I am part of the Millennial generation where technology was really coming into its own as I was growing up and subsequently it has become a large part of my life. I have always been fascinated by technology and will always endeavour to try to use technology to revolutionise my life.

In my previous post, Keeping life simple: One tool to rule them all, I talked about how Audacity helped me to revolutionise my life in terms of saving time to spend with my son or to keep on top of shared chores with my wife allowing us to spend some precious time together between her shifts. More recently, I have used Audacity as a project management tool to find another piece of tech that has helped me to revolutionise my life.

As you know, I love tech that helps to make my life more simple and, to help me to fulfil my audacious aim of leaving the house with no wallet or keys, I have recently purchased a Yale Smart Lock allowing me to secure my home without the need for a key. I can do it all remotely from my phone – one tool to rule them all!

There had been some initial resistance to this bold step, with concern over how insecure this may be or that it would be a waste of money. So I set my project up in Audacity ‘Go Key-less’, added my tasks and subtasks and created my team ‘Concerned others’. It was my view that others may benefit from the research I was doing and ultimately see how using this new technology to revolutionise my life could also make their life simpler too. I’m all for paying it forward!

forward!

Following a number of hours of research and discussion with ‘Concerned others,’ I concluded that in terms of security it would be far easier for someone to break into my house through the window at the back of the house than it would be to gain entry by trying to hack the lock on my door.

The cost of the smart lock was also up for some debate as to whether it was actually really worth it but from my perspective, in terms of making my life simpler, I do see it as an investment. It reduces my time and effort and while that time and effort may be a small amount it does all add up. Gone are the days of forgetting keys, or my son playing with them and losing them or not being able to let somebody into my house. Now, if I need my neighbour to pop round and check that I definitely turned the iron off, I can just unlock the door for them and in they go.

I have taken something, which yes I could do manually, and automated it to save me time and effort. But not only that, it minimises any panic or stress if I am rushing out of the door, it’s one less thing to think about and I can focus on the most important things and know that I can control it all from my phone brings me a great sense of peace. This is exactly the experience I want from technology, be it a To Do List app like Audacity or a smart key-less lock like my new Yale one.

But what about the other half of my audacious plan… to leave the house without my wallet… well, that’s another story!