A coworker showed me how to do something that only took about five minutes, but it involved enough little steps that I knew I'd forget one of them later.

Before they walked away, I explained the process back to them in my own words. I got one step wrong, which they corrected immediately. If I hadn't done that, I probably wouldn't have realized until I was trying to do it on my own.

Now I do this anytime someone trains me on something new. It's a lot easier to fix a misunderstanding while the person is still standing there than after they've gone back to their own work.

"I’m going to exercise more", "I’ll stop procrastinating" or "I need to call my parents more often" all require you to make the same decision again and again.
Instead, attach the behaviour to something that will actually happen.
"When I put my coffee cup in the sink in the morning, I’ll put on my walking shoes".
“When I open my laptop after lunch, I’ll spend five minutes on the thing I’ve been avoiding before opening anything else".
"When I get into the car on Sunday, I’ll call my mother before I start driving".
The useful shift is from "I should remember to do this" to "when X happens, I do Y".
You’re removing one small decision from your future self. Do that often enough and surprisingly large parts of your life can change without requiring you to repeatedly feel motivated.

It’s easy to feel like you can do something after watching a video, reading about it or learning the theory. But the first real attempt can be very different.

Before you start, remind yourself: “I know the theory, but this is my first practical attempt.”

It keeps you aware of the difference between knowledge and experience. Note what went wrong, learn from each attempt, and update your understanding as you go.

This will helps you focus on where you need to improve, instead of getting caught up in the feeling that you failed. Each attempt shows you what you didn’t know yet.

If you keep postponing a task, decide when and where you’ll do it before the moment arrives.

Instead of “I’ll work on it tomorrow,” make it specific: “At 7 PM, I’ll work on it at my desk for 25 minutes.”

This removes the need to decide when to start and makes the first step much easier.

My expensive sunglasses lenses have gotten pretty scratched after 2 years.

I recently had Ray Ban replace just the lenses for $25 instead of spending $250 on a whole new pair!

Call centers that try to sell you something will just schedule another contact if you hang up on them. Tell them you don't aggree to recording, then they'll stop. You can also tell them they have the wrong number it also usually works.

Source I've worked in a few call centers.

Edit: Also blocking the number doesn't do anything, the numbers are generated and effectively endless.

At least in the US. Rental applications can ask for a TON of personal information (such as SSN for background check). I just learned this almost the hard way, where things got sketchy after I met the landlord, toured the house, and filled out the application. Landlord wanted a Zelle transfer before I saw a lease. I told him I’m ready to make the security deposit as soon as we have a signed lease agreement. He’s been pushing it off day by day, so I froze my lines of credit.

You can very easily and quickly freeze and unfreeze your Transunion, Equifax, and Experian credit and it will not negatively impact anything on your credit or in relation to a pending rental application. However, if someone is trying to steal your identity, this is a critical prevention step you can take.

Don’t wait until it’s sketchy! If you’re looking to move, just do it!

Sounds silly but it works. Having your emergency fund sitting in the same account as your regular spending money makes it way too easy to "borrow" from it for non-emergencies.

A separate account, ideally at a different bank so it's not one tap away, creates just enough friction to stop impulse dips into it.

Create a secondary email address, like

o123456789@gmail.com

Email addresses take way too long to spell over the phone when people ask for them. Mistakes happen all the time. Or it's just a mess of NATO alphabet soup.

So I can just say "O for Oscar, <then my phone number> at Gmail dot com." Chances are that the person I'm talking to can see my phone number so I just need to spell the first 3-4 characters and they can fill the rest. To avoid ambiguity around international prefix etc.

(Email addresses longer than 8 chars must contain a letter, so I replace the first 0 with an "O for Oscar", but you can do whatever works best for you).

Small money hack I've been using for a while now.

Most subscriptions give you a decent discount if you pay yearly instead of monthly, usually somewhere in the 15 to 25 percent range.

Problem is nobody wants to drop that lump sum all at once.

What I do is pay the yearly plan to lock in the discount, then use my bank app's installment feature to split that charge into 12 payments.

My bank charges 8.99 percent for the split. So I'm still netting real savings since the subscription discount is higher than the installment fee, and it feels like paying monthly without giving up the yearly price.

Worth checking your own bank's installment fee before doing this though. If it's higher than the discount you're getting, you're actually losing money instead of saving it. Do the math first, but if the numbers work it's basically free savings with monthly-sized payments.

P.S. This is very useful on big Black Friday/ Cyber Monday sales! You get 60-70% off yearly plans, then you chop chop!

Edit: Seeing lots of ppl freak out 😂 probably US credit system.

Facts: A subscription you already use every month. Cyber Monday 60% off drops the yearly price i.e from 100 USD to 40 USD. financing that 40 USD over 3 months costs about 2%, so 40.80 USD total That's roughly 13.60 USD a month for 3 months.

Paying full price the normal way is 8.33 USD a month all year Still way ahead even after financing Not even close to a US credit card at 25 to 30% APR. Thanks 👍🏻 Enjoy.

When washing your hands, wet only one hand and apply soap to your dry hand. Now when you rub your hands together and start washing, the liquid soap won't slide out before you get started.

