Using Snippets for Your Personal Life

We love all the ways our business customers use TextExpander on a team and individual basis.
But did you know, you can also use TextExpander in your personal life? We continue to come across new ways to use TextExpander on a daily basis, and we hope this post serves as inspiration to find even more of your own. Don’t forget to drop us a line on Twitter if you’ve found a snippet that’s changed the game for you.

We’ve broken our personal life snippets into some easy categories to get you started. If you’re looking to build snippets to organize your dinner dates, quickly show your partner you care, or help out your lost delivery drivers, we hope you enjoy.

Snippets For Life Admin

“Life admin” is a term we came across with thanks to this piece on writer Elizabeth Emens. It refers to all the chores and to-do lists we do for ourselves every day. These are things like booking that doctor’s appointment, ordering your multivitamin, and replying to all the messages and emails that get backed up throughout your day.

Set up your personal details

Writing this post was a wake-up to how many work details get set up, versus the lack of personal ones. If you haven’t already, this is a reminder to add your personal phone number, email addresses, and home address ASAP. If your home is hard to find without help, build a snippet that contains the directions you’d usually share. Beyond that, you could add any account numbers that come up frequently for you, and add the details of anyone close to you whose details you find yourself retyping on the regular.

Set up your commonly used phrases

If it’s something you type out regularly, it’s time to create a snippet. Anything from “love you lots”, “see you later,” or “I’m outside, can you let me in?” deserves a snippet. We all have our little quirks we find ourselves saying to just about everyone, so save your future typing self the time and thank yourself later.

Snippets for Friends

Making plans made easy
So much of our time spent messaging friends revolves around making plans, and snippets can be a total gamechanger. One favorite is “I’m busy that night, are you free ______?” with a fill-in option to suggest a date.

Snippets can be set up for temporary needs too, like organizing a ​specific event where you find yourself sharing the same details on repeat. Instead of copying and pasting invite details for a holiday get-together or birthday party, set up a quick snippet and you’re good to go.

You can also set up a dropdown snippet to offer an explanation of why you can’t attend a get-together: “So sorry, I can’t make it because I have spin class/football practice/work.”

Create snippets that help you stay connected

Sometimes when life gets busy it can feel challenging to stay in touch with friends or family, which is why we suggest setting up a range of snippets for the check-ins you usually type to your loved ones. Go back through your messages to see what you send most frequently, and then save them in TextExpander to make caring for your favorites much easier.

Oftentimes we’ll receive messages when we’re out and about or in the midst of a task we can’t leave, and forget to follow up when we’re done. Snippets that say “Sorry, I’m out/busy at the moment but I can message you when I’m free at X” or “I’m at work at the moment but I finish at 5.30, so feel free to call back then” can be lifesavers. Instead of getting behind or accidentally ignoring folks, create some snippets that let them know when you’ll be free to catch up later.

Snippets for Partners

For a lot of us, our other half is the person we speak to the most. Snippets can make it quicker and easier to stay in touch.

Set up snippets for your reminders

Avoid the friction that can happen over forgetting the small but important things in life. Create reminders like “Don’t forget the kids have soccer Tuesday at 7” and “On the way home, could you grab XYZ from the store?”

You could also add simple snippets for things like “Can you take out the dog?”, fill-in snippets for time-sensitive messages like “I’ll be home at X”, and even drop-down snippets like “Don’t forget we’re meeting my parents/your friends/the kids’ teachers.”

Make snippets for the most important stuff

If you usually type “ily”, here’s your cue to create a snippet that changes it to “I love you.” We’ve found it really sweet to create snippets like “Can I take you out for dinner tonight, my treat?” Even the process of creating these snippets serves as a prompt to send them out in future.

Snippets for Parents

There’s a lot to remember and organize as a parent, and the human brain really isn’t designed to recall everything we would like it to. We absolutely love it when our users tell us about the personal snippets they use to make parenting tasks easier.

Consider saving the phone number of your child’s school, the email address of their teacher, the address of their kindergarten: get them out of your mind and into a snippet. If your child is on medication, include the name and dose for when they’re staying over at their friends’ homes. If they have specific allergies, then add them to a snippet, too.

Takeaways

We know lots of users create mostly work snippets, but so many of us are forcing ourselves to remember details that our brains aren’t designed to hold

Tackle life admin by adding the info that you need most – even directions for delivery drivers can come in handy.

Use TextExpander to make plans with friends and family, with snippets about when you’re available

Create snippets for the important stuff: make check-ins easier, and stay contactable when you’re unable to send full replies

As a parent there are a lot of things we have to remember for our kids; get into a routine of adding ones that come up repeatedly to free up headspace

If we’ve managed to whet your appetite for more TextExpander tips, try these next:

9 Work-From-Home Snippets That’ll Make You a PRO Remote Employee

Speed Through Web Forms and Emails with Programmatic Tabbing in TextExpander

Top Time-Saving Tips and Shortcuts for Freelancers