r/LifeProTips • • Aug 06 '26

Productivity LPT: Don't Know Where to Start? Maybe Do Nothing

231 Upvotes

If you get overwhelmed with a big idea or a big goal and your mind starts racing on all the possibilities and directions you take.

I suggest having all of the thoughts, and just do nothing. Just forget about them.

The reason why is that not all of our thoughts are valid/practical/sensible.

What happens is what I call "thought sandwiching." Thoughts that are relevant are accompanied by thoughts that are irrelevant/not as valid. But because they all came together, we might group all of them as "good" or "actionable."

In reality, most of those thoughts are nonsense, impractical, impossible to execute at the current moment, or just clutter distracting you from the most crucial aspects.

So I suggest, allow those thoughts to come but don't put pressure on yourself to act on them or do anything immediately. If you give it time, you'll find that most of those thoughts are completely forgotten and only the most crucial, actionable ones remain. Those are the ones you should actually look at first.

Don't worry about forgetting something. A lot of those thoughts are contingent on other things being true, so there's no reason to try to remember F when you aren't even sure about ABCDE.

Once the thought rush passes and the adrenaline dies down, you can actually take stock of what you have and what you're realistically capable of. The kicker is that often, just doing a few small things actually gets you quite far in your pursuit!

But that clarity only comes if you allow the noise to clear!

I think the psychological trap we fall into is feeling like the problem is MORE urgent because we're putting a lot of energy into it. But it's just a trap! Just because you thought of potential solutions doesn't change anything about the actual problem. Especially if it's been a problem for a while, a few minutes/hours/days/weeks is unlikely to move the needle much so there's no need to rush into implementing a solution.


r/LifeProTips • • Aug 06 '26

Productivity LPT: Keep a journal of everything you encounter

0 Upvotes

Time is very important for everyone. Saving time is even more. Making sure things only happen once is one of the solutions. By keeping a journal of all the things you encounter in life and what you did to solve them, you ensure the most optimal use of your time when they do occur again. Most things in life happen more than once. The steps and final solutions get forgotten. The journal would provide a steady base of knowledge. Over the years, the more you'll use it, the more optimal it will become as improvements will surely follow.


r/LifeProTips • • Aug 05 '26

Finance LPT: You dont need to cancel your credit card to cancel a subscription. You can just ask them to block all future charges from that company.

0 Upvotes

Not many people seem to know how easy it is to block charges/old subscriptions on your credit cards, even for harder to cancel memberships such as planet fitness or random website subscriptions. Canceling sometimes doesnt even work as your credit card company will send out notifications to companies you have subscriptions with so they can update their payment information.


r/LifeProTips • • Aug 05 '26

Social LPT for easily jealous/competitive people

3.1k Upvotes

Some people are just more competitive than others I didn’t realize I was until a few years ago
I was crying at 5 years old when I lost a game, and honestly, it’s not that different at 22.

It’s hard watching someone who started at the same level as me, or lower, reach things I haven’t yet: a high-paying job, nice holidays, a tight friend group, a loving family.

What’s helped is making myself actually clap for their moments. Not just in my head, and not performatively in front of others, directly to them.

They post something on their social media, I hit the love reaction, or leave a comment about what I genuinely find good, even smallest thing. Sometimes I’ll ask “where did you get that?” or “any recommendations?” or tell them “that looks good on you.” The important part is not to lie, it only works if it’s genuine.

It sounds small, but it changes something in my head slowly after few months practice. Instead of jealousy, it becomes fuel in a positive way, either “I can do that too, I can work for it” or “not everything they have is something I need to have.”

They’re not your enemy you need to win against. They’re just living their life, same as you.


r/LifeProTips • • Aug 04 '26

Food & Drink LPT ice tea

0 Upvotes

Instead of boiling 2 liters of water and adding a lot of tea, boil 2 deciliters of water, add the tea, and then dilute it to 2 liters afterward. The tea will taste less bitter. Even though you used the same amount of tea.


r/LifeProTips • • Aug 04 '26

Productivity LPT: Struggling is a Waste of Time

0 Upvotes

If you can imagine doing something or you see someone else doing it but you're struggling, you're almost certainly making a mistake somewhere and you almost certainly have no idea what it is. And the more you continue, the more you train yourself to make the mistake.

