Let’s talk about life hacks. And before you start rolling your eyes, let me tell you, I’m on the same page. I think we are all better off without the weird advice on how to “peel onions without shedding a tear” and “open a stubborn banana from the bottom.” So it’s safe to say, internet life hacks don’t particularly have the best reputation out there.
But what if a small fraction of them out of that whole sea of absurdity do indeed work? I’m not implying anything, I am just wondering if we’d all give them one last chance. Last one, bottom line. Would we get to know something genuinely useful?
Well, we’re about to find out, since people in this r/AskReddit thread have been sharing some pretty interesting life hacks that sound crappy but actually work.
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Befriend the "invisible" people that everyone overlooks, the hotel maids, the janitor at your office, anyone doing a thankless job that people often look down upon. Treat them like valuable human beings because they are. These are people working far harder than most of us can imagine, taking care of themselves and their families and often barely scraping by. You never know in this life when you're going to be the one interaction that saved someone's life, or at least made it a little bit better for a day or a moment. And you never know when some person who nobody paid attention to could end up being there for you, especially if they know and like you.
I call it the power of "might as well"
Gonna get up from my desk and go to the kitchen? Oh well, might as well take this plate with me.
Going to pee before bed? Oh well, might as well brush my teeth.
Going to brush my teeth? Oh well, might as well floss.
Going outside? Oh well, might as well bring the trash.
Its ridiculous, but it works.
Writing things down by hand helps you remember them better.
It seems like life hacks have been everywhere lately, on TikTok, Instagram stories, Facebook feeds, even Linkedin. It doesn't take you long to realize that most of them are utterly useless, like “peeling onions without shedding a tear,” which basically means you have to use a bunch of extra weird gadgets, or “opening a stubborn banana from the bottom,” because damn those stubborn bananas! It’s only fair to wonder what’s up with this modern obsession and whether there's anything it tells us about ourselves.
If something’s worth doing, it’s usually worth doing badly.
Half-assing the dishes is better than leaving them to fester in the sink. Sending old friends a happy birthday message when Facebook prompts you is better than losing touch entirely. Taking a quick shower without soap is better than not showering at all. Piling your laundry up in a basket instead of putting in the wardrobe is better than leaving it scattered over the floor.
Also applies to self-improvement stuff as well as maintenance. Don’t worry so much about doing 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats and a 10km run that you do nothing, just walk around the block and do one of each of the others for now. Just write one page a day of that novel, and allow it to be terrible. Write simple, buggy programs. Draw badly. Watch youtubers cook or fix their car or put on makeup or build something, even, if you can’t find the energy to yourself.
If you’re having trouble finding a date start pre-emptively assuming that everyone is off-limits and just focus on finding genuine friends who match your orientation.
Somewhere along the line you’ll lose your discomfort and start getting better at doing what you want or need to do.
This is actually a really good one that I've stuck to over the last few years. It helped me lose weight and get my savings looking healthier. I was always the "I can't afford to save 15% of my wages so there's no point in doing it at all" or "I can't run 5k so why bother" kind of person. Little improvements quickly build up to bigger ones.
Don’t ask someone ‘do you need anything?’ when they are going through something. Ask them ‘what can I do for you?’ and stop talking. Sometimes listening is enough. Being a good listener isn’t easy. You have to stop waiting for your turn to speak and just be there for them. Source: father of daughters.
Yeah. Sometimes some people just need to rant. They don't need your advice they just need to get things off their chest and they'll be fine
Stop setting needless rules for yourself. You can shower in the dark, eat the parts of a sandwich seperately in fistfuls from the bag, run the dishwasher twice. There is no "proper" way to do the mundane things in life so long as they are done to a standard you're okay with.
It sounds like bulls**t but as an adult slowly realising they have ADHD and fighting chronic illness and long term MH issues, this s**t was life changing. I can just find a way to get the job /done/, it doesn't need to be perfect from step A to Z. If I end up only ever putting laundry on at 2am and putting the machine on a timer so it starts at 7, that's fine because it /still gets done/!
