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Life Pro Tips

lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips Apytele 3 months ago 98%
You don't have to be ready to make a change (such as quitting a substance or starting exercise) to start asking yourself what it would take for you to make that change.

In clinical psychology the technique is called motivational interviewing, and the purpose is to help the person feel ready to make the change they need to by helping them plan out what they will need to change in their environment to make it happen. The trick is to avoid pressuring them in the exact moment and instead help them start imagining a more positive future as a very first baby step. You can do this by yourself right now if you want to, even if you know you're not ready to do what you need to. Examples: - to quit drinking you might need to try to find a less stressful job or leave a shitty partner - to start exercising you might need to lower the energy required to start by leaving your workout clothes next to your bed, or you might need to get a brace for a joint so you can exercise more comfortably. You don't actually have to be ready to do those things to admit to yourself that they're factors holding you back. Step one will always be learning to be honest with yourself, even if you're not ready to do better just yet. So, what do you need to happen in your life to be able to do that thing you know you need to do?

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lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips yewg85lcx 3 months ago 100%
LPT requests : Money savings

Starting from payday, I daily move some money to a piggy bank, which helps for some short term requirements. Any other short term saving ideas? long term also?

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lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips Apytele 3 months ago 96%
LPT: Try to catch your landlord doing tours with potential new tenants and mention things they refuse to fix or improve.

Every single time whatever I needed fixed was done within the week!

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lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips otto 8 months ago 93%
Make habits, not goals optimizedbyotto.com

Habits can be sustained for years and years. Goals often compel acts of heroism, which are not sustainable in the long run. As Bruce Lee once said, “long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity.”

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lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips BoisZoi 8 months ago 97%
LPT: Using Read It Later apps? Save a webpage to archive.org, and then save it to your RIL app to avoid link rot in the future.

Some apps will save the text of the webpage in your account, while others just strip everything but the text on the webpage. If you want to ensure the article you are reading doesn't succumb to [link rot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_rot), using this method ensures you'll still have the article. Alternatively, using Firefox Reader Mode, Vivaldi Reader Mode or Safari's Reader Mode, you can email yourself the text of the article and access it anytime through your email. You can create a folder or label to organize them!

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lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips Apytele 8 months ago 96%
How to Train Your Lap-Cat

This is specially helpful if you have a keyboard-cat who loves to type gibberish. The temperament of the cat is pretty critical, so if you have a cat who already highly values human attention, this is a great behavior to teach because you're literally just teaching them to meet their needs in a way that is most comfortable and enjoyable for both of you. Things you will need: - a cat that doesn't hate you/humans in general and ideally one that already regularly seeks human attention and just doesn't know how to do it in a way you enjoy. - an Altoids tin or other small hard-sided container (so they can't chew through it!) - cat treats (mine loves [temptations](https://www.temptationstreats.com/) and they come in bulk sizes which is great for training) - a pomodoro or excersice timer or app (I used [this](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cc.dreamspark.intervaltimer&hl=en_US&gl=US) one) - Optional: a training clicker. Personally, I just pick a specific phrase in a tone of voice I never use outside of training. I don't like clickers because I always misplace them, so I just say "good kitty!" in a high pitched voice. The most important thing is that it sounds just about the same every time and you never say it that way or in that tone at any other time. Each of these steps should occur in 5, 10, or 15 minute sessions spaced out to 1, 2, or 3 times a day depending on your cat's motivation and attention span. Too long or too often will make the cat less willing to participate/learn. **Step 1 - Set Up:** Prepare the space and decide on a reward sound (clicker or specific phrase/tone). Fill the small hard-sided container and leave it on the desk (or coffee table if your regular sitting area is a couch). Make sure the treats you have chosen are desirable to the cat by holding them out and seeing if the cat is willing to hop up and move at least a few feet to come get it. You may have to try a few different types of treats to find one the cat really wants. **Step 2 - Get them onto your lap:** Introduce the cat to your lap. Closed spaces that they didn't pick out on their own can be stressful for a cat, so maybe start with both feet on the ground and your back straight against the chair (don't tuck your knees up or lean forward). If they are ok with being picked up, you can just set them on your lap. If they don't like being picked up, lure them onto your lap with the treat. The moment they are on your lap, use the reward phrase and provide the treat. **Step 3 - Make the lap a rewarding place to stay:** if they stay longer than 3-5 seconds, give them another treat. Steadily move this up to 5-15 seconds. **Step 4 - Extend the amount of time on your lap it takes to receive a reward:** This is where the interval timer comes in. I started at 30 seconds, but I could see someone needing to start at 10-15 seconds for a cat that doesn't like human attention as much. Every time the interval beeper goes off, provide a treat. **Step 5 - Keep extending the time:** I increased by about 15 seconds each session, but again, my cat was very motivated by human attention. You may need to reduce the time increases to 5-10 seconds. You may find that you can only extend this period to 5-10 minutes without a treat, but my cat likes human attention a lot so she was very happy to learn my preferred cuddle method because it meant she could get more cuddles. **Step 6 - Switch from treats to a preferred petting style (if possible):** My cat really likes a single finger stroking her cheeks, but others might like behind the ear or top of the head scritchies, under the chin, or even along the back (although along the back is often overstimulating and a trigger for nibbles/noms). Start alternating the treats with the preferred petting style, then you can (possibly) eliminate the treats altogether if they're a very human-social cat. Hope this is fun and enjoyable for you all!

