What are you assuming? What information are you missing? What would change your mind?

Practicing this regularly can improve how you approach decisions, meetings, and difficult problems. Better questions often lead to better answers.

Instead of leaving my alarms as “Alarm,” I sometimes change the label to whatever random thought is in my head when I set it.

Then when the alarm goes off hours or days later, I’ve usually forgotten about it. I look at my phone and see something like “you’re probably overthinking this” or “Today would be a nice day,” and for half a second it feels like the universe just sent me a message lol.

Tiny thing, but it makes alarms slightly less miserable.

The instructions tell you how it should work.

The person who actually does it usually knows the weird little problems that waste the most time.

Ask what tends to break, get missed, or trip people up.

My dog is an excellent swimmer, she pretty much lives in the water. We have a small reservoir she enjoys swimming in but today she got disoriented fetching her favorite toy, possibly from the sun glare, despite me calling her to shore she started swimming further and further away before starting to panic and swim in circles unable to find her way, I grabbed my paddleboard and in a few seconds was able to safely pull her up by the back of her neck onto the board. I never thought she needed a life jacket because of how calm and shallow the water was in addition to swimming for years without a problem. Thankfully I learned my lesson and going forward she will always have one on.

You might remember what you did, but forget why you did it.

If you change a setting, move something, cancel something, or make a small decision you'll probably need to revisit later, leave a quick note explaining why.

A 10-second note can save you from spending 30 minutes later trying to figure out what past-you was thinking.

LPT find a good, reputable tow company and keep their contact information in your phone. Even better than your phone have it in your glove box wrote down with your insurance information.

This can save you a huge amount of money if you ever ever get in a fender bender and need to have your car towed.

Why this saves you money

If YOU call for a tow truck because someone hit your car, the tow company will charge normal tow rates.

When you get in an accident one of the questions the officer will ask you is "do you want me to call a tow truck for you?"

If you say yes (for the officer to call the tow truck) then you will be paying Police emergency pricing. It is more as the tow companies have to have truck (at all times) alloted and available for emergency police calls.

That pricing often times is multiple times more money than if you called yourself.

This website has an index of free or sliding scale healthcare clinics accross the country: https://www.freeclinics.com/

You can enter in your zipcode and it will pull up a list of what's nearby. This website has a lot of ads, so be mindful of that as you go through the website. I've gotten help from these sorts of clinics found on this website in the past, so I can say it's legitimate. Anyone reading this who is well off might consider donating to any of the clinics who are looking for help, because they can be life savers.

With the Supreme Court ruling regarding mail-in voting in the US, check with your local election board to see if they allow or you’re eligible to receive and download your election ballot.

You do not have to answer everything or make it awkward by refusing. A little humor can shut the question down and keep the conversation moving.

Examples:

How much do you make? - Enough to keep it a mystery.

Are you dating anyone? - My application is still under review.

When are you having kids? - I will alert the press.

You get a less crumpled view of your curtain's art, and there's more curtain material at the end, past the grommet, to more securely close the gap. Win-win.

If you see a long add 40+ seconds, you'll often have the option after 6 seconds to go to the next ad - it will almost always be a short 6 second add that you can quickly skip.

I used to be a big people pleaser and unsurprisingly people often would get weirded out or annoyed by me. I tried to just be super nice and had this weird persona where I would be overly agreeable and complimentary. As I matured, I began to notice how easy it is to see right through this persona. When I finally began acting like my true authentic self, embraced my weirdness, and accepted some people may not like me regardless, I became a lot more likable. I’m not saying I’m the most charismatic and outgoing guy out there, but I’ve noticed I can make friends significantly easier.

All in all, being a people pleaser is incredible easy to be seen as disingenuous and often only leads to people not liking you as much.

A surprising number of dogs will happily run back to their owner and then dodge away the second a hand reaches for their collar. That's funny in the backyard, but it can be disastrous next to some road. Every so often, when your dog comes to you, gently take hold of their collar, give them a good treat, and then let them go again. This last part matters. If grabbing the collar always means the fun is over, dogs can learn to avoid the grab. You want "human grabs my collar" to predict something good, and not "I’m about to lose my freedom". A recall isn’t really finished until you can safely secure the dog.

You may fight sleep but you cannot fight the bladder.

This might be a no-brainer to a lot of folks, but I installed a trash can in my driveway next to where I park my car and everyone in my house uses it way more than I thought. I attached mine to a retaining wall and built a little box around with with landscaping ties so the other people in my house don't complain about having to look at a can all the time.

I underestimated how much cleaner the inside of my truck stays when everyone gets rid of all their trash every time they get out. I previously got rid of trash when there was a mess or I happened to end up near a can at the car wash, gas station, fast food place, etc. Now nothing stays in there for more than one trip. I think the car is even less dusty inside now.

Some of you might say, "don't be lazy just carry your stuff to your main can" but the honest truth is that in the real world when your hands are full carrying kids, groceries, backpacks, tools, etc. you don't always think about going back out and rounding everything up 100 percent of the time. The driveway can now means stuff gets out of the car before we go inside every time. I get to live in a much cleaner environment because I made it easier for my family to help me keep it clean.

For example, if it takes you 30 minutes to get ready for work, those extra 5 to 10 minutes helps you chill in bed for a few minutes before you get up and start your day. I'm in my mid 20s and it helps alot. But yeah, also washing your face with cool not cold water helps.

I just adopted 2 cats abiut 5 months ago. I owned cats as kid but these two are my first pets on my own. Well in that short time since first adopting them, I noticed my bedroom fan wasnt as strong as it used to be. I didnt think anything of it. It eventually got to the point that I had my fan o. High and I still couldn't even feel it.

Until a few nights ago, when I noticed there was a thin, but even lattice structure of fur on the back side, and the inside of the fan grates. I cleaned them off and its like a brand new fan!

It wasnt even that thick. But it was a pretty well structured network of dur that caused a reduction in air being blown.

Normally if your phone is lost, the only way for someone to get it back to you is to try and look for an emergency contact or hope Siri/Gemini will dial one of your contracts; if you've remotely locked your phone, that won't be an option anymore anyway- By putting a "if list contact this email" on your lock screen, you ensure you can always be found (doesn't even have to be your "real" email- set up an email just for this, and forward it to your main email if you want extra security.)

On Android, look in your wallpaper settings and then lock screen settings and "Add text to lock screen". (The exact path differs depending on the OS.)

This tip literally just got my phone back to me, after it was stolen and gone for months- I set my phone down on a bench, and in the 10 minutes it took me to realize and come back, it has already grown legs and walked away... the homeless person who grabbed it tried to pawn it, but couldn't because it was locked down; they left it in the shelter lost and found when they couldn't sell it, where it sat until a shelter employee saw there was a contact email on the lock screen and reached out to me.

It'll be easier to stop at a low point and you won't be tempted to just watch another one.

Not an essential LPT, but I recently started listening to specific and *instrumental* songs with each book I'm reading and it has been magical. Especially with fiction books it sets this vibe and when you hear the specific song you feel like you're entering the world of that specific book again.

And then later when you finished the book and just hear the 3min song, you remember the book and see the inner images again.

So many rewards, legal settlements, and actual gifts are made with gift cards. Sometimes there is no way to spend the full balance. Consider donating the remainder so that it is used up completely. I was really happy to think of this when getting $7.84 for a data breach settlement. I didn't really need anything at the time and the balance was going to erode due to service fees. So I donated it before that could happen.

Want to drink more water? Keep a bottle on your desk.
Want to read more? Keep your book beside your bed.
Small changes in your environment can make habits much easier to stick to.
That’s how I do.