the first step should be to establish clear boundaries for their use. You shouldn’t be texting clients while driving down the highway, for example, or checking email when you should be spending one-on-one time with your family. “Without boundaries, technology can quickly become intrusive,” says Whaley. “Use it for productivity, and then set it aside when life calls.”