The Darling CEO

Money, Business, and Life Tips for the Working Mom

  • Home
  • Categories
    • Business
    • Personal Finance
    • Productivity
    • Mom Life
    • Customer Experience
  • Services
  • ABOUT
    • Disclosures

October 16, 2019

How Alexa Runs My Mornings

Pin
Tweet
Share
Share

How Alexa Runs My Mornings

I don’t know where I would be without Amazon’s Alexa.   For those that don’t know, Alexa is Amazon’s virtual assistant and she is amazing.

You can access Alexa on a variety of Amazon devices such as the Amazon Echo, Echo Show, and Amazon FireTV.  They even have an Echo Dot exclusively for kids. Amazon has even launched a Alexa powered device for your car and an Input device to turn any speaker into an Alexa-enabled device. Long story short, Alexa is taking over the world and I am here for it.

Alexa makes my life easier.  Especially during our hectic school day mornings.

So how exactly do I use Amazon’s Alexa in the morning?

Alarm

Alexa serves as my alarm clock. I have an Amazon Echo in my master bathroom and through the Alexa app I set a weekday alarm for 5:45am.  Without her I  would sleep my life away (not really, my three and five year old would eventually drag me out of bed).

Additionally, I  have Echo Dots in both of my children’s bedrooms so I set an alarm for each of them. The alarms are necessary because Monday-Friday are the only days that my kids like to sleep in which is super convenient. Also, its is important to note that Alexa is a much more effective alarm than my screaming from the kitchen.

How I use Amazon's Alexa to run our crazy school mornings. Learn the ways that Alexa helps to run our home more efficiently. Alexa alarm Alexa app

 

Calendar

Alexa gives you the ability to link your calendar. Currently, Alexa supports Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Microsoft Exchange (so pretty much most calendars).  Once you link your calendar, you can ask Alexa to tell you what is on your calendar.  You can check your calendar while you are chasing your daughter around trying to brush her hair.  Win-win.

Announcements

When you have multiple Alexa enabled devices in your home, you can utilize them as your own personal PA system.  If I am in the kitchen kitchen finishing breakfast, I  can just tell Alexa to make an announcement that breakfast is done and it will broadcast to all of the devices online.  It sure beats having to scream through the house or run upstairs to let them know

News

Every morning as I am getting breakfast, 2nd breakfast, and the before school snack ready for my kids, I ask Alexa to play my “flash briefing”. The Flash Briefing is a collection of news curated specifically for me.  You have the ability to customize which news outlets you want to hear from.   For me, some of my favorites include NPR, The Daily Skimm, The Wall Street Journal, and the local weather.  It’s a great way to stay caught up with what is going in the world pretty effortlessly.

News Every morning as I am getting breakfast, 2nd breakfast, and the before school snack ready for my kids, I ask Alexa to play my "flash briefing". The Flash Briefing is a collection of news curated specifically for me.  You have the ability to customize which news outlets you want to hear from.   For me, some of my favorites include NPR, The Daily Skimm, The Wall Street Journal, and the local weather.  It's a great way to stay caught up with what is going in the world pretty effortlessly.

Reminders

Probably my very favorite way that we use Alexa in the mornings is by using Alexa to keep us on pace for getting ready. Here is how that works, I set reminders at designated times during the morning.   At 7:30am Alexa announces that it is time for the kids to get dressed,  at 7:45am she reminds my children to get their shoes on, and at 8:00am she reminds us to start walking to the bus stop.   This has been a lifesaver! It is so easy to lose track of time as you are trying to get everyone ready and out the door.  Having these reminders keeps us on pace with time and prevents us from being late.  We are always the first one to the bus stop and Alexa deserves all of the credit.

Music

If we happen to have a few minutes before we need to leave for the bus stop, I ask Alexa to play us some music for an impromptu dance party. It’s a fun and easy way to kill some time and try to get some energy out of the kids before they go to school. I created a Before School Playlist just for this purpose.

Amazon’s Alexa is seriously my favorite gadget (even though it’s not necessarily one gadget). Not only do I  love her, she is an awesome co-parent. My kids seem to listen to her more than myself most mornings. No shame here, I will take all the help I can get.

Have you used Alexa in the mornings?  What skills do you utilize?  I would love to hear! Leave a comment below.

 

Pin Me

How I use Amazon's Alexa to run our crazy school mornings. How we use Alexa to help run our home more efficiently and help this working mom survive the mornings.

Comments

  1. Jaclyn

    October 16, 2019 at 3:27 pm

    Oh these are good suggestions! I am going to set up the new brief ASAP!!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Instagram

We didn’t get a lot of virtual learning done tod We didn’t get a lot of virtual learning done today, but we did learn a lot. 💕
Let’s talk employee engagement... What a lot Let’s talk employee engagement... What a lot of leaders and business owners don’t realize is employee engagement is the #1 factor in business success. You can have the best product, in the best market, but if you don’t have engaged and committed employees, you can only go so far. Just think of the most successful companies-  sure, they may have an awesome product or value-prop.  But what likely sets them apart is a group of dedicated employees that are committed to the work and bringing that vision to life. For example- let’s look at Disney.  Disney world is a theme park.  There are plenty of theme parks. But who is behind the scene creating that Disney magic?  Engaged employees actively seeking out opportunities to delight and wow their guests. When you are thinking about how to grow your business- first assess your own and your team’s engagement.  Do you have a vision and mission that is easy to understand and follow?  Do you make it easy for employees to bring this vision to life? Do you listen and empathize with them? Starting with those questions will ensure that you have the most powerful tool in good working order, which will multiply your success. What is a time that you have been engaged at work? Do you feel that it improved your performance and ultimately the success of your company?
Just think about it- every single failure you have Just think about it- every single failure you have experienced made you wiser.  Failure makes you more resilient, stronger, more resourceful.  What has been the biggest lesson you have learned from failure?
Learning this more each year! Learning this more each year!
I always try to remind myself of this in the darke I always try to remind myself of this in the darkest of times.
Sometimes you just have to dig your heels in and g Sometimes you just have to dig your heels in and get dirty.  However, when you struggle the reward is that much sweeter. ..Tell us a time that you really struggled for something.  What was the reward?

Categories

  • Business
  • Career
  • Customer Experience
  • Home
  • Leadership
  • Mom Life
  • Personal Finance
  • Productivity

Copyright © 2025 · Theme by Blog Pixie

Copyright © 2025 · Montanna on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in