Turning "It Just Works" Into a Lifestyle

How your day to day can feel like setting up a new iPhone.

Happy weekend everyone!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how good it feels when things do what they are supposed to do. I remember the early 2000’s were filled with claims made by Steve Jobs that Apple products “just work”. And for any of you that have purchased a new product from Apple, you’re probably familiar with what that means.

Take a new pair of AirPods for example: when I opened the small box they came in, I was presented with a clean white AirPods Pro case. As soon as I opened the case, my iPhone pinged me, asking if I had just purchased a new pair of AirPods. I tapped ‘yes’ and that was it. They were paired. They showed up in the Find My app. And I never had to ask my iPad or MacBook to pair them, they just knew to switch when I needed them to.

Little things like that make my day. I’m weird like that I guess! As I’ve tried to figure out how to capture that feeling of seamlessness, I discovered an extremely valuable principle: everything needs to go in one place.

Apple’s Ecosystem works, in part, because all of its devices are strictly bound to one another. This makes simple tasks that much simpler to accomplish. Likewise, in our own lives, I think it’s important to contain all of that excess clutter in a single location.

For example, think about the last time you were at a new doctor. When you’re in the waiting room, you have to fill out all of that new patient paperwork. As you fill everything out, you’re asked for your insurance provider and ID, names of any prescriptions you’re currently using, and a plethora of other questions.

If you’re anything like me, your mind goes blank as soon as you get to the first question! Sometimes this may warrant a call to a significant other for clarification, or even worse, a call to a provider.

Now imagine if all of that information was safely stored in your Notes app. Think beyond our doctor’s office example to getting your car’s oil changed, or signing back into your old Netflix account on a new device. How many times in our life are we stumbling around trying to recall bits of information in the heat of the moment?

For me, turning “it just works” into a lifestyle means getting everything I could ever need in an easily accessible place so that when the time arrives, it’s no sweat. On my website I have a blog post about what that looks like on my phone. But that’s where I’ll leave this. What are you doing to make things “just work” in your life?

Jake