Work/Life Hacks

[kristinkle]

The "hardest job skill you have self learned" thread got me thinking about work/life hacks that make my everyday a little easier.  

For example at work:

• I have a "frequently sent" folder in my inbox that I put e-mails in that I frequently send (or a variation thereof).  It is easier to forward and edit or copy and paste into a new e-mail rather than to type the whole e-mail up again.
  
• V-lookup in Excel
  
• Pivot table in Excel.  I just learned about the pivot table and I still slightly reel from the fact that it saves me about 16 hours of work a month.  I did reports yesterday that, in the past, would have taken me about 2.5 to 3.5 days to complete.

Home:

• I feed 5 adults and 2 teenagers (who eat more than adults) and sometimes after work I just don't feel like cooking.  Stuffed shells, stuffed peppers and the innards of chicken/beef pot pie freeze very well so I always double or triple the recipe I am making that night and freeze for those nights that I really don't feel like cooking a "from scratch" dinner
  
• I keep a large calendar with nice big blocks on the refrigerator so people can write in birthday parties, games, practice and appointments etc.  If it's not on the calendar, it doesn't get done or gone to.  Sometimes I even get motivated to put the monthly calendar in the google calendar that is set up to sync to everyone's phones.  
• Right by the calendar I keep a magnetic pad and a pen so people can write down what they have used the last of so it can be bought in a timely manner.  I also keep a pen "string taped" to the fridge.  Saves lots of aggravation

I was talking to my sister one day who was telling me she had to type up the same e-mails all the time and send out to people, she felt that was all she was doing. I just asked why she didn't add a folder to her e-mail and put the e-mails she always sent in that and then just forward and edit as needed, that's what I did. It had just never occurred to her.

And how about that pivot table...for me, it was almost life altering. Just to hear someone mention it and then when I ask questions they say, "I thought everyone knew about it, I use it all the time". I was floored, absolutely floored. I had never heard of it, cause if I had my (work) life would have been ALOT simpler years ago.

I guess what I am asking is for people to share their own work/life hacks.  You would be surprised at the things you think are "common sense" or that "everyone knows/does", may be a revelation to someone else.

[saveinla]

When I had to send the same/similar emails every week, I created a template email and would just use that. We have slowly automated everything, so I have not done that in almost 8 years now. I think I may still have the template.

We also get a lot of automated emails - I have rules in Outlook that sends them to different folders, so my inbox is not cluttered. I take a look at them once per day and delete them if not important. 

[Ryan]

Not sure if these all would count as lifehacks, but here are some:

-Gmail has a plugin called "Canned Responses" that I use quite a bit.  It's basically just allows you to insert a pre-written response that you can edit if needed.

-If my wife is not answering her phone and I need her to respond asap, I'll send an alert through "Find my iphone".  She usually has her phone on vibrate and in her purse so doing this will sound an audio alert.

-Similar to this, sometimes one of us does not answer our phone and we're trying to figure out timing of when someone will be home.  Instead of waiting for a response, you can just do the 'find my iphone' to see their location.  

-I'm a big fan of Evernote+Scanner for organizing things.  This is so incredibly helpful for keeping your life organized.  Tax returns, important documents, things I need over and over (license plate numbers), my wife's orders at coffee places or to-go restaurants, etc.  

-LastPass-Password Manager.  Allows you to create unique passwords for all the sites you visit and stores them in a "vault" on your computer.  By far, the best thing I've started to use recently.

[Sam_2.0]

Life hack - I clean the bathroom while the kid is in the tub & I have to be in there anyway. I give her a magic eraser to scrub the tub with (no cleaners needed), and then I start on the rest. I only use Windex with ammonia and spray from the mirrors to the floor and then wipe top to bottom with a microfiber rag. Everything sparkles, I only need one cleaning product, and the ammonia helps kill germs (at least I believe it does - SHHHH if it doesnt ). Only takes me about 5 minutes to clean everything. once DD is out of the tub I spritz it with windex and wipe it out with her bath towel.

Working on figuring out macros at work. We have some that auto-populate forms and tracking spreadsheets simultaneously. Saves us a TON of time. And then the spreadsheets consolidate the info into reports for us.

