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Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?

#31

Post by patrickg »

Sorry, only computer/work related:

1) I am so used to a mac that makes me save lots of time compared to other systems I am not used to. That doesn't mean a mac is better or whatever, I just want to point out that using the same system for a long time is probably the best time saver there is.

2) notational velocity is the note taking application (for my mac) that I have been looking for years. I have to write something down every now and then and I can reach NV just with a key press, and get back to work. NVs ui is so intuitive and blazingly fast, that I fell in love with it instantly.

3) spotlight (as a program starter and a desktop search enginge) and time machine are IMO the most time saving things built into the OS (and the user interface, of course).

Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?

#32

Post by yummyfajitas »

Ledger - command line double entry accounting. A great way to keep track of your money.

Martial arts - beating people with a stick is good for the soul.

Aldiko - ebook reador for Android. It makes reading very easy; rather than carrying a book everywhere you go, just take out your phone.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?

#34

Post by Alleyfield »

MichaelSalib wrote: post #23
Alleyfield wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly doubt the effectiveness of polyphasic sleep. I myself found myself physically fatigued when I tried something like that. So, based on my own (little) experience, my muscles need the long rest that a good night's sleep gives. And doing "something useful" while commuting... Well ain't there a sure sign for disaster? Hmm. Now don't get me wrong, but your post seems to be coming from a guy who's heading enthusia…

I think the original commenter was envisioning a bus/train/van-pool/subway/ferry commute rather than a car/bicycle/walking commute. My last job involved a long subway trip and I found that a Kindle really helped. The trains were too crowded to make reading on, let alone working on a laptop feasible.

I understood that he meant being in a bus/train/van-pool/subway/ferry. The point that I was trying to make was that trying to do "something useful" while commuting is, at least to me, pretty annoying - there's so much distraction going on around you that your chances of actually having attention to the task you're doing are slim.

And time without attention is time wasted.

Ultimately you might find yourself using 24/7 of your time in practicing things - and realizing that you've understood nothing.

And then you're ready to welcome the burnout

Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?

#37

Post by briancooley »

My best hack, hands down is: just don't go to meetings.

It's weird at first. Seems like you'll get in trouble, and people do get pissed. But they have a weird way of getting you just the information you need and little more.

I don't skip every meeting, just the ones that routinely offer me little value and waste a lot of time. I just stopped going and nothing changed except I have a lot more time to get things done.

BTW, I switched to Colemak a couple of months ago. If you're doing it to type faster, you might be disappointed for a while. If you are doing it for ergonomics, you'll be delighted. I switched because I started noticing fatigue in my fingers.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?

#38

Post by jasonlotito »

Alleyfield wrote: post #16
drKarl wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that sleep is very important, but like I said before, I'd like to try polyphasic sleep. That would be an impressive hack, giving me more time and maximizing REM phases. Reduce multitasking - that is, focus in a single task at a time, agreed!! Eat less, exercise more - agreed! That is in fact one of my pending points. Don't commute more than 20mins each way - I would add... unless you can do something useful w…

I highly doubt the effectiveness of polyphasic sleep. I myself found myself physically fatigued when I tried something like that. So, based on my own (little) experience, my muscles need the long rest that a good night's sleep gives. And doing "something useful" while commuting... Well ain't there a sure sign for disaster? Hmm. Now don't get me wrong, but your post seems to be coming from a guy who's heading enthusia…

"And doing "something useful" while commuting... Well ain't there a sure sign for disaster?"

Podcasts and Audiobooks. You can learn new things, keep on on recent events, or, even better, just enjoy the time with a good book. You can do this while driving even, without problems.

The only downside is you tend to not mind the traffic during the commute.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks/best tools in life/time savers?

#39

Post by reduxredacted »

bluemetal wrote: post #24

1) a collection of autohotkey scripts (key remapping, fast toggling for show/hide hidden files, toggle selected text from upper/lowercase and a heap more) 2) sms reminders on google calendar (free!) 3) learning as many kb shortcuts to your software as you can 4) automatic filters and a well thought out label system in gmail 5) sumatra pdf viewer, or any really quick pdf program 6) electric blanket on a timer, makes g…

On #8 - Another option is to paint a full wall in your office with Dry Erase Paint (I used this, it works well: http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=128)
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