For example, do you use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.? If so, managing them all can be very time consuming.

You can use a free service called Ping (Ping.fm). You sign up for an account and enter the login and passwords for all of your [...]]]> Anytime you can use automation to streamline your life, I say, “Do it.”

For example, do you use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.? If so, managing them all can be very time consuming.

You can use a free service called Ping (Ping.fm). You sign up for an account and enter the login and passwords for all of your social networking accounts. Then, all you have to do is update your status (or Micro-blogs or Blogs) once in Ping and it automatically updates all of your social network sites instantly! How cool is THAT?

What else can you automate? That’s a great question to ask yourself on an ongoing basis.

How about bill paying? How much time do you spend manually filling out checks or even paying online for that matter? Paying online is more productive than writing checks, but having your bills paid automatically is even better. It only takes a little time to set this up, but then it’s totally automatic.

More and more companies are offering this service of automatic payments via credit card or bankcard, but read the fine print for any hidden fees. On a side note, I don’t recommend paying bills with a credit card unless you’re highly disciplined and you’re using it to double-dip, for example you get frequent flier miles for every dollar spent using the card, and you pay off the balance entirely every month.

Check with your bank. You may be able to set up automatic payments for free. Go with whatever makes the most sense, not necessarily the most cents. Going through your bank instead of separate companies has the advantage of keeping everything centralized, which is more productive than having to log into multiple company websites when there’s a problem.

Making payments automatically is great for bills that are the same amount every month (cable TV, internet service, fixed rate mortgage/rent, personal loans, karate/gym memberships, etc.). You’ll have to keep a closer eye on bills that fluctuate (utilities, certain phone plans, adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), etc.).

If you use Quick Books (powerful and simple to use accounting program for small businesses) or Quicken (super easy to use personal checkbook program) or some other checkbook program, you can set up recurring transactions in advance that can remind you when they’re about to occur.

(Continued next week.)