And it may have taken me 4 hours, but Google helped me build a query yesterday that got my co-worker everything she needed, in turn saving her several days worth of work. I save every query I run so that I can do it again at any time.

[Tiny]

At home Life Hacks:   

- I have a peice of paper  and a pencil on a string taped to the furnace duct above where the filter goes in.   I mark down when I've checked the filter and if I replaced it.    I'm not the brightest bulb - so I might check the filter more than just the 1st of the month -   the written down date checked/replaced lets me know how old the filter is and if I've already checked it or not.  Yeah, you can tell by looking at the filter if it needs to be changed - but pulling it out is a pain. 

I buy alot of things in bulk - so I use a sharpie to write the date something goes into 'storage', sometimes I'll even add the price, sometimes I also write when I start using something (I now know how long it takes me to go thru 150 trash bags or jug of laundry detergent.  Helps me buy and store less stuff).

I use a sharpie to write on the packaging of things I freeze  - either right on the zippy bag OR on a strip of masking tape on the tupperware or other container.      

I'm single - so I don't always make a full box of pasta.   I measure out the servings I'm using from the box, transfer the remaining pasta to a tupperware container and then put a strip of masking tape on the container and using the sharpie indicate the number of servings AND the time to cook the pasta.    I'm all about portion control so I don't 'eye ball' a serving of pasta - cause if I did that a serving would be the whole box.    

I never seem to have a sharpie or a pair of scissors or a pad of paper handy when I need one - so I have a sharpie/pencil/scissors/paper in multiple locations thru out the house.    Every couple of months I have to 'rebalance' them by putting them back in assorted places... but over all it makes my life alot less annoying if I don't have to keep searching for stuff.

[midjd]

Whenever I open a jar of something that will need to be refrigerated, I write the date on the top with a sharpie. (The "sniff" test for spaghetti sauce once failed me ) 

I also started keeping a carabiner in the car to help carry in groceries. It really saves your fingers.

[Pants]

I'm stuck on the part where OP lives with 5 adults and 2 teenagers and somehow she's cooking dinner every night?!?!?!

OP, new lifehack for you: There are 7 people in your house capable of cooking a meal. There are seven days a week. Divide accordingly.

[hoops902]

Mar 3, 2015 9:18:09 GMT -5 kristinkle said:

The "hardest job skill you have self learned" thread got me thinking about work/life hacks that make my everyday a little easier.  

For example at work:

• I have a "frequently sent" folder in my inbox that I put e-mails in that I frequently send (or a variation thereof).  It is easier to forward and edit or copy and paste into a new e-mail rather than to type the whole e-mail up again.
  
• V-lookup in Excel
  
• Pivot table in Excel.  I just learned about the pivot table and I still slightly reel from the fact that it saves me about 16 hours of work a month.  I did reports yesterday that, in the past, would have taken me about 2.5 to 3.5 days to complete.

Home:

• I feed 5 adults and 2 teenagers (who eat more than adults) and sometimes after work I just don't feel like cooking.  Stuffed shells, stuffed peppers and the innards of chicken/beef pot pie freeze very well so I always double or triple the recipe I am making that night and freeze for those nights that I really don't feel like cooking a "from scratch" dinner
  
• I keep a large calendar with nice big blocks on the refrigerator so people can write in birthday parties, games, practice and appointments etc.  If it's not on the calendar, it doesn't get done or gone to.  Sometimes I even get motivated to put the monthly calendar in the google calendar that is set up to sync to everyone's phones.  
• Right by the calendar I keep a magnetic pad and a pen so people can write down what they have used the last of so it can be bought in a timely manner.  I also keep a pen "string taped" to the fridge.  Saves lots of aggravation

I was talking to my sister one day who was telling me she had to type up the same e-mails all the time and send out to people, she felt that was all she was doing. I just asked why she didn't add a folder to her e-mail and put the e-mails she always sent in that and then just forward and edit as needed, that's what I did. It had just never occurred to her.

And how about that pivot table...for me, it was almost life altering. Just to hear someone mention it and then when I ask questions they say, "I thought everyone knew about it, I use it all the time". I was floored, absolutely floored. I had never heard of it, cause if I had my (work) life would have been ALOT simpler years ago.

