TED Weekends hacks our senses

Culture Neil Harbisson explains why he can hear color at TEDGlobal 2012. Photo: James Duncan Davidson

Does listening to music generate colors in your mind? Do bright, lively songs sound yellow or orange while darker, more somber ones sound dark blue and grey? Well, for artist Neil Harbisson, Neil Harbisson: I listen to colorthis happens the other way around. Colorblind since birth, Harbisson has sported an electronic eye since 2004 that fits over the top of his head and allows him to hear the color spectrum instead of see it.

“My head has turned into a music box,” he writes in an essay for TED Weekends on the Huffington Post. “I can hear the sky, I can listen to my mother’s eyes and I can hear rainbows.”

Harbisson is in a way a cyborg — he has created and extended his own senses. And yet, Harbisson says that his antenna has made him feel more in touch with nature than with robots.

Today’s edition of TED Weekends explores the idea of “Hacking Our Senses.” It includes a piece from Harbisson himself, plus three other interesting essays that explore new and colourful ways to understand the world around us. Below, read the openings of these essays to pique your interest.

Neil Harbisson: How a Colorblind Cyborg ‘Hears’ Color

“Since 2004, an antenna sticks out of my head that allows me to hear the color spectrum, from near infrared to near ultraviolet. My head has turned into a music box. I can hear the sky, I can listen to my mother’s eyes and I can hear rainbows.

I don’t feel that I’m using technology, I don’t feel that I’m wearing technology, I feel that I am technology. I don’t perceive my antenna as a device, I perceive it as a part of my body, I perceive it as an organ. I feel cyborg.”  Read on »

Chantal Sicile-Kira: It’s Not Easy Being Green: Living With Autism and Synthesia

“The recent discovery that my son Jeremy sees and feels emotions as colors has been a life changer. Until now, I only saw the difficulties associated with his living in a world that is too loud and too bright. I did not know about the beautiful, colorful portraits of people that he paints in his dreams.

In “I Listen to Color” Neil Harbisson describes how he translates sound into colorful portraits. In much the same way, Jeremy translates the emotions of people into portraits — only he does it in his sleep.” Read the full essay »

Ben Thomas: A Seemingly Insane Idea That Actually Struck Gold

“In April 2000, a bizarre research paper appeared in the pages of Nature, one of Britain’s oldest and most venerable scientific journals. In the paper, Mriganka Sur and his colleagues claimed they’d achieved success in a Frankensteinian experiment: They’d surgically re-wired the visual nerves of young ferrets into regions of the animals’ brains that usually process sound. As the ferrets matured, the paper said, their brains’ audio regions gradually took on the appearance and function of brain areas that deal with vision — even growing brand-new neural structures to process visual orientation. In other words, these ferrets’ brains had apparently learned not only to ‘hear’ light, but to generate visual perceptions of the sights their eyes ‘heard.’” Keep reading »

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30 Cool DIY Kitchen Hacks

From organization ideas to simple storage tricks, this Buzzfeed article featuring 30 awesome DIY kitchen hacks is incredibly useful, even if it only serves for inspiration for your own new ideas.

Perhaps one of the most clever of the DIY kitchen hacks when it comes to organization ideas is the use of vertically installed tension rods so you can store your cutting boards, platters and other large, flat items sideways in your cupboard -making them easily accessible and still out of the way. Alternatively, try using a desk organizer on your counter for the same purpose.

Another great DIY kitchen hack? Use a liquor spout and an old soda bottle to store dish soap so you can buy it in bulk or make your own and still have an easy-to-use dispenser that even looks better than the generic dish soap bottles.

Original source – Buzzfeed

Simply take the hooks: Get Easy Kitchen Access to Foil and Saran Wrap

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10 Hacks That Can Change Your Day Immediately

As human beings, we have an amazing ability to overestimate what we can do in the next year and totally underestimate what we can do in the next 15 minutes. In these early days of 2013, it’s more important than ever to emphasize just how much of a difference the next 15 minutes can make in your day.

So, for now, forget the long-term and instead of focus only on what is right in front of you. The next year is not guaranteed: this moment right now is all you have.