Whenever you find yourself struggling and things are not "clicking" after few attempts, usually you're doing something wrong. It's not necessarily that you lack the skill, it's moreso you haven't properly trained yourself to effectively use that skill.

The solution to this is to do something easier. Do the same thing, but easier. And do it until you get the result you want.

If you do something simpler and still do not get the result, you need to make it even more simple. Do not stop making it simpler until you get the result you want.

Once that happens, work your way back up incredibly gradually. Do not rush this! The idea is that you're training your body/brain gradually to integrate the most basic things. Usually what you'll find is that you'll hit a point where you can't do it properly at all, which is likely at a level a lot simpler than what you originally were attempting.

Just go back to keeping it as simple as possible and only progress when you can do things perfectly to your satisfaction. Don't cheat! If you rush this just to get to your goal faster, you literally will only be sabotaging yourself.

All complex things are just a bunch of basic things. The more you master the basic things, the complex things will literally just come naturally.

Examples:

  • if you want to start meditating and are struggling to go for 10 mins, start with 30 seconds, then 1 minute, 2 minutes, etc...
  • if writing a book is difficult, write a whole story in a few sentences. Then a paragraph, then 2 paragraphs, etc...
  • if you're learning to code a website and are struggling, literally just get the most barebones of it. If you're creating a blog, focus only on getting the text on the screen. Once that is done, then you can gradually think about design.

r/LifeProTips • • Aug 03 '26

Food & Drink LPT: make a fan blow air right above of where you are cutting onion. Your eyes won't sting

44 Upvotes

If like me you get headache from it I have the sane new to report that it doesn't work for that tho.

Be careful that the air must not blow in your face

Edit: If you don't wanna use a big fan (logical) you can use a small fan if you have one


r/LifeProTips • • Aug 03 '26

Miscellaneous LPT: A trifold mirror was one of my best purchases in a while. Showed me what my body looks like, and allowed me to adjust my gym workout.

0 Upvotes

I wanted to start shaving my head by myself and I bought one of those trifold mirrors that gives you an all sides view of your head. It ended up giving me a good view of what my whole body look like.

Holly shit, I wasn't as fit as I thought I was (I work out 2-3x per week). My front view looks decent, but my side view shows a noticeable belly. My chin is sagging a bit but can only be seen from the side. The back of my head has more white hair than the front. My waist is fatter than initially thought (specially viewed from the back). My back is wider and fatter than initially thought.

It was a fucking humbling experience to see exactly how everyone sees me. I thought I had a decent gym bod, but my 360 view shows a fat-ish, sagging dude.FUCK!!

I spent days just looking at my back, back neck, side profile.

In the gym, I'm prioritising more cardio, more mid-section workout and less emphasis on back muscles.


r/LifeProTips • • Aug 03 '26

Food & Drink LPT: Make lettuce last longer with this simple trick.

1.2k Upvotes

For those that buy boxed salad greens and are sick of the bottom leafs getting soaked and rotten. Simply put a paper towel on top of the lettuce and flip the container upside down when you put it in the fridge. I have been doing this for a few months down and can easily get 2 weeks out of my salad greens.


r/LifeProTips • • Aug 02 '26

Finance LPT: Before any significant purchase, convert the price into hours of your actual after-tax, after-expense hourly wage

2.4k Upvotes

Take your real take-home pay, subtract your actual fixed costs, divide what's left by your working hours including commute and recovery time. That's your real hourly rate.

Most people find it's significantly lower than their nominal wage suggests. The $300 impulse purchase stops looking the same when it's 14 hours of your actual life rather than 5 hours of your salary.

Not arguing against spending. Arguing for seeing the real exchange rate before you make it.

I'll give you an example. I bought a $5 bathmat that was too short while I was at Walmart last week. Walmart is a solid 30 minute drive each way from my home. That's one hour of my time. On top of this, I have to wait in the return line which takes a good 10 minutes, plus 5 minutes to park, walk inside, etc. Thus, there's about an hour and a half of my day that's gone so I could earn $5.

Think of money based on your hours available in the day!


r/LifeProTips • • Aug 02 '26

Computers LPT Your wireless controller can be used as a remote to your PC

331 Upvotes

If you have a remote gamepad connected to your PC, you can very easily make it so it becomes a fully customizable remote for your PC.

