What life hack is so simple yet so effective, you're shocked more people don't know about it?

Wrestle the pig first, every day. Whatever is your worst, most unpleasant, annoying task for the entire day, do it before you do anything else. It minimizes your stress and worrying and puts it in the rearview mirror.

To stop infinite scroll on social media, quickly scroll 2-3 screen lengths down without looking at the posts. Now read the posts scrolling up. Eventually you'll reach where you started and most probably the laziness to go all the way back will prompt you to exit the app.

One time I was in Mexico with my wife while our daughter was still a baby and the lady at the front desk of the hotel where we were staying offered us a crib we could borrow. It was a kind gesture, but I was a little concerned because the crib seemed wobbly. I realized there were some screws loose but though I had a multitool on me, the holes were stripped.

So later, I was talking with a local and he's like "I can fix that." He comes over and pulls a pack of toothpicks out of his pocket. He sticks one into each hole and breaks it off so that it's not sticking out anymore. Then he drives the screw back in. I shook the crib after that and it was rock solid!

Now I always keep some toothpicks handy. Fast-forward to just this year. My daughter is now an adult living in a condo, and was complaining the screw popped out of a kitchen cabinet door when her roommate yanked on it too hard. "I can fix that."

How much better life is by simply not drinking alcohol.

Learn to cook the base of meals in different cultures. Like a Sofrito.

Most of the best classic dishes in the world really start with three or four ingredients and are just variations. You shouldn’t overthink it or buy rare ingredients. You’re better off picking one and mastering the basic steps. Learning to cook isn’t about learning to recreate a chef-cooked meal. It’s about learning to cook simple, cheap ingredients.

Keep a set of swimwear in your car. If you go to a place and forgot your swimsuit? Got the backup. Go to a hotel and find out they had a pool you didn't know about? Backup in the car. Accidentally shit yourself? Got at least something on you. Do I shit myself enough to worry about it? Not since I was a baby but now I know I got swim trunks in my car just in case.

Not really a "hack" but I don't know why most people get into phone contracts.

Since college, I have always just bought unlocked phones with cash and then used the carrier's prepaid plans and set it to auto pay.

I pay so much less than most people I know, I get all the same service, and my phone isn't tied to a contract or carrier, so I can cancel my plan whenever I want and switch to another carrier by just buying their SIM card for ~$20.

My current phone is an unlocked Pixel 6a that I got on sale new for $300. I have unlimited talk, text, and data for $45 a month. And if I get sick of my current carrier or they bump my cost, I can just switch to anybody else for just the cost of a $20 SIM card.

I have so many friends and family members that complain about their phone bills being super high and their service sucking, but they can't cancel their contracts without paying off their huge balances plus the interest and usually cancelation fees. Plus, because their phone is tied to the contract/carrier, they can't even keep transfer the phone to the new carrier and have to get sucked into a "phone trade-in" deal and the cycle continues.

And for the folks saying that most people can't afford to save up and buy a phone outright, there are a lot of places that offer payment plans for the phone, or you can buy it on credit and pay it off that way, which would likely be less interest over time. Or you could buy unlocked used/refurbished phones for 25-50% off their normal price.

Maybe it makes sense if you get a stipend from your company, or you bundle it with a bunch of other packages like cable TV or internet, but for just a cell phone, I just don't get locking yourself into a crazy contract.

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 can't find something and you've looked everywhere, get a flashlight and look again while pointing the flashlight. It has worked for me every time.

Just how much cheaper and longer lasting keeping thing like rice, dried beans and flour can be. It's amazing to me that no matter how empty my cupboards/fridge is I can always make fresh tortillas, refried beans, and rice in like an hour.

Drink water instead of soda, alcohol, other sugary drinks. Eventually you'll find yourself to be an expert water connoisseur and prefer water over pretty much all beverages.

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 can just pinch the end of a banana to start peeling it. The effort required is far less than trying to overcome the ripping force of the stem.

1. 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.

2. Electric screwdriver - it doesn't matter how much DIY you do or how rarely you make IKEA furniture, you still need an electric screwdriver.

3. 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/

https://hiddenbrain.org/

4. "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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

If you're looking at a used car, enter the vin number into Google. It will often bring up photos from any auctions it went through and you might see that it had been in a wreck and fixed without being reported to Carfax.

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.

People wonder why I’m an optimist. I’m not really. What I do is expect people to disappoint me. After all, none of us are perfect. When they don’t I’m surprised. When they do, I’m not mad, as just met my expectations.

