There are always these pesky little obstacles in life that make everything so difficult – pot always boiling over, zipper constantly unzipping itself or ice cream melting on your clothes. All these first world problems can easily ruin your day. Luckily, the internet is full of many of a handy Taylor Swift life hack that can help you!
This awesome list of life hacks will teach you how to make your beer cold quickly, hammer nails without hurting yourself, keep your greedy colleagues away from your lunch, cover up dings on wooden furniture, keep your take-out pizza warm and many more!
Put away your cell phone
A study at the University of California, Irvine, found that “the typical office worker is interrupted or switches tasks, on average, every three minutes and five seconds.”
3 minutes and 5 seconds. That’s 185 seconds in total between one interruption and the next.
What’s more, “it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.”
23 minutes! That’s over seven times as long as it takes for you to be interrupted again.
What does that tell us? The average worker never even gets close to the zone of deep work, where complex tasks are accomplished with good results.
As if that wasn’t enough – your phone is only one of many sources of distractions, after all – we keep our biggest nemesis right in front of us.
Not only will we look at it every time it vibrates or makes a noise when our phone is within arm’s reach, but we’ll also naturally pick it up every couple minutes, just because we can. You know “just in case.”
Don’t give me that look. I know you do it too. We’re all weak.
Taylor Swift life hack … grow roses from cuttings
Here’s a great tip for growing roses from cuttings. Before planting, push the bottom ends of the cuttings into small potatoes.
Moisture and nutrients in the potatoes will allow the cuttings to develop healthy roots. Learn more here.
Taylor Swift life hack … develop your point of view
Here’s where you put yourself under the microscope, figure out who you are and develop your story. Putting yourself through a POV exercise can be incredibly clarifying.
How do you define who you are and what you want to mean to the world?
How do you want people to see you?
How do you want to describe the problem you solve?
Write it down, perfect your story and hone it until it sounds like a tight, conversational, presentation — so that if you had two minutes to position yourself, you could go through your POV and anyone would “get” you.
Waterproof shoes
To turn your canvas shoes into waterproof ones, you need nothing but beeswax and a blow dryer. Spread beeswax all over your shoes.
Next, use the blow dryer to melt the beeswax until you can no longer see it. Voila! Your waterproof shoes are ready!
Taylor Swift life hack … say “Thank you” instead of “Sorry.”
Apologizing focuses on what you did wrong and makes you smaller. i.e., “Sorry I’m late.”
Instead, thank them. Ie. “Thank you for your patience.”
Everybody likes to be thanked, and you’re focusing your attention on them and how cool they are. Win-win.
Life hack … dry your clothes faster
If you don’t have a dryer and need to dry your clothes quickly, here’s what you can do.
Place your wet clothing on a dry towel. Roll the towel with the garment inside. Pick it up, and twist it as tightly as possible to squeeze out the excess water.
After you’ve drained the excess water, hang your garment on a hanger to fully dry.
Smelly shoes
If you have bad-smelling shoes, place a few dry tea bags inside each shoe to absorb the smell.
If your shoes are not just smelly but also wet, fill them with a mixture of rice and baking soda and leave for a few days.
Tight shoes
If your new shoes feel too tight, here’s a way to stretch them. Stuff each shoe with wet newspaper as tightly as you can.
Let the shoes dry, and then remove the newspaper.
Start a fire
Chips are not just a tasty snack. Fat, oil and the chemicals in potato (or other) chips make them a perfect fire-starting material.
Taylor Swift life hack … know how to blend in
If you want to get what you want, you’ll have to speak to the values and ideals of the group. Not your own.
Imagine being in a gang of thieves. They’re preparing to break the house of an old lady. It’s easy money they said, but the idea of robbing the old lady makes you feel a little queasy, so you speak up.
Life hack … find small lost items
Use your vacuum cleaner to find tiny items you’ve lost, such as earrings. Just cover the end of a vacuum cleaner with a stocking or pantyhose, and start your search.