I guess what I am asking is for people to share their own work/life hacks.  You would be surprised at the things you think are "common sense" or that "everyone knows/does", may be a revelation to someone else.

Within the last 3 months I've shown my boss how to do both VLookup and Pivot Tables in excel.  The look on her face was priceless.  "What the hell were you doing before?  Just counting hundreds of lines?"

"Yes, it took me hours"

It's kind of amazing how many things she'll ask about and I can tell her I'll figure it out.  15 minutes later I come back and show her how to do it in excel. 

"How did you know how to do that?"

"I googled it"


Though I will admit that prior to knowing a ton about excel (or at least about how to do it efficiently), I had my own homemade spreadsheets to copy/paste information into to do the same thing as a simple Excel function. Like massive spreadsheets with long complicated formulas just to do a simple "countif" function because I had no idea that "countif" existed.

[Sam_2.0]

I use Google daily to help me with stuff. Sometimes, though, it's hard to get what you want if you don't even know how to ask for it. I think that should be a new life-skill we teach our kids

[wvugurl26]

Quick Parts in Outlook. Absolute game changer for me. There are certain things I type all the time in emails but not necessarily a whole email. I can put them in quick parts, assign them a short memorable name and when I type that in boom it populates. Learned it at a training last fall.

[alabamagal]

I bought a clip for the outside of my purse and hang my keys on the clip. Keeps me from searching for my keys in my purse. Saves me 5 minutes a day cost $2

[Cookies Galore]

In my old position (with current company), I learned how to use the booklet function on the Xerox machine. I turned a two-day project into a half-day one. Apparently not everyone knew about that so I passed on the knowledge.

Every Sunday after grocery shopping I write down that week's dinners and all the produce I buy on a post-it and tape it to the cabinet next to the stove. Cuts down on wasted food since I can see at a glance what I have to use up.

[violagirl]

Pivot tables and V-lookups (or H-lookups) are such time savers. Sumif is also a great function. 

Last year I created a terrific Excel spreadsheet that really should have been done in Access but everyone is scared of Access. VBA programming is quite intuitive. Had a spreadsheet that automated a ton of work. Then my managers got at it and wanted this feature and that feature, until it became so cumbersome that I had to disable all of the macros. :^( Managers! 

I'm learning "delegation". That is a big time saver in most aspects of life. 

[tskeeter]

Ever wonder why what you made for dinner last night didn't taste as good as your remember it being the last time you made it?

Is it because your herbs and spices are 10 years old?  Once opened, the shelf life of most spices is about a year.  After that, the oils that carry the flavors have pretty well evaporated and the spices have lost their potency.  I use my kitchen Sharpie to write the date I bought the spices on the label so I know when to replace them with fresh ones.



For the Excel specialists, you ought to check out the data/filters function.  Handy for doing quick, on the fly analysis, counting the number of lines of information that have a specific attribute, searching for character strings in a field when you don't know how somebody else structured the description, selecting a date range from thousands of lines of data, and the like.  Kind of like having the power of pivot tables when you're figuring out what information you want step by step.

[finnime]

Open Office.

It's free Free FREE and completely compatible with the Microsoft Office suite; great for home use.


And, courtesy of my sister: keep a kitchen dish towel or cloth napkins in your car for use as a clothing protector when you're drinking coffee or soda.


Keep winter gloves in the car at all times of year for when the steering wheel is too hot to handle, or you need to unscrew difficult things.

To decant liquids without a funnel, hold a knife or fork between the containers; the liquid will follow the bridge.

Buy a hammer drill (impact drill) if you live in an older home without drywall. You will need it.

[teen persuasion]

Getting patrons to sign up for email notifications.  We used to call everyone who had an ILL book come in, and everyone who had overdue books beyond a week.  Every person I convert to email notifications is one less person I have to call.  I also invest time in teaching them how to use our online site, especially for renewals and holds.  Now they can do that for themselves, too, whenever they like.