Make a list of five immediate actions that need to be done in order for progress to be made on the big project(s) on which you are currently working. They don’t have to be big: target what you know to be absolute “musts” and take massive action on them without hesitation or fear.De-clutter your workspace. Be ruthless with your organization, and toss out what does not belong or what no longer has a practical use. Embrace a zen-like workspace.Answer that e-mail you need to get to. You know which one I’m talking about: that e-mail that you know is crying out for a response. Maybe it’s work-related, maybe it’s personal; it doesn’t matter. Respond immediately and clear it from your mind—your focus is needed elsewhere. Oh, and before you hit send, be sure to make sure that the e-mail doesn’t suck.Write a letter or e-mail of gratitude to your parents. At first, this might sound a little strange, particularly if you don’t have the best relationship with your parents, but write a letter or e-mail simply thanking your parents for having you. Even if you’ve lost them, even if you don’t know them, even if they weren’t great parents, you can still write this letter. None of us would be here if our parents had not given birth to us, and that’s a unique bond that should not be ignored. Here’s the best part: you don’t even have to send it if you don’t want to, and the process will be an empowering, healing experience for you.Schedule a meeting that will move you forward. I’m not talking about having a meeting for the sake of having a meeting (ugh…those are truly awful). I’m talking about getting together with someone who has information that will be beneficial to you. This doesn’t have to be formal; in fact, it doesn’t even have to be related to your professional life at all. It can be dinner with a friend from whom you want marriage advice, for example. Just get that person on the phone, and then get that meeting on the calendar.Answer two very important questions that will keep you productive all day long: What’s important now? What’s next?Do absolutely nothing for 15 minutes straight. Yes, choosing to do nothing is, in fact, doing something. Spend 15 minutes in silence, with no agenda, giving your mind and spirit and chance to refresh and regroup. I promise that when the 15 minutes are up you will be able to return to whatever you’re working on with a new perspective.Celebrate the fact that you are still breathing at this very moment. A huge thing you have going for you is in the “plus” column right now. Turn on some music and dance, get out of your chair! Be grateful that you’ve made it this far.Change your setting. Get out of the office and go for a walk outside to breathe in the air. If it’s raining, go outside anyway! Admire the life-giving miracle taking place before your eyes.Simply start whatever big project you’ve been putting off or thinking about, no matter how big it seems. In high school, I had a teacher who told me that when you start something you are already half-finished. That has worked for me to this day, and it can work for you, too. Get started right now!

SEE ALSO: How Saving $5 A Day Can Change Your Life

Featured photo credit: Dad and child on the beach at at sunset via Shutterstock Robert D. Smith is the author of "20,000 Days and Counting," a crash course in living every single day with maximum intensity and purpose. For over 30 years, he has managed the career of New York Times best-selling author Andy Andrews. He blogs about entrepreneurship, personal growth, and more at TheRobertD.com.

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5 Small Hacks to Improve Your Health in 2013 and Beyond

Getting fit, eating right and living a healthy lifestyle are always some of the top resolutions every New Year. We all know in our guts that we should be living healthier happier lives and every year many of us find ourselves with the same predicament: we start off strong and then by February we’ve given up. Four weeks go by and we’ve come up with every excuse in the book to avoid getting off our bums and eating right—life gets in the way, work is taking too much of our time, we have to take care of our families, our friends think we’re nuts, etc. etc.

One solution that I have found incredibly helpful is to make small changes that really add up over time. We can allow incredible shifts to occur if we commit to taking small simple actions toward a bigger goal.

Below you’ll find easy and simple ways to improve your health through 2013 and beyond.

Beginning a meditation practice is one of the easiest ways to reduce stress and help with a multitude of emotional, mental and physical road blocks. The best part? It’s completely free! All you need is a few minutes and your breath. If you’re not sure where to start ,check out some Meditation Motivation tools to help you begin, and to keep your own meditation practice going through 2013.

Making green juices or smoothies for breakfast is probably the easiest way to ensure that you’re getting enough greens in your diet. The advantages of greens are endless, including changing the body from acidic to alkaline, helping with bowel issues, clearing up skin, and refreshing cells in the body.

For recipes, information on juicers, and more, check out Kris Carr, Healthy Cooking Camp, or any of Victoria Boutenko’s books.

Not having time to work out is one of the biggest excuses people use to not get off their bums. Here’s some news for you: if you’ve got 10 minutes free, you have enough time to work out. The best part? There’s no fancy expensive gym membership required! YouTube makes it extraordinarily easy to make sure you get in a good workout, even if you only have a few minutes. Simply do a search for your favorite fitness guru, or try one of several YouTube fitness celebrities. With time you’ll be able to make your own No Excuses Workout playlist.

If you’re not sure which workouts to aim for check out this fitness hack guide.

I’m a big believer in the advantages of making forgiveness a daily practice. If we hold on to stuff that makes us angry, we only fuel negative thoughts, which in turn leads to emotional and even physical problems. Sometimes, forgiveness is easier said than done. Fortunately there are plenty of people out there who have tried to make it practical for daily life—my favorite being author and speaker Gabrielle Bernstein.

Instead of driving everywhere, try walking, biking, or taking public transit. This is one of my favorite fitness hacks because it forces you to get off your behind and move. If you live two blocks from the pharmacy or the grocery store, try walking there. If you can make it happen, take the bus, subway or train to work, and if you can walk or bike to the gym, even better!

Health isn’t just about the physical body—it involves your mind and soul as well. By taking small actions to keep your overall health, in check you’ll soon find yourself taking on bigger initiatives to make your healthy lifestyle really stick.

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2013 and beyond!

Featured photo credit:  beauty girl drink water via Shutterstock

Amanda Abella is a Gen Y blogger, freelance writer and life coach that has been featured in online publications such as Forbes and The Consumerist. Her blog, GradMeetsWorld.org, was also named one of the 100 Blogs You Need in Your Life by Leaving Work Behind. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaabella

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Simple Hacks To Help You Master Chin Ups & Build A Better Body

Chin ups are an exercise that we should all master. Few exercises offer as much muscle and strength building bang for the buck. Doing them properly will help you build and strengthen nearly every muscle in your upper body. They especially target your back, biceps, and shoulders. When done properly, they’ll even help you build strong, flat abs.

