My Tools: IFTTT – Automating Your Life

Why do it yourself if you can get a computer to do it for you.

IF–This–THEN–That

It really is that simple:

• IF I favourite a tweet THEN create a note in Evernote
• IF I go to the gym THEN update a log of gym visits in Evernote

In IFTTT terms the This is a Trigger, the That is an Action. A Trigger with an Action is known as a Recipe. The sources of Triggers and Actions (like Twitter, or Instagram) are known as Channels. There are currently 164 Channels.

Imagine a service on the internet and it’s likely that there will be a channel for it which is likely to have a set of triggers then start thinking about what you could do:

• Every time I go to the gym I could post on Facebook.
• Every time I leave the office I could email my wife.
• Every Saturday I could send an email of the day’s weather.
• Every time TIME.com posts in a particular section I could get IFTTT to phone me and tell me.
• Every time it’s sunset I could turn on my Philips Hue lights (not that I have any).

I only use a few channels, but that’s all I need for now. It’s amazing what you can do with a few recipes:

• IF I favourite a tweet THEN create a note in Evernote with the tweet details in it.
• IF I write a tweet THEN create a note in Evernote with the tweet details in it.
• IF I post a picture to Instagram THEN create a note in Evernote with the picture in it.
• IF I write a Blog post THEN create a note in Evernote with the text and picture in it.
• IF I mark a blog as Save for Later in Feedly THEN create a link note in Evernote with a subset of the post text in.
• IF I arrive at the gym THEN amend a log note in Evernote with time and date.

My recipes all use Evernote as the target; it’s the place that I use to record my online life, and some of my physical life too, but that’s a post for another day.

If you are wondering how you say IFTTT then the advice from the makers is to image GIFT without a G.