In Search Of

In honor of Administrative Professional’s Week, I’m doing a 5-part series with simple tips. Today I want to help make your life easier by introducing you to one of my favorite apps.

IMAGE VIA CRUNCHBASE

We recently took a vacation and discovered a wonderful app called Yelp. We’ve probably used it before, but not to the extent we did on vacation. In the “Related Articles” section there is an article titled “The Do’s and Don’ts of Planning a Vacation” and one of their tips is to “do your research.” On past trips I’ve done this (especially with regards to restaurants) either by checking out books from the library (like Zagats guide) or by doing Internet research. Now that we’re living in the age of 4G networks and smartphones, I decided that planning consisted of taking care of the major items (hotels and plane tickets) in advance and waiting to see the mood of the moment when it come to breakfast*, lunch, and dinner.

We were very pleasantly surprised at all the places we found and how well Yelp worked for pricing and ratings. By the middle of the trip, we were depending on Yelp exclusively to help us find food.

About a week after we returned home, my husband and I were planning to go see a friend of mine in a play in a suburb we rarely visit. I realized that I could actually use the same app here in Illinois that I used in California.

Sometimes we do things in a “vacation” mindset or at “at home” mindset and forget that some tools can be multipurpose.**

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*Well – there was only one morning we needed breakfast because most nights the hotel included breakfast.

**I love watching babies in restaurants “discover” the law of gravity. “Let’s see,” says baby, “when I’m at home on my high chair and I drop stuff it falls on the kitchen floor. What happens here.” And then baby realizes, “Not only does stuff fall on the floor, but strangers come and pick my stuff up and smile at me. Let’s try that again.”