10 Nerd-Gasmic Life Hacks Here are some of my favorite shortcuts, some of which were crowdsourced from a group of entrepreneurs on Facebook.
By Andrew Medal Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Life hacks are defined as uncommon tips and tricks to do something better or faster. I'm a nerdy geek when it comes to figuring out how to hack my life. I used different life hacks while in prison (6 Prison Life Hacks That Will Maximize Your Productivity), use them while I travel and for everyday activities.
The other day, I asked my entrepreneur-focused Facebook group of more than 12,000 what are some of their favorite hacks. Here's a short list of useful hacks I've learned, found on my own and learned about in the group:
1. Wi-Fi passwords
Get Wi-Fi passwords for pretty much anywhere by checking in the comments section on Foursquare.
Related: 4 Simple Steps to a More Productive Mindset
2. iPhone zoom
iPhone pics will be of higher quality if you take the picture and zoom in on the saved version, vs. zooming in and taking the picture. Duh.
3. Smartphone connection
If you're in an area that should have service, but it's not working, switch your phone to airplane mode and then back to normal. Switching to airplane mode will cause your phone to register and find the towers in your area.
4. Humdinger
Midomi.com helps you remember who sings that song you have stuck in your head. You can hum or sing the lyrics of the song, and it provides you the artist. This can save you hours of humming to friends, and from distracting thoughts such as, "Gosh, who is that artist!? Ugh!"
5. Glow in the dark
Glow-in-the-dark paint on your phone charger will help you see your charger at night. Ingenious, I know.
Related: 5 Life Hacks Everybody Can Benefit From
6. Reminders
Use speech-to-text reminders on your phone to create actionable to-do lists. Have a call to make, meeting or task to accomplish? Set a reminder with day and time. I use this all of the time.
7. Remember that
Need to remember something in the morning? Send yourself a text, but don't open it until the next day. I use this one too.
8. Mindlessly network
Use the Rapportive Chrome extension to network mindlessly. Once the extension is activated, and while you're in Gmail, your email contacts will show up on the right hand sidebar. You can then send a LinkedIn invitation. This is one of my favorite extensions. I'm not sure why more people don't use it.
9. IPhone charging
An iPad charger will charge your iPhone much faster. So will setting the phone to airplane mode (this goes for all devices).
Related: 7 Life Hacks to Be Productive Instead of Just Busy
10. Bootstrap chef
Supercook.com will allow you to enter the ingredients you have at home and tell you what meals you can make with those ingredients. It can save you endless hours of opening the fridge door, leaving and opening it again.
I'm all about doing more faster, being creative and getting more shit done. Tweet me @andrewmedal and tell me some of your favorite life hacks so that I can add them to my list.
