Automations for every kind of hobbyist

Maybe it’s the recipe board you keep adding to, the Saturday long run, the stack of library books, or the telescope that lives by the back door. Each comes with small tasks attached, like jotting down the groceries you're out of, logging the miles you ran, or saving the passage you loved before you start the next book.

IFTTT connects the apps and devices you already use so those tasks run on their own. A new recipe Pin can save itself to a folder, a finished Strava ride can land in your calendar, and a rare bird reported two miles away can hit your inbox while there's still time to grab your binoculars. Below are Applets for eight kinds of hobbyists, so you can pick the ones that match how you spend your free time.

1. For home cooks: the list, the plan, and the recipes you meant to make

If you notice you're out of cumin mid-recipe, the Note widget lets you type it from your home screen, and it lands as a new row in a Google Sheets grocery list. When you pull into the store parking lot, an Android SMS can automatically text your partner or roommate so they can reply with anything you missed.

For planning, let AI draft the week. One Applet has ChatGPT write a healthy meal plan and email it every Sunday, and another has Claude build a full week of breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a single shopping list up top and simple recipes for each meal. For the recipes you collect along the way, each new Pin you add to a Pinterest recipe board can save to Dropbox as an image file, and Reddit posts you save from cooking subreddits can go straight into your Raindrop.io bookmarks.

Try this in IFTTT Chat: Click below to open it with the Todoist action ready, then ask it to run every Sunday at 5 PM with a task to plan next week's dinners.

"I want to build an Applet that uses the 'Create task' action from the Todoist service."

2. For book lovers: new releases in, highlights saved

New titles on your chosen New York Times Best Sellers list can save to your iOS Reading List, and an email can arrive whenever NPR publishes a new story in its Books section. If you follow a book critic or literary newsletter on Substack, you can get an email with the title, excerpt, and link each time that writer publishes. For Kindle readers, a notification can flag new free Kindle deals from an RSS feed you pick.

Readwise collects the passages you highlight across your reading apps, and IFTTT can move them wherever you keep notes. Each new highlight can log to a Google Sheets spreadsheet with the text, source, author, and date, either for every book or just the one you're reading now. When your Readwise daily review is ready, a Todoist task can remind you to go through it, which helps the best lines from a book stay with you after you finish it.

Try this in IFTTT Chat: The prompt below loads the Reading List action. From there, tell it to run whenever your favorite book critic publishes on Substack.

"I want to build an Applet that uses the 'Add item to Reading List' action from the iOS Reading List service."

3. For runners, cyclists, and anyone who trains: recovery scores, workout logs, and cooldowns

Before a run or ride, the big question is whether your body is up for the plan, and a wearable can answer it before you lace up or clip in. Whoop scores recovery from 0 to 100%, with anything under 34% landing in the red, and you can get a notification whenever your score dips below the number you choose, along with your resting heart rate and HRV. If you wear an Oura Ring, one Applet checks your readiness score against how active you've already been that day, then adds a Google Calendar event recommending a recovery session or a harder workout.

After you train, every Whoop workout can log to Google Sheets with sport, strain, average and max heart rate, and calories burned. If you track workouts with a Pixel Watch or the Google Health app, each logged exercise can land in Google Calendar with its duration, distance, and calories. New Strava runs and rides can do the same, and a notification can remind you to stretch as soon as your activity uploads, which is easy to skip when you walk in the door hungry.

Try this in IFTTT Chat: Start with the prompt below, then tell it to add a row with your distance and time each time you finish a Strava run or ride.

"I want to build an Applet that uses the 'Add row to spreadsheet' action from the Google Sheets service."

4. For photographers: every shot backed up and sorted

A photo walk can easily produce a few hundred frames, and the ones worth keeping deserve more than one copy. New photos from your iPhone or Android camera roll can upload straight to your Google Photos library, where you can search your shots by people, places, and things. If you edit on a computer and export to Dropbox, photos saved to the folder you choose can upload to Google Photos too, so your finished edits and phone shots end up in the same library.

Switching between an Android phone and an iPad? New Android photos can save to an iOS Photos album so both devices stay in sync. For sharing, pictures you add to a chosen iOS Photos album can upload to Flickr, which gives you one album to drop your favorites into. And screenshots can move into their own album automatically, keeping your reference shots and camera roll separate.

Try this in IFTTT Chat: The prompt below loads the Google Photos upload action. Then tell it to save a copy every time you post a new photo on Instagram.