Exactly! And let people do things their own preferred way. You can just comment on how you do it without judging their way (like " interesting you wash dishes like that! I wash them like this. Cool people have different ways of doing things"). Then they are given the option to consider a different method. But if they are happy doing it their way, it's fine, even if it takes them more time or the result isn't perfect.
Interestingly, life-hack content in itself is not a new thing. According to Refinery29, the genre can be dated back to roughly 2500 B.C. It’s the time when the “Instructions of Shuruppak,” one of the oldest pieces of “wisdom literature,” came to being, giving people advice that was passed from a father (the king Shuruppak) to his son (Ziusudra). This is an early Sumerian text and it contains practical and philosophical wisdom bites, such as “Don’t pass judgment when you’ve been drinking beer; don’t buy an ass that brays too much; and don’t place your house next to a public square—there’s always a crowd there.”
Take two to ten minutes to tidy up your home before you go to bed. The next morning, you'll feel way better not having to look at all the junk/things you still have to do.
One of my favorite is to bring a couple of new disposable diapers to the beach (lake, river, etc.) If you decide to leave your towel to hit the water, you can wrap your cell phone, car keys, wallet up in diaper, then fasten it up and I promise you NO ONE will mess with your stuff! You're welcome! Hee!
Sees Ökos walking around looking sus....they walk up to my diaper bc "wHY diDn'T sHe pUt iT in THe tRAsh?!?! Shes killing the environment!!" And then proceeds to throw my diaper away...(you know...the kind of militant people who rescue/free a land turtle and thinking doing it a service throw it "back" into the pond.
Clear packing tape over the speakers of plastic children's toys. It muddles the sounds enough that I still have some of my hearing.
This should be higher up. And yes, I did this when mine were little!!
So giving one person advice and receiving it from others is the most basic and ancient form of passing knowledge. This is a human thing to do—we share things we’re good at, or that we have knowledge of through experience and skill. I mean, that’s how the education systems work, and that’s how leaders are born.
But life hacks take the concept of sharing something that’s supposedly valuable to us to the extreme. The problem is not giving a hack per se, but rather the content of it. While we may want to know how to start the car in freezing temperatures with a simple trick, we genuinely don’t need a tip on making storage boxes out of coconut shells. Or do we?
Refinery29 suggests that our fascination with life hacks spreading around the internet may have to do with our “deep-seated need to learn more information, without actually requiring that we engage our brains.” If anything, the internet has taught us we can accomplish things without sacrificing our time and effort too much. And if that’s one more weird life hack, so be it.
I started saying 'silly' instead of 'stupid' like for example 'Oh I'm so stupid' or 'that was stupid'. I've noticed that it helped improve my self esteem
Taking a break when you get frustrated with a task. Seriously!
And stop thinking about the problem. Let your underlying thought precesses do the work in your subconscious. Works wonders.
At the start of the year I'll flip all my clothes hangers around so they're facing the wrong direction. As I wear random items, I'll flip it back to the normal direction. If by the next year I haven't worn something, I know I never will, and so I donate anything that's still flipped backwards.
If you always put your keys in the same place, you won’t lose them.
Being genuinely nice and appreciative with people. They'll 100% help you out in any way they can.
Ignoring toxic family members or work calls can improve your mental health when properly spread out. Sometimes it’s okay to set your phone aside and unplug.
Using leftover bags from grocery stores or whatnot for trash bags. Idk why, but whenever I tell people this, I get a funny look. It works well.
the quickest way to cool the inside of your car down is to open one door, then go to the opposite side and open and close it a few times. this forces the hot air out and draws the cooler air in. I have a black car with black interior, and a few weeks ago when the high was 94 and it had been sitting in the sun for 6-7 hours i tried this before getting in, and holy hell it worked better than i could have ever imagined. i had heard about this before but never tried it.
Taking two steps at a time when walking up the stairs.
You take half the time to get to the next floor, and you get a good glute work out at the same time.
