When you roll out of bed and smell that freshly brewed coffee first thing in the morning, there’s a good chance that it’s due to automation. If you have a programmable coffee maker that you set up the night before so that your coffee is ready when you wake up, you’ve just incorporated one aspect of automation into your daily life. People regularly incorporate automation into their daily lives in many ways. Here is a look at some of those ways.

• Voice Mail -

When a call to your home or cell phone is answered by your voice mail because you are unavailable, you are taking advantage of one form of automation. The fact that your voice messaging system can “automatically” take a message for you is an example of automation.

• Tivo -

People who use Tivo or other types of DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) to record movies or television shows are using automation. You are setting your DVR up so that at a certain time on a certain day, you can record this program or movie onto the DVR hard drive. You set it up to turn off when the movie or television show is over. You are then free to watch the program whenever you want.

• Microwaveable meals

When you purchase a microwaveable meal and all you have to do is take the meal out of the packaging, cut a vent in the plastic and put it into the microwave for however long, you are using automation. Every time you buy something that is pre-cooked and you can heat it up in the microwave, you are taking advantage of another type of automation.

• Paying bills online

The ability to pay your bills online is a form of automation. With a few clicks of your computer mouse, your bill is automatically paid. The fact that some companies even allow you to set up an automatic bill reminder system is another form of automation. You no longer have to write a check and go somewhere to buy stamps and mail the bill.

• Online banking

When you do your banking online, you are using automation with everything you do in the way of online banking. If you transfer money from one account to another, that is automation. When you download your bank statement so that it is automatically reconciled with your accounting program, you are using automation.

• Computer money management software programs

When you use a software program to keep track of your checking account, your credit card accounts and all sorts of other accounts, you are using automation. The fact that you can keep records in one central place and do it all online so that you no longer have to do the calculations yourself, you are definitely taking advantage of automation.

• Everything on the Internet

Whenever you are on the Internet, whether it is to surf the Web, to send and check e-mail, to chat with someone, to talk to someone via computer, you are using automation. When you watch movies or television on the computer, you are using automation again. These things are all time and money savers that enhance the quality of your overall life. Sure, we could all live without these conveniences, but we would have to spend a considerable amount of time to accomplish these things. Automation has made it possible to accomplish things instantaneously.

• Shopping on the Internet

When you shop online, you are taking advantage of automation in the extreme. You can sit in the comfort of your own home and purchase anything you need. You can then request that a gift be sent to a recipient, gift wrapped and all, or you can request that the merchandise be sent to you. In that case, you are able to have a purchase delivered to your door, and you never had to leave the house to make that purchase.

There are countless ways by which we can incorporate automation into our daily life. The most obvious and convenient of these ways is through the things we do on the computer, the ways we use automation for cooking or making coffee, or even the use of automation to record television shows, sports events and movies that we may not be able to watch at the time they are on. Digital Video Recording even makes it possible to record something while watching something else. We take advantage of automation when booking airline tickets and travel arrangements online and then when we go to check in before the flight. Automation has revolutionized modern life and given us a wealth of conveniences that make life a lot easier in every respect.