Life Pros

Advanced Everyday Lifehack. Mostly inspired by the Life Pro Tips subreddit.

[lifepros]

#13286

If you have to compete for a place in someone else’s life, then there wasn’t a place for you (or anyone else), in the first place; only a place for themselves.

[lifepros]

#13286

When sending a resume/cover letter always send as a pdf

As a hiring manager it’s shocking how few people bother to make this extra step.

Always send your resumes as a PDF. This ensures a few things:

a) it appears much more professional, since frankly 90% of the resumes they get will be saved as word processor documents. It’s easily viewable on any device and can be previewed in any email app.

b) it helps to hide your errors sending as a word doc will show all the underlined words and suggestions… it just looks bad.

C) most importantly it preserves formatting. There’s nothing worse than when you open a file that didn’t format properly and it ends up completely messed up with double bullet points, or random spacing or alignment on paragraphs.

A PDF is essentially a screen shot of your file as you are viewing it. So any fonts, formatting, bullets and spacing will be preserved no matter what device the manager uses to open it.

[lifepros]

#13284

Instead of using 'alt+prtscrn' to grab a screen shot use 'win+shift+s', this will allow you to outline the area you want to copy rather than the entire window.

[lifepros]

#13284

For speeding tickets, don’t just pay the fine, show up at court and plead “not guilty”. You can then negotiate with the d.a. To have the ticket changed to a non-moving violation which keeps your car insurance from going up 25% for 2 years. And if the cop “no shows”, often they drop it entirely.

[lifepros]

#13282

You don’t have to have a drinking problem to benefit from a break from alcohol.

Title. Taking a break can be very beneficial, even if you don’t have a problem, or don’t think you drink too much.

EDIT: That is to also say that taking a break does not mean you have a problem. Don’t use the excuse “I don’t have a problem” to avoid taking a break.

[lifepros]

#13282

If you have a smart doorbell and live in the suburbs, remember to turn off notifications this evening

Happy Halloween!

[lifepros]

#13280

- young professionals: your health is your most important resource. Don't burn it when you're young by working too much and sleeping and moving too little to make money, hoping to recover it when you're older.

Young invincible healthy people caught in the grind mentality may think they have the energy to work long hours in an office, stealing time from their sleep and reducing or stopping their exercise routine altogether so they can make money.

That money will be used later on in an effort to recover the health they had in the first place.

Life isn't easy and sometimes we don't have a choice. But it helps to always remember health preservation is the most important thing.

Learn about nutrition, eat real food, don't snack, avoid sugar (it's everywhere).

Exercise by doing something you enjoy, not for weight loss or maintenance since it's a fraction of the calories consumed, but for a myriad of health benefits.

Live below your means.

Don't sell your life to a corporation. You're there for a salary during business hours. Speak up and propose plans or processes to get things done on time and avoid crunch time or "weekend support".

You're replaceable. Your health is easy to lose and hard to get back. Keep it while you have it.

[lifepros]

#13280

Start meditating, even if just for 1 minute – becoming comfortable and at peace with negative emotions has extremely empowering rewards.

I’m no psychologist nor anywhere near one. I’m only talking off my experiences and my experiences only.

So last year or two I’ve been feeling bit off, abit socially anxious and insecure when I never used to be. Although after 12 months of therapy and several months of hard reading and heavy self-reflection, amongst a few strategies that have helped me calm down, I've found meditating to be such an empowering asset to have in your toolkit. For those running through life with excess amounts of stress, anxiety, fast-pace and/or high pressure environments, or anything like that, I honestly can’t recommend it enough.

You don’t have to go all zen or anything on it. You can be at the beach with water ankle deep and stare into the endless horizon, completely zone out and then start meditating. Deep breathes, in and out. Focus on your breathing. Once an emotion arises, welcome it, embrace it, sit in it and observe it without resisting it, changing it or venting it. Accept you feel that emotion (anger, grief) and let it runs its course with non-judgement. It’ll eventually be lifted. P.s. Suppression, repression and escapism of emotions never works - you need to face them.

When feeling shit, ignore thoughts and head directly to emotions. Emotions are the root cause of all thoughts, and therefore, thoughts become infinite and endless, making them impossible to track. Thoughts can’t be let go of until the underlying emotion is surrended. Focus on sitting with your emotion and letting it runs its course. I’ll give an example:

"I feel frustrated because a girl I liked and was seeing broke up with me". Sit with this feeling of frustration. Forget the thousands of thoughts and hypotheticals after that, they’re endless. Observe the emotion of frustration and become friends with it. Once you sit in it without resistance, it’ll eventually run its course and you can let go.

