Everyone wants to improve their life in one way or another, whether it’s to be smarter, more successful, or just change their situations for the better. Three life hacks the Quora writers used themselves have made all the difference in their lives. From changing how they view their weekend, to an easy smartphone hack, to an entire life overhaul, these tried and true tweaks will inspire you.
1. Stop treating weekends like mini vacations.
Quora writer, Todd Busen set out on a mission[1] to wake up for work on time. He found that sleeping in on the weekends disrupted his sleep schedule on his work days. So, he decided to treat the weekends like his work days and wake up at the same hour every day of the week. His experiment proved a success. He has not viewed weekends the same way since then.
According to Busen, the weekends should be treated like every other day of the week, and instead of losing those precious moments, you should use that time productively to grow, move forward, and better your life.
When facing your next weekend:
- Try getting up the same time you do during the week.
- Use those extra hours of free time to read or workout.
- Instead of watching a movie, watch a documentary.
- Exchange watching YouTube videos of cats for YouTube videos that will help your business grow or teach you a new skill.
- If a whole weekend seems like a daunting overhaul, use baby steps to make your tweaks.
2. Move where to charge the phone.
Smartphones are usually the first thing a lot of people grab in the morning and Quora writer Matt Sandrini recognized his own electronic addiction and knew he had to conquer it.[2] Matt wanted to read more, write more, and get more sleep, but the siren call of his smartphone was too tempting. He decided his best course of action was to move the distraction and began by moving his phone charger away from his bed. This small tweak appealed to his lack of willpower. Before, it took willpower to put his phone down, and now it took willpower to get up to get to his phone.
Matt now reads more than ever, writes more, and even gets more sleep. He recommends placing the phone as far away as possible, even in another room.
How can you charge your phone in another room if it’s your alarm clock?
- Choose a louder alarm tone on your phone, one that you can hear further away.
- Consider getting a regular alarm clock.
- Set an alarm on your watch.
3. Quit all things that don’t create value.
What would happen if you changed the way you viewed your entire life? Perhaps the biggest game-changing tweak comes from Quora writer Josh Fechter, who learned his lesson the hard way.[3]
Broke and living in his dad’s apartment as he struggled to get his writing career off of the ground, Josh turned to reading self-help books for inspiration. From the books, he learned “success and happiness parallel how much value people create for others.” Josh knew he had to focus on his writing to be a success, but in order to do that, he would have cut meaningless distractions from his life.
Josh took the plunge and decided to let go of all things that didn’t create value in his life. He stopped watching TV and Netflix. He ceased reading his Facebook feed. He no longer paid attention to politics, and even stopped going out to eat. If it didn’t add value to his life, he didn’t do it. He focused only on what would be beneficial, or bring meaning to his life and work. With the distractions gone, he was able to concentrate on his writing, and his career began to take off. Three years later, Josh is head of growth for a $50 million-dollar venture capital company.
So, how do you determine what has no value?
- Face each life situation with a question before proceeding: will doing this enrich me, my business, or my life?
- If the answer is no, make the decision to not do it and fill that void of time with something that will be beneficial to your personal growth, your health, and your business.
- If the answer is yes, go ahead, armed with the knowledge that you are enhancing your life.
Move your phone, rethink the way you live your weekend, or trim the useless distractions from your life. Three proven tweaks that can make a difference. Try one out or use them all, or choose the best bits of each. It’s your life, make it a good one.
