Dale Vine’s Tech Must-Haves to Stay Organised

You might know Dale Vine as a former contestant on 'The Block'. The Geelong-based landscaper, content creator and home reno master has been passionately designing gardens and landscaping throughout the Surf Coast region in Victoria for 22 years. He’s been running his own landscaping business, DVine Living, for 17 years, but it’s not just his job that keeps him busy – he’s also a proud husband and father of three children, aged six, eight and 10.

With a business to manage and a busy household to care for, Dale knows a thing or two about organisation. Discover how he stays on top of his day – and the tech tools that help him along the way.

Dale Vine’s Organisational Tech Tips

Put Everything in Your Digital Calendar

The first rule of being organised is to write everything down, and Dale knows the power of being proactive and logging every appointment he has into his calendar.

“Being a busy dad, as well as a business owner, I definitely rely on tech to help me manage my work-life balance. Entering all events into my calendar and setting reminder alarms for my phone and laptop is probably my biggest saviour,” says Dale.

“Whether it’s a work-related booking, like meeting a sub-contractor onsite, or homelife-related, like a ballet recital or date night, it all gets entered [into a calendar] with reminders so this bloke isn’t caught out in either part of my life!”

Invest in a Power Bank

Your tech tools won’t take you too far if they’re always running out of battery. If you’re a heavy phone or laptop user for your work, pair your tech with clever accessories to keep your business tools running at optimal performance.

“Tech is a life-saver, but is useless without a charged battery. My best advice is to carry a power bank so that your tech can always be charged on the run,” says Dale.

Dale Vine’s 7 Top Tech Devices for Running His Small Business

Laptop

“My laptop is the device I would credit as changing the way I run my business from anywhere with ease. Being portable, I can write invoices and quotes or access plans from anywhere. I can even update my business’ quarterly BAS spreadsheet on the run so I can keep up-to-date with my tax and it’s not too overwhelming later on. I use it to show clients full-screen images of ideas, so they can get a real understanding of what I’m proposing, rather than a small image on my phone screen, which definitely helps speed up decisions.”

Smartphone

“Like most tradies, a smartphone is my first point of contact to record information like noting measurements, calculating square meterage, contacting clients, my wife and my chiropractor, or just playing some motivational tunes. I can take photos of my work and have even occasionally googled instructions of how to build something correctly.”

Portable Bluetooth Speaker

“As I quite often work by myself, [lack of] conversation and silence can become awkward. That’s when my portable bluetooth speaker, which is both waterproof and dustproof, comes in handy to save the mood. [My favourite tunes] are mostly country songs about beer, whiskey, a dirt road, a truck or a girl, but they keep me bopping along, tools in hand.”

A Cygnett maghold magnetic window-mount wireless car charger on an orange background.

Magnetic Window-Mount Wireless Phone Charger

“This is great so I can follow maps and directions on my phone easily. Plus, it has the added bonus of charging my phone while on the road.”

A Cygnett boost 20K Gen4 powerbank on a teal background.

Portable Power Bank

“I always have a power bank nearby, so when I’ve had a bigger day than normal on the phone, laptop or speaker, and they’re running low on power, I can quickly charge them up on the go so I don’t miss an important call, email or song!”

A Brother MFC-J6740DW Multifunction A3 printer on a yellow background.

A3 Colour Inkjet Multifunction Printer/Copier

“This is the best for printing out plans in colour and in A3, which is much easier to follow, especially when it comes to planting schedules. Having that bigger size printing and copying capacity allows me to easily identify details of a plan and bring a garden to life quicker.”

A Ring video doorbell on a pink background.

Battery Doorbell

“There's nothing more annoying than receiving a slip in your mailbox for a package you’ve been waiting for, saying they tried to deliver but no one was home. With a wireless battery doorbell set up and connected to my smartphone, I can be alerted when there’s movement at the front door and even talk to the courier there, meaning no more annoying missed deliveries, even when I’m on the job.”

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