5 Alexa features that make working from home so much easier

Losing track of time is easy during remote life. With many of our external time markers removed (from traveling into work or joining coworkers for lunch at the office), things seem to move at strange, fluid speeds. Even during the day, the boundaries between work and life are prone to blurring, and I’ve found myself working past lunch, missing meetings and more while working from home.

It sounds simple, but asking Alexa to remind you to drink water, stretch your legs, log in to that rescheduled Zoom call or any number of other things really can make a difference as you try to keep track of time. Routines are helpful, and Alexa is pretty good at helping you keep them.

Here’s how the smart home will change this year .

While I’m working remotely, my 3- and 4-year old sons are doing homeschooling with their mom in the living room. Each time I have to ask my wife a question, or run out to grab a snack or a glass of water, my kids seize the opportunity to jump down from their work table and grab onto my legs.

I love that I get to be around family more during remote life (even if my wife and I haven’t gotten relief from parenting for nearly two years straight now), but these little moments can be seriously disruptive with easily distractible children.

Thus, using my office Echo’s Drop In feature on the living room Echo Show helps avoid this disruption, allowing me to ask quick questions or see if it’s a good time to come out, or if I should wait for the kiddos to finish one last worksheet or book before making an appearance.

Here’s how to use your Echo as an intercom.

Many of us are working at home without friends or family, but rather with pets. The pandemic has affected domesticated animals in unexpected ways, making many of them clingier, moodier and often harder to care for.

While it won’t solve the larger problem, Alexa can help occupy your pets during the day, giving them a little more independence. Skills like Meow! and Woof!, for instance, are designed to interact with cats and dogs. Others like the Comfort My Dog skill play music to help your pet sleep more soundly.

Here are even more pet-friendly tips.

If you’re not sharing a space with your family or persnickety pets, Alexa is also great for playing music throughout the day. Whether you use Amazon Music, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music or most other streaming services, Alexa’s got you covered.

You can play soothing music to help you ease into the workday, upbeat music to get you amped to hit that deadline by noon and some favorites to celebrate reaching the end of a long day. I often use music as a timer for myself, too: A long song like Sufjan Stevens’ Impossible Soul gives me just enough time to make a big push on an article that needs to get written. Then I stretch, move around, distract myself for a few minutes by chatting with coworkers on Slack and finally get back to writing with a short album, like Earl Sweatshirt’s (appropriately-titled-for-pandemic-life) I Don’t Like S—, I Don’t Go Outside.

Here’s CNET’s review of our favorite speaker: Amazon Echo (4th gen).

If losing track of time is easy during lockdown, losing track of our health (or simply neglecting it) is even easier. I personally discovered I’d gained nearly 10 pounds in the early months of covid, simply because I was leading a more sedentary daily life (not to mention the easy, all-day accessibility of chips). The higher-stress realities of the past year, even setting aside COVID-19, certainly haven’t made fostering a healthy lifestyle easier.

But using Alexa (along with a few other strategies), I caught my slippage early and have actually lost weight on the whole during the pandemic. I’ve used the 7-Minute Workout skill, or just done my own workouts using Alexa’s timers and music skills. Either way, squeezing a little physical activity into your midday routine is just a little easier with a tool like Alexa.

Here are 50 Alexa skills actually worth using.