Pinterest - I can organize ideas for future story hours, save links to all kinds of sites (performers, award book lists, how tos, free ebook sites), have secret boards with intriguing ideas just for my eyes, subscribe to multiuser boards like librarians' list to learn about upcoming trends, follow others in my field, showcase programs or collections to our patrons...
I use a secret board that I have made multiuser for me from my work and private pinterest accounts.  Then I can use it like a window between them whichever account I'm on.  If i see something I'd like pinned to my private account while scanning the feed at work, I pin it to this board - it is visible on both sides.  Same thing if I'm at home on my personal account and see something I want to pin at work.
Pinterest is also a great way to see what your kids are into - follow them.  DD3 is pinning lots of LARPing costume ideas lately.  She'll sometimes pin things I've pinned, after seeing them in her feed, since she's also following me.  Some people use my multiuser board hack to plan events or parties together.  Make it secret if you are planning a surprise party.

At work it seems like I'm the only one to use right clicks - they added all sorts of shortcuts to our software at the last update.  You can do things with a right click rather than exiting and switching screens the long way (discharge items, renew items, pay bills, edit due dates, etc all within the top level checkout screen).

[Malarky]

I got tired of scissors always being elsewhere when I need them.  I have at least 6 pair.

Now I have a pair on the side of the fridge held on by a very strong magnet.  (Recycled from the Nook box.)

No one leaves the red handles scissors around anymore. 

[NastyWoman]

A long time ago, after getting my carry-on bags and suitcases always "stolen" by (now) xh and sons, I learned that if you buy something they wouldn't be caught dead with the problem solves itself.  So for years I had a butt ugly tapestry carry-on bag and suitcase which were always available when I needed them

[cronewitch]

Mar 5, 2015 21:48:33 GMT -5 NastyWoman said:

A long time ago, after getting my carry-on bags and suitcases always "stolen" by (now) xh and sons, I learned that if you buy something they wouldn't be caught dead with the problem solves itself.  So for years I had a butt ugly tapestry carry-on bag and suitcase which were always available when I needed them

I always used pink post it notes and markers since I worked with mostly men. Men hate pink never steal my stuff. I am not a girly girl so it was only loss prevention.

[mamasita99]

Mar 3, 2015 13:04:47 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

I use Google daily to help me with stuff. Sometimes, though, it's hard to get what you want if you don't even know how to ask for it. I think that should be a new life-skill we teach our kids

 I use Google all the time when helping my youngest with homework. She still thinks it's "cheating", but even her math teacher encourages it. There are some great teachers on youtube who will show you step by step how to work through a problem, it's genius!

[teen persuasion]

Mar 6, 2015 6:24:08 GMT -5 mamasita99 said:

Mar 3, 2015 13:04:47 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

I use Google daily to help me with stuff. Sometimes, though, it's hard to get what you want if you don't even know how to ask for it. I think that should be a new life-skill we teach our kids

 I use Google all the time when helping my youngest with homework. She still thinks it's "cheating", but even her math teacher encourages it. There are some great teachers on youtube who will show you step by step how to work through a problem, it's genius!

It is amazing how many people don't think to use Google!  I will get all sorts of reference questions, and I often turn to Google if I have no clue.  They ask me how I got the info they couldn't find.  Um, I just typed exactly what you asked me into Google.  (But make sure it's Google, not Bing!)

[CarolinaKat]

Mar 3, 2015 11:02:42 GMT -5 saveinla said:

When I had to send the same/similar emails every week, I created a template email and would just use that. We have slowly automated everything, so I have not done that in almost 8 years now. I think I may still have the template.

We also get a lot of automated emails - I have rules in Outlook that sends them to different folders, so my inbox is not cluttered. I take a look at them once per day and delete them if not important. 

THIS.... but only I have to hang onto the e-mails.... because 6 months from now I might have to prove the system sent this automated e-mail during an audit, so it sends the automated e-mails to archive folders so i don't accidentily delete them. 

At home: (please don't laught too much) I safety pin my socks together. that way they don't loose each other. Also it makes them easy to hang up to dry. I have a shot glass in my sock drawer that I drop the safety pins in when I take out a pair to put on. I've told DH i DO NOT MATCH SOCKS. If he wants it done, he can do it......