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Life Pro Tips over_clox 10 months ago 99%
LPT: A really cheap and effective way of getting rid of roaches, without even using poison...

Get a medium to large metal coffee can, or any old metal can I guess. Make sure it's cleaned out and dry to start with, and is *not* rusty. Then get some spray cooking oil and a few scraps of bread. Spray the inside of the can with cooking oil, then drop some bread scraps in there. Now you have a roach trap, set it near where the roaches are generally at their worst, and they'll crawl out of the walls and into the can to get their munch on, but won't be able to crawl back out. Check it every couple or few days or so, eventually the roaches will start piling up and most of them that have been in there for a bit will end up dying because they're covered in the cooking oil and apparently can't absorb oxygen. Take the trap as necessary and either dump it in the toilet and flush them away, or if you have access to a bonfire burn pile, bag the little demons up and burn them. Then clean the can out and reset the trap as necessary. Even with the worst infestations I've ever seen, this tends to eliminate over 99% of them within about two weeks, if not less. A few thoughts about the different approaches between my trap vs poison... If you poison them, then they just go back into your walls and die, further stinking the place up, is more dangerous to people and pets, and honestly isn't even nearly as effective as people would hope. But roaches are simple and stupid. They're really easy to trap, and why the hell would I want them going back into the walls in the first place? Especially when I can just flush them instead?

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lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips Kornblumenratte 1 year ago 85%
LPT: Use xylose to kill off your teeth eating bacteria (caries)

A lot of bacteria, including those which cause tooth decay, will die if they absorb xylose, which they will happily do due to xylose's resemblance of glucose, their favourite food. Xylose is non toxic to humans and used as a calory-reduced sweetener (we're only able to get ~half of the calories off it compared to glucose). So, snacking on half a teaspoon of sweet xylose after brushing your teeth might feel strange at first (like snacking on pure sugar), but you'll enjoy clean teeth far longer! Until your next encouter with "real" sugar.

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lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips agertudici 1 year ago 91%
How to quickly get fleas or other bugs out of items you can't wash in hot water: leave them in the back seat of your car in 90° weather for the day. Fleas don't like that much more than dogs or babies

Anyway my patient had bedbugs how'd y'all's weekend go? (Works best for fleas since they're usually a summer pest, when that 90° weather is avaliable, but works for other things if the opportunity arises.

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lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips Nusm 1 year ago 50%
Tide To Go Pens

Tide To Go pens are AMAZING at getting out stains from your clothes. I work on the road all day, and I frequently get dirt or food stains on my clothes. I keep a Tide To Go pen in my vehicle, and I grab it and rub some on the stain, and almost every time the stain is gone five minutes later when it dries. I scratched my arm loading up this morning and didn’t notice that I got blood on my shirt. The Tide To Go pen even took the blood completely out!

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lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips 001100010010 1 year ago 90%
LPT: Before you open a package, start a video recording on your phone (or some type of device with a video recording feature) and film yourself opening it.

