Hello from Everyday Logic

Making technology at home simpler, more useful and easier to live with

Starting Everyday Logic is something I’ve wanted to do for a while.

For more than 20 years, I’ve worked in technology — with global IT vendors and systems integrators — helping people understand complex systems and, more importantly, work out how to get real value from them.

At the same time, for more than 10 years, I’ve been doing something similar in my own home.

What started as an interest in home automation gradually became a much bigger part of how our house works. Lighting, energy, appliances, doors, gates, audio, pool equipment and other systems have become increasingly connected and automated over the years.

And somewhere along the way I realised that the thing I enjoy most isn’t the technology itself.

It’s what the technology takes away.

The little jobs.

The things you have to remember.

The repetitive tasks that individually aren't a big deal, but collectively add just a little more friction to an already busy day.

That idea is really where Everyday Logic began.

We’re all busy enough already

Most of us already have more than enough to think about.

Work, kids, appointments, school, shopping, cooking, cleaning, bills, sport, keeping the house running — the list doesn't exactly get shorter.

And at the same time, the amount of technology entering our homes continues to grow.

Solar systems have an app. The battery has another one. The air conditioner has one. So does the camera, the TV, the pool equipment, the doorbell, the irrigation controller and probably half a dozen other things.

There is an enormous amount of genuinely useful technology available.

But who has the time to research all of it, understand which products work together, configure it properly and then keep it working?

Most families understandably don't.

And I think that means a lot of people are missing out on many of the best benefits technology can bring to everyday life.

Not because the technology isn't available.

Because accessing those benefits often requires too much effort.

The best automation is often the stuff you stop noticing

Some of my favourite automations at home aren't particularly impressive when you describe them individually.

The lights take care of themselves when they need to.

The house knows when everyone has left.

I get a notification when an appliance has finished.

Available solar energy can be used more intelligently rather than simply exported back to the grid.

And one of my favourites: the house reminds us that tomorrow is bin night — and tells us whether it's the red, yellow or green bin that needs to go out.

None of these things is going to change the world.

But that’s exactly the point.

They remove small amounts of effort from ordinary life.

And when enough of those little things disappear, you start to notice that the house is simply easier to live in.

Good automation eventually becomes almost invisible.

You don't think:

“That's a clever automation.”

You just stop thinking about the task altogether.

I want to do the hard part for you

This is really how I see my role with Everyday Logic.

There is a huge amount of benefit available from technology in the home, but you shouldn't have to become a technology expert to experience it.

That's my job.

I want to understand what's available.

Work out what is genuinely useful rather than just fashionable.

Understand which systems can work together.

Deal with the technical complexity.

And then turn all of that into something that feels simple to the person living in the house.

You get the benefit.

I deal with the complexity behind it.

It's about as close as technology can get to a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too experience: all the convenience and capability, without having to spend your evenings researching protocols, configuring devices or wondering why two different apps refuse to talk to each other.

More devices don't necessarily make a smarter home

There's certainly no shortage of smart products available now.

But buying more smart devices doesn't necessarily make a home smarter.

Sometimes it just gives you more things to manage.

The interesting part starts when the technology already around you begins working together.

That's where my professional background becomes particularly relevant.

In enterprise IT, buying individual products is rarely the difficult part.

The challenge is understanding how different systems fit together, making them reliable and secure, and ensuring that the end result actually solves a useful problem.

I believe exactly the same principle applies in the home.

Start with the person, not the product

One of the principles behind Everyday Logic is that I don't want to put technology into people's homes simply because it's clever.

The starting question should be much simpler:

What would make everyday life here easier?

The answer will be different in every home.

It could be improving lighting.

Making better use of solar and battery storage.

Reducing electricity consumption.

Bringing several existing systems into one place.

Improving Wi-Fi coverage.

Or simply taking care of a handful of annoying little jobs that happen every day.

Once we understand the problem, then we can decide whether technology can genuinely make it better.

Not the other way around.

Why Everyday Logic?

The name reflects exactly what I want the business to be.

Everyday, because this isn't technology for show. I want it to improve the ordinary things we do every day.

Logic, because the real value comes from making sensible decisions about how and when things happen.

My aim is to combine more than 20 years of professional IT experience with more than a decade of hands-on home automation experience and make that knowledge available to people who quite reasonably have better things to do than become experts themselves.

You shouldn't have to understand all of the technology behind your home.

You should simply get to enjoy what it can do for you.

What I'll be writing about

I'd like this blog to become a regular part of Everyday Logic — probably every couple of weeks or once a month.

I'll use it to talk about interesting ideas in home technology and automation, lighting, energy management, networking, useful new products and some of the things I'm learning as Everyday Logic grows.

I also want to separate genuinely useful technology from hype.

There will always be a new gadget promising to change everything.

I'm much more interested in technology that quietly makes Tuesday afternoon a little easier.

Because those small improvements are the ones you actually live with.

So, hello

If you're reading this, thank you for being here at the beginning.

Everyday Logic is new, but the thinking behind it has been developing for a long time.

I'm excited about where technology in our homes is heading, but I'm even more excited about helping people actually benefit from it.

Without needing to understand all of it.

Without having to manage all of it.

And without technology itself becoming another job on an already very long list.

That's what I want Everyday Logic to provide:

All the benefits of a smarter home, without all the work of managing one.

If I can take away a few of the little chores, decisions and things you need to remember each day — and make your home a more comfortable, efficient and enjoyable place to live — then I think we're doing something worthwhile.

Welcome to Everyday Logic.

Making everyday life easier.