About
The Mission
To inform you on how to streamline and get more out of your life using technology, outsourcing, crowdsourcing, and other lifehacks.
Press
Online Media and Blogs: Chicago Sun-Times, BeaconNewsOnline.com, So Good Blog, Lisa Sabin-Wilson’s Blog, Suburban Chicago News, ComputerShopper.com
Television: Alhurra i-Tech
Writers
Chris Cairns — Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude graduate from Penn State, management consultant, entrepreneur, certified project manager, Ultimate Fighting Champ over grappling dummy, and founder and editor of this blog. (LinkedIn, Facebook)
Russell Scott — Graduate of Penn State (undergrad.) and Georgetown (grad. school), former Director of Presidential Writers for the White House, protector of America’s homeland, Hemingway aficionado, and distinguished writer for this blog.
Luke McKinney — An Irishman abroad in Toronto, Luke has two master’s degrees in physics, a PC resembling 2001’s monolith, and a phone so smart it can wear a dinner jacket. Luke has turned “researching cool stuff” into a job and currently writes about technology, science, food, drink, solar power, comedy, and video games — so he needs to work smarter just to fit it all into the day. You can find information about Luke at LukeMcKinney.org.
Maneesh Sethi — Originally from California, Stanford student, freelance programmer, founder of several companies, creator the iPod superCase, internationally bestselling author, and outsourcing connoisseur. More information about Maneesh is available at ManeeshSethi.com.
Thursday Bram — Thursday has been blogging about a variety of subjects for over six years. She has written extensively about productivity and is always looking for another way to make life easier. More information about Thursday is available at ThursdayBram.com.
Martha Cooney — Originally from Philadelphia, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) with a degree in English. She has lived and worked in Dublin, Belfast, and New York City. Martha’s work has appeared in Cricket magazine and she has written travel guides for SideStep. Along with writing, Martha has taught preschool and directed after school and summer camp programs. More information about Martha is available at MarthaCooney.com.
Samar Owais — Samar dived into full-time freelancing in 2008 after moving to the desert land of skyscrapers and big, shiny cars — a.k.a. UAE. Before that, she was a full-time student and a part-time freelancer. To find out more about her, visit her virtual home(s) at Cuppa Life where she chronicles her life as an expat and The Writing Base, where she opines about freelancing, social networking, and writing.
Michael Kwan — A freelance writer and professional blogger based out of Vancouver, Canada, Michael focuses primarily in the areas of consumer electronics, entrepreneurship, and personal development. He also graduated with a Psychology degree from the University of British Columbia. Find out more about Michael, his freelance writing services and his personal blog at MichaelKwan.com.
Past Contributors
Lauren Jacobs, Christine Stoddard, Tammy McKillip, Chad A. Hagy
Smartlife Terminology
Life Automation: Life Automation holds two slightly different, but related meanings for us here at Smartlife. First, it serves as an umbrella term that refers to the myriad of twenty-first-century personal solutions (e.g., outsourcing, crowdsourcing, household robots, personalized web services, and so on) that enable us to make our lives significantly more efficient, effective, productive, simplified, rewarding, and stress-free. (Life Automation = modern solutions for streamlining and improving our lives.) Second, it connotes an ideal state of being where we spend “99.9%” of our time, energy, and money on only those things that add value to our lives. Anything that doesn’t is automatically (or semi-automatically) taken care of for us — by someone else or by some technological means — freeing us to live, work, and pursue happiness as we see fit. (Life Automation = a life goal worth pursuing.)
