Crowdsource your life so you can get back to the whole living it thing.

Crowdsourcing has become one of the most powerful ways to get shit done, helping you squeeze as much out of your day as possible. Not only can it help you find solutions to problems, but save time, reduce expenses and expand your horizons.

Here are 11 ways crowdsourcing can make your life a whole lot easier:

1. Crowdsource your commute

Carma is a carpooling app that lets users share commuting costs with neighbors and work buddies headed in the same direction. Riders pay the standard rate per mile. Once the trip starts, a timer on the app keeps track of the trip distance and automatically pays the driver when the trip ends.

2. Crowdsource your business

There are some aspects of running a business, whether full-time or a side gig, that are a total pain in the tuchus. That being said, there are other business owners who love the things you don’t enjoy doing, and vice versa. Brand Gathering hooks you up with other business owners so you can barter each other’s strengths and preferences to get ahead together.

3. Crowdsource your decisions

You can ask for advice on just about anything: From what movie you should go and see to what stock you should invest in to finally getting that rash looked at, there’s someone out there in the world willing to help guide you. Tiinkk is an app you can use to canvas friends’ opinions on anything you want and get realtime feedback. You can even set a time limit for accepting responses, such as five minutes or ten days (perfect if you’re trying to lose a guy).

4. Crowdsource your health

Let’s be honest: There are times when your doctor’s just not helpful. Like, at all. With how inconvenient (and expensive) going from expert to expert can be, getting started on a site like CrowdMed might help you narrow down your search – or, correctly diagnose you. As of January 2014, 78 percent of the people who’ve used the site have reported the diagnoses they received turned out to be accurate. (Dayuuum.) Like with any advice you receive though, proceed with caution.

5. Crowdsource your dates

With how much time we spend in front of screens, it’s no wonder so many of us suck at dating. Ironically, it’s your screen to the rescue! Say Something is an app that allows men and women to practice their dating skills on each other in a safe virtual training mode while gaining honest feedback on their skills.

6. Crowdsource your closet

Open Attire is an upscale fashion swapping website for men and women. Their motto is “Love, wear, share, repeat.”

7. Crowdsource your job hunt

While the job market is (always) tough, thanks to social media and the Internet you can be proactive in building your dream career, whether that’s working for a company or working for yourself and seeking clients. Here’s all you need to know about crowdsourcing your job hunt.

8. Crowdsource your trip

If you’re going to travel to distant lands, you want as authentic an experience as possible while you’re visiting. You know, like “Eat Pray Love” authentic. By crowdsourcing your trip instead of going through the traditional channels, you’ll be able to save money and create a unique trip that’ll be way more fun than a cookie cutter one. Here’s a guide on crowdsourcing your next trip.

9. Crowdsource your dinner

One of the biggest reasons many of us don’t eat as healthy as we should is because of how crunched for time we are. Creating a “dinner co-op” or “supper swap” amongst your neighbors, friends, or nearby family is a great way to save time and eat healthier. You essentially alternate giving and receiving homemade dinners each weeknight, which will also help cut down on takeout bills. Here’s a fab article on how to setup your own supper swap.

10. Crowdsource your wedding photos

Crowdsourcing your wedding memories is now a thing thanks to apps like WedPics, GuestShots, and Capsule, that let you create a private social network that revolves around your wedding. The album’s viewable by the bride and groom, wedding guests and other invitees, where everyone can upload oodles of photos to reminisce about the big day.

11. Crowdsource your grocery shopping

I loathe grocery shopping with every fibre of my being. Between the traffic and the lines and the noise, I’m breaking out in hives just thinking about it. Instacart is an app that allows you to grocery shop and have crowdsourced personal shoppers drop off your groceries to you within the hour. Bam.

Are there aspects of your life you prefer to crowdsource?

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Image: Joel Bez

The post 11 Incredible Ways to Crowdsource Your Life appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnA behind-the-screen look at the consistently ridiculous inbox of a writer.

