Smartphone Hacks to Simplify Mom Life

Find ways to make your day easier with some smartphone hacks to simplify mom life.

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We could all use some help making our days flow a little better, right moms?

Last weekend, my daughter went to a bouncy-house birthday party for a friend in her preschool. While we were watching our kids fly around the inflatables, the other moms and I got to talking about little tricks we use every day to help us remember things and organize our worlds.

And not surprisingly, a lot of those revolved around our phones!

Here are some of the things we came up with – smartphone hacks for simplifying mom life!

Alarms

We have alarms bing-boinging all over the place in my house. It has seriously cut down on the whining I hear when it’s time for my children to change course on an activity. It even works at the end of screen time! Practically a miracle. 

Reminders

Reminders act similarly to alarms, in that you can set them for a particular time or day and they can be labeled. They can also repeat daily, weekly, or whenever you need them to. What I like about reminders is that they don’t continuously make a noise when they go off. If you allow the notifications in your settings, you’ll get a banner on your home screen with a singular small chime. 

I use the reminders for things like taking vitamins, or packing up library books. Pretty much anything I need to remember on a regular basis, but won’t have to happen immediately. 

Photos

Thank goodness for cameras on our phones, right? I can’t be the only one who takes pictures of everything they need to remember. I use it for short grocery lists all the time! I also love a good screenshot of facebook posts, recipes, whatever. 

Sometimes it’s just super helpful to have all these things in one place without having to open a webpage or try to get to wifi.  

Voice memos 

Just like when you’re in the shower, the best ideas always come when you’re driving! Of course you can’t be typing away when you’re behind the wheel. But tap that voice record button, and you can record your thoughts hands-free before they disappear out of your head. 

Bonus if you can ask Siri or whoever to make the note for you!

Google Keep

Did you know that Google has a list-making app? This is a tip that I had gotten from a friend a while back. Because it’s backed up to the cloud, you can access your lists from any device! If you’re super organized you could even color coordinate the boxes to make it even easier to find what you’re looking for at a moment’s notice! 

Evernote

Evernote is another note-taking app. I’ve been using it for a very long time and, even though I have other places for writing lists, I still turn to Evernote for long-term planning. Evernote has an easy-to-use search options and you can organize big project ideas into individual folders. Also, you can save webpages and screenshots right to it.

Goodreads

I can’t be the only one who can’t remember what books I’ve read and what I still want to read. And when your reading time is (very, very, very) limited, you don’t want to grab a book, then realize a few pages how familiar it sounds. So frustrating.

With a few clicks in the Goodreads app, I can easily keep track of books. There’s also the option of making your own reading challenge and adding reviews, if you’re so motivated. I haven’t been using the app for very long, but so far, so good!

Overcast

The popularity of podcasts has been soaring in the last few years. It seems like everyone has one, and I am a huge fan! I’ve been listening to podcasts for a really long time and I’ve gained a few tricks. 

The best app for podcasts is Overcast, by far. Not only can you find all your favorite shows, but you can organize them in specialized playlists in whatever way you want. 

For instance, I have a ‘Mom Stuff” list for those times I’m on my own. And a ‘Kids Ears” playlist for whenever they’re in listening range. I don’t have to think about what’s appropriate for them to hear, I can just play the podcasts without worry. That is a mom win in my book.

I’m sure there are many, many more tricks out there about smartphone hacks to simplify mom life for all of us. 

If you have one, please share! Let’s all help make each other’s lives a little easier when we can!