I love little simple life hacks and am constantly seeking out and inventing new ones. Here are three that you can do in the next ten minutes. None of them are going to save your life, but each one will improve your daily experience for the rest of your life.
Tighten up your Keychain
A couple months ago I was at the cafe in The Standard, my old stomping ground in LA. The waitress had a retractable keycard holder, something I’d been thinking of buying for the past few weeks, but hadn’t remembered to actually purchase.
“Weird question– where did you get that retractable thing? I’ve really wanted one for a couple weeks.”
“Oh, they give them to us at work,” she paused, “you can have mine. I’ll just say I lost it.”
I tipped her more than the thing could possible cost, and have been living in keychain bliss ever since. Put away your #1 Mom keychain and get yourself one of these sick puppies. Attach it to your waistband, and always have easy access to your keys. When you’re done unlocking the door, just let go and the key goes back into place. While you’re at it, throw one of these tiny little flashlights on there, too. I use mine all the time.
Actually, while we’re optimizing your hip, get one of these as well. It’s a tiny awesome pen that you can attach to your belt loop or even to your retractable thing if you don’t have many keys. I use mine just about every day.
Learn to Tie Your Shoes like Ian
I used to tie my shoes like a peasant, and then I stumbled on this site, which is completely dedicated to tying shoes. Only on the internet. Five years later, I’ve never looked back. I can tie my shoes in just a second or two, and it’s so satisfying that it makes me smile pretty much every time I do it.
Banish stupid newsletters
How annoying is it when you rent a car and then for the rest of eternity, or at least until you hit the unsubscribe button, you get a weekly newsletter on the best rental rates in Kentucky? Very annoying.
Here’s a trick I came up with: add a filter in your email which searches the body for the text “subscribed”, “unsubscribe”, and “subscription”. That will match pretty much every annoying newsletter. I have mine moved to a folder called “bulk”, which I check once every few days. Since it’s wholly immoral to use my own trick against me, put “tynan” in the “doesn’t have” box if you use gmail.
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