Lurch knew the value of an efficient phone call. Let’s face it, mobile phones have become a necessary accessory for daily life, so making them easier to use can add precious time to your day. Watch this video for strategies you can use to maximize your phone time.
(Click here to watch on YouTube if you can’t see the embedded player. Or watch the video at http://bit.ly/tcdphonestuff.)
Transcript:
Hi. I’m Lorie Marrero, creator of the Clutter Diet book and on-line program, and today I have for you five quick tips for solving some Smartphone problems. I made a video recently about apps, and today I want to talk about the Smartphone itself, about handling this, managing it, carrying it around with us all the time, and the accessories that are involved with this little device.
First, let’s talk about going hands-free. I made a video about this already. It’s way more productive to be hands-free, because you can drive more safely. You can also cook, or you can fold laundry, or do other tasks while you talk, and with these really big phones we have nowadays with large screens, you really don’t want to have this thing up to your face all the time.
So when you go in the cellular phone store, often the choices for these hands-free units are bewildering. They have these very sci-fi looking halo units that hang around your neck and all of that. I prefer a very simple solution, and that is to have bunches of these little cheap headsets with the microphone. And the reason is that I don’t have to worry about charging this thing, and it’s so cheap I can have them everywhere, in my car, in my office, in my kitchen, in my purse, and that way I always have one when I need it. So, you can be more productive cheaply and that is our first tip.
Secondly, let’s talk about this thing, right. So if you have these, one of the things that might be a challenge for you, maybe not, but you may have trouble reading the little L and R that indicate left and right for these ear-buds. And I personally do have audio files that it matters to have it in the right ear. If this is not a problem for you, then never-mind. But if you want to know the left from the right, you might think that you can rely on where the microphone is. But different units are made with them on different sides. So what I prefer to do is for every set of headsets that I have, I look for the left one and I tie a knot in the cord, and that way I always know, even in the dark, which one is the left.
So the next thing that is an issue if you do use these, is that these get tangled up and they’re kind of hard to manage. So I want to teach you a method that I actually learned here on YouTube, and someone called it the “Longhorn Method,” and so I live in Austin, so Hook ‘Em Horns. This is what you do with your fingers to wind these cords up, okay? So what you do is you start with the end, where you plug it in, and you kind of make a little tail, and you hold that with your thumb and your two fingers. And then you start wrapping it around the two that are extended up. So you do your little figure eight, wrapping around, and then you pull if off your fingers, and you’ve got this perfect little bundle with a tail, and then you can wrap the tail around it. So it’s a very easy way to quickly wrap your cord up in a very accessible way, and this can go in your purse and it doesn’t get all tangled around with everything, and it’s nice and neat. So I hope you like that little Longhorn tip.
The next thing that you might run into with your Smartphone, having problems with it, is of course, the low battery issue. You’re always trying to find a charger. So this is another thing that’s really cheap. Get multiple chargers. It is even better if you have the ability to just buy, even maybe on Amazon, some of these little cords that go with your phone that just have the USB end. And you may have the plug parts laying around your house. I know I have tons of these in our little electronics bin where I can take any cord and plug it right into this thing and use it as a charger. So they’re kind of interchangeable. But yeah, get lots of these, and you probably already have lots of these, and that way it works out, and you can have them again in multiple locations and carry one with you, and that’s great.
The other issue is that you are juggling your phone and your wallet. There’s lots of things you kind of must have to leave the house nowadays. Wallet, keys, phone are pretty much the mandatory things. So you want to have a case to protect your phone so why not make your case your wallet? So I managed to find a case that fits my phone with my basic things. My driver’s license and the credit cards I use the most often. And then a little bit of cash fits right in here. I can walk out the door with only this and be all set to go run and errand. We have a video about organizing your purse where we talk about modularizing the things in your purse, and this is my modular number one, can’t leave home without it, and if you find a great case that works that way, you’re all set to go.
I hope you enjoyed these tips, and if you did, please subscribe to our channel. You can find us always at clutterdiet.tv. See you next time, and may you always be happy and grateful for having more than enough.
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