I find people who don’t like other people expect them to not disappoint them and when they do they get angry and upset. It’s really just a mindset change.

You can often get a Pre Purchase Inspection (PPI) for about $200 from a mechanic that will tell you everything in depth about the health of a car before you actually buy it.

Way too many people out here purchasing cars and then bringing it to a mechanic only to realize they've been ripped off or bought an expensive repair bill.

You should do it with any used car you have a strong intention to buy whether it is a private sale or from a lot.

Usually lots will want to negotiate the price first because any used car will have some wear and tear.

But the point is that you'll know for sure it there's any critical issues with the vehicle. If it's a lemon, you can say no and walk away. Don't think of it as losing $200, think of it as saving several thousand on a broken car.

To live a hate free life, don’t spend time hating things and people.

Hate is not a feeling it’s an action. Just stop, and then you’re not a source of hate any more.

Buying lots of identical pairs of socks massively reduces the amount of time you need to find matching pairs after drying them.

You can rename files in Windows using the F2 key. This works for a lot of Microsoft products including editing a cell without overwriting it in Excel.

Using "≈" and "≠" sign on internet text.
These are literally long press options on the "=" key.

If you have a goal to find something (eg. buy a car), write your goal down, including details like make and model. You'll start to see adverts, special deals and cars of the model you want parked with for sale signs. There's nothing mystical about this - you're surrounded by things like that, but the specific act of writing it seems to tell your unconscious mind to bring it to your attention when you pass them.

Start reading the nutritional facts on food packages. In the beginning it will make little sense. But as time goes by, you start understanding it a bit more and to notice patterns.

Eventually you start doing wiser choices. I've learned pretty quickly that the "healthy options" (e.g. low sugar cookies) are as bad for you than the regular ones.

Set up automatic bank transfers to chop your income into % parts: 5% play money, 20% savings, bills etc. do what works for you. Get rid of unnecessary subscriptions.

I scrape CVV number of my credit card and save it on my smartphone because if I lost my credit card nobody will be able to shop on line

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.

For water stuck in your ear after shower or swimming, what works for me is tilting your head to the side that is plugged and bending/unbending your knees (making your body bounce) until the water comes out.

Given the opportunity move somewhere where your rent to pay ratio is better.

I'd make more living in a big city. I have much more leftover every month by living in a small town far away from everything.

Reading the Communist Manifesto.

Put $20-50 behind your phone in the phone case.

If you ever forget / lose your wallet, you'll have a little cash.

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.

Using a rubber band around the lid of a jar to open it effortlessly.

When working on long-term goals:

1. Set a date for completion.
2. Create a tentative schedule working backwards from that date. Include dates for completing main tasks.
3. Give extra time in the schedule for minor setbacks between tasks.
4. Give extra time in the schedule for a potential major setback overall.

For example, let's say the goal is to paint a house:

1. I can say I want it painted in 2 months, so I set it for the date of 9/17/24.

2. I figure I can paint a room every other day, so since the house has 5 rooms total, I think I can start painting 10 days before on 9/07/24. However, I need to consider that finding and purchasing paint and equipment will take time too. I think about it and consider that paint shopping can take me 2 days since I want to try out several stores, so the newer date is 9/05/24.

3. Now, I add some room for minor setbacks between each task. Rather than assuming I will paint every other day, I add two days in between. That means starting on 8/30/24. This allows me to take my time with rooms, skip a day if I feel tired, or adjust if I the rooms take longer to paint than I had anticipated for whatever reason. I also increase the time allotted for acquiring materials because so many things can happen: traffic, tired, unhappy with selection, need time to test samples and ask people, etc. Rather than only include 2 days for this, I include a whole week so I can see the paint samples on the walls and see which ones feel the best. We are not starting on 8/23/24.

4. Lastly, maybe something major could happen, such as getting sick, the store runs out of paint stock, my car breaks down, or I change my mind on one of the paint colors after seeing it up on the wall. I might even realize that I completely overlooked tasks, such as rearranging furniture, painting over errors/accidents, and clean up. I would then add a cushion of 2 weeks to the schedule to allow for that should it happen. So the actual start date is 8/9/24. This is much sooner than if we had gone with the original start date of 9/07/24, almost an entire month!

With this style of planning, I can take my sweet time, enjoy the process, and not get stressed out if something unexpected comes up. If I finish early, then I have extra time to work on details or enjoy the rest.