Why? Because if the item turns out to be damaged or missing, you'll have an easier time when attempting to dispute charges with seller or financial institution. Not just for packages, but any thing you buy at a store, you should just film yourself when opening them so you have evidence in case anything goes wrong. Also secondary LPT related to this topic: In some countries (in the USA at least), using a credit card has better consumer protections than a debit card. Just make sure to pay off the balance at the end of the month so you don't incur interest.

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lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips Corkyskog 1 year ago 70%
Do not drink flavored beers from microbreweries unless they sell it all year long.

I used to be in the small beer business and I can tell you that 95% of the time a microbrewery randomly has a raspberry or strawberry or blueberry ot whatever offering its almost without fail a beer that has gone "off" when fermenting. A beer being "off" won't make you sick or anything, but it does impart a harsh flavor, many times it will be bacto infection that hints towards vinegar. Smaller breweries don't want to toss whole cycles (shortsighted, I know), so instead they dump massive amounts of fruit flavorings to cover it up. Or turn it into a "shandy" I implore you all to stop purchasing any seasonal shandys or fruit beers that they don't regularly advertise. The whole thing is a bruise on the industry. Edit: Some people are interpreting this to say that fruit beers are bad, or are all repurposed. The point is just buyer beware, it's an incredibly common way to save batches that don't taste right. And yeah... most small brewers despise brett and adjacent bacterias, with a passion... it's just stupid invasive in any system that isn't all metal and glass, and even then still can somehow find it's way.

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lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips praxician 1 year ago 100%
LPT: learn to separate the act of tidying vs cleaning.

This is something I honed during grad school. It helped me when I lived with a roommate, myself, and now with a young family (although kids will actively reverse this process so its a challenge). -Tidying is an all day long, active process that you should master breaking down to the minutiae. For example, start with identifying an object in one room that belongs in another room. When you go to that room, take the object with you and put it away. I've now come to a point that as I put a stack of clean plates away, on my way back I'll grab dirty dishes from the table. This way Im unloading the dishwasher and tidying the table at the same time. Try not to make tidying a chore, but rather something you do along the way. If you have a lot of objects that don't belong in your room, I find a crate or something to isolate them into is a good start. Multiple crates or bags for different rooms is even better. -cleaning is a chore. Washing dishes, cleaning the toilet, etc. Tidying is to assist in this process by eliminating an extra objects and to help setup (ex: I like to bring my cleaning products to the bathroom when I go and just set them aside)

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Life Pro Tips speaker_hat 1 year ago 72%
LPT: Physically hide your password by writing it on a paper which already have a messy text

Then your password text won't look like a password, but as a meaningless text inside the mess. It can be on any handwritten paper, such as outdated invoice, old unused reminders or notes, etc.

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lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips AnotherLlama 1 year ago 100%
LPT: Clean out your earphones!

For the last few months my airpods have been a very quiet. I thought it was because they were getting old and the batteries were dying. After a quick scrub with some cotton buds dipped in isopropyl alcohol they sound like new again! Really let the cleaning alcohol soak in there and dissolve all of that nasty earwax, and don't forget to let them dry before using them. Do it now if you can, it only takes a minute :)

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lifeprotips
Life Pro Tips DevCat 1 year ago 100%
Student Loans and Debt Validation Letters

If you will be stuck with having to pay back student loan debt, you may have an out. Many times, these loans have been purchased, re-purchased, and generally passed around through various debt servicers. Someone along the way may have dropped the ball, i.e. the chain of ownership of the debt. Regardless, sending a debt validation letter will provide you more information about whom the original owner was, the amount claimed that you owe, who currently owns the debt, etc. Here is a site that walks you through creating a debt validation letter for a fee: https://www.solosuit.com/posts/make-debt-validation-letter-guide They even provide a template if you don't want to pay: https://dgkb7ybxr0cqd.cloudfront.net/Debt-Validation-Letter-template.pdf What to do if the debt collector cannot validate your debt but is still demanding you pay: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/debt-collection-faqs#report

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Life Pro Tips breadbin 1 year ago 100%
LPT: the best way to obscure handwriting is to write over it

If you really don't want someone to read what you've written in any way you can't use tipex (whiteout) since the inpression of the pen or pencil might be visible through the paper. Scribbling over with straight lines might still let someone pick out letters. The best way is, with the same writing device preferably, to write random words/letters over your text until it's sufficient obfuscated. It becomes almost impossible to discern what was originally written.

