I use a few important tools for communicating with clients in my freelance work. A separate email, a Google Voice phone number with a separate voicemail, and a Calendly account to schedule meetings and calls. All of which, I can never remember. So every time that I need to give someone one of these pieces of information, I have to go into Evernote, look it up, copy it, and paste it into a message. It’s been driving me insane and after remembering that I have a little shortcut on my computer and phone that helps me write more clearly, I finally came up with a good solution to my space-brain tendencies of forgetting my own phone number.
I love keyboard shortcuts and a few years ago I added the text shortcut “chip chu” to autocorrect “thing” in my iPhone and MacBook. It was an attempt to improve my writing so that I was more specific about what I was referring to; a habit that was ingrained into my head by my 9th-grade English teacher. Thanks Mrs. V. That shortcut has worked really well for me and I decided to use the same technique to help me with my links and phone number. On my MacBook I went to > System Preferences > Keyboard > Text and (here’s an article on how to add text shortcuts on mac) added the following shortcuts:
[aw] –> my personal email
[cl] –> my Calendly link
[ctc] –> my work email
[ctcp] –> my work phone
[ctcw] –> my work website
It works really well and I am super pleased. For now, while I remember the shortcuts, I have a post-it note on my monitor as a reminder. I know that this sounds a little bit like cheating for a “first creation of the day” but I had to flex some creative muscles to come up with the actual shortcuts and this is a hack that will surely bring me enjoyment for years to come!