This post was originally published in the May 19, 2016 edition of the Southwest Journal, a Southwest Minneapolis community newspaper.#####You have probably heard about a wide range of devices that are now connected to the Internet — from smart TVs to thermostats and even coffee makers. This is often referred to as the Internet of Things. The Internet of Things is basically the ability to connect our daily devices to each other via the internet in order to simplify our lives.This can be along the lines of a refrigerator that adds eggs to a shopping list when you are running low, or a thermostat that cranks up the heat at home when you are leaving the office.Jumping in with connected devices is not as difficult as you may think. IFTTT (which started out as If This Then That) is a simple app that allows you to create “recipes” that connect various apps and devices. The “recipes” automatically tell your devices to follow a certain set of instructions when a chosen action occurs.This is not some futuristic concept. It’s here. And better yet, it’s totally accessible via an entry-level wearable — the Fitbit!I have written before about my fondness for Fitbit, and here it is again — a great piece of technology that is a key to the Internet of Things. FitBits can easily track things like exercise, sleep and weight — and it can track your progress against set goals. With this information, and connecting through IFTTT, you can receive a weekly summary of your sleep or exercise activity in a Google spreadsheet, or you can automatically Tweet a message when you have reached your exercise goals.What you want to track, how you want to be notified, and who you want to share the information with is completely up to you.Anything that Fitbit can track — like walking/exercising, amount of sleep, total exercise time and more — can then be used in various ways across other apps and tools. For instance, you can use that info to share milestones via Twitter or Facebook, email yourself reminders related to your goals, or post data to a private or shared document. You can even set a reminder to go to bed early if your sleep log triggers a deficit.Your Fitbit and IFTTT integration can even go beyond reporting and social sharing. Using IFTTT and a Wifi connected bulb, your Fitbit can automatically turn on the lights when you wake up, and it can turn off the lights when you have fallen asleep. You can also program the light to turn on once you’ve reached your sleep goal for the night. Think of this as a light-based alarm that only goes off once you’ve reached your sleep goal. While it may not be ideal for the work week, it could be a great option for the weekends.You do not need to create your recipes from scratch —  there are many recipes already made and ready for you to use. You can also start fresh and create brand new recipes. The sheer number of Fitbit recipes are impressive to begin with and can help guide you in the right direction to think about and understand the options available and what future connected devices you may want to buy.What do you think? Are you going to try out any recipes? Let me know how it goes.