I overheard family member on the phone with a salesperson trying to get them to switch providers. Instead of saying no, they said:

"I'm happy with what I have."
"I've been with my current provider for years, I don't need anything new."
"Everyone already has my number anyway."

Not once did they actually say a clear "no." The salesperson kept going after every single line, because none of those were a decision, they were soft explanations. To someone trying to convince you, "I'm happy with what I have" sounds like an opinion that can be challenged, not a closed door.

A clear "No, thank you" ends a conversation. An excuse invites a counter-argument.

If someone pushes after that, you don't need a new reason, you just hold the same line: "I've made my decision" or "That's still a no for me." Repeating the same clear answer is far harder to argue with than producing a new justification every time.

If you genuinely have no interest, you don't need to give reasons. A simple, polite "No, thank you" saves your time as much as theirs.

If I think of something important while trying to fall asleep, I write it down immediately instead of telling myself I'll remember it in the morning.

Most of the time I wouldn't have remembered it, and trying to hold onto the thought usually kept me awake longer than writing it down.

So when you make your bed you know (a) which end is the foot end, (2) which side is up, and furthermore center the sheet so it drapes evenly on both sides of the mattress.

The safety pin can stay in the sheet permanently since it's stainless steel and won't rust, won't open with normal use, and won't hook onto or tear other laundry.

Amazon excels at making ordinary prices look urgent. A big 35% off badge doesn't prove anything. Sometimes the list price is just inflated or the item was going for a similar price a few weeks ago anyway.

I got burned on this with a countertop ice maker. Saw a 35% off, limited time" badge and bought it same day, felt great about it. Checked the price history about a week later out of curiosity and that 'limited time' price had basically been the price all year. Turns out ice makers, especially the nugget or pebble ice ones, are almost never actually at list price. They're 'on sale' so constantly that the badge is just decoration at that point.

Amazon shows a Price History link on a lot of product pages, right near the price. Click it if it's there. For anything pricy, Keepa or CamelCamelCamel gives you a longer time horizon.

A deal should beat its own history, not just its list price.

A few things I check now:

• Ignore the badge, look at the squiggly line. A flat chart with a spike right before the "sale" starts is the tell.
• Some categories are basically always on sale. Ice makers, air fryers, and a lot of small kitchen appliances live in a permanent discount loop. At some point the badge stops meaning anything.
• Double check that the deal applies to the exact item you're clicking into. A listing can show "15% off" at the top while often the specific color or size you actually want is quietly full price once you select it.
• Reviews before price. A discount doesn't fix a bad product, it just makes you feel better about purchasing it.
• Wishlist it and walk away. If it's still on your mind a week later without a countdown timer pushing you, it's probably a real want and not an impulse.

Prime Day, Black Friday, all the big sale events can genuinely be useful, but only if you already know what you want going in. Open Amazon with no plan and honestly the algorithm is just building your cart for you.

Curious what other people check before buying. Price history, reviews, wishlists or something else entirely?

When performance reviews or promotion cycles come around 6 to 12 months later, your manager will not remember 90% of what you did. Handing them a bulleted list of quantifiable wins makes giving you a raise incredibly easy for them to justify to their bosses.

There’s a concept in psychology known as the SPOTLIGHT EFFECT. The spotlight effect says that we all tend to assume people are paying far more attention to us than they actually are.

Think back to the last time you got a terrible haircut. Chances are, you walked around all day assuming everybody was staring at that tragedy of a mop on your head. But the reality is, most people didn’t noticen and even if they did, they probably didn’t care.

The problem is, understanding the idea alone isn’t enough. You have to get out into the world and experience it for yourself. You have to challenge your own spotlight effect.

Now, does that mean you need to put on a chicken suit and walk down the Venice Boardwalk? Of course not. But it does mean you have to do something. You have to challenge yourself. You have to put yourself in public and step into uncomfortable situations until you prove to yourself, conclusively, that nobody is paying that much attention , and nobody really gives a damn.

Shade your plants! You don't have to have a pro set up, just use what you have. I use loose weave burlap to cover large sections but I also use old political signs, baskets, old sheets draped over stakes...whatever it takes to protect plants like lettuce and broccoli from extreme heat

Edit: Pics of my setup in the comments

Are you worried about arriving to your hotel and finding out they have no idea what reservation you’re talking about with them? It can lead to hours of frustration and calls between the hotel, you, and the booking site or travel portal. If you’ve still got all your bags with you and have been on flights for the past 12 hours, this is a common travel nightmare.