Had a pigeon problem on my balcony. I live in front of a church, so a lot of them gather there. At night and early on the morning, they would come to my balcony, leaving s**t and feathers all around and biting my plants.
One day I saw a plastic raven at a store, that supposedly scares them away. It was expensive and I didn't have much money, so I grabbed a bunch of black plastic bags and some wire, made a fake raven and attached it to the railing.
It's been like seven months and I haven't seen a single pigeon on the balcony since.
Deleting social media of your phone does wonders for your mood and overall mental wellbeing
So does eating chocolate, binge watching your faveroute show, alcohol, sex, music.....ect.
A knitted fake wasp nest. Our wasps buggered off the same day, haven't been seen since.
Do you think you could maybe find the time to knit me a fake Jehova’s Witness?
When someone you like or respect does something confusingly infuriating, imagine the most-favorable-to-them possible explanation, and pretend that's true. Wait until you know more before getting reflexively angry.
Not necessarily crappy per se but I always encourage people to befriend the hospital employees that bring you your meal trays. They’ll hook you up with the good stuff so you’re not stuck eating crappy food.
Choose your reaction before your emotions can.
I was always jealous of people who naturally had a great response to problems (like “I forgot something at home. Oh well, it happens to everyone. I’m sure they’ll understand why I’m late.”). I began really noticing how much easier that must make life, so I started trying to imagine the “right” reaction to situations.
If you make yourself pause to think of a good reaction, you can kind of choose it like “Yeah, that would be a good one” and then you don’t give your stupid brain an opportunity to throw out a sh**ty reaction.
(Someone made me remember something I think is important to add, so I’m pasting it here so it won’t get lost)
I learned to do it despite it seeming impossible. The trick for me was to recognize that I was enabling and feeding my own emotional responses, like “My car won’t start, I should be upset! Why wouldn’t I be?! This will cost me money!” I was choosing to be upset because I was “supposed” to be, or I was entitled to be upset. But I didn’t really want to be.
Well yeah, obviously. But what's the benefit of getting upset over minor things? Which is clearly what OP is talking about here.
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My biggest problem is overreaction to almost everything. I have to learn to be slower with my reactions and think before I act.
Anger is an emotion that makes a person gather energy to fight back or defend themselves in situations of injustice. It is an important emotion. Thanks to anger revolutions and social changes have occurred, for instance. Now, some situations are not really made better by fighting back. Our brain doesn't know this, so we need to rationalize it and tell the brain "I know you are angry bro, but no need to put me to react (yell/scream/hit/insult). Let's solve this camly".
For someone like me, who gets angry at inanimate objects, this is absolutely a good hack.
Well I guess it's better than getting angry at animate objects....
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This is Stoicism and Zen wisdom. It makes life that much lighter. It’s a good philosophy.
I used to react poorly in the past. Very emotional, and the main emotion was anger. Then I figured out I need to process informations in order to not get frustrated and build a proper reaction, but people don't always give you the time so few years ago I started to reply "I need to process that, no idea how long it will take". And few years later I got an ASD diagnosis.
This is a form of de-escalation. If you find yourself flying off the handle and regretting it later, learn to impersonate your future self, the guy that feels sorry for reacting like a jerk. Some of us were taught as little children that we had a right to get mad, punch walls and berate others or ourselves. It's a tough habit to get out of, one that's not easy to change, but it's doable.
This is so important and yet such hard work, sometimes controlling yourself in this way is exhausting, until you learn a different response (if that ever comes) but really does help. My natural reaction is always to get angry with myself, blame myself, and spiral downwards into how I never put in the effort required to be good enough, etc. I don't think this will ever go away, I think it's wired in. But a few years ago I was responsible for something through a choice made without enough care, that really didn't matter in the bigger scheme of things, just temporarily spoilt something. A stranger came over to me, in a group of friends, and had a real go at me and then stormed off. Because it was my fault, when all was said and done, I started to spiral downwards, but one friend saw and just said 'it's happened, she's said her piece, it's in the past, you're not going to do it again, you can let it go. It's done.' I was astonished. I remember thinking 'you can do that?????'
