When your husband or partner deploys and you’re left with a career, family and household to manage, there’s plenty to be intimidated by. Mounting housework, finances, home maintenance and the big one…technology. Well it so happens that technology is the one thing on that list I can handle. So here are a few tips to not only manage your tech challenges, but actually help you to better organize your entire life.
1. Google is your friend. Want updates on your husband’s unit? Set up a Google Alert. Better yet, if your day, like mine, requires a lot of reading, set up Google Reader and add RSS feeds from your favorite news sites and blogs. The beauty of this is that all your bookmarks load into one place, rendering useless the need to surf outside of your Google homepage. Master the Google trifecta by customizing your homepage with iGoogle. You can add everything from your Google Reader, calendar, weather report and a daily New York Times crossword puzzle. Again – all in one place, saving you precious Web surfing time.
2. Online Banking 2.0. If you’re like me, you do most of your banking online and write an actual check or visit an actual teller in a banking center, maybe once a month. But, if you still don’t feel like you’re sticking to your budget as well as you should be, log on to a financial management website like Mint.com. Mint.com allows you to upload all your bank accounts, credit card accounts, loans, 401Ks, stocks and more so you can see your entire financial picture at a glance. Set budget goals and categorize your spending. You will instantly realize where you need to cut back and be inspired to do it.
3. Phone smart. If you don’t have a smart phone, there’s never been a better time to invest in one. You will be able to connect more easily to your loved ones and conversely to the office when you have to be away taking care of business at home. Everything you could ever need to do on a computer you can virtually do on a Blackberry, Treo or iPhone. That includes everything from checking your Facebook to transferring money. The bonus? If your husband is lucky enough to spend most of his deployment near a computer like mine, then you can log onto Google Talk or Yahoo Messenger and chat live – for probably a lot longer than you are able to talk on the phone, if you are able at all.
Photo by: dollar39