The only problem with chin ups is that they’re very tough to perform at first. Most men and women cannot do 1 rep properly when they first try this exercise. This, in turn leads to most people ignoring them and instead performing easier exercises like lat pull downs and barbell rows.

Don’t be one of these people. With the proper strategy and some hard work anyone can do chin ups. This article shows you how. Follow the tips in this article and you will soon be doing them with world class form.

Use Resistance Bands
The thing that makes chin ups so tough is that you need to be able to lift all of your body weight off the ground from a hanging position. One way to take off some of the load and make them easier is to use a resistance band.

Resistance bands will do some of the work for you, decreasing the amount of weight you have to lift off the ground. Using them is simple too. All you need to do is tie a band to your chin up bar so that there’s a loop at the bottom. Place one of your feet in this loop and you’re set. You’ll now get the assistance you need to perform a proper chin up.

Start with the heaviest resistance band required to perform 5 chin ups with proper form. Once you can do 3 sets of 10 reps it’s time to use a lighter band. Continue with this progression until a resistance band is no longer required.

Negatives
If you don’t have access to resistance bands you can still become strong enough to do a chin up. You just have to learn to accentuate the negative.

This doesn’t mean you should become angry and say bad things about this exercise. What it means is that you need to emphasizing the negative (lowering) phase of the chin up. Doing just this part of the exercise will help you become stronger and eventually make it possible to perform a complete chin up.

Perform this exercise by standing on a chair or bench, grabbing onto the pull up bar and raising yourself to the top position of the pull up exercise. Your chest should be even with the bar. Then, lower yourself from the top position of the pull up to the bottom for 5 seconds. Increase the amount of time you take to lower yourself by 2 seconds every workout. Do this until it takes 15 seconds to perform 1 rep. Your goal is to be able to perform 10 pull ups this way.

Once you can perform 15 second negative pull ups for 10 reps you should be able to perform at least 2-3 sets of 3-5 pull ups. Make it your goal to add at least 1 more pull up to your workout every week. Once you can do 3 sets of 10 pull ups, you can begin to add weight or perform more difficult variations.

Strengthening your weak points will help you master chin ups faster. The key is to perform the right exercises.

You need to focus on strengthening muscles that help you pull your body up and over the chin up bar. This means building stronger biceps, back, and shoulder muscles. The exercises that helped me become strong enough to master the chin up included farmer’s walks, kettlebell swings, and inverted rows.

The best way to become strong enough to perform chin ups is to do them often. I recommend doing them 3 times a week with a days rest between each workout. They should be the first exercise in your workout. This will ensure that your body is rested and able to put 100% into every rep.

Below is a sample workout to help you get started. Take a day off to rest and recover between each session. Perform each exercise for 3 sets of 5-8 reps. Increase the weight when you can do 3 sets of 8 repetitions with good technique.

Workout A
Resistance Band Chin Ups
Push Ups
Kettlebell Swings
Inverted Rows
Lunges

Workout B
Negative Chin Ups
Standing Shoulder Press
Stiff Leg Deadlift
Bent Over Row
Farmers Walks

Now you have a complete blueprint for mastering the almighty chin up. Apply the information in this article and before you know it, you too will be cranking out chin ups and be the envy of your gym.

(Photo credit: young bodybuilder training in gym via Shutterstock)

There are 3 big differences between being a jogger and being a runner. Knowing what they are will help you determine which one you are.

Here is a list of a few online tools that save me precious time every day. Using them, you can spend less time doing brain-numbing tasks and reapply that time to more valuable activities, like brainstorming new ideas or ways to grow your business.

A month ago, I wrote about how you can take a relaxing vacation. But as the calendar shifts from August...

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11 BBQ Hacks for Your Best Ever Barbecue

Ah…the smell of burning wood and roasting meat, wonderful primal pleasures and the sign that summer is here.

Barbecue season is well underway, and there’s no time like the present to deliver some tips to make your barbecues the most successful in the neighborhood. Seven years ago I married my South African husband. I never realized that one of the many benefits of marrying him would be learning how to organize a barbecue like a pro.

Here are 11 BBQ hacks to help you make this year’s barbecues the best ever.

Now you may say that planning takes the fun out of what should be a spontaneous event, but if you don’t have the basics ready to go you will have put out the fire long before it was even lit.

1. Fuel

Make sure you have the fuel you are going to use ready in advance, this means you can be more spontaneous when the mood takes you. Wood is a great fuel for a BBQ as it adds a smokey flavor to your food as well as creating ambiance. Hardwood gives you better coals. If you can’t get your hands on good barbecue hardwood, charcoal can also make just as successful a fire. Whatever fuel you use, make sure you light a big enough fire. You can always light a second fire a little later and use the second fire to feed the first one.

2. Marinating

All meat tastes better when marinated. This is where the advance planning can come in handy. If you plan and marinate the night before the meat will be more tender and tastier, leaving less up to your cooking skills on the day.