This is actually a working definition of mental health which is thinking about your emotions
i ended up in a family, shall we say, 'squabble'...in court, in counsel, etc etc. my most valuable lesson learned: pause before reacting. even say, "excuse me, i need to use the bathroom". give yourself a few moments to breath, smile, and know you are ok no matter what. the best benefit of this? i no longer 'triggered' right to screaming anger, BUT THE OTHER PERSON DID. it was AWESOME. i didn't know i had that power too!!
Reactions are largely cultural, meaning we learn our reactions from the people around us as we're growing up. If you happen to live in a part of the world where people get highly emotional (America), then you will too. If you live somewhere where people demonstrate good emotional regulation (I don't know - Greenland? The Inuit are well known for their even tempers) then you'll develop good emotional regulation. But you have to keep practicing it because being aroung people who get upset over anything and everything can bring the same behaviour out in you. And what's the point of it? Being upset just makes everything worse than it already was.
I'd say i can do this, but not in a good way. I've come to a point where I don't react outwardly to anything. Inwardly what I think will not show at all. It's happened that someone tells me something shocking, and are very surprised because I remain calm. Inside my mind might be whirling in shock, but I don't show it.
You can be upset. That's ok. But you don't have to ruin your day or others' because of it.
You have no idea how big tantrums I was throwing anytime my old car broke. But fir some reason Last time it happened I Just got out, checked its really broken, sone guys helped me to push it to a parking spot so I dont obstruct the Flow, then I called my dad like "hey, my car broke... Can you Come to check?" I was totally dull to any emotion. I took train home, my dad let my car fix And everything is fine. No need to panic
This takes training ---- train yourself. Say over and over, "IF XYZ, THEN I will react ABC" and go through it a few times like a fire drill... Took me so long to get some reactions trained into me to "stop first, then feel".
I need to do this with angry responses but that stuff comes out so quickly. (Goes away quick too but the damage is done.)
Know your options. Whether it be on the job or as part of your daily life, know your options. As long as you know your options you can act and react to what is thrown at you or in your way with calm. Knowing your options means making a plan based on what you know and what best fits the situation AND thinking about what could go wrong. There's no way to possibly think of every thing that could go wrong but, if you think about the situation, you can, more than likely, come up with somewhere between 5 & 10 things that will most likely go wrong and you can have a plan in mind if one of these things does go wrong. When these situations arise in private life it's just you reveling in your foresight. When they happen in your professional life and you're able to act and react in a Zen like manner you will be in a better position than most of your peers.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this may not be effective for a menopausal woman. My brain's been swimming in nothing but rage soup lately!
That sounds super challenging to deal with Tamra. When my mother was going through the change I was about 12. One time she just flew off the handle and was yelling about I don’t remember what. It didn’t even make sense to me at the time because my response was to ask her as kindly as I could muster what she mad about. The question sort of snapped her out of it, she looked at me and cried ‘I don’t know!!’
Load More Replies... It’s OK to feel ALL feelings, actually. 💕 (Just don’t be an a**e because of them! 😉)
My turning point was being able to say immediately to every new problem "Oh what fresh hell is this?" in a dull bored tone, for some reason saying that aloud deflated any panic that came from the problem. My mindset goes straight into "same sh*t, different day, just gotta deal with it" and I'm able to approach the problem and handle with it without dread, albeit with an apathetic attitude.
Hmm. I dunno. Maybe stop spouting anti vax crap? Maybe don’t post on how you bully others with disabilities? Maybe stop dissing the countries you lived in? Maybe stop blaming others for not liking you....just a thought....
Load More Replies... This one reads like toxic positivity. It's super ok to be upset/annoyed etc. It's ok to allow yourself to have these feelings in the same time when you don't want them. Nobody likes to be upset or annoyed. (Still I believe there are ppl who chose to be upset). So if you're an entitled bitch than this post is for you; choose the other path. But if you're not an entitles bitch then do allow yourself to have feelings pls.