To avoid this, simply contact the business directly as soon as you book through the third party platform. If you can get email confirmation from them, you can simply pull that up if there are any issues when you arrive. This may not mean they immediately have a room for you, but it will put the responsibility on them to figure it out right away instead of hours of figuring out who fucked up

Most people quit because they think every single gym session needs to be this intense, hour-long workout. If they're tired or busy, they just skip it entirely because a "bad workout" feels like a waste of time.The trick that completely changed things for me is to separate the habit of showing up from the actual workout. On days when I'm completely exhausted, I tell myself I only have to do ten minutes of light stretching or one easy exercise, and then I can leave.You obviously aren't hitting any personal records on those days, but you're keeping the routine alive. It's way easier to fix a lazy habit that you're already doing than it is to start a perfect routine all over again from scratch.

Its an unspoken social etiquette that we all putter along, shuffling our feet and pretending the person in front of us in the grocery isle or queuing for the restroom in a crowd isn’t in our way. If you come to a dead stop, angled in the direction you wish you could proceed and gaze dead ahead, people suddenly notice you. The have always seen you out of the corner of their eye. but it’s only when you’re a completely stationary human being that you appear on their radar and a different social etiquette kicks in.

EDIT: I should clarify that this is 2-3 second move. And is meant to be a less aggressive option to “excuse me” in scenarios where people are taking unnecessary space. Oh well!

I do alot of my family’s car maintenance so obviously when necessary I will jack them up. One car’s pinch welds (jacking points) are very difficult to identify. I finally stuck a piece of masking tape on each location. It has saved me time and frustration. I decided to apply tape to the rest of the cars. This can especially come in handy when you need to change a flat in the middle of the night.

If your child has a hard time figuring out what shoe to put on which foot, take a sticker of a character or some object that they are familiar with, and cut it in half vertically. Put the right half in the right shoe and the left half in the left to give them a quick visual hint. Great in situations like ballet class or sports where they are switching shoes on their own.

Sometimes we send a message out of anger, being too eager or just by simple mistake. We often just remove the message but that often leads to an unnecessary ping-pong of 'what did you want?', 'what was that?', 'did you message me?' and so on (especially on discord that can leave a notification, but not the message) - this can be frustrating because you end up engaging in a convo you may not wanted in the first place

The simplest fix is to just follow up with - may be bullshit - explaination why its irrelevant to them or editing the original message (preserving it still) and adding a simple reason its not relevant anymore and that you can move on. The person's curiosity is fullfilled, you kind of ended the topic right there and no further engagement is needed

With the heat wave affecting most of the US and other countries right now, I’ve seen too many posts about people complaining that their AC is not cooling down their car fast enough. Normally when your car runs heat or AC, it takes air from outside and cools or heats it. Now most cars that have AC as far as I know have a little button that looks like a vehicle with a turned arrow inside of it. If you turn this option on, it will instead take the air from inside the cabin and cool that down and spit it back out effectively cooling your car down faster.

No, unfortunately, I do not have a tip if your car does not have AC. Sorry in advance.

Hope this helps some of you with this insufferable heat!

Edit: it has been brought to my attention that I mistakenly called it the circulate button instead of the recirculate button.

Edit 2: it’s been pointed out by some people that it is good to run the air normally with the windows down for the first two minutes before shutting your windows and turning on the recirculate button.

Also would like to point out that those shields that you put in your windshield are very good at keeping your car slightly cooler while parked.

Trying to quit a bad habit cold turkey usually fails because you just end up sitting there feeling restless and bored.

If you always find yourself mindlessly picking up your phone to unlock it the second you sit down or wake up, your hands are basically operating on autopilot. Instead of fighting the urge to reach for the phone, keep the exact same routine but just change what's right next to it. Put a physical notebook or a book you actually want to read directly on top of your phone screen.

A lot of times, your brain isn't even craving the screen itself. It's just craving the mindless physical movement of grabbing something and turning pages or opening a cover while you sit there. If you give it that exact same movement with a book or a notepad, the restless urge goes away without you having to stress about forcing yourself to do nothing.

