It seems like every time I open a social media app, there is someone there offering up some new “life hack” that promises to exponentially improve the quality of my life. It’s always something like “Five methods for opening a wine bottle without a corkscrew” or “Place a folded piece of toilet paper under the lid in your hotel bathroom to check if housecleaning cleaned it.” Helpful, I guess, but not really doing much to improve my life quality.
Never ones to pass on the latest trends – though definitely ones to be very behind on the latest trends – we at CMEpalooza have compiled some of our own personal life hacks (or are they life tips? Who can say? Let’s just all agree to call them life hacks for the purposes of this blog post.) that we have implemented in our own lives. We think you might find them useful, too. And by “we,” I mean “me”. These are Derek’s life hacks. I didn’t want that to be the title of the blog post, so I faked all that “we” business. Sorry about that. (Note from Scott: My list of life hacks will follow at some point. I won’t tell you when. It’s called building suspense)
Park farther away. My life got much more serene when I stopped circling parking lots hunting for a better parking spot. There’s no more circling. Now, when I enter a parking lot, I drive past the rows of tightly packed cars and find a spot in the back, away from everyone else. It takes me, what, an extra 30 seconds to walk from the back instead of the front? I’ve probably saved that same amount of time, if not more, by parking immediately instead of hunting for something better.
Scott’s rating (on a scale of 1-10): 5. I’m a city guy so I circle just to find a parking spot anywhere in my neighborhood. This smacks of suburban angst, even though technically (as Derek always reminds me), he does live in the city of Philadelphia. But not really.
Get up earlier. Give yourself time. I am not a morning person. Not really. I was never an extreme sleeper, but I enjoyed sleeping in until 10 am on weekends. During the week, I would sleep as late as I could and then scramble around getting ready for work. Mornings were a rush. Then my daughter transferred schools and had to be up early to catch the train. I started waking up at 6 am to be with her in the morning before she left and have never stopped since. It was so much nicer to have two hours of downtime before starting work. My mornings were and are much calmer, much lower stress. It’s a nice way to start the day.
Scott’s rating: 1. Waking up at 6 am every morning, on purpose, sounds awful. You are on your own, kid. Good luck.
Use the fancy glasses. You have the cheap IKEA glassware for everyday use. You have the nice Riedel glassware that you paid too much for during that one European trip years ago that you only use for special occasions. Go ahead and use those fancy glasses on a random weekday night at the end of a long day. The water will feel colder. The wine will taste better. It’s OK. You deserve it.
Scott’s rating: 8. Or 8 points higher than the number of times we have used my grandmother’s good china that we inherited years ago.
Give yourself a surprise day off. Uhhhh…I’m not sure if my employers read this so I don’t want to go into too much detail…but there are few better feelings than waking up on a Tuesday morning and thinking “I’m going to take the day off today!” Whether it’s a vacation day or a sick day or a mental health day or a personal day or whatever it needs to be, just do it. It is glorious.
Scott’s rating: Incomplete. I am my own employer so I don’t need anyone’s permission to take a day off. But this sounds fine to me.
Make good coffee. I won’t bore you with my standard coffee rant (throw out your Keurig, grind your own beans, etc., etc.). People like what they like. Personally, my day is a little bit better when it starts out with a good cup of coffee. This has been a bit harder for me to do the past couple of years as I have had to travel more than usual and have had far too many days begin with a terrible cup of hotel room Joe. After a work trip to Vegas that had me waking up at 4 am in a hotel room with no coffee supplies and no coffee shop that opened before 6 am, I declared “Never again!” I now travel with my own coffee making supplies (collapsible pour-over filter, collapsible teapot, jar of coffee beans, mini-grinder) and happily make my own coffee wherever I am.
Scott’s rating: 2. Look, I like a good cup of coffee as much as the next guy (OK, maybe not if that “next guy” is Derek), and I agree that hotel coffee is generally putrid and borderline undrinkable. But a travel kit of coffee supplies? That seems a bit extreme.
