Technology is a Happy-Enabler
Week four of the #getHaPy challenge is to write down three things you’re thankful for each day for 7 days. So far I’ve written down nine things, three each day for Mon-Wed. I will share all of my thankful thoughts on Sunday in my summary post.
Although the challenge is to be thankful for things that make you happy and feel loved, technology enables me to spend less time working and more time doing fun things with the people I care about. Now that I am deliberately thinking of things I’m thankful for, I realize how thankful I am for technology.
Google might be the greatest enabler of all. I put together a Google slide montage for our trip to Maine in under 30 minutes. That project, back in the day of Microsoft PowerPoint, probably never would’ve happened because pulling the photos and videos into the slides would’ve taken far too much effort. Instead it became a unique roadmap of the trip and added value to the experience.
Today I sat at a coffeeshop, 2,000 miles from my office, and completed a work task in about an hour. All of the information needed was stored on Google Drive. My Excel macro printed PDFs to Google. And then I was able to mass email those PDFs with a Google mail merge. Although I had to work on my vacation, technology allowed me to do it in a timely manner, allowing me to spend my vacation relaxing, which is how a vacation should be spent!
Another example is how I’ve started blogging. This very post was written using Google Keep. It’s a notepad that saves everything to my Google Drive. Instead of typing my blogs on WordPress or in a notepad and then copying to WordPress I can write it throughout the day on whatever Google enabled device I have. Google saves time. And time is what I need to enjoy life.
Technology Allows Freedom
As technology progresses, tasks become easier and easier. With less of our lives being spent on mundane tasks we are able to focus on what truly makes us happy and living on our own terms. Living the way we want to live is what freedom is about. That’s why I’m so thankful for technology, it’s another piece to living free.