What is your favorite life hack?

[MightyGiants]

I learned decades ago how to stop hiccups (with a high success rate).  Have someone trace letters and numbers on your back.  Trying to figure out the numbers forces you to concentrate and relax the spasms in the diaphragm.

What is one of your favorite life hacks?

[Bob In PA]

I learned decades ago how to stop hiccups (with a high success rate).  Have someone trace letters and numbers on your back.  Trying to figure out the numbers forces you to concentrate and relax the spasms in the diaphragm.

What is one of your favorite life hacks?

Rich: Never heard that one before, but I'll be sure to remember it. Mine is never bet on pro sports. lol

[MightyGiants]

Rich: Never heard that one before, but I'll be sure to remember it. Mine is never bet on pro sports. lol

It's funny, the woman I learned it from heard it from her college professor.  I have seen it work very well over the years, yet it is still a trick few have ever heard of.


As for sports betting, the closest I come is buying boxes for the Super Bowl (which often is the only thing to make the game remotely exciting).   From my perspective, I don't understand how betting can be addictive. It's one of the biggest non-activities in my life.  I have gone to casinos, and I have gone to the track.  I have gambled, and won some and lost some, but I never had any sort of feeling from it that I would say was even remotely addictive.

[T200]

Positivity and gratitude.

Having an optimistic outlook on any situation and being grateful for the present are my favorite life hacks.

[DaveBrown74]

I'm a huge fan of the 4-7-8 breathing technique to fall asleep. It works incredibly well.


The technique is simple:

-Breathe in through the nose for four seconds
-Hold your breath for seven seconds
-Exhale through the mouth for 8 seconds.
-Repeat.


When I do this, I actively feel my heart rate slowing down. By forcing your mind to keep an accurate count of the seconds, you basically clear it of all other thoughts. Whatever thought clutter was on your mind before you started is cleared away, because you need the mental space to keep the count. The deep, slow breathing further relaxes you. It is simple but remarkably effective. I find it usually takes no more than five or six repetitions, and I'm out.

Here's a good quick tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSgRAJX9gUc

[LennG]

Letting your wife think she is always right.
Works Everytime.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

A few that work, but beware

1) Squeeze bottle ketchup: People automatically squeeze the bottle from the two flat/soft sides. To do it right (or so says the life hack author), you must "squeeze the bottle from the two rounded/hard sides". So I tried it and lo and behold, it worked like magic. It creates a vacuum the pulls the ketchup out instead of being pushed out. Beware: man o man does it work...and once it starts, you can't stop it. It will empty the entire bottle if you don't quickly turn it upright. In my experience, I smothered a hamburger in ketchup before I realized what was happening. It ruined the burger (fixable by using a knife and scraping most of it off), made a mess of my kitchen counter all the way to the sink where it was still coming out. Bottom line: it definitely works, but use caution

2) Opening theft-proof plastic enclosed items. Instead of trying to rip them open with your hands (rarely works and is known to draw blood), or using a sharp knife that is likely to find its way into your flesh... use a can opener to cut around the edges. In my experience, it doesn't work all that well, depending on the package

3) Removing a splinter: put a drop of Elmer's Glue on the sliver...let it dry...peel off

4) As a math major, this one is actually very useful: "25% of 19 is the same as 19% of 25. Percentages are reversible, and one is usually much easier to figure out than the other one."

5) Continuing on the math side of things: People who have a good understanding of ratios, know that trigonometry is the easiest subject among advanced mathematics. Teachers confuse the crap out of kids by teaching the "wrapping function" (every 𝜋 wraps halfway around the circle counterclockwise and every -𝜋 wraps halfway around the circle clockwise, etc) which is confusing, and does more to make kids hate math, than to learn it and find it fun...or at least interesting. In trig, every thing you'll ever use in life is simply understanding ratios. I taught my kids when they were young to understand that ratios can be expressed in many ways...ex: 2:5, 2/5, 2⟌ 5, 5÷2, .400, 40%, etc. Now, when it comes to trig, there are usually two knowns and one unknown. That unknown is nothing more than a ratio of the other two and it is expressed in a sine, cosine, or tangent chart, depending on the two knowns and the one known angle. The ratio is simply expressed like sine .3584, or cosine .9336, or tangent .3839. Use a calculator, multiply the number, and you'll have the answer in a nanosecond. Isn't math fun? 