I can only talk from my experience only, but being able to manage (not control) my state of mind is so empowering because in my opinion true happiness comes from self-growth and overcoming hardship. Being able to consciously face and be comfortable sitting in any emotion (negative or positive) to then let it naturally flush out of your system (in the most humble of ways) is a big power trip. It’s because you’re not afraid to feel like shit. You know you can feel like complete rotten but know it’s alright and that everything’s gonna be okay, which it will. You feel so in control. Give this a few goes and with practice you'll start to feel much lighter!

[lifepros]

#13278

- if you work overnight, make sure you get paid for the extra hour on nov 7th when the time changes @ 2:00 am

The clock rolls back to 2:00 AM when it hits 3:00 AM on November 7th. Make sure your employer pays you for the extra hour that you work.

[lifepros]

#13278

Don’t be afraid of therapy/counseling. While it it can’t make you perfect, it can help you be the best version of yourself.

[lifepros]

#13276

Don't hesitate to cancel a party if nobody's really responding about it

Let me start by saying if you've ever thrown a party and nobody attended, you're not alone. Don't beat yourself up about it.

Just recently my sister was putting together a Halloween party and nobody was really getting back to her about whether they'd be coming or not, so I suggested that she call it off and see if anyone who did want to come just wanted to hang out quietly. She ignored my advice and went on with the party anyway, 2 people showed up.

This might count as SLPT, but don't hesitate to tell people a party is cancelled if nobody is really keen on attending. Even though it might feel crappy one of two things will happen. Either people will be upset and you'll get enough responses to say that party is back on, or everyone will just move on and you saved yourself the trouble of throwing a party with no guests. In the end you might be disappointed no matter what, but don't let yourself slip into the false idea that just because you want to throw a party people will come.

[lifepros]

#13276

Your co-workers aren't your friends. They will only look at themselves. This is something that you always have to keep in mind. In the end, when it comes to losing a job; people will value self preservation more than anything. You are only at work to earn money, not to make friends.

Treat work as work. You are not in the workplace to have friends, but to earn money for yourself. Your colleagues may pull you down, just to get promoted. They will compete against you, because they are your competitors. They will do whatever it takes to get a higher position, and they won't care about you. This is one of the realities I've faced when I started working.

[lifepros]

#13274

Don't hesitate to cancel a party if nobody's really responding about it

Let me start by saying if you've ever thrown a party and nobody attended, you're not alone. Don't beat yourself up about it.

Just recently my sister was putting together a Halloween party and nobody was really getting back to her about whether they'd be coming or not, so I suggested that she call it off and see if anyone who did want to come just wanted to hang out quietly. She ignored my advice and went on with the party anyway, 2 people showed up.

This might count as SLPT, but don't hesitate to tell people a party is cancelled if nobody is really keen on attending. Even though it might feel crappy one of two things will happen. Either people will be upset and you'll get enough responses to say that party is back on, or everyone will just move on and you saved yourself the trouble of throwing a party with no guests. In the end you might be disappointed no matter what, but don't let yourself slip into the false idea that just because you want to throw a party people will come.

[lifepros]

#13274

Your co-workers aren't your friends. They will only look at themselves. This is something that you always have to keep in mind. In the end, when it comes to losing a job; people will value self preservation more than anything. You are only at work to earn money, not to make friends.

Treat work as work. You are not in the workplace to have friends, but to earn money for yourself. Your colleagues may pull you down, just to get promoted. They will compete against you, because they are your competitors. They will do whatever it takes to get a higher position, and they won't care about you. This is one of the realities I've faced when I started working.

[lifepros]

#13272

If an online company demands you create an account before you can view their products/services, they likely have no confidence that you would become a customer after seeing what they offer.

They know what they have is inferior or even legally/morally dubious, so they try to hook you before you see through the facade. If people have already invested the time and effort to make an account, they're more likely to follow through with a purchase so that they don't feel like it was wasted. And even if you don't ultimately make a purchase, you've still given them your information so they can sell it and/or inundate you with never-ending marketing.

[lifepros]

#13272

If you accidentally close a tab, you can easily and quickly restore it with ctrl + shift + t (confirmed works on chrome, firefox, and edge)

[lifepros]

#13270

If you're concerned that openly communicating what's on your mind will screw up your relationship with someone, then the relationship is already screwed up, and radical honesty might be the only possibility of truly fixing it.

There might still be practical reasons you need to keep up a lie (such as to keep your fundamentalist parents from kicking you out of the house if you're a gay minor, or to prevent losing an important job). But if there aren't, then be true to yourself, trust that honesty is for the best, compassionately say what you need to, and let the cards fall where they may.