At EcoSalon, we receive our fair share of email pitches, and we’ve decided to give you a weekly peek at this valuable information inside our inboxes. These products, people, and services are 100 percent real, although we’re not always sure that they should be.

You’re never too old to ride the ride!

Jennifer Landa, we want to walk a mile in your hormonal pumps. We honestly do.

We sexually deprived, post-partum, menopausal, Cortisol-fatigued women want your sex drive solution that “helps women set and achieve realistic goals to not only get their sexy back – but to keep it going all night long.” One thing we will not be tempted to do, though, is call out “Dr. Jen!” or Landaaaaaa!!” in bed instead of our partner’s name. This we will not do, per your suggestion.

In The Sex Drive Solution for Women, Dr. Jen’s Power Plan includes so much elementary detail we wonder if the women reading this have ever had a stiff drink or perhaps taken a yoga class and opened up their pelvis. Or simply masturbated. Landa says, “If the man in your life is concerned about how many ‘headaches’ you’ve been having as of late and you’ve come to the conclusion that you’re officially too old to ‘ride the ride,’ it’s time for an intervention.”

Too old to “ride the ride?”

If you were trying to bulk up my self esteem, Dr. Jen, that one statement took it all away. Or maybe it’s just your book cover that seems to think we women are still in the kitchen. Let me just finish making my pot roast so I can ride the ride.

Is Your Massage Therapy Up To Par?

Massage should be part of our personal health care planning. Who doesn’t feel relaxed and centered after a good rubdown? You’ve had massages with human touch – maybe even heated stones – but have you considered golf balls?

Golf Ball Massage is superior to hot stone massage techniques, which can give deep pressure, but are slippery. Enter the KaddyBACK.

“GolfBallMassage.com’s KaddyBACK was designed based on the common practice of putting a golf ball in a sock, placing it against the upper back area, and pushing it against a wall to allow the ball to massage hard to reach back areas. KaddyBACK does the same thing efficiently and effectively, and was designed to be hands-free, enabling this therapy to be used while in a car, chair, etc.”

Common practice? Clearly, we are behind the golf-ball-in-a-sock times as we thought golf balls in socks were gang-related.

The hardest part for us to swallow is this last bit below about the KaddyBACK which accompanies your golf ball:

“Golf Ball Massage with JUST a golf ball? A Golf Ball Massage without the SPAball Kaddy is like:
…a virgin margarita! A DIET virgin margarita!
…a hand-shake instead of a high-five!
…a deep tissue massage from a 5-year-old!”

Um.

The world’s first unisex social media attraction fragrance!

Introducing Erox: “designed by geeks for geeks, the made for social media attraction fragrance is being launched, over the next few months, by GrowdGather (growdgather), a leading network of Internet forum communities.”

That’s right – growdgather. Sometimes we get press releases from companies that can’t even spell their own names right.

The company partnered with “Human Pheromone Sciences to produce a scent that contains a combination of pheromones, and a new revolutionary attraction compound called ER303, into a potent cocktail that has been clinically proven to increase feelings of arousal, excitement, social warmth and friendliness in both men and women.”

We could keep pulling quote after quote from the release so…we will!

“So maybe those flirtatious tweets and Facebook likes will help you reel that special someone in, but it will be Erox that will help you seal the deal!”

“The interesting thing is that people find it works in business or group settings as much as it does for hooking up.”

“Unlike traditional fragrances, the scent will be launched, sold and marketed exclusively through nontraditional channels – social media and forum communities – obviously targeting those who are active in the online social sphere. The campaign featuring a celebrity endorsement will be announced and launched over the next few months.”

Celebrity endorsement? Let’s just hope it’s somebody really good so we can get them next.

Image: jafsegal, lel4nd

The post Better Living Through Publicists: Sexual Freedom (With Just a Little Help) Edition appeared first on EcoSalon.