Lifehacker

As much as I like the idea of affirmations, I’ve never felt anything but corny when saying “I can do it!” or any of the other types of positive self-talk that are supposed to motivate me. I have a pair of shoes with “I am enough” printed on the insoles, and I get inexplicably angry anytime I read that message. It…Read more...

If you’re overwhelmed, intimidated, or frustrated by your to-do list or daily routine, this tiny trick might help. You just need to think a little lazier.Read more...

Reducing food waste is an important issue that many people care about, but even the most combative eco-warrior would hesitate to chug a glass of past-its-prime milk. Would a large percentage of those naysayers eat a beautifully plated wedge of spoiled milk (cheese)? Absolutely, myself included.

You can baby your new phone all you want, but sometimes, shit just breaks. Case or no case, screen protector or not—one bad fall marks doom for your Pixel. Traditionally, the move has been to take a broken phone to a repair shop, or the company that made it. But like more and more companies slowly but surely, Google…Read more...

Across all of social media, I keep encountering a certain brand of annoying influencer behavior. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok—all are packed with videos that feature someone (usually a white woman) subjecting fruits and vegetables to an elaborate cleaning and repackaging process, supposedly immediately upon arriving…Read more...

If you’ve been trying to improve your posture and you just can’t seem to do it, let me introduce you to what might be a surprising idea: the way you stand, or the way you sit in your chair at work or school, may not actually matter at all. Or at least not in the way you think it does.

At their simplest, pancakes are relatively mild in flavor. Yet, somewhere down the line, this breakfast quick bread took a hard left to near dessert status. Pancake recipes vary, but most of them include one to three tablespoons of sugar per batch, and flavors that we associate with sweetness, like cinnamon, vanilla,…Read more...

Here’s my two cents: The financial advice doled out by “experts” on TikTok or personal finance “gurus” on Instagram is always going to be a little shitty. Even if what they are telling you isn’t egregiously wrong or an attempt at scamming you, it’s probably oversimplified.Read more...

You might think that learning and mastering one concept at a time is the best way to practice and retain it—but there’s actually a better method. It’s time to stop learning bit by bit and work instead on learning concepts in a way that helps you relate them to other ideas, the way they work together in the real world. …Read more...

If there’s one thing we can all agree on in these divisive times, it’s that food prices are too damn high. As long as you’re in the segment of the population that knows how much a gallon of milk costs, you’ve probably spent the last few years trying different strategies to stretch your grocery budget as far as it will…Read more...

Spreadsheets suck, am I right? Actually, I don’t know. In my line of work, I’ve thankfully avoided the need to use Excel or Google Sheets much. I do most of my writing in a CMS, not the cells of a spreadsheet. But I know many of you use spreadsheets, perhaps with varying levels of enthusiasm. Whether you enjoy working…Read more...

Dating is confusing even at the best of times. Factor in the machinations of a love bomber, and you’ll be left scratching your head for days analyzing their over-the-top behavior and professions of love.

Like everything that costs money, hotel stays have gotten more expensive. But what you see is not necessarily what you have to settle for if you join HotelSlash, a search and booking engine that tracks prices and alerts you to deals and discounts on your existing reservations.Read more...

Video dating started as a necessity during the pandemic, but it’s quickly become a norm. Most dating apps now include audio messages, video messages, or even video calls on their platforms. It not only makes sense but also saves a lot of time, says Zachary Zane, author of Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto and sex expert…Read more...

Tickling your tomato blossoms and brushing your squash flowers probably aren’t regular tasks on your gardening to-do list, but it turns out that hand pollination, in league with natural processes, can actually increase your yield on lots of staple garden veggies.Read more...

Being intimidated at the gym is normal. So normal that the hashtag #shygirlworkout on TikTok has racked up over 370 million views to date. The videos aren’t just trendy but tap into the reality of the anxiety that many people—particularly women—experience while working out at the gym.Read more...

Modern parents are ill-prepared to deal with threats to their families from the fairy kingdom. Kobolds, elves, goblins, pixies, and other fey creatures have a long history of stealing human infants and replacing them with uafs (or oafs), creatures that look like babies, but which are actually sinister monsters with…Read more...

