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Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?

#11

Post by danilocampos »

When pulled over by the police:

Surrender completely, be kind, considerate and honest. Haven't gotten a ticket in nine years. More, if you're curious about the step-by-step:

http://blog.danilocampos.com/2010/10/23/how-to-get-away-with...

Having a notebook:

A notebook large enough to comfortably dump your thoughts into but small enough to be always near your keyboard is awesome. The notebook helps with procrastination, especially when avoiding some gnarly bit of code you don't know how to write. I just start describing the problem and how I might solve it.

After awhile, I have:

- An idea of what I need to look up

- A basic list of tasks

- A clearer understanding of what I need to do

Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?

#12

Post by jarin »

I don't really keep a traditional to-do list anymore. I tried GTD several times over the last 5 years and it's just too cumbersome (and having a huge to-do list is pretty daunting). I keep high-level project to-dos organized in Basecamp, project ideas are organized in soywiki, and any critical reminders are in Google Calendar (with alerts).

The real hack that I do though is every morning I take a post-it note and write down 3 things that I will finish that day. Then I stick it to my monitor and do the things. After that, I relax and play Starcraft 2 or work on personal projects.

Before I started using the post-it note, I would have a day or two where I was really productive, followed by several days of lackluster productivity. Now, by committing to fewer items per day but actually accomplishing them all, I'm way more productive overall, my clients are happier, and I'm actually making progress on my personal projects.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?

#13

Post by Beanblabber »

Udo wrote: post #6

Okay, just life hacks, no tech: Figuring out how to skip boring classes and phys ed in high school (mostly) without getting caught. Ah, good times. Bypassing uncooperative assistants on the phone in order to schedule meetings with their superiors (OK, not my proudest moments actually). Faking attractiveness and social intelligence in order to get girls with all kinds of tricks, including infamous wing man maneuvers.…

Now, this is the part where you elaborate and tell us how you did such things.

Honestly, your post is more suspenseful than a cliche horror movie.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?

#14

Post by netaustin »

Get good at every system (software or otherwise) you depend on, and stick with them. Don't take on new systems until it hurts too much not to.

For me, this means that I run the same GTD/Pomodoro routine day in and day out using Remember the Milk. And I won't evaluate alternatives until I can't help but.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?

#15

Post by paulbaumgart »

Udo wrote: post #6

Okay, just life hacks, no tech: Figuring out how to skip boring classes and phys ed in high school (mostly) without getting caught. Ah, good times. Bypassing uncooperative assistants on the phone in order to schedule meetings with their superiors (OK, not my proudest moments actually). Faking attractiveness and social intelligence in order to get girls with all kinds of tricks, including infamous wing man maneuvers.…

All in the game, yo. All in the game.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?

#16

Post by true_religion »

danilocampos wrote: post #11

When pulled over by the police: Surrender completely, be kind, considerate and honest. Haven't gotten a ticket in nine years. More, if you're curious about the step-by-step: http://blog.danilocampos.com/2010/10/23/how-to-get-away-with... Having a notebook: A notebook large enough to comfortably dump your thoughts into but small enough to be always near your keyboard is awesome. The notebook helps with procrastination…

I have to say the "rules" are a great hack.

Thanks to them, I've never gotten a ticket while inside my own district.

While I have gotten tickets outside my district, I have had violations ignored or reduced drastically merely for coming across as a "good guy".

The police aren't there to mess up your day unless one of you is in a bad mood. You can't control his mood, but don't make your mood the problem.

----

That said, if you're looking at something worse than a traffic violation--invoke every possible right that you can.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?

#18

Post by true_religion »

eof wrote: post #8

Last time one of these threads came up, someone mentioned using the privileged security lines even without a first class ticket or whatever frequent-flyer status you need. I just flew out of Chicago and skipped a pretty decent sized line without any fuss from anyone.

Yeah those lines operate via the honor code. No one is actually going to stop you. That said I consider line jumping to be cheating, not a "life hack".

Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?

#19

Post by geuis »

Use the other door. The next time you're in a crowded place, like a mall, and lots of people are trying to enter or exit, take notice. Almost 100% of the time, most of the people will all be filing through one door that is open because other people are going through it. This is despite the fact that there is probably one or more perfectly good doors to the left or right of it.

Something similar for revolving doors. Most venues that have revolving doors also have normal doors for wheelchairs, deliveries, or whatever. Stick a large group of people together, and they start clumping up trying to go through the revolver, instead of just going through the other doors.

Being aware of this crowd behavior is a great way to bypass lines, avoid frustration, and beat the crowd.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?

#20

Post by jrockway »

eof wrote: post #8

Last time one of these threads came up, someone mentioned using the privileged security lines even without a first class ticket or whatever frequent-flyer status you need. I just flew out of Chicago and skipped a pretty decent sized line without any fuss from anyone.

Do this enough, and then there's going to be a line to get into the security line.

"Tragedy of the commons."

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