Being Productive With Siri, Your New Personal Assistant

A technologist and author who shares advice on personal productivity, inventiveness and how to use applied science to get things washed. Read full profile

The other day we detailed some of our favorite iOS v tips and tricks. Today nosotros are going to expect at the awesome things that you can do with Siri on the iPhone 4S (or if you are a hacker blazon, on the iPhone 4, too).

Siri is very much a beta product, merely tin can give the user some handy ways to exercise things quickly while not interrupting their workflow. First we will outline some of the quick things that yous tin do with Siri to get things done.

Sending messages and emails

It'south super easy to send messages and emails with Siri. Outset, activate Siri and say "Send email to" or "Send message to Rutherford, I will be late for the party". Siri will empathise this natural type of language and will respond with something like,

"Here is your messages to Rutherford. It says, "I volition be late for the political party". Ready to send it?"

From hither you tin do a number of things. You tin respond by saying "modify it" or "change it" to wipe out the message portion and outset over. You can say "no" or "cancel" to cancel the message entirely. Or y'all can simply reply "yeah", "send information technology", or "confirm" to transport the message.

One of my favorite ways to transport text letters with Siri is to say, "tell Amy that I will be home in well-nigh fifteen minutes". The fact that I can say "tell Amy" is so natural that information technology reduces the friction betwixt me and my productivity tool allowing me to just use information technology.

Calling businesses and other things

To call a business or identify that isn't in your address book but say, "Call Big Daddy's Steak Business firm." Siri will respond, "I don't see Big Daddy's steak house in your address volume. Should I await for businesses by that name?"

Reply "yes" or "no". If Siri finds it she volition inquire you if she should call the business. Simply respond "yes" or "no".

You can likewise find businesses and places in unlike towns or cities (simply in the Usa for now) past proverb, "Call 'some business proper noun' in Houston, Texas."

Calling a number is every bit simple as dialing it out loud. "Call 8675309."

Taking notes on the become

I don't use the stock Notes app on the iPhone much (read: not at all) as I am a patently text kind of guy, just with the addition of Siri to the iPhone 4S, the notes app may deserve another await.

To make a note with Siri simply say, "Note, this is a really important notation!" A note volition be created with that said text. To create a note with a "championship" say, "Create a 'inbox items' notation". Siri volition know that this is the "inbox items" annotation then you lot tin can use that name to add to it with "Add, think about what to buy mom for her birthday to my 'inbox items' note".

Siri will "tend to" add this to your note that has already been started. I've had problem with this one merely when it does work (I'd say 8 times out of 10) information technology is extremely useful.

Setting appointments, timers, alarms and reminders

If you have noticed yet, I love only how conversational Siri can be. With that, setting appointments, timers, alarms, and reminders is one of the easiest things you can practise with Siri. In fact, y'all may not fifty-fifty need to know the exact "syntax" to these things as just saying something like, "set a timer for 4 minutes" will produce a running timer.

Calendar appointments

Say, "Set up an appointment (or meeting) at 6pm side by side Monday with my wife." Yous can even say something like, "set upwards a meeting with Mike Vardy every Friday at 3:00am". This volition brand a recurring date in your calendar as well as invite Mike Vardy (equally long as he is in your address book) to the meeting when you confirm information technology.

Timers and alarms

I utilise these all the time at work because they are so piece of cake to practise. Say, "setup a timer for 25 minutes". Done.

For alarms say, "set up an alert for tomorrow at 4:45AM". You tin can even say something similar "gear up an alert for every Monday, Midweek, and Friday at 6AM".

Reminders

We covered reminders in the last iOS v guide, and even though that Apple's implementation of tasks is pretty bang-up for a first stab, Reminders won't exist replacing my GTD arrangement of choice any fourth dimension shortly. But, reminders gets much, much more useful now that I tin can create them with Siri.

Setting up reminders for when I leave my firm or when I arrive at work feels like I'grand living in the 2000's finally.

To setup a reminder say something like, "set a reminder for when I leave home to call back to grag the TPS reports." Or "set a reminder for 6PM this night to cease and get my wife roses."