[cronewitch]

I don't match socks. With ISO he only gets two or three kinds of socks that all match the same kind. White with gray toes from Costco really nice socks come in 6 packs he has several opened a few new packs they are for every day. Calf high dark socks to go in motorcycle boots he has half a dozen or more pair. Some really warm socks name Steel Toe every expensive socks they have brown on them only worn in the coldest winter while outdoor fishing or hunting. So his laundry might have a dozen individual white and gray socks two calf high socks, he can sort them or not his choice but when he looks in his sock drawer he has a high chance of finding two that match. Before this system I would buy big packs of white socks with a stripe on top, I would buy 3-4 packs and only give him one color until he wore them out then he got the next color so all socks would be white with a red stripe for a year then white with a green stripe for a year then white with no stripe, he could throw them away one at a time when they wore out then when he was short on socks they were all tossed and replaced with a new color. I wear the Costco socks or steel toe socks too so we share but I usually don't wear socks.

[MJ2.0]

Mar 3, 2015 11:49:44 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

Life hack - I clean the bathroom while the kid is in the tub & I have to be in there anyway. I give her a magic eraser to scrub the tub with (no cleaners needed), and then I start on the rest. I only use Windex with ammonia and spray from the mirrors to the floor and then wipe top to bottom with a microfiber rag. Everything sparkles, I only need one cleaning product, and the ammonia helps kill germs (at least I believe it does - SHHHH if it doesnt ). Only takes me about 5 minutes to clean everything. once DD is out of the tub I spritz it with windex and wipe it out with her bath towel.

Working on figuring out macros at work. We have some that auto-populate forms and tracking spreadsheets simultaneously. Saves us a TON of time. And then the spreadsheets consolidate the info into reports for us.

And it may have taken me 4 hours, but Google helped me build a query yesterday that got my co-worker everything she needed, in turn saving her several days worth of work. I save every query I run so that I can do it again at any time.

I did the cleaning the bathroom hack the other day. It worked for the most part - the only things I didn't get to were the medicine cabinet mirrors, the sink and the toilet bowl. And wiping the floor clean with Lysol is sooooo much easier and quicker than sweeping and mopping!

[Apple]

Home:

I leave a dish scrubber (the type where you fill the handle with soap) in the shower.  I fill the handle with 1/2 blue dawn and 1/2 white vinegar, then, on the weekend, it gives me an excuse to take a really long shower, I just scrub the shower down while I'm in there.

I make "mixes" for stuff like cornbread and biscuits.  I'll make something for dinner, and when I measure out all the dry ingredients, I measure out extra into ziplock bags or mason jars.  Then I write down what mix it is, and how to finish it for a dinner later (so "rye biscuit mix: add egg, 1 Tbs milk, x butter... 350, 12 mins")  It's still homemade, but it saves me from having to measure out all the dry ingredients too.

When I cook meatloaf, I make some in a muffin tin so I can freeze it in individual servings.  Pop in the the microwave for a few minutes at lunch.

[msventoux]

I hate matching socks up.  I only wear black socks of a particular brand, so I don't have to worry about it.  They all get stuffed loose into a drawer and I pull them out as needed.  I toss the socks as they become damaged and when I notice the supply in the drawer is getting low I go buy several more packages and I'm good for at least a couple of years again.

I do have a few pairs of moisture wicking socks that I use for hiking that go in their own little drawer.  They are different colors, but all the same brand and thickness.  I can mange to match those socks, and if I don't it doesn't really matter since they're completely covered by the hiking boots anyways. 

I'm a huge fan of scanning my personal documents and storing in Evernote.  I love having all that crap out of my house.  It's extraordinarily handy to be able to pull up some random bit of info on Evernote on my phone when I'm out running errands, whether it's what paint colors I used in my house, what the measurements are of various rooms and pieces of furniture in the house, what repairs and services I've had done to my car, etc.  I've also been keeping a price book for grocery items in it and can quickly pull up that spreadsheet and see if items on sale are really a good deal or not. 

I also love Amazon's Subscribe and Save program.  I don't have to worry about remembering if I'm running low on HBA items, animal food and litter, cleaning supplies, etc.  It just magically appears on my doorstep and I don't have the hassle of shopping for it. 

[Peace Of Mind]

I quit my job so I don't have to hassle with traffic, getting gas for my car constantly and worrying about what I wear every day.  And I don't need to keep smacking an alarm of any kind to shut it the f___ up!

What?!  You asked.