Erik Osterman

Every self-respecting Life Hacker needs to have a post touting their own Best Practices for tackling life’s inefficiencies. Well, here are mine. I use all of these on a regular basis.

Use PayTrust as your permanent billing address and universal bill payer

• Reduces the volume of junkmail
• Increases your privacy
• Multiple funding accounts

Use Evernote for everything

• I have no more physical files; I’ve scanned every document going back to ’97
• Access insurance binders, medical records, eBooks, etc from one application
• Use as primary bookmarking log; keeps original snapshot of the page that you can search (like your own Google)
• To share screenshots with people over IM
• Save serial numbers & digital copies of software
• Print to Evernote to save all electronic confirmations

Use 1Password for keeping your passwords secure

• Keeps your “Key Chain” in sync with all other devices
• Autocompletes Credit Cards, Forms, Addresses, etc
• Works on iOS, OSX, Windows and in all standard browsers

Use CardMunch for importing all business cards

• Uses Mechanical Turk for crowd sourced data-entry; beats OCR any day
• Integrates with LinkedIn

Use LinkedIn for managing all professional contacts

• Living Resume complete with recommendations
• Professional forum for interaction
• Use Resume Builder to export your resume in a professional format

Use Mint.com to get an overview of all finances

• Supports every financial institution I use
• If your financial institution is not supported, you should consider moving your money else where

Use ConnectedHQ.com as your personal CRM

• Set reminders for when to follow up with people
• Overview of what your contacts are doing on all connected social networks

Use an IronKey to protect your utmost sensitive data

• Tamper-proof, hardware encrypted USB stick
• Self-destructs if too many unlock failures

Use Amazon Prime

• Buy anything that’s out of your way from Amazon; e.g. Trader Joe’s doesn’t carry shaving cream, salon products, etc.

Use the Jing Screen Recorder

• To communicate bugs to tech support; spend less time describing the problem by just illustrating it

Use iCloud (Formerly MobileMe) for device synchronization and discovery

• If your an Apple fan-boy as myself, then just sticking with *Mac makes everything so much smoother
• Google Sync + iCloud sync does NOT work; constant contact duplication and problems with UTF8 names
• Find lost iPhones and Macs
• Remote wipe stolen or lost devices
• Over-the-air backups of iOS devices (including Photos!)

Use Automator on the Mac with shortcuts to scan to Evernote

• I use Command+E to automatically scan whatever is in my HP-e710 directly into Evernote
• Eliminates the frequent run-around going to the MFP

Use One Medical for doctors visits

• Same day appointments
• Direct access to your doctor via email

Use Google Voice

• One permanent number that rings any device when and how you want it to
• Spam caller detection + Call blocking (“Sorry, the number you have dialed is no longer in service”)
• Voice mail transcription means you receive voicemails as emails
• Free SMS

Use Sipgate.com for your own SIP phone

• This allows me to bring my phone with me when I travel (works overseas!)
• Allows me to have my landline both at my house via a cordless handset and on my laptop
• Cheap calling rates and no monthly usage fees

Use Facebook Messenger on the iPhone

• Easy way to get ahold of my friends for free.
• No more of that “What Apps”, BlackBerry Messenger BS.

Use Google Apps for all your private domains

• Hosting your own SMTP/IMAP server is so passe
• I’ve had 100% uptime for the past 5-6 years
• No service has better spam detection

Use DropBox

• To keep your Desktop in sync with all your devices
• To remotely start torrents
• To sync and backup your encrypted 1Password Agile KeyChain

Use Airport Extreme

• To wirelessly backup all your devices without you having to remember to do anything
• Act as your home router

Use GPG Tools for the Mac

• To cryptographically sign all your outgoing mail
• To encrypt/decrypt mail
• To keep a manage your GPG Key Chain

Use FreshBooks for invoicing

• Simpler to use than QuickBooks if you can get away with it
• Automatically send invoices on a schedule via snail mail or email

Use an Accountant to handle all your taxes

• I can’t keep up with the tax codes and special deductions available
• Just hand them the keys to Mint.com
• Especially handy when receiving numerous 1099s
• A resource you can ask questions as they come up

Use Ubercab for getting around San Francisco

• All you need is your phone; no cash or credit cards; tip included in fare
• Arrives FAST
• Courteous, professional drivers

Use 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring

• Because if your life is now hosted in SaaS, you’re vulnerable to identify theft; it’s just a matter of time
• For the piece of mind

Use TripIt.com to keep track of all your travel itineraries

• Most useful for complex travel plans involving multiple legs
• Handy iPhone app so you can view all flights from a single application

Use PagerDuty.com for on call alert notifications

• Calls you when your stuff is down; SMS is so 90s
• Supports on-call calendars so you don’t have to manage it yourself
• Import on-call calendars straight into iCal

Please share the tips and tricks you use! I’d love to hear them.