One phone is enough. You don’t need two phones. You don’t need a work phone and a personal phone. You don’t. One phone is all you need. One phone number is all you need. You can add your one phone number to your work email signature. It’s fine. It will be OK. Your life will be better with just one phone. Trust me on this one.
Scott’s rating: 8. Seems reasonable enough. I feel like this used to more of a thing back in the early days of cell phones but perhaps it has lingered more than I am aware.
Go see some live music. I go to a fair number of concerts, and I have never once gone to hear live music and regretted it. Not once. Even that Melvins concert I attended 10 years ago where the opening act sat at a keyboard with his head down, slowly playing screeching electronic noises at a deafening volume. I did step out to the lounge during that one but returned for the main act and had a great time. All that I’m saying is, if the choice is between “go” and “don’t go,” you should always choose “go.” You won’t regret it.
Scott’s rating: 4. Leave it to Derek to give you another obscure musical reference. Who the heck are the Melvins? I used to go to a lot of concerts in my younger years and I generally (but not always) enjoyed them. I don’t see many concerts anymore and I rarely find myself regretting it. My interests have simply evolved in other directions.
Don’t stay in the hotel. Overcoming personal inertia is hard, especially when traveling for work. It is so easy to just stay in the hotel at night, watching bad TV and ordering room service. But there is a whole world out there to explore! I’ve tried to make it my standard practice to never eat dinner in the hotel in which I’m staying and, if at all possible, eat somewhere I can walk to rather than take an Uber (thanks for nothing, Orlando.) At the very least, it gets me out of the hotel and gives me a little taste of a new region. I go home feeling like I know a bit more about the city I visited.
Scott’s rating: 10. Finally, something I can wholeheartedly agree about. Get out and eat a good meal. Walk to that independent coffee shop for your morning cup of Joe (assuming you don’t have a travel coffee kit like a certain someone). Sit at the bar and chat with other patrons if that’s your thing. Assuming this is a business trip, you are on the company dime, so enjoy!
Stay in the hotel. OK, yes, I’m cheating here. I’m a big advocate for getting out and exploring your surroundings, but sometimes it can be pretty great to just stay in the hotel, watch bad TV, and order room service. It’s a great way to decompress. I was in New Orleans a few weeks ago during the middle of a massive thunderstorm. New Orleans is a great foodie town, and I love visiting the little jazz clubs you can find anywhere in the city, but the storm raging outside left me stuck in my room. I ordered nachos, binged Reacher, and had a fantastic time. So, while I will almost always advocate that you don’t stay in the hotel, I also understand the appeal of staying in the hotel. To each their own.
Scott’s rating: 1. Nope. Never. Suck it up buttercup. A little rain ain’t gonna hurt you.
Organize your email. I realize this will be a controversial one. At one point in my work career, I don’t remember exactly when, I became a “mostly” zero-inbox guy, and it is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It puts me in a position to feel in control of what’s going on around me. There’s no sense of panic when I’m on a call and someone says, “I emailed that to you, didn’t you see it?” If they did email me, then I saw. If I didn’t see it, it’s because they didn’t email me, not because it got lost in the shuffle. My system is pretty simple. When an email comes in, there are four options:
- Respond immediately and file it in a subfolder
- Leave it in my inbox to respond to later and then file it in a subfolder
- If no response is needed, file it in a subfolder immediately
- If it is junk or unnecessary, delete it immediately
My inbox becomes my to do list, and I know where to find emails if needed later. That’s it. No unread emails. I don’t know how you people with thousands of unread emails sitting in your inbox do it (you know who you are). I would throw my laptop out the window.
Scott’s rating: 10+. I get annoyed when I have even 10 emails in my inbox. My system is more or less identical to Derek’s, which is not surprising but also a bit disturbing. We often find these unusual similarities, which is perhaps why we get along and have been doing this Palooza thing for more than a decade.
That’s it for my life hacks. Remember, if you have an issue (professional or personal) you want our help with, you can always use the Ask Us Anything form. Just click here to submit your question(s).
