129 Shares According to my local weather forecast, today’s highs will top 95 degrees. For my little corner of New England, that’s brutally hot (and rather early in the year for such high temps, all things considered.) Factoring in the humidity, I can assure you that I will be hot, cross, and concerned about staying hydrated all day today. Which brings me to the main point of today’s post: how to stay hydrated during the hottest months of the year. Staying properly hydrated ensures that all of your bodily functions are…well…functioning. You can only... More »
99 Shares Memorial Day. July 4th. Labor Day. Heck, maybe even Thanksgiving if the weather is exceptionally balmy. In America, holiday weekends mean just one thing: time to grill! After all, It’s just not a party unless there’s meat sizzling over charcoal. But anyone can grill. It’s rarer to find someone who can grill like a master, who knows every tip, trick, and grilling hack in the book. If you want to dazzle your guests at your holiday BBQ, here are some pro tips you need to add to your repertoire. 1. Keep Food... More »
124 Shares It must be great to be rich. After all, it’s a lot easier to be productive when you can pay someone to do all the menial things on your to-do list. But these perks aren’t restricted to trust fund kids. Some of the timesaving services that seem the most luxurious are surprisingly affordable, meaning you can boost your productive hours each day without crippling your cash flow. Time is money…so why not spend a little cash to reclaim precious hours in your day? Here are some common services that seem indulgent but... More »
74 Shares It’s May, and for most people that means its time to get serious about getting your body into better shape. Prime beach weather is closer than you think, and you’re probably starting to get serious about hitting the gym regularly. But overdoing your workout can do more harm than good. In fact, your athletic performance starts to suffer once you lose about 2 percent of your body weight due to profuse sweating…and that takes less effort than you might think. If you plan to work out for over 60 minutes, you need... More »
1.5K Shares Sleep is a weird thing, an elusive state that is crucial to maintaining our health and sanity. And yet, it can be so easily interrupted. If you’re like most people, you have difficulty with sleep, whether it’s falling asleep, staying asleep, or getting enough quality sleep. So what sneaky hacks can you use to get better sleep? Understanding Sleep Your body is programmed to fall into a natural sleep rhythm, known as a circadian rhythm. This “internal body clock” regulates your body’s metabolic processes: everything from sleep schedules to hormone production to... More »
326 Shares Last week, Andrew Hyde made headlines after doing an interview with ABC Radio News. If you aren’t familiar with Andrew Hyde, he’s a technology mogul and consultant. Like many in his field, he’s constantly on the move, working out of New York and Silicon Valley in equal measure. He is also the founder of Startup Weekend, and organizer of the TEDxBoulder conference. He mentors young companies and is working on a new business venture that will create art out of discarded vinyl records. Sounds like a pretty typical business professional, right? Well,... More »
206 Shares For many of us, a large chunk of the creative process can involve just staring into space, waiting for our muse to send us a bolt from the blue. Trouble is, the better you get at your chosen art form, the less time you have to wait around for that pesky muse. As you begin to make a name for yourself in your chosen artistic field, you start to have more projects with deadlines, forcing your muse to meet your project’s expiration date. Whether you are a writer burning the midnight oil... More »
804 Shares I was watching “The Big C” on Showtime the other night, and one of the characters mentioned off-hand that it takes 28 days to break a bad habit. A quick Google search showed me that this wasn’t just a bit of silver screen writing, but a fairly well-accepted theory. Some people argue it’s more like 21 days, or 30; still others say that it takes 30 days to create a pattern and 90 days to create a habit. Obviously, some habits are easier to break than others. For example, if you are... More »
288 Shares Hanging out with man’s best friend is a huge part of our daily routine, and for many families a dog or cat is like another child. But as much as we pamper our furry friends, we can’t take them everywhere with us. And when it comes to those 8 hours (or more) we spend on the clock, it seems like our family pets are just never welcome to spend time with us while we are at work. But not all professions believe in working without their trusted animal friends. For centuries, cats... More »
535 Shares In my last post, I talked about six of the most common work habits that sabotage your productivity. The first offender on my list was how frequently you check your email. As I was writing my last article, I found that there was a ton of information on that topic, and it was really deserving of its own dedicated article. When it comes to our work email, most of us see it as a ball and chain. We’ve constantly got to be checking it, or risk the wrath of the bosses and... More »
713 Shares We all have our weekday morning routines. You roll into the office a little before 9 am (or a little after, if traffic was really bad), settle in at your desk, maybe grab a cup of coffee around 9:30 or 10, check Twitter and Facebook, and then dive in to your inbox. And while it’s obvious that your time playing Farmville or reading Kanye’s latest tweet is going to hamper your productivity, you might be surprised to learn what other common work habits can sabotage your productivity. 1. Checking Your Email Constantly... More »
32 Shares Productivity experts are a dime a dozen. It seems like every other person who starts to follow me on Twitter is a self-proclaimed productivity expert of one kind or another. It’s definitely one of those industries where it can be very hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, to find a productivity expert that isn’t just “self-proclaimed”, but actually is a bona fide expert who can help people and companies alike to increase their productivity. So, what makes a great productivity expert, anyway? It’s a combination of results, writing/professional credentials, and... More »
223 Shares Last night marked a milestone in American sitcom history: the beginning of the end for Steve Carell on the NBC comedy “The Office”. Even if you happen to like the British version of this comedy more than its longer-running American counterpart, you have to admit that Carell has carved out his acting niche in the role of Michael Scott, the bumbling boss of a regional paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The Michael Scott character is often seen as incompetent by those above him on the corporate ladder (such as Jan Levinson-Gould and... More »
44 Shares This past Monday, we debuted two reader surveys as part of our continuing efforts to make Lifehack.org the best that it can be. You guys maxxed out the number of responses the long form survey could handle in under two hours, and it wasn’t much longer after that when you maxxed out the short form survey as well. You guys had a lot to say, and we’ve spent the last couple of days tabulating data, reading over your comments, and planning a revamped editorial calendar. We wanted your feedback because we want... More »
If you want to make the big bucks, you’ve got to be willing to put in a little overtime. And while we’re generally all about working smarter (not longer), it’s worth noting that tons of America’s richest business owners earned their billions only after putting their noses to the grindstones and becoming serious workaholics. But being a workaholic alone doesn’t guarantee major earnings. Here’s a list of 4 famous American workaholics, along with their “secret weapon” for success. 1. Thomas Edison Major Accomplishments: 1,093 US patents at the time of his death... More »
