Here¡¯s How You Can Automate All Your Favourite Internet Tasks And Never Waste Any Time

The Internet is amazing. And while it's great to use, it can get a little complex when you¡¯re trying to manage all the services at your disposal. One easy way to stay abreast of everything you want to accomplish online is to automate a few basic tasks, and you can do this with something called IFTTT.

¡®If This Then That¡¯ is a web-based automation tool that, once you get past the basic primers on how it works, can be a godsend for your productivity. IFTTT is a website as well as a mobile app, launched in 2010 which want sto ¡°Put the Internet to work for you.¡± The basic idea here is that you can use IFTTT to automate everything from your favourite apps and websites to even other smart devices.

The capabilities of the program are near limitless. You can use it to have your home¡¯s smart lights flash whenever you receive a work email, or send automated thank you responses whenever someone likes your Facebook photo. All it takes is writing up the correct ¡°recipe¡± for your needs; If X happens, Then trigger Y action.

IFTTT currently supports over 110 services or ¡°channels¡±, including Android iOS devices and their apps, websites and web apps like Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr, Google Drive, LinkedIn, WordPress, and YouTube.

Getting Started

All you have to do is sign up for a free account on the IFTTT website; it only requires is an email, username, and password. Once that¡¯s done, IFTTT automatically creates a recipe for you which sends you an email every day with a recommended recipe for you to try out. It¡¯s a great way to begin exploring just what the system is capable of.

A handy discover at the top lets you have a look at all the recipes available on the website, and there are loads of them. Want a recipe that¡¯ll post your Instagram photos to Facebook and Twitter as well? Just find the applet and turn it on (it¡¯ll require access to your accounts of course). How about something more fine tuned? Need only Instagram posts with a certain hashtag to be posted automatically on Twitter? IFTTT¡¯s got your back there too. Need a Gmail notification whenever NASA posts something new? Done. And that¡¯s just just the tip of the iceberg, with readymade recipes.

Get Creative With Your Productivity

Once you¡¯re confident, you can dive into the create section of the website, located under the drop down menu by clicking on your username. For this example, let¡¯s assume that I want Indiatimes Tech stories that I personally share on my Facebook profile to be automatically posted on Twitter. First, I select the service tied to the trigger (the event that sets the chain in motion), which in this case is Facebook, giving IFTTT access. Of course, not every link I post on Facebook may be from this website, so I add a modifier stating that only posts with #IndiatimesTech are to be shared on Twitter. That done, I select the service tied to the action (Twitter) and give it access. Then I simply say I want the link to be posted on my Twitter feed and voila.

Once you¡¯re done saving a recipe, you can turn it on and off at will, and even modify it to do less or more.

Until you get the hang of creating recipes that do just what you want, try exploring the Discover section for what you need. Here are some of our favourite picks.

1) Songs you like get automatically added to a playlist

Now IFTTT will search any video you like on YouTube for a Spotify listing. Since Spotify solely distributes songs, if the applet finds it, that track will automatically be added to your playlist, so you don't have to manually hunt for it.

2) Get specific app notifications

With this particular applet, you can keep an eye on that app you really want to buy, but it's too expensive. As soon as the price drops on the App Store, you'll receive a notification on your iPhone so you can snatch it right up.

3) Every attachment in your inbox gets automatically saved to the cloud

Don't ever worry about keeping track of all your important documents, just use this applet to have every Gmail attachment you receive saved to the Drive folder of your choice. Then, when you're free, you can peruse the collection and delete what's unimportant.

4) Automatically mute your phone based on your location -- like a movie theatre

This applet works off your location, automatically putting your Android on silent mode when you reach the destination you've specified. No more embarrassing grabs for your phone when it rings in the middle of a meeting with the boss.

Push To Start

Creating new recipes may take a little getting used to for the technologically challenged. However, 9 times out of 10 you can find the recipe you¡¯re looking for already on the website. All you have to do is connect it and turn it on. In fact, aside from the applets we talked about, there are even widgets that can be used on your smartphone. Widgets require that you download the IFTTT app, but they¡¯re shortcuts that are even easier to use.

The camera widget places a shortcut on your home screen that you can customise with actions. For instance, you can modify it so that whenever you click a photo using the special widget, it automatically posts it to your Twitter feed with your location and a hashtag of your choice. The only difference here is that while applets are initiated by triggers, the widgets only start working when you hit a button.

So, now that you have the basics down, you¡¯re ready to explore If This Then That on your own. Go ahead, sign up, and watch your Internet life run itself flawlessly.