The "Hacks"

OK, so all of the cool things you can practice with Siri are awesome. But what about some things that aren't supported out of the box? Accept a look below for some of our favorites.

Add a chore to your favorite todo list app, notes app, etc.

Adding tasks to services similar Toodledo, RTM, or even OmniFocus requires a lilliputian setup, merely is pretty like shooting fish in a barrel to do. In fact, on the RTM blog they simply posted a manner to add together tasks to the native Reminders app and accept it sync with RTM. Nosotros are going to bear witness you a more generic way to do this though that you lot can do with whatsoever service that allows email or text input.

At that place are a agglomeration of web services that allow you to add items over email or even text message. Some of the ones that come to heed are Twitter, Toodledo, Evernote, OmniFocus, Recollect the Milk, Springpad, etc.

Let's take Evernote for case:

To send a note to Evernote from Siri setup a contact in your iPhone's address volume called Evernote. An even ameliorate thing to do is to setup 2 contacts. One with the First Name 'Evernote' and another with the kickoff name 'Ever' and the last name 'Note'. This volition ensure that Siri won't screw up recognizing when you say "Evernote". Next, put your "send to Evernote" email into your Evernote'due south contact info.

Afterwards this activate Siri and say "Tell Evernote that I have to rethink the manner that we are going to launch the site". Siri will read it back to you lot and so you can confirm the send.

This proves to be ane of the near powerful things that I can get my iPhone 4S to do.

Setting up Twitter

It seems like a total misstep that Apple didn't add Twitter support out of box. What'southward even weirder is that Siri knows what Twitter is but just won't help you out in Tweeting.

Bad Siri.

But there is a way to get around this. Make a contact called "Twitter" in your address book with the standard SMS number of '40404'. Also, you lot have to setup Tweeting by SMS on Twitter.com or over your telephone by sending your password. After the initial setup, say, "tell Twitter that sending messages from Siri is awesome". Siri should reply with her familiar "Here'due south your message to Twitter. Prepare to send it?"

Prepare up adding to OmniFocus inbox with Siri

For you OmniFocus nerds out at that place, here is how y'all tin send to your inbox with Siri (that is until the geniuses at The OmniGroup bring us something meliorate). Yous need OmniFocus for your Mac with the Post.app rules setup. Refer to this OmniGroup forum posting to ready that up.

Next, prepare upwardly an OmniFocus contact similar I outlined above for Evernote. For your electronic mail address, use 1 that is ready up in your Mail service.app but instead of the regular electronic mail address, add together '+omnifocus' earlier the '@' symbol. For example:

Your email is "my_email@instance.com". Utilise the email "my_email+omnifocus@example.com" for your OmniFocus contact info.

At present use Siri by proverb "tell OminFocus that I need to grab some coffee when I become to the store". The next time yous sync with your OF database you should see your new inbox item.

Siri on productivity

Since nosotros have only had a limited time with Siri, there will of course be more and more neat tricks uncovered as fourth dimension goes on. But, I can already tell just how important this style of interacting with your iPhone will modify productivity in the coming years.

I had a huge realization the other day when I had my earbuds in listening to music and programming. Something came to listen that was totally unrelated. I always have newspaper next to me to jot quick notes and reminders downwardly and so come back to them to process. Instead, I long held my headset push and said, "tell OmniFocus 'such and such that I needed to call up'". So I went dorsum to listening to music and working. Later, when I was processing my inbox I realized that I captured something into my organization with the to the lowest degree amount of resistance that I accept ever experienced.

Now, I'm not proverb that Siri is perfect. Not by whatever means. I'chiliad also non maxim that Apple has invented voice recognition and we should blindly follow and worship them. What I am saying is that Apple has provided consumers with the first accessible voice recognition and, dare I say, artificial intelligence that normal people tin utilize. At that place tin can be a bit of a learning curve to get Siri to practice exactly what you want information technology to do, merely for the well-nigh part information technology is intuitive and extremely useful.

Good productivity tools are the ones that are useful and can stay out of your way. Siri accomplishes this task and I can't wait to utilize information technology more and more in my everyday workflows.

priestdinacker.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/being-productive-with-siri-your-new-personal-assistant.html