Whenever you are loading the washing machine, or hanging the laundry to dry/loading the dryer, don't put the socks straight away. If you get one sock, set it aside, and wait to have the other sock before putting them wherever they need to go. This way you drastically reduce the amount of odd socks/ socks with no pair.

If you find a single sock when you're at the dryer, look for it in the washing or on the floor; you know it has to be there because you make the habit of always loading the pair. If you have a single sock at the washer, don't wash it; wait until you find the other one, keep it in your basket.

Responding to every accusation with "Nuh uh!"

I just discovered the best hack, I changed the app layout on my home screen (android) to 5x5 what a game changer.

If you are cramped for storage space for cleaning supplies, you can buy and hang a shoe cubby on the back of a closet door and use it to store all sorts of things.

There’s different types, such as ones that are actual racks and others that are pockets like this:

Permanently Deleted

Duct tape your heart to someone else's heart, double heart, so EASY. DOCTORS HATE!!!

People who try and peel whole avocados amaze me.

I think in general there's a lot of fruit hacks that folks aren't familiar with - it pays to search the web for "How to peel X".

Switching off your phone. It changes everything.

If you have a toilet that, when flushed, turns your shower into lava, adjust the toilet filler valve so it's barely open and you'll have much less of a problem.

Look at what you're doing and using spacial reasoning.

So many days, I think I was the only person at my work who played with 3d puzzles or Legos growing up.

• A pressure cooker

• A ghetto bidet:
  3D print it, or take a small softdrink bottle, make a hole in it's neck using a hot needle or corkscrew. Fill it with water, hold it upside down and squirt your butthole clean with it. Use a little toiletpaper or cloth to dab it dry. Can't live without it anymore.

Do a bunch of things at once, not in parallel, but in series.

It makes sure I'm staying in the mood of being productive and keeps myself motivated, as I can keep focusing on the tasks. Of course, still take breaks if you need it.

Gratitude makes you live longer, feel better, and it's free.

When cutting onions, set the cutting board on the stove and turn on the extractor fan. No more tears!

Rinse your dishes after eating. This Kris6 the food shmutz from turning into a crust you'll have to scour off and won't wash off completely in the dishwasher.

If you want to open a padlock and don't have the key, you can almost certainly break it open with 2 big wrenches.

I only had 1 opportunity to try that yet, when removing a 20 year old lock some stupid kid left on my stuff and then forgot where I put the key, but man did it feel empowering.

You can practice this trick at any romantic bridge. Do you really think whoever etched their initials on the lock is still together and would notice? Please

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.

Don't Buy Stuff

I always read these and go "fuck yeah I could stand to feel like a new bloke as well" and then I remember I don't drink and thus can't quit it either. Fuck the baseline.

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).)

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.

Icegel pouch and Samsung cellphone=fast charging

Improve the cold tolerance and immunity by going to sauna during cold days.

Embrace the cold and don't overheat yourself by wearing too many layers.

When go cycling or running don't wear to many clothes, so you won't overheat yourself. You should feel slight cold and the exercise will heat you.

People usually catch flu due to low immunity or overheating and switching between environments of high temperature difference.

Nobody who bike commutes is fat.

Not really a life hack but: folding bicycles are so, so convenient for everyday use (fits in every elevator, fits under your desk at work, fits in public transportation even when it's crowded, etc)

I really don't know how they are not a lot more common; you only need a mountain bike if you actually ride on mountain trails often enough. Even non-folding city bicycles are way more comfortable for everyday usage (higher handlebar position and cushiony saddle <3)

Take a pill with your head turned to the side toward your shoulder and it will go down much more easily.

You can cut up a sponge to have a set of reusable pads for removing nail polish.

L-theanine, an over the counter supplement, destroys the negative effects of overcaffeination totally.

Learning to cook crack

A plunger should not be the first choice with a clogged toilet. Pour a bucket of hot water in the bowl (without flushing normally).

You can dump in more water much faster than normal flushing without the risk of overflowing. The hot water and fast pour help stir things up while the extra water pushes everything down the drain.

Cleaner, faster, and less effort than a plunger.

Spit in your toilet paper

Damn nevermind I'll keep my tips to myself and your girl

Changing how we vote can do away with the spoiler effect, making third parties viable.

Then democrats wouldn't have to yell at people online who don't feel represented by the Democratic party. I wonder what they would do with all that free time?