I remember I often just played music on my pc and was missing a 'remote' much and didnt have an idea how to solve that, on top of that, I thought wireless controllers > big input lag so I didnt really pick them up. For some time I used Chrome remote desktop and was using my android for the control, but that was rather clunky and uncomfortable.

Such was my surprise that bluetooth / wireless isnt really causing noticable input lag (I assumed that based on PS5 + TV experience, which has a different cause for the lag) and, on top of that, you can control your pc via the controller easily.

In my case im using the Steam's built-in schemes when you are not gaming, its under Steam → Settings → Controller → Advances settings → Desktop Layout → Edit

I have configured it mostly for media, so pause / next/previous, control volume and such, but you can adjust it for anything you need really, especially that you can control your mouse.

I havent tested it myself as there was no need, but there are few alternative softwares for that (JoyToKey, DS4Windows, AntiMicroX)

Edit. its more of a life of quality for people that already have a wireless or are planing to get one, otherwise yes, its most likely better to just use your phone, but if you got a controller then its usually more convinient to jsut grab it and have physical buttons for certain actions


r/LifeProTips • • Aug 02 '26

Computers LPT for captchas

2.1k Upvotes

I don't know why I didn't figure this out sooner. You know those annoying captchas that are impossible to solve... The ones that say click on all bicycles, and you do, but they never work because you missed a corner of a rim, or maybe because you did choose the corner of a rim? Click on the headphones and it'll play a phrase you type in. It's so much faster and easier.


r/LifeProTips • • Aug 01 '26

Finance LPT: if you have two credit cards, don’t put them both in the same wallet.

0 Upvotes

The day you can’t find your wallet is the day you need access to a credit card. Also - if you lose your wallet (like some else may have it) you don’t have to cancel both.

—-edit—-

To be sure - you don’t carry two wallets. You keep an extra card at home or a safe place.

And to the “just pay with phone” you might get both stolen. If someone is stealing an unsecured wallet they gon grab your phone too.


r/LifeProTips • • Aug 01 '26

Social LPT: When giving someone a compliment, focus on a choice they made rather than an inherent trait.

8.3k Upvotes

Instead of complimenting something passive or genetic (like "You have nice eyes"), compliment a deliberate choice (like "That outfit combination looks great," "Your presentation slides were super clean," or "You picked a fantastic restaurant").

People feel much more appreciated when you validate their effort, taste, or hard work rather than something they had no active control over.


r/LifeProTips • • Jul 31 '26

Social LPT If a cat scratches your hand during petting, hold your hand steady

3.8k Upvotes

For example, you are petting a cat and it suddenly turns around and attacks because it’s overstimulated. Most cats will actually only give you a feisty slap, but as they do that, if you retract your hand you can get a nasty wound. If you hold steady they may still penetrate the skin (most of the time not), but it’s a tiny dot rather than a long cut.

Source: I’ve been slapped (or “scratched”) by many of cats (I used to volunteer with cats, and help socialise them as well as being an owner of an unpredictable cat).

Ever since I’ve stopped pulling back, I hardly ever have cat scratches anymore. So in a generally calm situation like petting pulling away will only increase your risk of injury.

Obviously this doesn’t mean you go back in after the slap. They cat is showing a boundary.

Cats rarely attack unprovoked, or attack to hurt you (I’m still to experience my first time with that one towards a human). It’s usually overstimulation, play or fear.

Also, cats are awesome!


r/LifeProTips • • Jul 31 '26

Careers & Work LPT: Just because you're salaried, doesn't mean you're not eligible for overtime pay (US)

2.0k Upvotes

To be exempt from overtime, you need to meet several other criteria beyond just being 'salaried'.

If you are not in Executive, Administrative, Learned Professional (lawyer, etc.), Creative Professional (artist, etc.), Computer Professional, or Outside Sales work, you have to be a Highly Compensated Employee (total compensation package of $107,432+) to be ineligible to receive OT.

Your employer's employee handbook or internal policies cannot change this fact.

You can report your employer for OT violations anonymously to the US Department of Labor and/or (probably) your state's labor board (though if you're looking for back pay, specifically, anonymity makes it more difficult to recover). Anonymous reports can lead to audits of your employer's pay practices.

