Here’s how it works: you set automated tasks, which they call recipes, to make something happen when it’s triggered by an action.

For instance you can say if “I post to my Facebook Business Page” then “Share it onto Google + via Buffer”.

Imagine the time you could save cooking up all these “recipes” to automate all these little time draining tasks.

It’s not just for your online world either. You can get your phone to call you on school days with a wake-up message that includes the day’s weather forecast.

Never dress your kids in shorts on a 7 degree day again!

Does your day get consumed by emails? You really need to keep checking it because you’re waiting on one particular email, but every time you do, you get sidetracked by 20 others.

I know the feeling!

You can set up a recipe that says, “if I receive an email with the word proposal in it” then “send me a text with the email”.

TaaDaa! Problem solved… no more excuses.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from reading “The 4 hour work week” by Timothy Ferris. He said to pick two times of the day to check your email (yes only two!).

Say 10am and 4pm, and only check your email then. The important part is to stick to the rule.

I have never checked my email and not been distracted by something that has arrived. Whether it’s a problem that’s come up or the latest catalogue from my favourite shop, it’s usually something that can wait until the next email time slot.

If you have an email your waiting on, you have IFTTT to alert you, so there’s no reason to peek at your emails until it’s time.

[author image=”http://www.woman.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/karyn-bio-image1.jpg” ]Karyn with a Y (AKA Karyn Hogan) is a social media marketing specialist and CEO of Click by Click Social Media. Karyn works with businesses leaders to give them a personality online. www.karynwithay.com.au, Facebook,Linkedin, Twitter: @karynwithy [/author]