Upgrading Outlets to USB with DIYZ

Disclosure: This post is in collaboration with the DIYZ® app. All opinions of apps and companies that help me complete DIY projects are my own.

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One thing I hear all of the time from my family and kids is that I often forget to charge their tablets. My best excuse it that I have no idea where the chargers are or that I can’t find the big brick blocks that are required to charge these things. Fact is, it’s just a USB cable connected to some power. You can now upgrade your home outlets to include a USB port so you can charge your devices. Isn’t the future great? For this Mother’s Day, the kids and I are doing a little home upgrades. Mommy will be so proud.

Outlet-with-Tablets

Now, I am a pretty technical person but when it comes to electricity, I can get a little freaked out. I need to be sure I am doing everything right so I don’t hurt myself, or someone else. That’s where this awesome app called DIYZ comes in. I downloaded the app to my phone and got right to it. It is a very easy to use app with a plethora of projects to look through for every DIY skill level. Each project includes step-by-step instructions and even the option to live video-chat with a professional contractor if you need it. The Pro Advisors are available Monday through Friday from 6:00 PM – 1:00 AM ET and on weekends from 8:00 AM – 1:00 AM ET. Check it out and #GetWise! The DIYZ® app is free to download and is available in the Apple App Store for iPhone and Google Play for Android. For a limited time, the video-chat feature is also FREE!

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I easily found the project I needed and started going through it step-by-step. First, I needed to make sure I had all the tools needed, and within each project on the DIYZ® app you can easily browse a list of tools for each project with the option to purchase directly in the app via Amazon, if you don’t already have them. Doesn’t get much easier than that. I thought this project was going to be easy as I already had all the tools that were listed, so I was ready to get started right away. But first I figured I would get the kids involved in this as well. It is good for them to get experience with tools and get some hands on #DIYZ experience.

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So the first thing you always need to do when working with any sort of electricity is to turn off the breaker. Always be sure to double check that the flow of electricity has been cut with a none contact voltage tester, just to be sure no current is still going through. With all tools in hand and the electricity turned off, we were ready to start the removal of the old outlets. I picked up a couple outlets so we have some options on where we plug in our devices. We decided to start in the kitchen.

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The kids removed the screws from the outlet covers first and then they unscrewed the outlets themselves. I did all of the wiring. It was fun working with them on this little project using the DIYZ® app. The app really helps make the job a lot simpler and set my nerves at ease when working with something like electricity.

WireOutlet

There also wasn’t a big mess, and now Mom will be super happy being able to charge her devices just about anywhere in our home. The new outlets were unveiled on Mother’s Day and my wife was so proud of her kids’ hard work. It was a big hit in our home and I am finally out of the dog house when it comes to charging the kids’ tablets!

Dad-Daughter-Outlet-App

Be sure to follow DIYZ on these social channels and download the app today!

DIYZ Homepage: https://www.diyz.com
DIYZ Blog: https://www.diyz.com/blog
DIYZ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DIYZApp
DIYZ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DIYZ_App / @DIYZ_app
DIYZ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diyz_app / @DIYZ_app
DIYZ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/diyzmobileapp
DIYZ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVRsZ1NjtnDAU5JkhXEjyBg/

“This post is in collaboration with the DIYZ® app. All opinions of apps and companies that help me complete DIY projects are my own.”

#ISleepTo Be Amazing

 

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Sleep. It is probably my favorite thing to do. Yeah, kids, wife, family, etc. They are all amazing and awesome to be around but sleep, oh sleep, it is quiet. It is relaxing. It is dreamy, literally.

Sleeping is how I reset and recharge my body as well as my mind. It’s important for everyone to get rest. Unfortunately for some it’s easier than others. My wife and I have had plenty of conversations about how “easy” it is for me to fall asleep, while she may lay restless for hours before finally getting just a fraction of sleep she feels like she could have gotten. Enter sleep monitoring.

SleeptrackerWe could wear a special bracelet or some other wearable device but for us, that just doesn’t work. Personally, I don’t think they are fashionable. I’m happy with my nice beautiful watch and don’t need another gadget that I have to charge on my wrist. Beautyrest to the rescue. Their Sleeptracker monitor was a great solution to a specific need. The Beautyrest Sleeptracker monitor is super simple to setup. Just place the sensors under your mattress where you sleep (in-line with your pillows), plug the wires into the processor, sync up to the app, and you are ready to go. I was very curious how my data would come back. For forever I have always told my wife that it probably takes me about seven minutes to fall asleep. I never measured this so I was excited to learn that after the first night my “Time To Sleep” was six minutes. Six minutes! That’s awesome! After a few more days my “Time To Sleep” has averaged out to 18 minutes. I think I can get that average back down after using the product more.

The other data provided was incredible. Avg heart rate, breathing rate, efficiency, deep, light and REM sleep times, and more. Since I was already confident in how well I sleep I wasn’t surprised to see good percentages with just about everything. What I was surprised to see is that I don’t sleep as much I as I think I should. On a day when my wife let me “sleep-in,” my data was awesome. I need more days like that.

