26 March, 2005
Life Hacks
A hack is a way of doing something fast to make a computer program work — a quick & dirty solution. A life hack is a quick and dirty way to make something in real life work better.
Merlin Mann’s excellent 43 Folders wiki has an excellent, growing list, and is a great place to post your own. Here are some examples:
- To remind yourself of something when you get home, leave a message on your answering machine. I do this one all the time. In fact, most of the messages left for me during a work day are me saying “bring in the book for Margaret” or “send Jim a birthday card.” This works best if you live alone or have a housemate/spouse/offspring who can be relied on to give you the message.
- Take a picture of any really good haircut you get so you can show it to your barber/hairdresser the next time and say “this is what it should look like.”
- If you have something that gets lost and it makes you crazy (or it drives you insane when it’s broken), buy two. TiVo remotes are a good example.
- Copy your cds if you’re going to take them anywhere. I’ve got half a dozen cds that I’ve copied to keep in my truck. If they get scratched or stolen or someone wants to borrow them, no problem. The originals are still safely at home.
- Make yourself a “sick box” and keep it next to the bed. Kleenex, Tylenol, pink stuff, phone numbers of people at work, something to read, anything you’re not going to want to get up for when you feel like crap.