"I want to build an Applet that uses the 'Upload a photo or video to Google Photos' action from the Google Photos service."

5. For plant parents: watering reminders, humidity checks, and frost alerts

A daily watering reminder is the simplest place to start, whether it arrives as an IFTTT notification or as a task in Apple Reminders at the time and days you pick. Many popular houseplants are tropical and do best around 50% humidity, while a heated home in winter can drop well below that. If you have a Google Nest Thermostat, you can get a notification when indoor humidity falls under the level you choose, which is your cue to run the humidifier or group the ferns together. If you keep a greenhouse or seed-starting shelf, a UbiBot sensor can text you when humidity drifts too high or too low.

For gardens, a Rachio sprinkler controller can delay its watering schedule when rain is forecast for tomorrow, and a Weather Underground frost alert warns you when tomorrow's low is headed below the temperature you set. Frost can settle on leaves even when the air a few feet up reads 35°F, so setting that alert at 34°F instead of 32°F gets you a warning with enough buffer to actually cover the tomatoes.

Try this in IFTTT Chat: Click below to start, then ask for a reminder to fertilize your houseplants every other Saturday at 9 AM.

"I want to build an Applet that uses the 'Send a notification from the IFTTT app' action from the Notifications service."

6. For music lovers: weekly finds archived, favorites logged

Spotify refreshes your Discover Weekly playlist every Monday with 30 new songs, and Release Radar updates every Friday with new music from artists you follow. Once each list refreshes, last week's picks are gone. You can archive every Discover Weekly track to a playlist of your own and do the same for Release Radar, so the songs you meant to come back to are still there.

For the songs you save, each one can log to a Google Sheets spreadsheet with the track, artist, and album, or land in Day One as a journal entry with an embedded player. You can also sort saved tracks into a playlist named for the current month, which turns your year into a set of monthly soundtracks, and get a weekly email digest of everything you liked.

Try this in IFTTT Chat: Start with the prompt below, then tell it to add the song whenever you like a music video on YouTube.

"I want to build an Applet that uses the 'Add track to a playlist' action from the Spotify service."

7. For birdwatchers and nature fans: sightings, field notes, and every photo saved

eBird, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, gathers hundreds of millions of bird observations a year from birders around the world, and IFTTT can put that data to work for you. Get a Gmail alert when a rare or notable bird is reported near a location you choose, or a Telegram message when someone reports a specific species you're tracking nearby. A daily notification can also point you to the top eBird hotspot near you, with its species count and a link to recent observations.

Out in the field, the Note widget lets you jot down what you saw right from your home screen. Each note logs to a Google Sheets spreadsheet with the time and a map of where you were standing, then posts to a Slack channel for your birding group. And because the good shots tend to come in bursts, new photos from your iPhone or Android can back up to Google Drive automatically.

Try this in IFTTT Chat: The prompt below loads the Google Calendar action. Then tell it to add a birding trip for the next morning whenever eBird reports a rare bird near you.

"I want to build an Applet that uses the 'Quick add event' action from the Google Calendar service."

8. For amateur astronomers: clear skies and dates worth staying up for

A Weather Underground notification tells you when clear skies are forecast for tomorrow, giving you a day to charge batteries and pick a dark spot. For the big events, an annual notification gives you a heads-up that Perseid season is on the way. The Perseids peak in mid-August and can produce dozens of meteors an hour under dark skies, so it pays to know ahead of time.

For cloudy stretches, NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day can save to your iOS Reading List, NASA's image of the day can arrive by email, and breaking NASA news can land in your inbox. If you follow a moon phase RSS feed, you can get a notification each time it updates, which helps when planning around a bright full moon.

Try this in IFTTT Chat: Click below to start, then tell it to send NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day to your phone with the image included.

"I want to build an Applet that uses the 'Send a rich notification from the IFTTT app' action from the Notifications service."

Discover more

A few more Applets for the hobbies above, from a visual food diary to NASA's image of the day saved straight to your photos.

Connect your tools

Your hobbies probably involve a few more apps and devices than the ones above. A backyard weather station gives gardeners and stargazers readings from their own yard, a database can track a plant or record collection, and a notes app can hold your reading list or planting schedule. Connect these services to start building your own.

More time for the hobby itself

The Applets above handle the grocery lists, workout logs, reminders, and photo backups that come with each hobby, so more of your weekend goes to the ride, the chapter, or the clear night you've been waiting for. Start with one Applet for the hobby you spend the most time on and add more as you go.