Every expert needs their tools of the trade and if you want to be a master BBQ chef, you need to have your tools at the ready.

3. BBQ tongs

I recommend that you invest in two sets of BBQ tongs, one good pair with a good grip to turn the meat. The other pair you can use for moving hot coals into position.

4. Hinged Grids

All BBQs have a grid where you place the food but if you want to reduce the amount of work required to turn multiple pieces of meat at once, a good idea is to use a hinged grid. Not only does it save you time and avoid burning the meat, it is also very good for delicate foods such as fish.

5. Sharp Knife

Don’t forget the essential sharp knife as it may be necessary to trim excess fat from the meat.

6. Timing

The most important aspect of lighting a fire is to make sure you do it in plenty of time. It can take anything from 30 minutes to 1 hour before the fire is ready for cooking, this will depend on the type of coals you have used.

7. Ready for cooking

This is one of the trickier aspects of the BBQ for me, knowing when the coals are ready to start cooking. The lesson I’ve been told is to do the following: if you have a wood fire, when the coals are red hot (with no smoke) you are ready to go. If you have a charcoal fire the coals should be grey and ashy.

8. Controlling the Heat

The easiest way to change the amount of heat reaching your meat or fish is to raise or lower the grid. Most BBQs will have adjustable grid heights. You can also add or remove coals if you need more (or less) heat.

I once invited a friend to a barbecue but she was a little offended thinking I had forgotten she was a vegetarian. What she didn’t realize is that I have many vegetarians in my family — and a vegan too. Our house is accustomed to catering to many different diet requirements and preferences. Anything can be cooked on a BBQ.

9. Vegetable Parcels

My favorite is wrapping mushroom and zucchini in foil with garlic, salt and pepper — yum! Anything can be put inside foil and cooked on the fire. Corn on the cob and sweet potatoes also work really well.

10. Vegetable Pots

Another way to cook vegetables is to put them in a cast iron pot directly on the fire. The vegetables can be cooking away while you dedicate all your time to the meat and entertaining your guests.

11. Sandwiches

Sandwiches on the fire? Yes! South Africans call them “Braai Broodjies” — cheese, tomato and onion — the standard edition. These can be put on the BBQ when all the food is cooked; they need to be cooked on low coals and cooked very slowly so that the cheese melts well inside. They can be eaten later on in the evening if the BBQ goes late or kept for lunch or a picnic the next day. Either way, the smokey taste on the bread is delicious.

Barbecues can be a really enjoyable way to eat — eating in the open air always seems to make the food taste better. If you live in a cold country like me, light another fire to stay warm. This will make the barbecue more enjoyable and prolong its duration before you have to run for the warmth of the indoors.

And one BBQ hack for those of you attending a barbecue and the host happens to be a South African: do not interfere with the fire or the meat if you want to have a happy and relaxed host.

(Photo credit: Steak on the Grill via Shutterstock)

Ciara Conlon is author of “Chaos to Control, a practical guide to getting things done”. Ciara runs workshops and coaches clients in the area of personal productivity and workflow. You can subscribe to her blog here and receive 2 free chapters from the book and also a free copy of her eBook "Clear the Clutter – Find Your Life", which has tips to remove physical or mental clutter from your life.

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Employee Engagement: 4 Engagement Hacks for the Innovative Manager

(Editor’s Note: This is the second in a two-part series on employee engagement.)

Now let’s discuss some options for increasing the level of positive engagement in your work environment.

Most agree that employers and employees share responsibility for the factors that create an engaging work environment. In a recent survey conducted by Training magazine and The Ken Blanchard Companies, individual respondents saw it as their primary responsibility to improve the factors of:

Meaningful WorkAutonomyWorkload BalanceTask VarietyCollaborationConnectedness with LeaderConnectedness with Colleagues

They saw their managers as primarily responsible for improving the factors of Feedback, Procedural Justice (Fairness), and Performance Expectations, and they saw senior leadership and systems as responsible for Growth and Distributive Justice.

It is critical that employees understand where they have the power to control their own destiny, and when they need to speak up if a system is broken and needs to be changed.

Social networks help with engagement because they facilitate an employee’s ability to publish content and connect easily with co-workers and managers.  The latest in intranet technology is what I call a super-intranet, which is designed to be a welcoming source of information and support as well as a hub for real-time interaction.

A wonderful example of a well-executed super-intranet is NASA’s Spacebook.  Launched in 2009, Spacebook is a professional network that lets NASA people around the world interface with each other through the use of user profiles, forums, groups, and social tagging. Employees have their own pages where they can publish their own status, share files, follow others’ activity, and join communities of interest.  Spacebook aids the discovery of new ideas and approaches and encourages knowledge transfer as shifting demographics threaten NASA’s ranks.

Given the number of virtual employees in most modern organizations, paying special attention to their engagement is essential.  The most effective virtual teams have access to sophisticated collaboration tools so that project work is efficient and seamless, and they use instant messaging, videoconferencing and super-intranets like Spacebook to converse in real time.

