How do you set your online life to auto-pilot? With IFTTT (If This, Then That).

Being a blogger has me constantly doing the most menial online tasks over and over and over. And over.

I always thought the answer was to hire a virtual assistant and call it good, but given that I’m not rollin’ in the green over here, I really can’t afford to pay anyone to help me out.

Enter IFTTT in all of its free and easy glory.

IFTTT (If This, Then That) allows you to set up automated actions for things that you do all day long on social media and elsewhere online.

Do you ever change your profile picture on Facebook? How about if your Twitter picture automatically changed to the same picture after you were done, without you having to lift a finger (or open a new website tab, if you will)?

How about Instagram? Do you ever like any photos there? Wouldn’t it be cool if every time you liked an Instagram picture, those photos were automatically added to your mobile camera roll, without any work on your part?

Yeah, I’m talkin’ real life autobots here.

IFTTT allows you to create certain ‘recipes’ for all kinds of social channels, so you can automatically have an action set up whenever you do something in particular. It’s compatible with so many websites we use on a day to day basis, there’s bound to be a recipe or two in here you can use.

So now that you get the gist, check out some of the cool online tasks below that you can automate with IFTTT. Because really, who has the time? Click on the ‘try it!’ links for each of these below to try them out. And let me know what you think!

1. Back up your phone contacts to a Google spreadsheet. (Try it!)

I save my iPhone contacts to the cloud, but this is great if you don’t want to worry about that. Have all of your contacts backed up to Google Drive where you can access them any time.

2. If there’s a new job opening at the company you follow, send me an email. (Try it!)

Following your favorite company on Linkedin, and hoping each day that they’ve got job openings? Here’s your chance to get notified instantly when a company you follow (and love) on Linkedin has a new job opening. 

3. Post Instagram pictures to Twitters as pictures, not links. (Try it!)

Awhile back, Twitter removed the ability to easily see shared Instagram pictures on Twitter. Every time you allow one of your Instagram pictures to be shared on Twitter, it shows up as a link, which makes it more annoying for the people who follow you on Twitter to see your Instagram post (because they have to click the link and be taken out of Twitter). Well, this recipe changes all that. Now you can go back to the old days, when posting an Instagram picture on Twitter will actually be seen by your followers as they scroll through their Twitter  feed.

4. If you’re Facebook profile photo changes, update your Twitter profile picture  too. (Try it!)

This recipe automatically changes your Twitter photo when your Facebook photo changes, so you don’t have to update the profile pictures of both accounts. 

5. Tweet whenever I post a link to Facebook. (Try it!)

Don’t want to manually post the same link to both Facebook and Twitter? Set up a recipe in IFTTT that allows you to automatically post the link you share on Facebook, to Twitter. I usually keep my Facebook and Twitter account shares separate, since they’re different platforms, but a lot of people find this one useful!

6. Get emails for new posts from any Craig’s list search (Try it!)

This one would be super handy for any Craig’s List buff who likes to know instantly when new posts get published for a specific search term. For instance, if you’re looking for furniture or new types of jobs, you’d get notified instantly via whenever that search term turned up something new, rather than having to visit Craig’s List each day and type in the same search.

7. Add your Foursquare check-in history to your Google calendar (Try it!)

This one would be super cool if you’re big on Foursquare. Automatically add each place you check into to your Google calendar, so when you look back at previous days, you can see everywhere you went without having to log everything in (or God forbid, actually try and remember where you went).

8. If I star an email, create a reminder to take care of it (Try it!)

My personal favorite! Star an email in your inbox, and it automatically gets added to your reminders list, so you can set specific times to take care of it. I usually star emails and forget I’ve starred them at all, so this recipe is sort of perfect. 

9. Keep a log of SMS text messages in Google Drive (Try it!)

This is for Android users only (there may be an iOS option but I’m not sure). Keep a log of all of your text messages automatically in Google Drive. I would love to have this for my phone, because I’m one of those people that gets hesitant to delete my text messages from the people I love!

10. Congratulate your LinkedIn contacts when they get a new job. (Try it!)

I love automated greetings! Especially ones that allow you to care about people when you don’t have the time. This IFTTT recipe allows you to send a ‘congrats on the new job!’ message to any one of your Linkedin contacts that gets a new job. Let them know you care, without having to spend a lot of time on it. 

11. Receive an email when a NYT tech article becomes popular. (Try it!)

Get an email in your inbox once an email from the New York Times ‘Tech’ section becomes popular. Stay up to date with the competition! 

12. Save Instagram photos I like to my iPhone photos. (Try it!)

This one allows you to instantly save Instagram photos to your mobile phone. I love this because I’m always taking screenshots of cool Instagram pictures, and having to crop them later if I want to re-gram them. It’s great to just automatically be able to save the ones you love.

13. Post ‘Happy New Year’ message to Facebook at midnight on New Years Eve. (Try it!)

I think everyone’s a little too busy on New Years eve to be posting to Facebook. Write an elaborate ‘Happy new year!’ message a few hours before the ball drops, and have it automatically post when the clock strikes midnight!

14. Add online receipts/orders to a Google Spreadsheet. (Try it!)

This one is awesome if you do a lot of online shopping! Get all of your online receipts sent to a spreadsheet in Google drive, and keep track of them without having to put them there manually. This would be super handy during Christmas!

15. If you exit an area, turn off Wi-fi to save battery power. (Try it!)

I don’t usually worry about battery power and wi-fi, but I’m sure it would help. This recipe will automatically turn off your wi-fi once you leave an area, so your battery doesn’t die searching for it elsewhere.

16. Get an email when a new product is added to your favorite Etsy shop. (Try it!)

This one is great. Get an email every time a new item is listed in your favorite Etsy shop. Be the first to know about it, because if there’s only one new item available, you’ll be the first to get it!

Welp, that’s it for now! I’m thinking of creating an IFTTT recipe list for bloggers only soon, but I figured this list would be more widely applicable to start out with.

Have you ever used IFTTT? Any good recipes to share? Let me know in the comments below!

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Monique Muro

Monique is an exceedingly happy human from LA. She runs the blog A Novel Quest, and writes. A lot.

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