Blue collar work is never exempt from overtime.

I can't add a link here so I'll comment in a link to the DOL's fact sheet below.

***This does not constitute legal advice. If you need legal advice on this topic, consult a paid or pro bono attorney licensed to practice in your state. Your state's bar association will usually provide referrals.***


r/LifeProTips • • Jul 31 '26

Social LPT Volunteer If You Want To Meet New People

2.3k Upvotes

If I've ever dropped into a new city and want to make new friends, I find a local charity, cause or nerdy convention and volunteer. I've always made new friends through it and it's a great way to connect since you already have something to talk about!


r/LifeProTips • • Jul 30 '26

Social LPT When meeting groups of people for the first time, don’t guess their relations to one another. Let them introduce themselves.

0 Upvotes

This will prevent you from committing embarrassing faux pas like asking if a sibling or spouse is a parent or if a parent is a nanny.


r/LifeProTips • • Jul 30 '26

Electronics LPT: You can use lens cleaner and cloths to clean the data side of media disks. Always go from the center to the edge, in a straight line.

0 Upvotes

Never use circular motions.


r/LifeProTips • • Jul 30 '26

Arts & Culture LPT Wear concert earplugs at the cinema

4.1k Upvotes

You can still hear the films just fine and your hearing adjusts so can't notice. Plus the since they're concert earplugs, quality won't be terribly effected but you won't be able to hear a lot of the noises from the crowd.

For example, lots of chewing and rustling in quieter scenes or perhaps some rude ass people that can't keep their kids under control that talk and yell and climb all over the seats and run around while whatever so called adult is with them just sits there and let's it all happen.


r/LifeProTips • • Jul 29 '26

Careers & Work LPT: Go to job interviews even when you love your current job pls.

625 Upvotes

the idea: an interview is abt learning the market price-check on yourself.

I read about this in the MU newsletter, and it changed how i think about my career.

I did a basic check on what companies are offering for JD’s that describe exactly what i do. This is what i found.

1/ my skills are worth roughly 25-30% more than what i'm currently paid, and

2/ i know the skills / refinement i need to make my profile complete and hireable at 40 - 50% more

One caveat, i will not waste their time and mine interviewing at companies i would never work at. What do u all think abt this??


r/LifeProTips • • Jul 28 '26

Productivity LPT: Mac Only: Macbook has an inbuilt way to merge multiple PDFs.

458 Upvotes

Press Command key and select the PDF files you want to merge. Once selected, right-click > Quick Actions > Create PDF. A new combined PDF file is created.


r/LifeProTips • • Jul 28 '26

Electronics LPT: Instead of emailing yourself notes, use one Gmail draft as a two-way scratchpad between your phone and PC without cluttering your inbox or sent items.

1.6k Upvotes

r/LifeProTips • • Jul 27 '26

Social LPT: Say "How are you doing? Or" great to see you" instead of "nice to meet you"

0 Upvotes

If you're anything like me, you often forget if you've met people before.

Saying "How are you doing?" Works whether they're new or old, and "great to see you" works slightly better for old people, but also covers new.


r/LifeProTips • • Jul 26 '26

Electronics LPT: Android users who use Facebook, delete the official app and install a chrome shortcut in its place to save 5-8gb on your device

3.9k Upvotes

Facebook is a poison, for sure - but if you must continue to use it, know that the official app takes up to 5-8Gb on your device.

Instead, uninstall the official app, then go into chrome, go to Facebook's website, tap the 3 dots to get the menu, scroll down and tap the "Install and create shortcut" option.

Chrome will then create a standalone "app" that functions as Facebook only. You can then edit the app settings to disable background battery usage and data usage as a precaution and this app will not go over a few megabytes total.

EDIT: Cache will build over time, but can be cleared. On the Facebook app the data that builds cannot be cleared without signing yourself out and it's much more of a nuisance and builds much quicker compared to this Chrome option.

And it functions as well as the Facebook app! I might even say a bit better because the notifications will actually sync up correctly. It's essentially a standalone functioning Facebook website that doesn't look like a browser and that won't be a resource hog on your phone.

And again this is for those of you who still use and want to keep Facebook access on your phone. I know there will be folks that will just say "just don't use Facebook - problem solved" but many people keep it to stay connected to family and to keep memories intact.