The best virtual teams have also met in person more than once. Because they have had the opportunity to build in-person relationships, they are less likely to experience misunderstandings and breeches of trust.  Engaged virtual teams also know and communicate with their manager well.  Weekly check-ins and occasional visits support the virtual team member’s affiliation with and loyalty to the organization.

Employers are beginning to recognize that one progressive and linear path in which all employees move from Points A to B to C it out of sync with many individuals’ desire for a life cycle-focused career.  For example, many aging Baby Boomers are opting to dial-back and work part-time instead of fully retiring so that they can continue to contribute brainpower while setting aside time for health and family concerns.

Deloitte believes that long-term employee engagement and retention will result from a new method of career design it calls mass career customization.  Through a combination of climbs, lateral moves, and planned descents, individuals are able to pursue personal and professional goals while remaining tied to the organization.  Although career customization sounds like it would be difficult to implement, it really starts one manager to employee conversation at a time.

What are your engagement hacks?  What do you do as an individual and as a manager to keep your team energized and committed?

(Photo credit: Businesswoman Drawing Out Innovation via Shutterstock)

Alexandra Levit is a career and workplace expert at the Intuit Quickbase Blog, a daily source for advice on how to be exceptional at your job. You can follow her on Twitter at @alevit.

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Communication Hacks: 5 Ways to Hone Your Global Skills

Most people who work in the business world today regularly interface with colleagues and clients all over the globe. In an economy without borders, enabled by instantaneous technology, they must actively collaborate with people in unfamiliar nations, speaking unfamiliar languages. The key question is – do up-and-coming twenty-first century leaders have the diplomatic skills and cultural savvy to be successful in this new climate? The answer in many cases is no.

In a recent study conducted by the Career Advisory Board established by DeVry University, hiring managers noted that global outlook was a skill that was considered most important but also most rare among current job candidates. However, improving global outlook and competence is not as simple as reading a book. Here are a few ways to hone yours.

Get to know another culture intimately by observing variations in daily living and values. In communing with people who are different from you, you will acquire an additional perspective that’s extremely valuable and can be used in your future career. Although even short travel is beneficial, it’s better if you have the financial ability to stay a few months or a year.

A great site to look for and learn about the logistics of overseas job opportunities is Goinglobal.com. If you are currently employed with a large organization, inquire internally about the chance to do a stretch assignment offshore.

More so than in other countries, American citizens lack an understanding of what’s occurring in the outside world. Become better informed and more culturally sensitive by subscribing to an international business publication such as The Economist, and by talking through global issues with your family members and friends.

Although English is still the international language of business, that could change at any time, so it’s a wise investment to become proficient in an up-and-coming language like Chinese. Online or offline coursework is helpful, as is having a native speaker in your community with whom you can practice conversing.

Before going overseas, or even instead of going overseas if travel is not possible, find a local contact who has previously resided in or worked with a country that intrigues you. Arrange an information interview to discuss that country’s culture and way of conducting business. Build the relationship over time with in-person lunches or coffee dates. Hopefully your contact will provide essential insights about global work and that nation in particular.

This approach will allow you to increase your global awareness and competence without leaving U.S. soil because you will routinely interact with overseas contacts. Use directories such as the “Directory of Foreign Firms Operating in the United States” to create a target list of employers, and then leverage LinkedIn to identify openings and find individuals at those organizations with whom you can network.

As with any new skill, you have to start somewhere. Even if the effort seems small now, a continued focus on increasing your worldview will render you more marketable and employable in the future.

(Photo credit: Global Communication via Shutterstock)

Alexandra Levit is a career and workplace expert at the Intuit Quickbase Blog, a daily source for advice on how to be exceptional at your job. You can follow her on Twitter at @alevit.

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7 Morning Hacks to Jumpstart Your Day

Photo credit: Roberto Bouza (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m really not a morning person.

I’ve tried to get myself going in the early hours of the morning, but I’ve always been more of a night owl – my creative juices seem to flow better in the later hours. So I’d be the last person to suggest that you need to force yourself out of bed before your body and mind are really ready to do so.

But when you do get up, you may find that you’re pressed for time and have fallen behind the rest of the crowd in what you need to get done during the day. A slow start to your day won’t help anyone, let alone you.

Just because you’re not up as the sun rises doesn’t mean that you can’t put yourself in a position to make sure that the day ahead will be a productive one. You need to put some things into play so that you can make the most of your waking hours.

On that note, here are 10 “morning hacks” to jumpstart your day:

Rather than make your way to the kitchen for that cup of coffee, head to the bathroom and splash some cold water on your face. Once the alarm goes off, head out of bed and straight to the sink. The refreshing feeling you’ll get from the water hitting your face will act as a trigger that it’s time for your body to get moving. Think of it as having a pail of water thrown on you while you’re still in bed – but with a little less wetness and cleanup required.

This one may not sit well with the coffee connoisseurs out there, but the smell of fresh brewed coffee sends a signal to your brain that says, “It’s time to get up”. If you’ve got a coffeemaker with pre-programming features then you’re all set. Just set it to start each day at the time you know you’ll want to get up (remember that you don’t have to get up earlier, be reasonable with your demands on yourself), prepare it the night before, and you’ll be good to go when morning comes.

