9 Micro-Hacks That Made Me Faster, Happier and More Sane
1 — Hack your mouse + keyboard speed
Want to work faster on the computer? Crank up your mouse movement + key-repeat settings. It will be uncomfortable for a few hours until your brain adjusts. Then you’ll be moving at 2–5X speed without thinking about it.
On a Mac, go to System Preferences > Trackpad
Then go to System Preferences > Keyboard
(I like to think this trains your brain to work fast whenever you’re online)
2 — Hack your phone home screen to work *for* you
Here are my rules for the most efficient home screen possible:
1. All apps go on one page
Instead of extra pages of apps, use category folders to reduce the number of clicks/swipes to get to the app you want
2. Most-used apps go to the bottom, closest to your thumb
Right or left side favored depending on your phone-holding hand
3. Least-used apps go into category folders up-top
That app you use once a month does not need to be visible
4. Hide addictive apps in folders, eg. Instagram
Conversely, put productive apps you want to use more at the very bottom
5. Turn off app notification badges
Turn off notifications for every app except for time-sensitive ones like Uber, Calendar, Messages, etc. For those, turn on banners and turn off badges to keep your sanity.
See this article for 40+ more iPhone hacks
3 — Use Slash to hack your todo list
Do you have trouble getting through your to do list?
Try Slash: a new breed of app designed to help you focus and tackle your tasks one-by-one. Add your tasks, hit ‘Start’ to enter hyper focus mode, and never leave flow-state.
Optional: Level up your productivity even further by enabling Pomodoros, Eisenhower Matrix mode, time-based tasks + more.
4 — Don’t waste money + time on coffee
Instead, invest $30 into the Bean Envy Cold Brew Maker and spend 2 minutes at home to brew your own.
I brew it once at the beginning of the week and it lasts me 5 days.
Otherwise, $4 cold brews 5 days a week = $1040 / year. Plus time + plastic cups wasted.
5 — Take control of your information-intake
1. Select your info sources and put them into Feedly
Instead of going to many different media websites, select your favorite sources and breeze through them in a streamlined RSS app like Feedly.
2. Save the articles you’re interested in reading to Pocket
Pocket is a “read later” app that saves articles so you can view them later, even while offline. It also allows you to favorite/tag articles for referencing back later.
Use Pocket when you find interesting things to read/watch while you’re working on something else. I also use it to save articles from Feedly + newsletters to have everything I want to read in one place.
BONUS: Choose your newsletters wisely
A newsletter is one of the most efficient ways to consume great information. They’re curated to your liking. The trick is to find the right ones.
Medium — If you take the time to follow tags/authors/publications and clap on articles, the Medium newsletter will quickly become a goldmine of content specific to your interests.
If you’re into the future/technology — The Exponential View
If you’re into business/startups — The Hustle
If you’re nerdy about crypto/ethereum — This Week in Ethereum
6 — Crowdsource your best photos
Like it or not, aesthetics could be the make-or-break with you getting that job or that date. Stop guessing which photos are best. PhotoFeeler let’s you crowdsource which photo of yours is most attractive, intelligent, trustworthy, etc.
It’s free if you rate others’ photos in return, or you can pay for faster results.
7 — Save yourself from browser tab hell
Is this what your browser tabs look like right now?
I get it. You want to revisit those sites later.
BUT those tabs are:
- Distracting you from what you’re actually doing
- Slowing down your computer
Use these two tools to get back to sanity…
Pocket — For single tabs you want to revisit later
Get the browser extension and mobile app. Pocket saves websites for easy, offline viewing later when you have free time.
Toby — For big groups of related tabs
Save groups of tabs and name them, so you can re-open all of them at once when you need them again.
8— Use Slack? Change this one setting.
By default, Slack shows every conversation you’ve ever had — making you constantly scroll to see unread notifications — but a quick change will limit it to starred and unread notifications.
So you’ll go from this to this:
To change it, go to Slack > Preferences > Sidebar and then activate this option:
Then use Command+K to quickly access any conversation that is no longer displayed.
9 — Make Reddit your personal internet sanctuary
Reddit is NOT just cat GIF’s.
Reddit is comprised of tens of thousands of ‘subreddits’, which are hyper-niche categories of content.
If you take 20 minutes to customize the subreddits you’re subscribed to, Reddit becomes the ultimate filtered stream for thecontent you actually want to see.
Some of my favorites:
Frisson — A collection of videos, images and music that is so tragic or beautiful that you get goosebumps
Explain Like I’m 5— People explaining complex concepts in very simple terms, so simple that a 5 year old could understand
Humans Being Bros — True stories of people being good human beings, the perfect feel good content
Change My View — A place to post an opinion you accept may be flawed, in an effort to understand other perspectives on the issue
