• Call for store hours and directions before you leave. I didn’t call before I left because I knew my iPhone would help me find the store. Big mistake. My iPhone GPS couldn’t find the address and when I called the number on the store’s site, a woman in the billing department of a doctors’ office answered. She was tired of getting another company’s calls.

• Don’t count on your GPS (or iPhone) to get you where you need to go. (See lesson #1.)

• Call the store before you leave to make sure they have what you need. When I finally found the store (I called another location for their correct address and phone) I was thrilled that they had the gift I wanted. This time I was lucky. Next time I’ll call ahead.

• Make sure the correct phone number and address are on your site, unless you don’t want clients or prospects to find you. When I told the store’s owner about the wrong phone number on his site, he said that other people had been telling him the same thing for weeks. I guess correcting the number on his site wasn’t a priority.

The final lesson I learned: I need to leave my bubble more often.

According to a recent issue of Southwest Airlines’ Spirit magazine, a study by British tech recycler Regenersis reports that cell phones headed for recycling aren’t always cleared of their information. They found that 65% of old cell phones had saved text messages, 50% contained personal contacts, and 31% had pictures. And they recommend that you use a recycler that guarantees to clear all of your data.

I guess that solves the mystery of how embarrassing photos make it to the Internet.

Add an attachment to your e-mail before you write your message. I’ve tried this several times and so far, so good. At least my friends and clients have stopped sending me e-mails—some of them in an annoying tone—asking about attachments I was supposed to include.

Set a timer one to two hours before you need to leave for an appointment. I enter appointments—personal and business—in my iPhone but sometimes I forget to check my schedule first thing in the morning. The timer on my iPhone reminds me to get ready early so I’m not scrambling to leave.

Give yourself a two-day cushion for deadlines. You know that sinking feeling when you realize a deadline is minutes away and you’re not finished with a project? If you plan ahead, you can do a better job of scheduling your time and avoiding missed deadlines. And you can keep your stress level down.

At the beginning of the year, enter birthdays and other special occasions in whatever planning system you use. You’ll be less likely to forget important dates and offend your friends and clients. Have you ever called someone who thanks you for remembering his or her birthday—that’s not why you called because you forgot—then you quickly enter the date in your calendar for next year? I have, but I’m not going to admit which friend I’ve done that to. Several greeting card companies including Blue Mountain offer free, online reminder programs so you can send e-cards at the last minute.

My sons, who are 12 and 14, continue to come up with new reasons why I should buy them an iPhone. The “everyone at school has one” approach has failed, as has the “I could help you remember to do things” argument. After reading about Ethan Nicholas, however, I may give in.

According to an article by Anthony Castellano from NBC New York, when Nicholas wasn’t working as an engineer at Sun Microsystems, he was spending his evenings watching his one-year-old son … working to develop a little game for the iPhone that he called “iShoot.” When his game was perfected, he began selling it in Apple’s App Store.

Nicholas doesn’t sell the game for much. (In fact, you can download the app for $2.99 right now.) But because his game is one of the top 20 games selling in the App Store, he’s earned already earned a whopping $600,000 in sales … and counting.

Sadly, most of the time when I was watching my babies, I was wiping dried milk off the counter, trying to sleep when my boys slept, or letting our annoying dog in and out of the house. I didn’t have much energy to do anything else. I much prefer the Nicholas model: he’s the perfect example of someone who can make money at home, even with the family around.

It sure makes you think twice about long commutes, obnoxious co-workers and a boss looming over your shoulder.

Maybe I will buy my sons iPhones after all. Just as long as they promise to apply themselves..