Check from time to time to see if the object you are looking for is already there.
Taylor Swift life hack … see the best in others
Surround yourself with good people, and then see the best in them. Don’t talk badly about people behind their back. It usually gets back to them, and will only make you feel worse.
Rather, compliment people on what you truly like about them. Speak well of others when they aren’t there. Give genuine compliments, and it will make you and them feel better.
What you see in others generally has more to do with you than them. And how you talk about others, will reflect more on you, than it does on them.
Especially in a work setting. People will trust you when you trust them.
Time-marked water bottle
Here’s a great way to keep track of your daily water intake. Draw lines on your water bottle with a marker pen, and then write the time beside the marked level.
The marking will serve as a visual reminder for you to drink water, and it will help you achieve your daily water intake requirement.
Taylor Swift life hack … find a hobby you love
Keep engaged and find something you love. And then work to master it and get better. Gardening, cooking, photography, music, horse riding, hiking, Sudoku, writing on Quora, whatever it is- keep looking, keep growing, and keep at it.
Find what makes you happy and do more of it. Get in the zone. Notice what activities you can do without feeling tired.
Find people who enjoy what you enjoy and spend more time with them. Do things you enjoy with your spouse and friends.
Unclog drains easily
Run hot water down the drain for a minute, and then sprinkle 1 cup of baking soda down the drain. Slowly pour 1 cup of vinegar down the drain.
Flush one more time with hot or boiling water.
Surround yourself with good people
The people you spend the most time with have more of an impact on your life than almost anything else. Spend your precious time with people who make you feel better and do better.
Your life will be much better when you are surrounded by good people who have your best interests in mind. Many people underestimate the power of How the People Around You Affect Personal Success. Ditch the haters.
Let go of people who bring you down or don’t believe in you.
Marry someone who brings out the best in you. Work with a manager who brings out your best work.
Cultivate friendships that motivate you to have fun and try new things.
Appreciate what is
Appreciate what is, rather than complaining about what “should be.” Do the best you can. And then give yourself a break. Celebrate your good luck and fortune.
Before you go to bed, think about the good things in your life, and show gratitude when someone helps you. Focus on giving one genuine “thank you” a day, and notice how much better you feel.
Be gracious in success and defeat.
Dedicate yourself to continuous learning
I am a big believer in continuous learning. You should always seek to be flexible and keep several alternative paths in front of you. Always be on the lookout for ways to reinvent ways for self-improvement. Our most favored quote on continuous learning comes from Charles Darwin:
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Grow kindness
All of these life lessons get better when you have a strong foundation in knowing how to be kind to others.
I have never found a better way to stay happy. Kindness costs you nothing, and you’d be surprised how much in it can do for your happiness.
Find something to make you laugh
Another important factor in your happiness is enjoying a good laugh as often as you can. Making fun of yourself and your own mistakes is a great place to start.
Here is another related read: 10 Lessons Learned in Life I Wish I Had Learned Earlier
What do you need to know?
Social media is fun, and social media is great, but you should always control the usage of social media in your life.
We use social media daily for both work and leisure, but do you know that we spend hours on them daily?
According to NY Times, Facebook uses 50 minutes of your time on average.
YouTube’s average video length may be quite constrained, but in aggregate, viewers are watching a billion hours
of
its clips per day, as reported by TechCrunch. That’s around 8.4 minutes per day per human, according to some very napkin calculations.
The bottom line
Use social media all you want, but make sure that you are 100% aware of your surroundings and tasks that needed to be completed.
Uncontrolled usage of social media can easily waste a lot of your time, and you will instantly become less productive.
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Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
9 Things to Know About Creative Visual Design Content
8 Presenter Mistakes That Are Rarely Made Twice
Know These Great Secrets of Collaboration and Co-Creation
How Good Is Your Learning from Failure?
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
