We all have tips or shortcuts we use to make life a little easier. Here are a few of mine:
10. Put Your Phone in Airplane Mode when Your Kindle Library Book is Expiring. I love checking out e-books from the library to read on the Kindle app on my phone. One advantage of checking out e-books is the e-book disappears at the end of the checkout period, with no late fees. However, if you are close to finishing the book and want to read the last few pages before the loan disappears, place your phone in airplane mode. With your phone off WiFi and not accessing data, the library loan will remain on your phone past its due date.
9. You Can Turn Notifications On or Off on Facebook Posts. Instead of commenting "following" on a post, you can go to the three dots (...) on the upper-right side of a Facebook post and select, "Turn On Notifications" to follow the post. You can also stop receiving notifications on posts by selecting "Turn Off Notifications" for a post you have previously commented on.
8. Put Your Phone in a Glass If Listening to Music. I frequently want to listen to music, but lack speakers. If you put your phone in an empty glass or a glass bowl, it will amplify your phone's speakers.
7. Boost Your Productivity with MyTomatoes. This website uses a productivity technique where you focus hard for 25 minutes, take a 5-minute break, and then repeat. At the end of each 25-minute period, you get to record a "tomato" of what you accomplished, but if you stop before the interval is up, you squash the tomato and all is lost. This sounds cheesy. But it motivates me to see how many tomatoes I can accomplish in a day, and I enjoy looking back on what I accomplished.
6. Find Time Holes with RescueTime. RescueTime is a program you install on your computer to see where you are using your time. It then prepares a report for you to see where you spent time on the computer - including how productive these endeavors are. One huge eye-opener for me? I spend a ridiculous amount of time at work on e-mail.
5. Back Up Photos with Google Photos. There are many other programs that do this, but I have been happy with Google Photos - my photos on my phone are automatically backed up and synced. I am especially partial to Google Photos since it ties into Blogger, which lets me easily pull photos off my phone into my blog.
4. Have a Zero E-mail Inbox. Okay, I only do this on my work inbox. When I started working at K-State almost a decade ago, I resolved that I would not keep any emails in my inbox - I would immediately delete anything not worth saving, respond to anything I needed to address, and file emails after responding that I needed to keep. I think I am good overall at staying on top of my emails in my KSU account. However, in my Yahoo account, I am TERRIBLE - partly because there are so many emails and so system. Perhaps I need to nuke the Yahoo account and start over . . .
3. Check the Library. We have an amazing library in town. I can find so many resources at our library - e-books for my Kindle, audio books, magazines, video games, movies, you name it. I have a strange aversion to using money to pay for any of these resources because I know I am almost always able to access what I need at the library.
2. Rent a Dumpster When De-Cluttering. Okay, this is controversial. But when we de-cluttered our house, we rented a giant dumpster from the local recycling/transfer station place in town. It was amazing. If you have a large amount you would like out of your house that cannot be used by others, a dumpster makes the job immensely easier.
1. Use ProWritingAid to Check Your Writing. I love the website ProWritingAid so much I am thinking of subscribing to the paid premium version just to support the site, even though I am more than satisfied with the free version. This website allows you to check your writing for spelling, grammar, style, and more. It is like having a high-tech, built-in copy editor at your fingertips. In fact, I am off to use ProWritingAid right now before I publish this blog post.
What life hacks have you discovered?
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