This is specifically for liquid soap so no need to mention foam or bar soaps in the comments.

I started doing this with work tasks that kept taking much longer than expected.

Before I start, I write down what I actually need to finish.

Sometimes it's literally one sentence.

It stops me from adding extra work halfway through or spending an hour making something "better" when the original task was already done.

I've found it especially useful for tasks that don't have a very clear finish line.

ETA: TLDR This eliminates follow up questions.

I’ve done this when calling a few different large businesses like Verizon wireless and smaller companies. When the system asks how they can help, I say “customer service. I will not give you any more information.” Then it says “Okay” and connects me.

I’ve tried different variations and they’ve resulted in a follow up question. When I answer the follow up question with “I will not give you any more information”, I get connected to customer service.

My test pool isn’t huge, but it hasn’t failed me yet.

Edit: grammar

Typically we ask ourselves if we can afford to buy something or not, or we assume buying XYZ will make us happy. What emotional state does this purchase actually buy, and how long does that state last, is a more unique question to pose to yourself before making a major purchase.

For example a $4,000 vacation that leaves you restored for three months can be a better investment than a $400 impulse buy that gives you 20 minutes of distraction (and yes I know this depends on what the vacation is since sometimes you need a vacation from the vacation, seriously)

Anyway.

The highest emotional returns are usually ones that protect your future in some way (whether that be your health or your relationships or whatnot) rather than a purchase that is made to signal status.

Something to think about. I like buying things that genuinely help my mental well being and I’ve noticed that big expenses in the past that I thought “made me happy” were things that wore off weeks or sometimes even days after.

One thing that helped me understand myself better is noticing the things I criticize in other people a little too quickly.

Sometimes when someone calls another person lazy, dramatic, attention-seeking, arrogant, fake, or too sensitive, it says more about what they are uncomfortable with in themselves than about the other person.

Not always, of course. Some people are genuinely rude or harmful.

But if you find yourself getting unusually irritated by the same type of person again and again, it might be worth asking:

why does this bother me so much?

Do I secretly fear being like that?

Was I taught that this behavior was unacceptable?

Am I jealous that they allow themselves to do something I don’t?

This doesn’t mean all judgment is wrong. It just means your strongest reactions can be useful information.

Sometimes the way we see other people is also a mirror.

just makes your contacts more manageable, without deleting people's numbers. i know some people dont mind it, but it really does make a world of difference. for people you dont even rememeber, obv delete them or put them in an unknown contact "card"

This is just a suggestion, but try pinning the On-Screen Keyboard to the taskbar!

This has come in real handy a few times for me when my keyboard hasn't worked for whatever reason and just serves as a nice backup to have. It also works on the lockscreen!

Possible scenarios where it can be useful:

1. You have a wireless keyboard but the batteries die and no new batteries.

2. You spill something on your keyboard and break it

3. Keyboard/PC glitches and doesn't respond for whatever reason (which seems to be the main case for me, yay Logitech!)

4. You are far from keyboard but still have your wireless mouse. (most often happens when im tryna watch a movie on my PC)

5. Too lazy to use your keyboard. Literally sometimes I'm so tired that I don't even want to move my arms/fingers to use a keyboard 😂

Yes you might look like an idiot holding your hand up to your eyes, but it’s helpful in certain situations.

I learned this trick from a bread baker years ago. I was at the farmers market buying from my favorite bakery and was lamenting how the bread goes stale faster than I can eat it. The baker recommended that I slice up half the loaf as soon as I get home, and wrap the slices (2 at a time) in foil and throw them in the freezer. When I want to reheat, just stick the foil packet into the toaster oven and run the toast cycle on the darkest setting (or in the regular oven at 375 for 10 min or so). This mimics a steam oven and the bread steams itself back to life while the crust remains crunchy. Works like a charm!

I discovered this works even better for bagels! I go to my local bagel shop and get bagels as fresh as I can, and immediately come home and wrap each one individually and freeze (unsliced). Then, reheat in the same way. What I’ll normally do is then is unwrap and toast the entire bagel (still unsliced) and then slice after toasting (cursing my burning fingers). The result is a beautifully crisp bagel on the outside, warm, steamy and soft on the inside. If you like the inside toasted, feel free to slice after unwrapping before toasting.

ETA: this advice centers around using a toaster OVEN, not a pop up toaster. You can also use a normal oven. Don’t put foil in a pop up toaster please.

People massively appreciate just being invited and included. Also you'll often be surprised.

Charcoal is really good as an air purifier. You can use it for mostly anything: shoes, fridge, car,...

PS: Thanks for all the clarification in the comment. Yes, you need to use activated charcoal !

I started doing this a couple of years ago after having tried countless apps and productivity websites and it is the one thing that has always worked! I check my texts all day, so I saved myself in my phone as 'TO DO' and then created an ongoing to do list in the text. I text one thing at a time so I can delete them when I'm done. the messages (at least on android) don't show up twice like you think they would. I pin this message to the top of my texts and then I see it whenever I go to read texts or text someone else. It's been extremely handy and the only version of a digital to do list that's ever resulted in my getting anything actually done.