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Life Pro Tips tkchumly 1 year ago 95%
LPT: If someone makes an inappropriate joke you don't like then play dumb. This will wreck the joke and might even get them to stop.

If someone you know constantly makes reproductive anatomy or other borderline jokes and you think they should stop just play dumb. After the joke just say (with a straight face) that you don't get it. When they have to explain it it the joke satisfaction is gone and then more technical words need to be used to explain it making red flags pop up for them and anyone listening. They might get in trouble and you won't need to confront the behavior directly. Works especially well in the military (even better if it's a superior).

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Life Pro Tips speaker_hat 1 year ago 75%
LPT: Prefer your needs over your wants

It might be hard distinct between the things you **need** to the things you **want**. If you do see the distinction, prefer the things you need, even though they are not going along with the things you want, and even though you are used to prefer the things you want. The things you need might be unique to yourself, than the things you want which might be unique to your surroundings.

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Life Pro Tips Unknownparadoxx 1 year ago 58%
How To Get Most Services For Free

This is a quite simple tutorial on how to get services for free. I won't waste your time, and get straight too it... 1) Go to one of the following: [ApkMody](https://apkmody.io/) [PlatinMods](https://platinmods.com/) [Sbenny](https://forum.sbenny.com/) 2) Look up the service you want for free, for example, if you wanted spotify, then look up Spotify 3) Download the modded app 4) Install & enjoy your free service All three of these sites are well known in the modding community to provide good content. You don't have to worry about viruses, or malware. And if you are that worried, then you can scan them with something like [Exodus](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.eu.exodus_privacy.exodusprivacy/). Modders will typically not only mod the service to get it for free, but also remove trackers, loggers, etc. from the apps. ApkMody has some adjunk, so make sure to have an adblocker. PlatinMods & Sbenny are private forums for HQ mods, roms, etc. They don't have any ads, but will require you to sign up, and participate a little bit to get your content. It's more of a give & take system, rather than just take. Hope you all enjoy!

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Life Pro Tips sylverstream 1 year ago 100%
LPT: Get a bidet! Your bottom will thank you.

The biggest life improvement for me was to get a bidet after reading about it on Reddit. It's been a game changer. It's so easy to clean up. When I now have to go to a toilet without one I feel like a caveman. I bought the cheapest one Aliexpress, no bells or whistles, and installed it myself.

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Life Pro Tips andyli 1 year ago 100%
[heatwave survival] Use a fan controller program to tune up the laptop fan

Less problems of sweaty hands and grilling laps. Pretty useful for me using Intel MacBook Pro during heatwave.

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Life Pro Tips Serinus 1 year ago 91%
You have to choose to be price sensitive

The prices of the items you buy are not based on how much they cost to produce. The price is based on what people are willing to pay. And the corporations know that most people aren't paying that much attention. If you put things into your grocery cart without considering what the price was two weeks ago or two months ago, they'll just keep jacking up the price. Have you noticed that the [price of coca-cola has doubled](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0200FN1102) in the past 5 years? Do you look for alternatives, or do you just keep putting it in your cart? Is there a point at which you'll stop buying a particular thing, or does it have to be truly egregious?

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Life Pro Tips em2 1 year ago 80%
Great fruit guide http://www.dvo.com/newsletter/monthly/2000/july/freshfruit.html

Have any info on fruits not listed? Have a veggie picking guide? Please share!

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Life Pro Tips MadScientist 2 years ago 90%
Never go cycling on an empty stomach

I got a bike recently, and before that I used to walk everywhere. I had classes pretty early in the morning a lot of the time, so i'd skip breakfast pretty often and it was never much of a problem. So today I did the same but rode my bike instead, and it was fine on the ride, but *as soon as i got off* my heart shot right up my throat and i felt like throwing up. Took like 5 mins of sitting down to feel fine again. Don't skip breakfast, kids

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