- Safety razors - I’ve got thick growth and I was spending more and more on expensive multi-blade razors trying to find a decent shave without the blade going dull after 3 uses. The answer was to have less, better quality blades rather than the expensive trash in the market. A safety razor multipack costs a pittance and has lasted me over a year. Each blade is 2 sided and can be flipped. And when you’re done with it, it can be recycled with no plastic waste. There’s literally no down side if you wet shave.
- Electric screwdriver - it doesn’t matter how much DIY you do or how rarely you make IKEA furniture, you still need an electric screwdriver.
- Brain hacks - your brain and body are predictable physical objects that are programmed a certain way. If you take the time to learn how they work, you can use that to your advantage. e.g. If you know that procrastination isn’t a time management problem, but rather an emotional regulation problem about the task that’s due; then you can start addressing the cause. Or if you want to build a new habit, you can combine it with something you like, to make you look forward to it (e.g. pick a TV show you really want to watch and only allow yourself to watch it while you’re on the treadmill). Or realise that discipline and motivation are finite resources in the day. There’s too much info to cover here, but I learn about these things from podacsts mostly:
https://www.drlauriesantos.com/happiness-lab-podcast
https://www.schwab.com/learn/choiceology
https://youarenotsosmart.com/podcast/
- “Good enough” tech - You will save a lot of money if you define your use case for tech and then buy a product that is good enough to do the job (and preferably secondhand). I’m currently writing this out on a laptop I bought last week for £150 from eBay, brand new condition Dell, Intel 8th gen i7, 16GB RAM and half TB NVME drive. My gym TV is a £30 IPS Dell monitor with a Fire TV stick.
- Facebook Marketplace - make a dummy account for a facebook marketplace. I have bought tons of “like new” things in brand new condition (e.g. a whole home weights gym setup) for a fraction of brand new price. Also if there’s anything I want to get rid of, then I just post it for sale. I have had a completely worn out, cosmetically destroyed desk that I posted online for £1. Someone came and collected it the same day. It saved me a trip to the junkyard by having someone come collect it and saved the waste by going to someone who will use it. 2nd pro tip: never post anything for free. Scumbag entitled people monitor facebook for free deals and you will have a bad time. Post things for £1 and you’ll get serious people who will be grateful.
- Accept what you can’t change - your life will be much better if you stop spending energy pushing against things you can’t influence. Traffic cop walking away after giving you a ticket? Accept the hit and walk away. You took a risk not paying for parking, it didn’t work out. Go home and tell your spouse about it; then move on with your life.
Reading the Communist Manifesto.
If you need to remember something for the next time you go out, put your shoes somewhere odd. When you go to leave, you’ll remember you moved them, which will remind you why you moved them.
If you need to remember something put your phone under it
On the original topic, shoes last a lot longer if you don’t wear the same pair day after day. The continual dampness from foot perspiration breaks down the materials much more quickly. Giving each pair of shoes a couple of days to dry out between wearings will greatly extend their lives.
This effect may not be visible to many people, but if you have a physical job, it can save you a lot of money.
If I need to remember to bring something with me when I go out I’ll put my keys on top of it.
Great, now I’ve forgotten my keys!
(I don’t need them until I get to work.)
Or you won’t be able to find your shoes, panic because you’re running late, and forget about the thing you needed because of said panic.
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Even just a couple inches over is enough to remind me. Or just a separation between them instead of them touching. Or turn them backwards. Though, this only works if it’s relatively uncommon for you to do it. And if you live in a household that does indeed take their shoes off, some don’t. But it’s a surprisingly effective reminder if all that.
That’s why you always leave a note.
Oh my god, that guys arm came off!
If the note is with your shoes, does that make it a footnote?
Bah! Go to the Agony Booth,2 min!
I do this with my phone on my nightstand. If I need to remember something I put it out of reach
I’ll usually put a reminder or most often the thing itself in the shoes.
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Wait… Y’all regularly leave your shoes in a normal place?
This works even with abstractions.
Attaching an unrelated concept to another will help remember it.
I do it all the time by telling someone that I need to remember something… And clarify that I don’t need a reminder, I just needed to tell someone.
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Got some domed glass pot lids but the one you need broke? Simply invert the handle on the next size up and you get a universal lid that fits any pan! Condensation pools in the middle instead of dripping over the sides.
T-shirts take up much less space if you roll them. So do most other clothes, but it’s a huge gain with the T-shirts.