IMG_8494Because I already feel like I sleep pretty good I wasn’t sure how I could use Beautyrest’s Sleeptracker monitor to improve my sleep but then it happened. So when the unit came in the mail and I got it setup it was a work week, so I wasn’t sure about using the Sleep Cycle Alarm feature. I didn’t want to be late. Typically, I have my alarm clock set for 5:30A.M. and 5:50A.M. (just in case). Most of the time I am hitting snooze from 5:30 all the way to 5:50. This has two repercussions; 1) doesn’t make my wife happy and 2) I sometimes wake up groggy, even though I knew I got plenty of sleep I wasn’t sure why. So I started looking at the graphs in the app. I noticed that a lot of times I am in REM sleep right before I wake up. I read that it is best to wake up when you are in light sleep, so I decided to try out the Sleep Cycle Alarm. Instead of setting an alarm to go off at specifically 5:30, you give it a range of say 5:30-6:00, the Sleep Cycle Alarm will work with the senors and determine when you are at your lightest sleep and sound the alarm at that time. If you are not in a light sleep stage by the end of the range then the alarm will sound regardless.

So with this data I was able to use the Sleep Cycle Alarm to start waking me up during my lightest sleep. In turn I have actually been waking up just a little bit earlier than usual but I feel pretty good when I wake up too. Even though I know I can hit snooze, I don’t and I start my day. I feel so much better because of this change.

As I said earlier, sleeping is how I reset and recharge my body as well as my mind. It’s how I become amazing. If I am tired and groggy, I’m not amazing. Beautyrest’s Sleeptracker monitor is proving how getting a little bit of data can make a difference. When at home I can’t be in a bad mood because I didn’t sleep great or having an alarm go off at the wrong time. The same goes for work. Being as amazing as me just doesn’t happen overnight. It takes precision planning and sleep monitoring.  Oh and that photo at the top. That’s me monitoring my sleep. It’s as easy as that. Credit to my wife for taking the photo. I’m glad she highlighted my nose. Look at the size of that thing. Yikes! #ISleepTo be amazing.

I have partnered with Life of Dad and Beautyrest for this campaign, but my opinions are my own.

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World Backup Day 2017

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It’s that time of the year again. Time to backup all of your data. Obviously you shouldn’t wait a whole year to do this but if it hasn’t been done, now is your reminder. I wrote about World Backup Day last year and provided a few tips and tricks for backing up your data.

Now that another year has passed so I figured I could offer up a few other ideas on how you could keep your data backed up and ready in case of a failure.

googlephotosWhen you’re dealing with personal backups typically, not always but most of the time the main thing users will want backed up is their photos and videos. They have thousands of them on their phones, tablets, and computers. Google has released Google Photo Backup a couple years ago and it is so easy to implement on your devices.

Just head on over to Google.com/Photos and download the PC/Mac app, or head over the app store for your mobile device and search for Google Photo Backup. Download and install and follow the prompts. If you choose the lower quality setting on your devices you basically end up with unlimited storage! Don’t think that the lower quality will diminish your photos, the quality is still there unless you are shooting in RAW or some other ridiculously high quality format. Your basic phone photos will still look fantastic.

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If you have data that isn’t photos or videos you can still easily back them up using Google’s Drive application. Just create a free account and then just drag and drop your files to the Drive. You are limited in space but you can purchase additional storage for a very reasonable price.

So if you haven’t started your backups, you better get going. World Backup Day is on a Friday this year, so if you are looking for something to do this weekend, now you got it.

If you are still unsure of how to protect your data visit the WorldBackupDay.com website and get some good tips on what you can do to make sure your data is backed up and safe.

THE WORLD BACKUP DAY PLEDGE

“I solemnly swear to backup my important documents and precious memories on March 31st.”

I will also tell my friends and family about World Backup Day – friends don’t let friends go without a backup.

TAKE THE PLEDGE ON

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Tracking My Health with 1byOne

IMG_7394Well, I’m getting older and when you get older there are things that you take for granted when you were younger that matter much more as you age. 1byOne has done it again with their fantastic scale. This particular device has many cool features that can assist greatly with tracking your wellness.

Once the scale arrived I opened it up out of it’s nicely designed package and popped in the batteries. That is always a plus, including batteries. There have been plenty of times where I have purchased something not realizing I needed batteries to go with it. So I am thankful for 1byOne including the batteries needed to get this scale going after opening up the box. Before powering on the scale I wanted to make sure I grabbed the free 1byOne Wellness app (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1byone-wellness/id1111572433?mt=8). Once everything was downloaded and connected I gave the scale a try.

After just a few seconds from stepping on the scale it was already sending data to my phone for me to check out. It is incredible to see how fast this can track your health. It is literally just a few seconds and you are done. The ability to track this information over a period of time will benefit so many trying to get back into shape after this holiday season. Let’s face it, 2016 was a rough year so anything we can use to help kick up the pace and keep us on track to lead healthier lives is a plus in my book.

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If you are in the market for a new scale I would recommend giving 1byOne a shot. Their digital smart scale is the perfect accessory for anyone trying to manage their wellness. Check it out over on 1byOne’s website and/or pick yours up from Amazon today!

Be sure to follow all of 1byOne’s social media accounts to stay up to date on their latest product offerings as well as other cool info!

FacebookTwitterGoogle+PinterestInstagramTumblr, and YouTube

1byone.com provided St. Louis Dad with this product as compensation in exchange for an honest review. Please visit 1byone.com for more awesome products that can help make your life better!