Giant salt flakes are the cool kids of food pop culture. It makes sense, they make a great snacking salt, but they’ve managed to siphon away attention from the other, more subtle forms of sodium chloride. You don’t always have to flaunt your flakes. Sometimes big flakes are too aggressive, or a sprinkle of table salt…Read more...

Early in the pandemic, as people were desperately searching for toilet paper, I was whining about a far less critical asset: SodaStream canisters. They’d become impossible to source, and the bubbly liquid I’d become addicted to was replaced by sad tap water.

Although the law banning the installation of lead pipes in the United States took effect in 1988, that still leaves many homes across the country with plumbing that may contain lead. So, how can you determine if yours is one of them? Here’s what to know about lead pipes, and how to tell if your home has them.Read more...

The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted large numbers of city dwellers to reconsider their housing choices, with many opting to move out of their cramped apartments, and into houses with outdoor space and parking. People bought homes for other reasons as well, and before long, there was a serious lack of …Read more...

Pulling weeds growing in your garden, yard, flower beds, or between the cracks in your driveway is tedious work—especially when they seem to grow back overnight.Read more...

We like to think of drains as some kind of magic hole that makes things disappear. As convenient as that would be, unfortunately, that’s not how they work—including those attached to kitchen sinks with a garbage disposal, utility sinks, bathtubs, and showers.Read more...

Not everyone is a fan of the rustic look of moss growing on their driveway, sidewalk, or patio. But, appearance aside, it’s a safety hazard. When moss covers materials like concrete, brick, wood, and paving stones, it can make these high-traffic surfaces extremely slippery, increasing the risk of someone falling.Read more...

A lot of people find online shopping therapeutic: A way to zone out and destress at the end of a long day. For some people, simply browsing—and maybe adding items to their virtual cart with no intention of actually buying them—is enough. But others can’t resist going through with the purchase, knowing that once they…Read more...

Last month, the FBI reiterated the dangers of “juice jacking,” an alleged practice wherein bad actors steal data or install malware on your smartphone through public chargers. The problem is, there have been no documented cases of juice jacking in the wild, which might lead some to consider digital security warnings,…Read more...

Mosquitoes really do like some people more than others. Some of the features that make you a mosquito magnet aren’t ones you can easily alter—your body size, for example, or the natural smell of your skin. But now, a study has found that scented soaps may also make a difference, and that’s something you can easily …Read more...

My partner and I are enthusiastic members of the Joe Bob Briggs Mutant Family. For the next month or so, we will be spending virtually every Friday evening watching The Last Drive-In and eating snacks. Popcorn is a favorite, though my boyfriend and I have very different popcorn dressing styles.Read more...

Orgeat is something I only found out about in my 30s, about the time when I could confidently afford to go to a fancy cocktail bar and have that confidence dashed by not understanding ingredients on the drink menu. Googling this ingredient on my phone at the bar did two things: It made me look really cool, and I found…Read more...

In a highly competitive housing market, you may be tempted by properties that are being sold “as-is.” They’re often cheaper than others listed, but when a home is listed “as-is,” the seller won’t guarantee the condition of the property, make any repairs before closing, or credit the buyer for defects that need repair.…Read more...

Children, especially those between the ages of 4 to 6, love to play rough. Not only can it provide an outlet for their endless energy, but there’s also a purpose behind it: According to the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Child Development, it provides them control over their surroundings and offers a safe space…Read more...

I’m currently in awe of peanut powder. It has all the flavor of raw peanuts and peanut butter, but a powdered structure that is nothing short of food-witchcraft. Regular, sticky peanut butter has always been the go-to for concentrated flavor, but the its dense, oily texture can be a real hang-up when it comes to…Read more...

The list of places to update your address when you move is long and the process tedious, whether you’re heading to a new neighborhood or across the country. While some of these updates are important but not time-sensitive, you’re actually on the clock to notify your state’s Department of Motor Vehicles of an address…Read more...

Throughout your academic career, you’ll have professors who will only exist to you for a semester and won’t impact your life much beyond giving you a final grade. That’s fine. But there will also be those professors who genuinely seem to care about you, take interest in your growth, and may even be inclined to help…Read more...

