Tech – Domestic Help
Historical fiction and movies have taught (whether true or
not …) that people in other centuries had domestic help and you might not necessarily
be “super wealthy”. Take Jane Austin
for example. In the instance of Pride
and Prejudice it is made clear form the beginning that the Bennett’s are the
not the highest-ranking family and yet at one point Lizzie’s mother comments
that they are perfectly capable of keeping a cook. Through out the story domestic help is
evident in their daily lives. I would consider given the time period that the
Bennett’s are upper middle class. Well,
in today’s world I am not aware of any upper middle class families that can
afford to “keep a cook”. I know this a
big generalization. ….But work with me here.
In the fast paced, high tech world we live in today – we’re
not quite the Jestson’s with Rosie running the household but we can get some
domestic help for very little investment.
For example at the app store on itunes you can find apps for household
finances, task management, schedule management, cooking, grocery shopping, and
shopping of almost any-kind., etc.
A domestic help app that I’ve come across from Boondoggle,
an advertising firm, I thought was very cleaver! The app is called Winter Wake-Up www.boondoggle.eu/#/case/55. Essentially, this app is an alarm clock. The case study on Boondoggle’s website gives
a lighthearted, explanation of how they arrived at creating an app.
If you live in North America – the first line of their case
study story will through you off a bit – they say that last winter was
particularly bad. They are from the
Netherlands. Apparently, last winter
the advertising agency had a number of people late or miss work altogether due
to the severe weather they experienced. So developing this app became a project of
their own to help staffers get to work on time if weather is a factor. To use this app you simply set the alarm
clock and then set it for a certain number of minutes earlier IF there is going to be frost or more if
there will be snow during your commute. The app simply checks the weather where
you are prior to going off and adjusts accordingly!
Through their website you can find out how to download it
and try it out for yourself. Of course
in today’s over scheduled, too much to do in too little time – those few days
when you can be late and blame it on the weather might not want to be something
you want to give up!
Good Luck this winter to all the commuters out there - I think it's going to be very different from last winter!
Julie Dugas
Principal | Partner