As students we hear about traditional ways to improve our lives like working hard dedicating yourself finding your passion and all that crap. But you’re a college student; you don’t have time for high-minded philosophy. You’re looking for some practical how-tos to making your life a little bit easier.
In order to fulfill your desperate need and expand on the theme of this column I have scoured human knowledge (read: the internet) to bring you the best of the best. These are the easiest way to hack your life small improvements that can make everything a little easier.
1. Open bananas from the shorter end on the bottom. Opening them from the top is by far the dumbest thing we learn as kids.
2. Check the unit price when buying groceries; it’s the easiest way to quickly assess value.
3. If you need to get work done in your room put shoes on. It tricks your brain into thinking you’re out-and-about and helps you stay focused.
4. Tell your friends you’re going to do something that you think you might give up on. The fear of ridicule will help keep you motivated.
5. Reverse your hangers when you put your clothes in your closet. When you wear something turn the hanger around. At the end of six months give away the clothes that are still reversed because you never wear them.
6. When you have to write a long paper find one really good source. Use that source’s bibliography to find new sources. Additionally if you are citing Wikipedia cite the source at the bottom of the article rather than Wikipedia.
7. Go to class. It works better than studying and even taking notes. When you go to class your brain absorbs the information even when you aren’t focused and you’ll have a better chance at guessing right on a test.
8. Read hard-to-understand material right before you go to bed — your mind works on difficult problems while you sleep.
9. If you lose or forget your phone charger when you’re traveling ask a nearby hotel. They usually have boxes of cellphone chargers that people have left in their rooms.
10. When you have a brain freeze press your tongue to the roof of your mouth as fast as possible. It will go away instantly.
11. When you’re are about to sneeze but can’t seem to finish look into a bright light and you’ll sneeze.
12. Move your alarm to the opposite side of the room. When you have to get up to turn it off you’ll stay up.
13. Before you buy something online Google the promo codes. Certain sites catalogue online coupons.
14. Extend the distance of keyless entry by pressing your key to your chin. The signal resonates through your skull and broadcasts further.
15. Aluminum foil and plastic wrap boxes have tabs on the sides you can push in. Then the roll won’t come out when you tear off a sheet.
16. If you spill liquid on your carpet pour salt on it. Work the salt into the carpet and then leave it for a few hours. When the salt has soaked up the stain vacuum it up. This saved my couch from red wine (which Jesus also drank).
Did you find any of these especially useful? Out to prove me wrong? Let me know if you’ve been successful either way at zane.z.miller@pepperdine.edu.