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The 90 Best Lifehacks of 2009: The Year in Review

The 90 Best Lifehacks of 2009: The Year in Review
Another year is winding down, and that means it’s time to take a look back at what we’ve done here at Lifehack over the last 12 months. 2009 was a scary year for a lot of people – corporate layoffs, a shaky global economy, stunningly vicious politics, old wars grinding on and new ones flaring up. In the midst of all this, though, many saw opportunities; with the myth of life-long corporate employment shattered as some of the world’s biggest companies teetered on the brink of collapse, entrepreneurship enjoyed a major resurgence. This rise in self-reliance extends beyond our work life, too – people are embracing a do-it-yourself, person-to-person lifestyle where status and the display of wealth matter much less than authenticity and social interaction. All of this is reflected in the posts that went up on this site over the last year. What emerges from all this is a treasure trove of good advice, ranging from the lofty and idealistic to the immediately practical. Software and Technology

The 80 Best Lifehacks of 2008 And so we arrive yet again at the end of another year. 2008 was at best a mixed bag – while the world was electrified by the US election and it’s promise of change, the global economy was shaken to its core as a decade of financial mismanagement and willful blindness finally caught up with us. Gas prices spiked, leading us all to ask some difficult questions about sustainability, efficiency, and consumption – and then plummeted, leaving us feeling somewhat relieved, but baffled by the unpredictability of it all. As we roll into 2009, there is an atmosphere of suspenseful anticipation, of hope mixed with not a little uncertainty. Companies are streamlining to prepare for the worst, even as entrepreneurs look ahead to new opportunities. Overall, it seems that now is a time for shaking off the dust, clearing away the debris of the past, and looking towards the future. Here at Lifehack, we’ve always followed a path of cautious optimism. Communication Fitness/Health Lifestyle Productivity

The 100 Best Lifehacks of 2010: The Year in Review Happy New Year everyone! It’s the first week of 2011 and many of us are getting ready to kick off the brand new year with a big bang. As we start off 2011 with our new resolutions and goals, let us now look back at the best posts at Lifehack in the past year. In this review post, I have gathered 100 of the best LifeHack articles in 2010. These articles have been selected based on your votes and how much YOU have talked about them in social media (Facebook and Twitter). Do not attempt to read this whole post at once! Let me start off with the top 10 most popular life hack posts out of the 100s of posts published in 2010. Following which, I’ll present the 100 top articles presented in the 11 catetgories. Top 10 Most Popular Posts in 2010: Overall Personal Growth Maximizing Productivity and GTD Lifestyle and Habits Inspiration & Motivation Goal Achievement & Success Emotional Mastery People Skills & Relationships Communications & Writing Business & Career Creativity & Inspiration Family Miscellaneous

Start Every Day as a Producer, Not a Consumer I have to agree that my most productive days are those where I don't allow myself to read the news, check e-mail, facebook, etc., right after I get up. However, that happens because I've got a ton of stuff to get done, and the outside world takes a back seat until my workload is under control. However, there are certain biological necessities that have to happen before I can be productive. The dog gets let out, I go to the bathroom, I eat/drink something, and *then* I sit down to be productive. I also *have* to check my e-mail, because if something blew up overnight or there's something that needs to be dealt with ASAP, I need to know as early as possible. Flagged

Polyphasic Sleep: Facts and Myths Contents The law of accelerating returns We live in the times of accelerating acceleration. The Moore's Law makes the world smaller, faster, more connected and more efficient. We are now able to touch and feel Kurzweil's generalization: the law of accelerating returns . The fast-living young generation is hungry for more. At the same time, the myth-making power of the human mind is now grotesquely amplified by the all-mighty Internet. Around the year 2000, a new meme cropped up in several blogs on the net: The Uberman's Sleep Schedule. The Uberman's Sleep Schedule The idea behind the Uberman's Sleep Schedule is to gain waking hours by sleeping the total of just 3 hours in 6 portions distributed equally throughout the day. The Uberman's Sleep Schedule was proposed in this blog at Everything2. Polyphasic sleep More and more frequently, Uberman's Sleep Schedule was being referred to as polyphasic sleep (the term popularized by research and book by an Italian chronobiologist Dr.

How to Do a Proper Self-Review and Identify Your Professional Pain Points (Before Your Boss Does) SExpand It's the end of the year, which means it's performance review season for many of you at work. Ideally, there should be no surprises in your review, but we've all thought that before. This year, give yourself a self-review so you'll have all the ammo you need to respond to criticism and suggest improvements long before your boss confronts you. Here's how to make that self-review less painful and more useful—not just for this year, but for your whole career. Self-reviews are usually the worst part of performance review season. In this post, we'll walk you through doing a real, private self-review, identifying your professional pain points and irritations, and then coming up with solutions that you can bring to the table when you meet with your boss. Step One: Write Down What You Do, What Others Think You Do, and What You Should Be DoingP The first thing you need to do is get clear on what it is you actually do every day, and compare that with what your job description says you do.