Yes! The ranger roll… https://www.artofmanliness.com/skills/how-to/how-to-pack-a-bag-using-the-ranger-roll/
How is this actually true? It’s the same amount of material? Is it about “same space, less wrinkle”?
Depends on whether you’re folding them in neat squares or hanging them from hangers. The rolls are useful for putting them in luggage, they can be compressed better that way
I do squares and if packing a suitcase, lay out dress shirts alternating, trousers alternating, put t-shirts/underwear in the middle (folded) and roll the trousers and then dress shirts around them. Keeps the wrinkles down.
Because T-shirts are somewhat irregularly shaped when folded. If you stack them with the same orientation, one side is higher than the other. You can alternate the way you lay them but that’s also easier with rolls.
Rolls allow you to take advantage of the efficiency of the honeycomb shape, as well.
Ahhh stacking the rolls vertically is something I hadn’t considered
Plus then it’s easier to tell what’s been worn!
Wait, you’re putting worn shirts back with the unworn?
Absolutely! I wear shirts until they’re smelly or I spill on me.
Jeans are good for weeks, but I only wear them as outside pants. Most days I’m just wearing PJs cuz I’m in my house.
When I’m traveling and only have one bag? Yep!
An easy way to wear out cloths is to wash them too often. Some rules I follow:
- If it’s smelly or visibly dirty, ignore all other rules and wash
- Rotate jeans and hang to air out. Cotton will naturally drop smells this way. Wash approx every 4 wears
- Sweaters/Jumpers can be worn many times if a shirt is underneath. Hang and rotate to air out
- If socks are merino wool, use nikwash and wear until they no longer smell like the wash (or get dirty). Lay out to air out. Any other material, wear only once
- Dress shirts, if not wrinkled, 3 times, hang to air (only if you wear t-shirts underneath)
- Wash t-shirts and underwear every time unless your backpacking. Basically, anything not wool that comes into constant contact with sweaty bits
Agree with all this except jeans. Store them in the freezer and wash them even less than you’d like to. They’re barely cool when you put them on…
unless it’s a July 17 heatwave and you wore them in 7000% humidity before tossing the salty, sweat-drenched denim into the freezer, in which case they’re like cold tortilla chips. Just wash them if you were swimming down the sidewalk in mid-summer muck.
Anyway. Makes them last at least a couple years longer.
This Lars Midwestern United Stateses!
This is originally he. Voilà moi. It was I.
freezer space is way to precious for that. I would have to buy a jeans freezer.
That’s more-or-less how I do except I don’t wear wool.
Merino wool is a very different material then “classic” wool. Backpackers like it because it wicks sweat and it’s naturally antimicrobial so the smells dissipate over night. It’s also not itchy due to the finer weave.
My favorite is Darn Tough socks. They’re merino wool, warm when they need to be and cool when not, and if you get them on sale (only way to buy them) they’re worth the price. Lifetime warranty, so if you get holes, you get new ones. Last socks you’ll ever buy.
I’ve started doing this when I noticed the space savings. First, I’ve done it with underwear, then with my undershirts. Now, only those shirts I need to be ironed (and immaculately folded) don’t get rolled.
Using “≈” and “≠” sign on internet text.
These are literally long press options on the “=” key.Gee, how did I ever live without knowing that? Are you a mathematician?
Using mathematical symbols ≠ mathematician
‽ is also important
Traditional chess literature has “!? = questionable move”. Is this the same thing?
there is no more perfect symbol than the interrobang
What about on desktop?
I hit the Compose key and then
=/gives≠, but I don’t seem to be able to enter≈. For that and more obscure characters I’d open Emacs and runinsert-char.It’s just compose ~ ~ (tilde tilde). The compose key sequences are often the most logical thing you can think of. Emacs C-x 8 is good but you have to try and guess the unicode name of the character.
A physical keyboard has entered the chat
Tried long pressing the “=” key. My keyboard is now egalitarian.
Compose key gang
======================
≠≈∞
Wait what O.o
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!=
Getting a Shavette. The prospect of it being sharper than a straight razor makes you think that you will slice your face off, but in my experience at worst I had a nick or 2. The blades are dirt cheap and perform better than multi bladed razors.
A nice bonus is you have no plastic waste.
I just discovered the best hack, I changed the app layout on my home screen (android) to 5x5 what a game changer.
This will sound stupid. But if you press your thumb onto the center of your hand, and then close the others fingers around and press, you’ll suppress your gag reflex.
This saved me when I had to take some medicine as big pills. Without this trick they often got stuck in my throat, and it could take me minutes to properly swallow. With the trick? No problems anymore.