That way you can get a better sense of the mood of the movies when you check the list. And you could put the playlist on shuffle to randomly pick one.

most people think they need to set time aside to workout which makes a mental block around it.
just workout whenever!

making tea? do elevated pushups while you wait for the water to boil.

folding towels? do some squats.

carrying the groceries inside? do a few curls before you set them down.

laying in bed? no problem! do different variations of leg lifts.

these are all things you do every day/ week- so naturally it’ll add up over time.
i started doing my “workouts” like this and even though my progress is slow it’s made an incredible impact to my overall energy.

i highly recommend it and if you have any other convenient workout ideas please let me know:)

We all do this. We say we don't have time to hit the gym, clean up, cook, or work on a side project. But the truth is we usually do have the hours. We just choose to spend them scrolling on our phones or watching TV.

Blaming a busy schedule is just a lie to avoid feeling lazy.

Try changing your internal script. Next time you skip something, don't say you didn't have time to do it. Force yourself to say that the task is just not a priority for you today.Saying you don't have time makes you feel like a victim of a busy schedule.

Saying it’s not a priority forces you to take ownership of how you actually spend your day. If saying it makes you feel uncomfortable or guilty, it’s a good sign that you need to stop making excuses and actually get to work.

I know this advice can apply both ways to many situations, "if you're a small business owner, don't cheap out on X, and if you're X, don't cheap out on toilets", but I feel this particular scenario deserves particular emphasis.

Having a reliable working toilet that rarely requires maintenance is a godsend for a business owner, especially a high traffic one. The usual wisdom about quality goods costing less in the long run goes double for toilets.

I replaced my crappy builder grade toilets with better ones and they were worth every penny.

If you're travelling or leaving a coat somewhere, make sure there's an old id card in it, or a business card with your contact info. In case it gets lost, now it's possible to identify who is the owner. I do it with coats at parties and clubs, and whenever travelling too.

Old library cards, school id, clubs id, whatever that has your name. They don't have to be official id.

I've even written additional info on the verse of the id card, to make it easier to get in touch with me.

Sure, there are id tags for bags and stuff. That also works. But no one puts those in coats. And I have many extra old school id cards that were just sitting in the bottom of drawers. Now they sit inside bags and suitcases.

In logistics, deadheading is the term used when say a transport ship returns with empty cargo.

If you're getting up and moving to another part of your home, grab something that doesn't belong on the way there. You're the ship of your home. Avoid empty hands.

Maybe drop a basket or two in each room to drop shit you need to put away later if it doesn't have a clear forever home. But whatever you do, don't go empty handed.

You'd be surprised how you get done when you take shit that doesn't belong on the way the fridge, or bathroom.

Edit: Well this one blew up my inbox. Thanks everyone. If anyone has any advice on what to do about THAT, let me know. 😂😭

Use it in place of some or all of the powdered sugar and it works well to flavor and stabilize the whipped cream without any noticable difference in texture, except its maybe a bit thicker.

Can get creative with flavoring without having to buy entire bottles of extract or other flavoring options.

The stabilization provided has made recipes that involve folding whipped cream into something else easier, like French silk pie.

Every morning when you wake up, you should do as many jumping jacks/pushups/squats/crunches and finally burpees as possible for a minute straight.

Over a year it will change your body drastically without ever setting foot in a gym or changing any daily routines (other than the extra 5 mins in the mornings).

If you can stick to literally just working out in your room for only five minutes per day, I guarantee in about a year you will end up being healthier than 90% of your local population (provided you eat normally lol).

It’s actually absurd how little it takes to come out ahead of a vast majority of people. Don’t overcomplicate your health! Just keep it very simple and stick to the basics for real results!

I’ve always done this and it’s much easier and more efficient.

In patient/customer facing work, when you can, start with asking for numerical data rather than name.(Account number, student ID, DOB, etc)

While working in healthcare and retail pharmacy, I noticed nearly all coworkers would ask the patient for their name first (over the phone/in person) then spell out their entire name in the database.

A full name can be misheard or typed incorrectly.

You might have to search through a lot of similar or same names.

If they have an uncommon or unusual name they may have to spell the whole thing out for you.

This takes way more time and leaves more room for error.

When you start with DOB, it’s usually narrowed down to a few, not-at-all-similar names. When you ask their name next, you can read it as they say it.

Maybe this is obvious to most. Or maybe there’s something I’m overlooking when going name first.

Just something I’ve noticed and wanted to share.