Buying a house can feel like finishing a marathon—or maybe a triathlon. You’ve spent months hunting for the right property, convincing someone that you’re responsible enough to be loaned an epic amount of money, and navigating a host of scams designed to separate you from even more money. Now that you’ve closed on…Read more...

In the early days of messaging, each correspondence was final. Email, AIM, SMS—if you sent it, the other person would see it, with zero chance for retraction. Today, however, we live in the future, where we can edit a message with typos or thoughts we regret. WhatsApp has been slow to this edit party, until now—if…Read more...

Your brain is complex, but once you figure out its little intricacies—like that it can only store about seven units of information in short-term memory—you can exploit them to help you remember more things. It’s not just the amount of information present that affects your memory, though. Even the order in which you…Read more...

Within each seed catalog, there are plants you flip past—the ones that you’ve never heard of. These plants tend to lean towards “crops” that you don’t think you have the room to grow: sorghum, those warty gourds, wheat. Every year I ask myself, “Who is growing all those cardoons?”

This week’s Out-of-Touch Guide examines capitalism’s effects on the young, currently manifesting themselves in the form of annoying TikTok wealth-accumulation cults, ridiculous big-budget shark movies that everyone will see, and people using Venmo to bill their friends for literally everything. Then there’s the whole…Read more...

Salad is a breakfast food, of this I am certain. Eggs, bacon, and toasted bread (croutons) are all comfortable amongst a pile of greens, but you can make them even more at home with a breakfast-y vinaigrette. Using maple syrup as your sweetener can help, but for true early morning authenticity, I recommend Mrs.…Read more...

“I’m always doing some terrible workaround to try to get to Docs quickly,” our Senior Technology Editor Jake Peterson told me this morning. “It’s never quick.” But science has now accomplished what we all thought was impossible: an actually fast, simple way to open a blank Google document when you need one. And best…Read more...

Rice Krispies Treats are an easy-to-execute, adaptable dessert: You can go the traditional route, or change it up with different cereals, use potato chips, or elevate it with browned butter. As good as Rice Krispies Treats are in their many forms, though, they do have the tendency to get a little stiff and dry,…Read more...

It’s that time of year again: The day when we all pretend that every mother is a shining saint, a glorious martyr, a perfect vision of feminine virtue that wraps up all of our ideals of womanhood with a pretty ink bow. Fun! And also way too much pressure on moms and kids. Moms are just human beings doing their best.…Read more...

I get it, Thai curry can be hot stuff. Maybe it was the pad gra-pao recipe you tried, or the surprise chili pepper in your takeout two years ago that made you throw in the towel forever, but I want to encourage you to try again. This time, however, I’m going to arm you with a method for controlling the spice on your…Read more...

A seamless login future is coming for all Apple users. Starting with iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, Apple offers built-in support for passkeys. You can add these new cryptographically generated keys directly to your iCloud Keychain and they’ll sync across all your devices using end-to-end encryption.

I tend toward minimalism in the physical world, but when it comes to digital detritus, I could be featured on a special episode of Hoarders. I’m particularly bad with photos: I take a ton and delete none. I never get around to axing duplicates and blurry pictures either. My entire photo library basically just sits…Read more...

The thing about productivity hacks is that everyone’s needs are different. You might function better through compartmentalizing, or multitasking, or finding small ways to reward yourself. For people who operate better through visual cues, though, these methods aren’t always effective. Sure, you can write down your…Read more...

It’s a confusing frustration we’ve all encountered: You’re watching a show when suddenly you want to pause it and take a screenshot, maybe to create a meme or share a joke with a friend. But when you hit that screenshot button, all you get is a blank image, maybe with subtitles. This is a common issue across many…Read more...

My great love of olives is led me to create Dirty Martini Fried Chicken. I wanted another way to enjoy olives with chicken, and I didn’t care how it happened. So, I turned to alcohol. As fate (or science) would have it, olives and alcohol make a great team. For the crispiest, most flavorful crust on any fried food,…Read more...

Peloton has issued a voluntary recall along with the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for their flagship product, the Original Peloton Bike, after reports of dozens of riders falling and being injured. About 2.2 million of the bikes are being flagged, and the company is urging customers not to…Read more...