6) If you are making a soup or stew, and it tastes too salty, throw in a couple of potatoes that will soak up the salt, then pull out the potatoes and throw them in the garbage...meal saved

7) If working on a car engine or other job where your hands get covered in grease, Dawn liquid soap works better than any of the products advertised for getting grease and dirt off your hands. Works great for me anyway

8) Having trouble opening a tight jar lid? Run the lid under hot water for a half minute or so. The heat will cause the metal lid to expand (thermal expansion of solids is just physics in action). Dry and try again, should turn right off. Does for me anyway

[Ed Vette]

I'm a huge fan of the 4-7-8 breathing technique to fall asleep. It works incredibly well.


The technique is simple:

-Breathe in through the nose for four seconds
-Hold your breath for seven seconds
-Exhale through the mouth for 8 seconds.
-Repeat.


When I do this, I actively feel my heart rate slowing down. By forcing your mind to keep an accurate count of the seconds, you basically clear it of all other thoughts. Whatever thought clutter was on your mind before you started is cleared away, because you need the mental space to keep the count. The deep, slow breathing further relaxes you. It is simple but remarkably effective. I find it usually takes no more than five or six repetitions, and I'm out.

Here's a good quick tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSgRAJX9gUc

I count from 100 backwards and visualize the number while thinking of a football or baseball player who had/has that number. If you get to Ken Boswell or Al Weiss, you probably shouldn't have had that late cup of coffee. If you get to Nabors, it's gonna be a long night. lol

[ozzie]

I count from 100 backwards and visualize the number while thinking of a football or baseball player who had/has that number. If you get to Ken Boswell or Al Weiss, you probably shouldn't have had that late cup of coffee. If you get to Nabors, it's gonna be a long night. lol

I'm giving you a "Thumbs Up" for this for Ken Boswell & Al Weiss! Names I haven't heard in ages   

[Ed Vette]

I'm giving you a "Thumbs Up" for this for Ken Boswell & Al Weiss! Names I haven't heard in ages   

The Mighty Mite 6
And Boswell 12

[MightyGiants]

I'm a huge fan of the 4-7-8 breathing technique to fall asleep. It works incredibly well.


The technique is simple:

-Breathe in through the nose for four seconds
-Hold your breath for seven seconds
-Exhale through the mouth for 8 seconds.
-Repeat.


When I do this, I actively feel my heart rate slowing down. By forcing your mind to keep an accurate count of the seconds, you basically clear it of all other thoughts. Whatever thought clutter was on your mind before you started is cleared away, because you need the mental space to keep the count. The deep, slow breathing further relaxes you. It is simple but remarkably effective. I find it usually takes no more than five or six repetitions, and I'm out.

Here's a good quick tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSgRAJX9gUc

I struggled when I tried this.  The normal respiration rate for an adult is 12 to 20 breaths a minute.  When you add up the three legs, that's nearly 20 seconds (19 actually), which works out to 3 breaths a minute.  That's way too slow for me

[squibber]

If you have dry crusty bird poop on your car and you want to remove it easily, place a rag sopping wet with water on it and let it sit there for about a half hour. It will wipe away easily and won't scratch the paint.

I lift weights 2-3 times a week. I'm turning 71 next week so I can't bench press half of what I did in my twenties but that is ok. This habit makes me feel a bit more youthful and who knows, it may delay the day my son puts me in the nursing home.

[MightyGiants]

If you have dry crusty bird poop on your car and you want to remove it easily, place a rag sopping wet with water on it and let it sit there for about a half hour. It will wipe away easily and won't scratch the paint.

I lift weights 2-3 times a week. I'm turning 71 next week so I can't bench press half of what I did in my twenties but that is ok. This habit makes me feel a bit more youthful and who knows, it may delay the day my son puts me in the nursing home.

I get rid of the bird poop as soon as I see it, because I don't want the paint damaged.

Bravo on the weightlifting.  Ironically, I think people get more benefit from lifting weights when they are older than when they are younger.  Yet, older weightlifters are rare.

[Ed Vette]

I get rid of the bird poop as soon as I see it, because I don't want the paint damaged.

Bravo on the weightlifting.  Ironically, I think people get more benefit from lifting weights when they are older than when they are younger.  Yet, older weightlifters are rare.

Birds and I have an understanding. I don't park under trees and they don't xxxx on my car.

[MightyGiants]

Birds and I have an understanding. I don't park under trees and they don't xxxx on my car.

The other week on my Saturday walk, there wasn't a tree within a hundred yards of me, and some bird xxxx on me