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Tips for Making Your Office/Home “Smarter” with Wireless Tech

Written by Posted On Monday, 31 July 2017 07:52

Smart homes are the “in” thing right now. It has never been cheaper or easier to smarten up your home with tech. But you can also do the same to your office. For me, my office has always been my home anyway. I have a room in the back of my house where I do all of my dealings and where I conduct all of my business, but this so happens to be the most advanced room in my home and that has helped me to be more efficient.

Also, it looks cool and I get to show off to friends an family, which is always a plus.

Security

CCTV cameras are a must in every working environment and indeed in any home where a business is operational. Not only are they a great deterrent, but they can help to cut down on small scale and large scale theft as well as other crimes in and around the office. You can get a full CCTV system for under £100 these days, they really are very cheap.

You may also want to look into WiFi deadbolts. I’m dubious of this tech right now, but I like the idea. Simply put, they are sturdy deadbolts that connect to the Wi-Fi and can be opened via the correct code on your smartphone.

Automate Everything

For a few hundred quid you can automate most simple tasks in your home. With a couple of standard pieces of kit, such as Philips Hue and Qmotion, you can control everything from the lighting to the blinds/curtains and more from your smartphone. It sounds like a gimmick, but it does come in handy. What’s more, it’s not a simple off-on with the lighting and there are many degrees of brightness to choose, as well as many shades of color.

Electronic Doorbells

These are a must for anyone who works from home. As my office is at the back of the house I have to traverse the entire house to get to the front door. If I then find out it’s a salesman, then I’m not best pleased. And if you work from home and are in during the day, you’ll get your fair share of salesmen.

At the same time, I can’t afford not to answer the door incase it’s an important package, so I installed an electronic doorbell. There are many of these products out there but they all work toward the same goal. They are Wi-Fi doorbells that will let you see and talk to the person at the door. They can connect to your phone or computer so that you don’t even need to be home to talk to them.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll use it to get an eye-full of the person at the door and then decide whether you want to tell them to hold on for a moment, or just ignore them and wait for them to pester the neighbors. It is usually the latter.

Maintenance

If you have plants in your office space then you may want to look at self-watering planters. I only just discover that these are a thing and I think they are brilliant. I'm not lazy enough to get one myself, but if you have a large office space then they could be essential. Devices like the Cubico 40 will allow you to have fresh plants in your office (always good for inspiration) without having to worry about them dying on you.

Twine

First seen at The Smart Future, this product allows you to monitor everything from the temperature to leaks, open doors and more. I have something similar in my small office and that extends to my home, but this is really better suited for large office spaces. It’s a way of overseeing everything that goes on in your office without being intrusive.

Google Cloud Print

If you had to put your money on company taking over the world, it would probably be Google. It seems that they have their fingers in every possible pie. I know many investors who have invested in Google because of this. Most of what they do goes on behind the scenes and the general public doesn’t pay them much heed, but they are increasingly creating tech that finds its way into our homes.

The Google Home Hub is a good example of this. I have this in my home, but I have the Amazon hub in my office. The latter is so much better for the working environment. That may not apply if you’re in the US, but here in the UK we’re not able to take advantage of all Google’s features and that leaves Amazon’s device way ahead.

But I do like the Google Cloud Print. This works for my small office and home, but it would also be brilliant for any large office space. It lets you print anywhere and from any device, and there is no fiddling with printers, no need to buy expensive peripherals. There are also many more smart home devices being created by Google who will likely dominate this industry in years to come.

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Michael is an investor with a small property empire. He writes for FreelanceWithUs.com and well as other writing, business and real estate blogs. He also owns his own careers website, NorthCentralCareers, where he advises on top jobs. Get in touch to learn more.

https://northcentralcareers.com

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