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Explain
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If your phone is over heating place is flush on a cold surface for 30 seconds and then move it to another spot for 10 seconds.
Fast charging is all about heat management so keeping it cool will allow it to charge faster.
Not exactly life hacks, but shortcuts that can help computer users:
- holding CTRL and pressing the arrow keys will move the text cursor whole words, instead of 1 character at a time. Also works with Delete and Backspace
- CTRL + Home will move the cursor to the start of the file, CTRL + End to the end of the file or textbox.
- Windows 10 users can use the Xbox bar to record their screens. By default, the shortcut is Windows button + Alt + R
For anyone that uses the sink to wash dishes, have a net/grid to cover the hole. Once it’s full, just pick it up and dump the contents in your food trash.
You can use any type of soap to create barriers that ants will avoid. If you plug a hole with some soap (try a piece of soap bar that’s wet/soft), the ants won’t reopen it.
Duct tape your heart to someone else’s heart, double heart, so EASY. DOCTORS HATE!!!
When I was in the end of my PhD, everything except writing my thesis made me feel guilty. I ended up learning to find joy and peace in doing laundry and washing dishes. They became my guilt-free breaks — I had to do these things. FYI - I didn’t enjoy washing dishes before.
Washing dishes has become a really powerful part of my day, haha. Not only is it still a guilt-free break but it is a daily reminder to be mindful. I’ve noticed that whenever I drop and break a dish, my mind is not present. In fact, in those moments my mind might actually be drifting somewhere negative.
Maybe not so much a “hack” as a … lesson? Or something? But yeah, the whole cliche about having the right attitude and being present and mindful. I try to apply it in other parts of life, not just the dishes.
You have discovered the subtle art of procrasticleaning
Yeah I was like wow I am so enlightened for the first part of the response and then I was like oh my god I am so seen. I. Am. The. Best. At. Doing. The. Second. Most. Important. Thing. I. Need. To. Do.
Tidying up makes the world go round.
The flip side of this is productive procrastination, where you do all the menial tasks before doing the task you don’t want to do. Generally you aren’t even aware you’re doing and most people can go their entire lives never knowing the term exists, and yet they’ll do it all the time.
You can’t fix a problem you can’t identify.
You’re welcome and I’m sorry.
this is how all the cleaning in my house gets done.
What do you do when you have identified the problem? :)
This is a great way to think. Some people are so frustrated with waiting in line at the bank or market. For me, it’s just another unintended break where I get to relax.
I call that productive procrastination.
everything except … made me feel guilty learning to find joy guilty free breaks
How‽ This is perhaps the single most impactful problem I’ve in my life. I just don’t know how to beat this. I don’t end up doing anything else because I could be doing my thesis. But I also don’t do my thesis. Could you talk a bit more about how you got out of this line of thinking? Between this and ADHD I feel like I’m going suicidal. I haven’t had a vacation/gap/break ever where I’ve felt free and happy to enjoy.
Honestly, I still haven’t fully solved the problem. I wish I could give you a great answer.
Sometimes I have no struggles working and taking breaks, other times I fall into this same trap you’ve just described. I think it amounts to a lot of different factors — some weird paradoxical mix of procrastination, fear, insecurity, passion, displeasure, and overconfidence.
I’ve learned, though, to accept certain tasks as completely necessary in life (like doing the dishes) so that I am able to do them guilt free. At least I can do that. I feel you though. In a general sense, I still struggle with the problem.
I think part of it amounts to making a decision and sticking to it rather than being on the fence. Maybe that’s discipline? E.g., “this morning I will go on a run, make a nice breakfast, wash the dishes, get started on laundry, read or play music for a bit, and then finally I will sit down to work.” Then, when actually executing the first part of the plan, just ignore the ever living fuck out of any feeling of guilt. But, again, I am still putting that into practice.
Good luck to you and me.
Thanks for the reply :)
Yeah, I think it does boil down to accepting the situation and just doing it. Or forcing the self to do it after rounds of negotiations and arguments. One problem that I see with this- at least for myself- is that it leads to me doing just the bare minimum and then subsequently getting mad. I don’t really know, I’m also trying to figure things out for myself. Maybe medication is the answer
When given the option, read the instructions, and save for future reference. (A URL / bookmark doesn’t count as saving unless you control the hostname (including DNS).)
Putting a case on your phone, if the phone is newer you can get a good resale price, doubly so if you use a screen protector as well, it also prolongs the use of your phone and makes you realize how much ewaste is created by not keeping older devices up to date with software and repairs when its still in working order.
