Don't drive. Ride a bike. Lot's of rest. Make a todo list start of each day. Ignore everything else.
I make my days to-do list just before bed at night. Since starting this I have had much more success utilizing to-do lists.
Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?
121–130 of 140 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?
#122I can't recommend this software organizer heavily enough - http://mylifeorganized.net/ It's minimalist and gets out of the way, but has lots of powerful features if you need them. But it stays out of your way if it doesn't. I had about 130 little tiny things to do a month ago on various lists, inboxes, etc, etc. Put them all into MLO, got it down to ~40 now. Very useful, worth trying out.
Looks good! I'll try it out! I've tried many GTD software and organizers but none fully satisfies me (I liked Tracks). I see there is an Android version, that is good!! But there is no Linux version... I use both Linux and Windows. Anyway, looks good!
I've been using Remember the Milk for GTD:
http://blog.rememberthemilk.com/2008/05/guest-post-advanced-...
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?
#123Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?
#124Commitment devices. Bethany Soule and I just committed to staying on all of these "Yellow Brick Roads": http://kibotzer.com/fitfam . We did so by each auctioning off a security worth $2000 in the event we fall off any of those roads before August 1. Our friend David Yang won for $65 apiece.
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?
#125Ditch your TV. I did this by accident ( http://blog.jgc.org/2010/02/year-without-tv.html ) and it's been an enormous change in my life.
Just be careful you don't turn into this guy:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-constantly-mention...
Really though, I think it's a good idea. There's some good content on there, but it's a tempting easy distraction. I'd also add "limit your time messing around on the internet".
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?
#126Buy a starter pistol, you know the kind that they use at tracks. This is still considered a valid weapon for airport screeners so this "tip" applies only to non-carry on luggage. Put the pistol into your luggage and declare it before depositing it with the airline. It won't be lost, tampered with or diverted, ever. The reason is simple. They have to treat luggage with firearms different from normal luggage. It goes i…
As I understand it using this trick means the TSA cannot open your luggage without your presence, so keep an ear open for your name on the PA.
Sounds like another incentive to do this. No more random snooping/lost items.
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?
#127Amazon has lots more than books, so signup for Amazon prime. It's ~$80/yr but you can split it with up to 4 different accounts (so find some friends and it's $20/yr). Instead of all those trips to the store you can now use a few mins of your free time to order any items you need (batteries, shampoo, garbage bags - whatever) and they'll arrive within two days. Overnight orders are only $3.
Grocery delivery. Not a big fan of Safeway stores but their delivery is awesome. I get overwhelmed in grocery stores, buy things I don't really need, forget to buy others. Grocery shopping at home makes it very easy to compare your items and review your basket before finalizing your purchase. Works really well if you work at home and can schedule their 4hr delivery windows (cheaper).
Legal pads. Great for taking notes, sketching ideas, exploring ideas - lots of startupy tasks. They're high contrast and longer than traditional notepads. I know moleskins are generally the startupper standard, but give the legal pad a try one day.
Phonetag (http://www.phonetag.com/) I hated voicemail. Phonetag now handles all my voicemail, emailing me the transcription and MP3 of the audio. Now I can organize, sort and search my voicemail just as I do with the other items in my inbox.
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hahaha nice reference to "Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" in #5. Douglas Adam would be proud ;) I agree with you on the smartphone, I use an android flavoured device myself. The online calendar is a win as well, and it integrates great with the smartphone. I would add Evernote (or similar)!! For online note-taking. Didn't know about Goldtouch keyboard before, I'll have a look. Duct tape!! McGyver lives in our heart…
As long as your bringing up MacGyver, Victorinox "Tinker" Swiss Army knife. Duct tape to put things together, knife to take 'em apart. The Tinker is small enough for every day pocket-ability but versatile enough to do about anything you need.
Although I don't have a Swiss Army knife myself, a buddy swears by it. He even breaks it out when we're just grabbing a bite to eat. Other restaurant patrons always cast sideways glances at him, but hey, at least he's able to open his bottle of beer. ;)
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is splitting terminals really that helpful? I tend to use 80 character wide, tall terminals so that I can have emacs sitting next to it (in similar dimensions). I guess if I used console emacs, having one terminal with it split would be fine, but when I'm using a tiling window manager, I don't necessarily see the benefit..
Well, I sometimes have to work in a server without X Windows, but with framebuffer enabled and tmux it's a pleasure to work on it.
I guess it's been a long time since I've worked on a system without X. :)
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tried VIMperator and loved it but had to kill it since it was incompatible with Gmail keyboard shortcuts.
Hit ctrl-z to pass through keystrokes. It works with Google Reader, but I'm not 100% that it works with Gmail. I know the issue has been discussed before, and I think it was fixed, but I'm not certain.
You're right. In fact, I have my vimperator setup so that it automatically does this for Google Reader and GMail, and only for the relevant tab (i.e. if I hit "v" to view a Reader article, the pass-through turns off on the new tab). I did it with this statement in my .vimperatorrc (Linux):
autocmd LocationChange .* js modes.passAllKeys = /(google\.com\/reader|mail\.google\.com)/.test(buffer.URL)