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 Bottom-line Bookclub 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. Here at Lifehack, we’ve always followed a path of cautious optimism. Here, then, are the best posts of 2008, selected according to their popularity and the amount of discussion they generated both here on the site and across the blogosphere. Communication
7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People With a twist to the common list of habits that are useful to establish, here are 7 habits that you do best to avoid. Just like finding habits that can be useful for you it’s important to find habits that are holding you back. Most of these 7 habits can easily become such a normal, everyday part of life that you hardly notice it (or how it’s affecting you). I’ve dabbled with all of them quite a bit. Not surprisingly I didn’t get much of the important stuff done. I’d also like to add that these are just 7 broad habits you can establish to become highly ineffective in most parts of your life. 1. Maybe you’ve heard this quote by Woody Allen: “Eighty percent of success is showing up” One of the biggest and simplest thing you can do to ensure more success in your life – whether it be in your social life, your career or with your health – is simply to show up more. 2. - Swallow that frog. 3. To be effective you probably need some kind of time management-system. 4. 5. 6. 7.
50 Things Everyone Should Know How To Do Self-reliance is a vital key to living a healthy, productive life. To be self-reliant one must master a basic set of skills, more or less making them a jack of all trades. Contrary to what you may have learned in school, a jack of all trades is far more equipped to deal with life than a specialized master of only one. While not totally comprehensive , here is a list of 50 things everyone should know how to do. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. Check out these books for more ideas on pertinent life skills:
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. 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 29 Semi-Productive Things I Do Online When I’m Trying to Avoid R You don’t always have to work hard to be productive. Productivity can simply be the side effect of doing the right things. So here’s a list of 29 semi-productive things I do online when my mind is set on avoiding ‘real work.’ Check delicious popular tags like ‘useful,’ ‘tutorials,’ ‘tips,’ ‘howto,’ ‘advice,’ ‘entrepreneurship,’ etc. for interesting, educational articles to read.Watch one of the thousands of educational videos streaming at TED.com, Academic Earth and Teacher Tube.Read an online book list and find a new book to grab next time I’m at the library. Here’s another list. Oh, and ever since I bought my new (super sexy) Apple iPad , I’ve been enjoying all of these sites on the go and catching looks from almost everyone who passes me while I browse. So what kind of semi-productive things do you do online in your off-time? Photo by: Colorblind Picaso Party Casino Related 30 Life-Enhancing Things You Can Do in 30 Minutes or Less April 19, 2012 In "Happiness" We're all way too busy.
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. 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. Polyphasic sleep is known to sleep researchers as a variant of a sleep pattern that is set in opposition to monophasic sleep. Compression of sleep stages
The 5As of Actualization First we make our habits, then our habits make us. – Charles C. Noble One of the most effective ways to actualize your own potential and goals is to form habits and routines that make the actualization (almost) automatic. We see reflections of this observation in the works of Aristotle and Lao Tzu from millennia ago on through the works of contemporary thinkers such as Stephen Covey and the Dalai Lama. At a certain point, habits allow you to reach the optimal state of achieving without trying to achieve. The lead quote sums up things nicely, though, in that habit-building can be an active process, too. Since we can choose, do, track, and evaluate the habits and routines that help us actualize ourselves and our goals, there’s a process with discrete but related steps. AimAwarenessActionAccountabilityAssessment Let’s take a look at these a little more in depth. Aim The saying “if you don’t know where you’re going, any path will take you there” fits in nicely here. Awareness Action Assessment
Life's Instructions » Concepts, Ideas, Thoughts & Bullsh!t Thom Byxbe is Publisher and Editor of Concepts, Ideas, Thoughts & Bullsh!t He is based in Southwest Detroit, MI, and is a Knowledge Evangelist, Futurist, National Speaker, Author, Entrepreneur, Coach and Expert Blogger. Thom has been a respected author for over 15 years. He has written extensively on the Internet, Technology and Lifestyle topics. Concepts, Ideas, Thoughts & Bullsh! If you have suggestions, comments or would like to submit recommendations for articles to appear in Concepts, Ideas, Thoughts & Bullsh!
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. 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. Once you have a good complete picture of all of the things you do at work, make a separate list of the things that are actually part of your job as advertised. Step Two: Review Yourself from Your and Your Boss's PerspectivesP Do I know what is expected of me at work?