Want to learn some quick and easy life hacks that are easy to do, low cost, and save you time? You’re in luck. We have collected many of these practical life hacks into this one list that is easy to digest. By tweaking little things, it can make your life much easier.
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 handy life-saving tips 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 much more!
Avoid distractions at all costs
…is an increase in your productivity with a magnitude of at least 5x-10x.
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.
The life hacks … finding vs. making your place
Some people seem to find their place in the world naturally. As kids’ “talents” become apparent, they get good at their talents. They study the train and ultimately get a great job or start a company doing their thing. If this is you, congratulations. And you don’t need to read this post.
But if you, like me, grew up on the island of misfit toys, you might want to keep reading. Those of us, who can’t find our place in the world, have to make our place in the world.
Position yourself or be positioned
When companies do this, it’s called “category design.” It’s a management discipline that helps companies create more than a new product, but a whole new market category. Historically, the innovators who successfully design a new product, company, and category are the big winners.
Category design on the personal level is about making your place in the world — connecting what makes you unique to a problem people care about and then positioning you as the solution.
The life hacks … solving critical problems
New categories emerge when a new problem gets defined (Henry Ford with “horseless carriage”), or an existing problem gets re-imagined (Travis Kalanick Uber founder with “smartphone-powered, personal transportation”).
The bigger and more urgent the problem, the more time and money people will put into solving it. Becoming a category king in many ways is a function of becoming known for solving a problem that matters.
Knowing how to 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.
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.
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 into 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:
She’s an old lady guy. Let’s leave her alone.
BZZZ. They’re going to look at you like you blowing wind. They didn’t care about why would they care now.
But if you said:
I doubt she has much money. It’s not even worth the work. If we’re going to break into a house might as well break into a big one.
Then you’ll look smart. It’s about understanding the group and what they value so you can propose the right decision for them (or at that’s what they think).
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.
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 has more to do with you than with them. And how you talk about others, will reflect more of you, than it does on them. Especially in a work setting. People will trust you when you trust them.
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.
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 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 mistakes is a great place to start.
Push goals
Everybody talks about goals. Everybody talks about SMART goals. Everybody talks about how to prioritize and organize your time and blah blah blah.
Push goals cut through a lot of this, and you can use them to solve many problems in your life at once.
A push goal is simply a goal like any other goal except it is strategically chosen to solve more than one goal at a time.
For example, let’s imagine you have a few goals: get more disciplined, make a new social circle, lose 15lbs, and get better sleep. Setting aside the fact that these aren’t SMART, they still are goals. You could try and tackle each of them individually, or you could pick one thing that would either capture the others or make pursuing them moot.
So, instead of coming up with a plan for all of them, you could simply join a martial arts class. Or join a running club and sign up for a half marathon. Or join a Crossfit gym and go to class regularly for two months. Each of these is likely to help you achieve the rest of your goals.
The bottom line
You see, we procrastinate a lot all the time, and we give ourselves excuses to accept those lame excuses.
This rule made me complete more tasks daily and without delay. And when you think about it, most of these tasks are so small that we consider them irrelevant to complete immediately. Thus, creating a super-low to-do list in the coming days or weeks.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improve your continuous learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add to the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on mentoring from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
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 a small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
The change we are in the middle of isn’t minor, and it isn’t optional. As Clay Shirky describes the digital internet age, it is far from minor and not optional. Right on the mark isn’t it? Helpscout development tips are particularly relevant to the need for continuous learning.
The amount of new technical information is doubling every two years. EVERY TWO YEARS. The top 10 jobs that were in demand in 2013 didn’t exist in 2004.
We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that don’t yet exist. All this to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet. Scary, isn’t it?
For students starting a four year technical or college degree, one half of what they will learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study. We are living in exponential times, aren’t we?
I often use checklists to create attitudes where it is easier to see opportunity in every difficulty.
After college, I spent almost two years of training as a naval aviator. An important element of that training was the use of checklists in the learning and refresher process. Checklist utilization remains an important part of my business life.
It is always a good idea to have a helpful checklist for reminders of improvements for your business or your personal life.
I keep a stack of 10 or so checklists that I rotate and update occasionally. This is one of them, even though I am a retiree (at least part of the time J).
I pull out one checklist to read and contemplate for five minutes as a way to start each day. I find it puts my thinking in the right frame of mind.
Here is a checklist example of simple self-development reminders to improve the odds of personal long-term success:
Helpscout development tips … your career is not your life
This is probably the most difficult of the lessons, particularly early to mid-career. At least it was for me. To be successful in this lesson, you should develop a breath to your list of activities and always put family and friends first.
To do both well, think about activities that maximize your friends and family, like coaching your children’s sports teams.
Your life will be in constant change mode, and that is a good thing if you lead change in the direction of your success goals.
To do that most successfully, you should try lots of new things continually. For things you like, get very good at them with lots of practice. But keep trying new activities.
Helpscout development tips … practice new skills
One of my most favorite quotations about aim and goals is one from Michelangelo:
The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.
Michelangelo knew a thing or two about high aim and goals didn’t he? Need we say anything more?
Helpscout development tips … dedicate yourself to learning new things
I am a big believer in adaptation and change. 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 change and adaptation is from Charles Darwin:
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Just remember to substitute success for survival, and you will have a very valuable tip.
Increase your reading
Let your curiosity take control and take you where it may turn into new information. Read for many reasons, but most of all to be entertained and learn new things.
In today’s world of infinite access to information and knowledge, the sky is the limit, isn’t it?
Helpscout development tips … grow kindness
All of these lessons on success 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 it can do for your happiness.
Enjoy the little things around you
Keep it simple in everything you do. And that is more difficult and significant than you probably believe. Our favorite quote on simplicity?
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple … that’s creativity.
That says it all, doesn’t it?
Helpscout development tips … find something to make you laugh
The second most 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.
Your personal development … review daily good accomplishments
All of us can be enthusiastic and show passion for our favorite topics and our best days. The secret sauce is to be as consistent as possible and make it contagious to friends and teammates.
I’ve always found that taking 15-20 minutes at the end of every day to review the good accomplishments you have made. This always seems to tee up plans.
Personal development examples.
Practice patience and persistence daily
While we don’t want to highlight our lack of patience and persistence, all of us experience a lack of these two key personality traits in our lives and our careers occasionally.
The secret sauce is all about learning from them and moving on in our lives as quickly as possible.
Realize that careers and lives won’t fall apart from them unless we keep repeating them. Practice efforts both frequently and keep track of how you are doing.
The bottom line
As you progress in your continuous learning and development, keep in mind growth is a long-term, not a short-term endeavor. In reality, it should never end. It should be pursued consistently throughout your career, day by day.
Don’t settle for less than you know you can achieve.
And remember, keep your happiness and balance at the top of your list. Everything will pivot around them.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep the focus on personal development. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your growth hacking for your team?
Do you have a lesson about making your growth hacking better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
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 Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
