Chapter14: TheRemoteWorkers’Toolkit 176 Finally, let’s talk about supercharging your work with automation. Remote workers already have a leg up on productivity, because we have fewer office distractions and can avoid needless in-person meetings. Automation takes yourproductivity to the next level. Cut the repetitive tasks or delegate smaller tasks to others and you’ll preserve your energy for the more important things only you can do best. Here are some tools to help manage outsourcing and automation: VirtualAssistants:IuseFancyHandstooutsourcetasksandmakebetteruse of my time. For about 40 cents per minute you can have your assistants do things you either don’t want to do or don’t have the time for, such as: • Call your wireless carrier to negotiate your cell phone bill • Perform research on a topic you’re investigating or need for your next report, such as the top trending topics on Twitter • Contact Dell about troubleshooting a new laptop that has lines going throughthescreenandfindoutwhatyourserviceoptionsare You might not think you need a service like this, but you’d be amazed at the relief you’ll feel when you have others doing the small tasks that are weighing onyourmind.FancyHandspricingstartsat$30/monthfor5requestsofupto 20minuteseach,andunusedrequestsrollovereachmonth. Text Expanders: Stop typing the same words over and over again. Text expansion tools such as PhraseExpress (Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone; free for personal use or starting at $49.95 for a license) and aText (Mac; $5) auto complete phrases you type often, such as common email replies or snippets of code. They can also quickly insert data such as the current date and time and automatically correct misspellings, saving you hours of typing (and your wrists). Your phone’s built -in text expansion (look in the keyboard settings) also relieve the frustration of tapping tiny keys to enter your email address, name, and other commonwords. More options: See our guide to text expansion for more text ex- panderapprecommendations. App Automation: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Zapier, the service that connects over 900 web apps to automate repetitive tasks. Not sure what to