She never said not to feel those feelings, just not to allow them to rule you.
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In facing dilemmas, I ask myself, "What would smart me do?" The answer is usually obvious. Smart me still sometimes gets vetoed, but genuinely helpful tool.
Don't save your banking information on online stores. Makes impulse buying much more difficult if you have to track down your wallet.
Putting kiwi on a steak.
Kiwi juice has enzymes that break down meats, tenderizing the steak. Pineapple does the same thing, but has a much stronger flavor. So put a bit of kiwi mush on your steak about 30 minutes prior to cooking it and it will be amazingly tender without a strange flavor added.
Never shop when hungry.
Habits are formed over a few weeks.
Look after your feet, even a blister can screw up your week.
If you keep forgetting if you locked your door/car/lock, do something silly after locking it. It will help you remember if you have to think back.
For electronics: Turning it off and on again
Note: this post originally had 68 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Heard an Army type chap explaining the psychology behind always making a bed in the morning. The Army puts a lot of pressure on recruits to conform to certain standards, it’s obvious why they do that, the perfectly cleaned boots, the razor sharp creases etc but the bed thing is more than discipline and attention to detail. You’ve been sent out on a 20 mile, wet, windy and gruelling route march, you’ve failed tests, you’ve been shouted at, eaten cold food, and generally had a rough day. You get to the time for bed and it’s perfect, you achieved something right at the start of the day that benefits you at the end of a day. You’ve bookended a rough day with something good, that lifts you, even a little bit of positivity will help you. So straighten your bed first thing, it takes a second or two and it’ll be worth it. Be more kind to yourself and others, it works ❤️
Except that studies have shown that leaving your bed to air out in the morning is much healthier. Making your bed creates just the type of warm, humid environment that dust mites love, complete with your shed skin cells for them to breakfast on.
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GOOD ADVICE AND HELPFUL TIPS ARE NOT HACKS!!!! STOP CALLING EVERYTHING A 'HACK.' A HACK IS USING SOMETHING FOR A PURPOSE OR IN A MANNER THAT IT WASN'T DESIGNED OR INTENDED FOR.
now deep breaths. it's also a life hack for calming down:D
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I used to get in to a tizzy about getting things done, then I wouldn't get anything done because I tizzy'ed the day away. A friend said "What do you need to do by the end of the day, end of the week, end of the month". It helped me to organize better and I stopped tizzying quite so much.
Heard an Army type chap explaining the psychology behind always making a bed in the morning. The Army puts a lot of pressure on recruits to conform to certain standards, it’s obvious why they do that, the perfectly cleaned boots, the razor sharp creases etc but the bed thing is more than discipline and attention to detail. You’ve been sent out on a 20 mile, wet, windy and gruelling route march, you’ve failed tests, you’ve been shouted at, eaten cold food, and generally had a rough day. You get to the time for bed and it’s perfect, you achieved something right at the start of the day that benefits you at the end of a day. You’ve bookended a rough day with something good, that lifts you, even a little bit of positivity will help you. So straighten your bed first thing, it takes a second or two and it’ll be worth it. Be more kind to yourself and others, it works ❤️
Except that studies have shown that leaving your bed to air out in the morning is much healthier. Making your bed creates just the type of warm, humid environment that dust mites love, complete with your shed skin cells for them to breakfast on.
Load More Replies... GOOD ADVICE AND HELPFUL TIPS ARE NOT HACKS!!!! STOP CALLING EVERYTHING A 'HACK.' A HACK IS USING SOMETHING FOR A PURPOSE OR IN A MANNER THAT IT WASN'T DESIGNED OR INTENDED FOR.
now deep breaths. it's also a life hack for calming down:D
Load More Replies... I used to get in to a tizzy about getting things done, then I wouldn't get anything done because I tizzy'ed the day away. A friend said "What do you need to do by the end of the day, end of the week, end of the month". It helped me to organize better and I stopped tizzying quite so much.