I keep my alarm clock across the room so that I have to actually get out of bed to turn it off. It’s also close enough to my bedroom door so that I can head straight to the bathroom to give myself my morning splash. I also use an alarm clock app on my iPhone that takes some effort to shut off (such as Mission Alarm Clock; there’s also Challenging Alarm Clock for Android users), meaning I actually have to be awake in order to stop it from going off.

Oh, and by using my iPhone I’ve got an alarm clock that is great for travel and I’m less likely to abuse the device – it is a pretty expensive alarm clock, after all.

I step outside with my coffee and sit on my deck whenever the weather permits. It connects me with the outside world right off the bat and puts me in a place where I’m not jumping online right away. I’m enjoying the day as it arrives (for me, anyway) and sipping a fine cup of joe while doing so. Fresh air is good at any time of day, and getting it early on is never a bad thing.

Despite being done at night — the night before — this is most certainly a morning hack. I give my task manager a good review before hitting the sack for the night. Because my late-night habits often put me at performance par with those who get up a couple of hours before I do, I’m rarely behind in my productivity. The key is to “time shift” so that you’re ahead of the early risers the night before. By planning your day in advance (and even doing some of the tasks the night before), you can go to bed at ease.

I do the things above as part of my wake-up routine, mixing it up from time to time but never straying from these things. For example, I like to make freshly-ground coffee, so I do that instead of pre-programming it for myself. But I prepare my wife’s coffee for her the night before and still get the benefits of the aroma in the morning. I don’t go outside every day – sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate – but I definitely look outside every day when I get up. I’ve positioned my sitting chair in my bedroom in such a way that I can enjoy my coffee while looking out the sliding glass doors every morning. A routine is beneficial, but don’t make it essential. You need to have some flexibility built in, otherwise when things you can’t control cause your routine to go off the rails you’ll be more inclined to start sluggishly.

It’s a commonly held belief by those who dwell in the productivity realm that email shouldn’t be the first thing you bury yourself in when you start your day. I agree, but if you’re having trouble jumpstarting your day you need to figure out if that’s why or if it’s something else that needs to be adjusted. Perhaps by setting yourself up the night before, you feel that email can be your first target. Go with that until it doesn’t work for you. Maybe, like me, the first thing you check is your RSS feeds so that you can have something to spark your day. It could be that you want to dive right into the heavy stuff while your energy is high. Take the time to really reflect on your workflow practices and patterns and honestly ask yourself what isn’t working and what is. Leave the stuff that is alone, monitor the stuff that sits somewhere in between until you see how it reacts to the changes that you must make to the stuff that isn’t working. Wholesale changes rarely lead to results; you often abandon the changes altogether when you try that. Tweaks, however, can lead to results because they’re not as painful to adopt. So rather than going ahead and “changing”, try “tweaking” instead.

What tips do you use to jumpstart your day? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

Mike Vardy is an independent writer, speaker, podcaster and "productivity pundit" who also dishes the goods at Vardy.me. You can follow him daily on Twitter, listen to him weekly on ProductiVardy, and read more from him eventually at Eventualism.

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Holiday Weekend Grilling Hacks

Memorial Day. July 4th. Labor Day. Heck, maybe even Thanksgiving if the weather is exceptionally balmy.

In America, holiday weekends mean just one thing: time to grill! After all, It’s just not a party unless there’s meat sizzling over charcoal.

But anyone can grill. It’s rarer to find someone who can grill like a master, who knows every tip, trick, and grilling hack in the book. If you want to dazzle your guests at your holiday BBQ, here are some pro tips you need to add to your repertoire.

1. Keep Food From Sticking to the Grill

Left Eye has a quick, easy, and flavorful hack that helps to prevent food from sticking to the grill, while also imparting additional flavor to the meats or fish you are preparing.

Left Eye’s advice specifically related to fresh salmon, but can be used for other foods as well: “Cut two pieces of a large onion and cook a small fillet between it. It will keep the fish from sticking to the grill without using a ton of oil. It helps keep the fish moist and tells you when to flip it — when the bottom onion is cooked through.”

2. Avoid Carcinogens

The website Healthcare Hacks warns fans of the holiday weekend BBQ that backyard grilling can be bad for your health.

When red meat is cooked over high temperatures, this “results in the formation of heterocyclic amines (HCA), which have been found to be carcinogenic in animal models, and may increase a person’s risk for numerous forms of cancer…When grilled meat is cooked to the point of char-broiling, it can lead to the formation of something even worse: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). PAHs are the same cancer-causing compounds found in tobacco smoke.”

So how do you avoid the formation of these carcinogenic compounds?

Well, there are two schools of thought, but they both come down to added flavors.

The team at Healthcare Hacks suggests that certain spices contain known antioxidants that reduce levels of HCA in cooked meats, sometimes by as much as 40% when they are added before cooking.

“The spices in question include cumin, coriander seed, galangal, fingerroot, rosemary, and turmeric,” they explained. “The last three had the highest level of HCA-inhibiting activity, with rosemary being the most effective.”