Tips, Tools, & Tinkering: 110 Years of <em>Popular Mechanics</em> DIY In one of our very first issues, back in 1902, we told the story of an Illinois schoolboy named Mark Richards, who built an automobile for himself. By saving money from his after-school job blacking stoves, Richards cobbled together enough parts to assemble a runabout that rolled on four skinny tires and was powered by a single-cylinder engine. "I had no knowledge of the principles and practice of gasoline engine construction," Richards said, "yet I not only managed to make it but to build the transmission mechanism, friction clutch, spark-timing mechanism, body running gear, etc., even doing the necessary blacksmithing... I stuck to the job and am gratified with the result." If Mark Richards were alive today, he would love the story of Bob Dullam, a sculptor in Kalamazoo, Mich., who received one of our 2009 Backyard Genius Awards for building a replica of the Tumbler Batmobile. To guide the masses, the early issues of Popular Mechanics were aimed at the initiated.

7 Secrets of the Super Organized A few years ago, my life was a mess. So was my house, my desk, my mind. Then I learned, one by one, a few habits that got me completely organized. Am I perfect? Of course not, and I don’t aim to be. But I know where everything is, I know what I need to do today, I don’t forget things most of the time, and my house is uncluttered and relatively clean (well, as clean as you can get when you have toddlers and big kids running around). So what’s the secret? Are these obvious principles? If your life is a mess, like mine was, I don’t recommend trying to get organized all in one shot. So here are the 7 habits: Reduce before organizing. If you take your closet full of 100 things and throw out all but the 10 things you love and use, now you don’t need a fancy closet organizer. How to reduce: take everything out of a closet or drawer or other container (including your schedule), clean it out, and only put back those items you truly love and really use on a regular basis.

How to Do Nothing Edit Article Edited by Krystle C., Jack Herrick, Whichmonkey, Wes Platt and 138 others Do you need to carve time out of your day to be still? Sometimes, you need to take a break from the daily hustle and bustle and just do nothing. However, if you're a particularly jittery or impatient person, this can be difficult. Ad Steps 1Schedule quiet time. 8Resume your normal activities slowly. Tips Once you become good at doing nothing, you can use this new found time and energy to think of things, instead. Warnings At first you may feel nervous, sad, and restless. 60 Ways to Improve Your Life Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to make drastic changes in order to notice an improvement in the quality of your life. At the same time, you don’t need to wait a long time in order to see the measurable results that come from taking positive action. All you have to do is take small steps, and take them consistently, for a period of 100 days. Below you’ll find 60 small ways to improve all areas of your life in the next 100 days. Home 1. Day 1: Declutter MagazinesDay 2: Declutter DVD’sDay 3: Declutter booksDay 4: Declutter kitchen appliances 2. If you take it out, put it back.If you open it, close it.If you throw it down, pick it up.If you take it off, hang it up. 3. A burnt light bulb that needs to be changed.A button that’s missing on your favorite shirt.The fact that every time you open your top kitchen cabinet all of the plastic food containers fall out. Happiness 4. 5. 6. How many times do you beat yourself up during the day? 7. Learning/Personal Development 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

6 Quick Hacks On Becoming A More Likeable Person » How To Become Wildly Popular | How To Become Wildly Popular I’m going to keep this list short and sweet. But remember: these tips will only work if you actually implement them in your daily life. Don’t be the dumbass who reads for hours and hours and doesn’t remember anything. As in life, action is key. Promise me now you’ll not just go sit in front of the tv watching loser series after reading this. Yes, I’m talking The Big Bang Theory. 1) “I Know You’d Do The Same For Me” Any time you did something to help another person and they say “thanks”, use this magical phrase. A friend of mine once ran out of condoms and his girlfriend was coming over later that day. 2) “Have a great day” The easiest hack in the world. I almost always use a variation on this phrase in my emails (but I make sure not to put it in my email signature because I don’t want people to think it’s a generic, standard text). 3) “Wow, you have an amazing smile” *Smile* Admittedly, it does take some practice to make a genuine compliment without it being ridiculously awkward or fake.

How To Succeed At Anything By Being Yourself | People and Chairs “Know thyself.” – Ancient Greek aphorism “Yeah, but more importantly, be thyself.” – People and Chairs A few years ago I met a woman I’ll call Jane, who wanted to get into advertising. She did stand-up and improv, and we chatted about the comedy scene for a while. I reviewed her portfolio and made some suggestions. When we said goodbye, she handed me a business card that read: Jane Doe – “That Funny Girl.” I stopped. “Jane,” I said, “your card says ‘That funny girl.’ (Full disclosure: She was later hired by a big agency, so what do I know?) The point is, I have no doubt that she was funny. Compare that with the business card above. In his memoir, Born Standing Up, Martin recalls his first stand-up gig. “Be obsequious, purple, and clairvoyant” is one of the greatest lines ever written, in my humble opinion. Steve Martin knows who he is, and he’s made a career out of being different. “Walk into a room like you belong there.” – Ed McMahon Inventing feels like work because it is. “Be yourself.

How to master your life - Leading a better life - Quora It’s a game where you lead a person’s complete life with a mouse. Want to talk to that girl right there? Just click on her and pick something: Left to their own devices, your Sim will do whatever they feel like, which is usually strikingly stupid. In real life you think about getting fit. The second lesson from The Sims is to nurture your state.If your Sim is tired, desperate for company or wetting themselves, they won’t get much done. The third lesson from The Sims is to build selected skills.Almost every action your Sim can take makes them better at something.

10 simple ways to save yourself from messing up your life - Step Stop taking so much notice of how you feel. How you feel is how you feel. It’ll pass soon. What you’re thinking is what you’re thinking. Adrian Savage is a writer, an Englishman, and a retired business executive, in that order. Read full content

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