r/LifeProTips

You are not blaming anyone. You are making the dependency visible before the deadline becomes your problem.

Edit: This is not for two hours after handing something off. Ask them first, send a reminder, and give them reasonable time for their own priorities.

If you still cannot continue, mark the task as waiting and move on to your next task instead of sitting on it. The point is not to shame anyone. It is to show why the work is paused and keep yourself productive.

And if you are the person blocking someone else, give them the same courtesy. Reply with an update or an expected time instead of leaving them guessing.

Getting a toddler ready to go out can be a chore. Getting yourself ready first means you dedicate enough time to yourself without forgetting stuff. After getting a kid ready, they get cranky and want to go out, so if you go second, you typically will do it in a rush.

A coworker showed me how to do something that only took about five minutes, but it involved enough little steps that I knew I'd forget one of them later.

Before they walked away, I explained the process back to them in my own words. I got one step wrong, which they corrected immediately. If I hadn't done that, I probably wouldn't have realized until I was trying to do it on my own.

Now I do this anytime someone trains me on something new. It's a lot easier to fix a misunderstanding while the person is still standing there than after they've gone back to their own work.

"I’m going to exercise more", "I’ll stop procrastinating" or "I need to call my parents more often" all require you to make the same decision again and again.
Instead, attach the behaviour to something that will actually happen.
"When I put my coffee cup in the sink in the morning, I’ll put on my walking shoes".
“When I open my laptop after lunch, I’ll spend five minutes on the thing I’ve been avoiding before opening anything else".
"When I get into the car on Sunday, I’ll call my mother before I start driving".
The useful shift is from "I should remember to do this" to "when X happens, I do Y".
You’re removing one small decision from your future self. Do that often enough and surprisingly large parts of your life can change without requiring you to repeatedly feel motivated.

It’s easy to feel like you can do something after watching a video, reading about it or learning the theory. But the first real attempt can be very different.

Before you start, remind yourself: “I know the theory, but this is my first practical attempt.”

It keeps you aware of the difference between knowledge and experience. Note what went wrong, learn from each attempt, and update your understanding as you go.

This will helps you focus on where you need to improve, instead of getting caught up in the feeling that you failed. Each attempt shows you what you didn’t know yet.

My expensive sunglasses lenses have gotten pretty scratched after 2 years.

I recently had Ray Ban replace just the lenses for $25 instead of spending $250 on a whole new pair!

"Exactly, that is the point I was making earlier. I think the next step should be…"

You reconnect yourself to the idea while keeping the meeting moving.

There are lots of companies that charge for credit monitoring services, but you can find most or all of the information you need for free.

There's a federally-backed website where you can pull all 3 of your full credit reports once a week without providing any credit card or payment information (AnnualCreditReport .com - don't want to break rules by posting any links). Pulling your own reports doesn't hurt your credit scores at all.

There's a good chance you also have free access to at least one version of your credit scores through your bank or a credit-card issuer. Many of them now offer some level of free score monitoring. On top of that, there's no real benefit to paying for your scores, because each person has multiple credit scores that can vary depending on which version you pull.

If you have questions about credit reports or scores, let us know. We're a nonprofit credit counseling organization that offers free financial education. (We will not include links or anything promotional in our response - just info for anyone who has questions!)

I felt so stupid after realizing this. I used to try to “aim” the rinse aid liquid to get into the dishwasher’s rinse aid compartment. The liquid will come out with force and spray all over wasting half of it.

Then I realized I can put my finger on that hole and just bring it closer and then let it pour. It’s not perfect but not nearly as bad as it used to be.

Old devices can have a lot more personal information on them than you realize.

Your email accounts, photos, messages, browser history, cloud storage, and sometimes even saved passwords can still be accessible if you simply delete a few apps or sign out of one account.

Before getting rid of an old device, back up anything you want to keep, sign out of your accounts, and do a proper factory reset.

For laptops especially, don't just delete your files manually. Use the built-in reset option and choose the option that removes your personal files.

It's easy to think an old device is basically empty because you haven't used it in months. It might still have years of your personal information sitting on it.

For most people, a proper factory reset is a good basic step before selling or giving away a device. If the device contains highly sensitive information, though, don't assume a normal reset makes the data impossible to recover. Check the manufacturer's secure-erasure guidance or use a more thorough data-erasure method.