Left Eye suggests that you “marinade any protein (meat, chix, fish, etc.) for at least 15-minutes before throwing it on the grill. A quick dunk in simple sodium solution will reduce HCAs — cancerous byproducts of searing by almost 90%.”

A related article on Shine adds, “Marinating can reduce HCA formation by as much as 92 to 99 percent, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR). One study in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry showed that marinating red meat in beer or wine for two hours significantly reduced HCAs. “

3. Give Your Grill Plenty of Time to Preheat

You need to preheat your grill before cooking on it for best results; a hot grill will cook food faster and more evenly.

The amount of time that you should be preheating your grill depends entirely on what sort of fuel you prefer. If you’re rocking a gas grill, 15 minutes should suffice. However, if you are using charcoal briquets or hardwood chips, up that time to a full half hour for best results.

Oh, and make sure you keep that lid on tight while you’re preheating. Otherwise, all the heat will escape.

4. Don’t Squander The Residual Heat

The grill is gonna stay warm for quite a while after you turn it off, and it’s a shame to not take advantage of that residual heat. One great tactic is to keep burgers, dogs, buns, and other nibbles on the covered grill to keep them warm.

Another use for a hot grill is for making desserts. Try campfire favorites like S’mores (laid out over a foil-covered grill) or a banana boat: cut a banana (in the peel) lengthwise, stuff it with marshmallows and chocolate chips, and wrap the whole thing up in aluminum foil. Leave it on the grill, and 30 minutes or so later, you’ll have an ooey gooey treat that will get the kids out of your hair and take very little effort.

Do you have any grilling hacks or tips? Share them in the comments below!

Tucker is a writer and social media professional living in New England. When she's not staring into a tiny electric box, she engages in pointless acts of stupidity at BadBoozeReview.com and posts daily at MargeryJones.com

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Sleep Hacks: Tips for Getting Those Crucial 40 Winks

Sleep is a weird thing, an elusive state that is crucial to maintaining our health and sanity. And yet, it can be so easily interrupted. If you’re like most people, you have difficulty with sleep, whether it’s falling asleep, staying asleep, or getting enough quality sleep. So what sneaky hacks can you use to get better sleep?

Understanding Sleep

Your body is programmed to fall into a natural sleep rhythm, known as a circadian rhythm. This “internal body clock” regulates your body’s metabolic processes: everything from sleep schedules to hormone production to blood pressure. The circadian “clock” in humans is located mainly in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which is a group of cells located in the brain.

When daylight hits your eyes, cells in the retinas signal your brain, which in turn can help to keep your circadian rhythms running according to schedule. As you age, the cells in SCN part of the brain may start to die off, causing disruptions in sleep, whether its a hard time getting to bed, or more frequent sleep interruptions.

Other things can cause interruptions in your ability to sleep include working late or irregular hours, pregnancy, jet lag, or new medications. There are also a number of sleep-related disorders that can affect a person, including Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS), a disorder where a patient will fall asleep at very late times and then have difficulty waking up in time for work or school.

Tips and Tricks for Better Sleep

1. Chill Out

You need to control the temperature of your sleeping environment, and also be aware of the changes in your own internal body temperature. Generally speaking, your brain will cue up your sleeping desires as the air temperature dips, causing you to sleep the most soundly during the cold hours in the morning before sunrise. So, make sure that your bedroom has plenty of fans or air conditioners in hotter months to help you nod off.

It’s also worth noting that your body temperature tends to rise in its own circadian rhythm each day, usually nudging you back towards wakefulness between 6 and 8 in the morning.

2. Fast

Starving yourself is never healthy, but one of the best ways to reset your sleep-wake cycle is to abstain from food for between 12 and 16 hours. This trick is a great way to combat jet lag, as well as to reset your sleep schedule when you work the late shift, according to a study from the Harvard Medical School.

This hard reset of your biological clock takes just one day, making it better than exposure to light or day to trick your sleep-wake cycle into doing what you want it to. Once you start eating again, your internal clock will be reset as though it is the start of a new day.  Your body will consider the time you break your fast as your new “morning.”

3. Invest in a Dimmer

If you live in a big city, chances are that you sleep with heavy curtains to help block out the light from buildings and signs. But with such heavy curtains, you’ll also block out the sun as it rises, increasing the likelihood that you will oversleep.

To combat this, invest in a timed dimmer switch for your bedroom that will gradually increase the amount of light in your bedroom, mimicking the gradual rise of the sun over the horizon.

4. Keep it Simple

Sometimes the simple tricks are the best ones. Try dampening a washcloth with warm water, and then place it over your forehead and eyes. The darkness will help your brain to switch off, and the gentle heat can help to relax any tension you might be holding on to after a long, stressful day.

5. Try Something New

Specifically, try out a brand new style of sleep. Dustin Curtis has a great chart that breaks down the differences between polyphasic sleep, normal sleep, Everyman, and Uberman sleep patterns.

You don’t necessarily need sleep, at least not in the traditional sense. What you need are REM cycles. Just because you are asleep for 8 hours doesn’t mean you get 8 hours worth of sleep, since you really only need four or five 20 minute REM cycles. If your work schedule allows for it, you might want to try sleeping for 6 hours, and then taking a 90 minute nap in the afternoons, or going whole hog and sleeping 90 minutes a night and taking 4 20-minute naps throughout the rest of the day.