It gets stubborn stains out of shoes really well. Keeps my white sneakers really clean!

Free trials are for software, not job titles.

Call centers that try to sell you something will just schedule another contact if you hang up on them. Tell them you don't aggree to recording, then they'll stop. You can also tell them they have the wrong number it also usually works.

Source I've worked in a few call centers.

Edit: Also blocking the number doesn't do anything, the numbers are generated and effectively endless.

This setting is probably turned on by people who played a playlist and got jumpscared once or twice. I am not sure if it’s turned on by default.

But when listening to albums it should definitely be turned off, lot of artist use dynamic volume as a tool in their albums, as an album aims for a full story.

Pink Floyd is the most popular example, listening to any of their full albums with and without volume equalizer would be a complete different experience.

In recent iOS version, there’s a “Reserved Auto-Update Space” that took approx. 5GB. For a temporary release, or if you badly needed some extra space.

Turn off your “Automatic Updates.”

Settings > Software Updates > Automatic Updates > Toggle OFF.

If you're an anxious person, do everything for fun. Go to a job interview for fun. Submit documents for fun. Start a blog for fun. Anxiety feeds on importance. Don't make everything a matter of life and death.

When i’m in a bad mood, i try not to immediately sit there and diagnose my entire life.

sometimes i’m not actually having a crisis. sometimes i’m hungry, tired, overstimulated, sitting in a messy room, wearing the same hoodie i mentally gave up in 6 hours ago, and calling it depression.

a few small resets that work weirdly well:

1. take a shower,put on clean clothes

2. change your sheets or at least make the bed

3. throw away the trash on your desk

4. do one load of laundry

5. wash your face, brush your teeth, trim your nails, clean your shoes, anything that makes you feel slightly less like a raccoon

6. leave the house, even for something dumb

7. walk around target, trader joe’s, costco, cvs, a bookstore, a library, or any grocery store where people are just doing normal life stuff

8. get a cheap coffee, soup, fries, a sandwich, or something warm before deciding your life is over

9. sit outside for 10 minutes and look at trees, dogs, clouds, people carrying groceries, kids riding bikes, whatever reminds you the world is still moving

10. take a different route home just to remind your brain there are other streets

11. do one tiny thing that is not your usual routine. buy grocery store flowers. try a different drink. wear a color you never wear. go to a farmers market. drive around with music on for no reason.

12. put one small thing on the calendar so future-you has something to look forward to, even if it’s just pancakes on saturday morning, a movie night, or a walk somewhere nice

13. keep a note in your phone of tiny things that reliably make you feel better. Mine are fresh sheets. the first sip of coffee. rain while you’re inside. a good song in the car. clean socks. a dog leaning against your leg. finding jeans that actually fit.

This won’t fix serious problems. but i’ve learned my brain is not always a reliable narrator when my body is exhausted and my apartment looks like.

I kept forgetting things that I absolutely intended to do the next day.

Now, instead of relying on memory, I leave an object somewhere I can't ignore it.

If I need to bring documents to work, I put them in front of the door.

If I need to return something, I put it on top of my keys.

If I need to make an important call, I leave a note on my keyboard.

The goal isn't to remind yourself later. The goal is to make it impossible to continue your normal routine without seeing the reminder.

I've found that physical reminders work much better for me than telling myself, "I'll remember tomorrow."

Because most of the time, I don't know.

If this helps just 1 person then I’ll feel good. Any time you are looking at cars (especially used), I highly recommend taking it to a mechanic and straight up saying “hey, this might be a weird request, but I’m looking at buying this car and was hoping I could get in here just to get it inspected and see if anything critical is wrong, if I’m making a good choice, or if I need to run away”. While you should fully expect to pay $100ish dollars for this service, both times I approached separate businesses and was honest about that with the mechanics, they never charged me and gave me paperwork to take back to the dealerships to negotiate money off the price or tell them how crappy their car was. It even saved me from buying a bad car that would’ve been a bad purchase that the dealer then tried to further argue about even after I had legitimately been under the car with the mechanics. Even for $100ish per inspection, I highly recommend paying for the peace of mind before buying a car that 3 months down the road could cost you thousands of dollars.