Conclusion

Our own Seth Simonds once gave some excellent advice when it comes to reclaiming 10-12 hours of productive waking time each week. By sleeping on an uncomfortable bed, you’ll be less likely to sleep in, and tired enough from early rising that you will fall right to sleep at night.

Ultimately, getting a good night’s sleep is about setting up a routine, avoiding alcohol and caffeine, and trying to minimize the amount of bright lights that you are exposed to after sundown. The method that works best for you may take some trial and error to find, but hopefully these tips will help you to get a good night’s sleep tonight.

What do you do to get a good night’s sleep? Tell us in the comments below!

Tucker is a writer and social media professional living in New England. When she's not staring into a tiny electric box, she engages in pointless acts of stupidity at BadBoozeReview.com and posts daily at MargeryJones.com

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5 Sci-Fi Brain Hacks That Modern Science Is Making Possible

Think about some of your favorite sci-fi films. How many of them reference futuristic technologies that are used to augment a character’s brainpower?

Turns out that not all these movies, books, and TV shows are based in completely in fiction. Modern scientific research is slowly working to make these brain hacks a reality. Here are five of the best hacks that might be coming your way soon.

1. Stop Sleeping to Increase Your Productivity

As seen in: The science fiction novel “Beggars in Spain” by Nancy Kress

Made possible by: Real-life DARPA scientists

Imagine how much more productive you could be if you didn’t need to sleep for eight hours every night. In her novel, Kress imagines a world where the ruling class are the “Sleepless”: genetically modified humans who no longer feel the need for sleep, and use the extra time to create goods and earn more money. But that sort of thing is just science fiction, right?

Wrong. Turns out DARPA developed a drug that replaces sleep back in 2008. The drug takes the form of a nasal spray, and contains certain hormones that eliminate the body’s craving for a nice long nap. According to Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA, “It reduces sleepiness without causing edginess.”

However, Dr. Michael Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, is less optimistic about the drug’s promise. “New research indicates that not getting enough sleep is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders,” said Twery.

Can’t get your hands on this wonderdrug? Hack your brain with the Uberman Sleep Schedule, and train your brain to function perfectly on just two hours of sleep.

2. Controlling Intelligence in the Womb

As seen in: The novel “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley

Made possible by: Real-life geneticists and proponents of the “Mozart Effect”

The novel “Brave New World” opens with a lengthy tour of a “hatchery”: a facility where human beings are created in test tubes. Each batch of humans is given a grade from Alpha to Episilon, and has their intelligence altered accordingly.

While we’re a long way from hatchery technology, solid pre-natal nutrition and genetic testing can help parents give their child the best possible chance for becoming intelligent. Parents looking to give their unborn child extra help also turn to “the Mozart Effect”: the belief that playing classical music for a baby in the womb can increase its intelligence.

This theory does have some scientific basis, and was first brought to the attention of the general public after being mentioned in a 1993 in the journal “Nature”. Not every scientist agrees, however…but maybe after another decade of research, we’ll have more power to alter intelligence in utero.

3. Altering or Retrieving Memories

As seen in: The indie sci-fi flick “Sleep Dealer”

Made possible by: Real-life neuroscientists and researchers

In “Sleep Dealer,” a woman sells her memories, which can then be uploaded into the minds of other people. And while altering or retrieving memories in this fashion seems far-fetched, a Wired article hints at a possible technology for boosting or retrieving memories using a PDA in the future.

According to the article, “Researchers have found a telltale mental signature that predicts whether an experience will be remembered. Once deciphered, the signals could be used to help people know when their brains are primed to remember, perhaps using an iPhone app.”

“There’s no reason not to believe that this is possible,” added one of the researchers. “It could be part of a PDA.”

4. Brain-Computer Interface Chips

As seen in: The TV show “Fringe”

Made possible by: Real-life sleep researchers

On the “Fringe” episode entitled “Dream Logic,” the team encounters a man with a Brain-Computer Interface Chip. The chip was originally installed to help the man control his sleepwalking, but instead the chip malfunctions and causes the patient to attack his co-workers.

These types of chips do exist in real life. According to Dr. David Carley, they have even been used on humans. “For example, deep-brain-stimulating electrodes have been used in an attempt to treat intractable epilepsy,” Carley says. “However, BCIs have not been used in an attempt to control sleep cycles.”

5. Brain Treatments to Reverse Mental Handicaps

As seen in: The film “The Lawnmower Man”

Made possible by: A study conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In “The Lawnmower Man”, a doctor uses drugs, virtual reality treatments, and direct brain stimulation to increase the intelligence of a handicapped man. The mentally handicapped gardener learns Latin overnight and also becomes telepathic.

Telepathy is definitely off the table (for now), but researchers at MIT have been able to reverse Fragile X syndrome in mice. Fragile X is one cause of both autism and mental deficiency. According to reports from the BBC, “The researchers, based at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, targeted an enzyme called PAK which affects the number, size and shape of connection between brain cells. They found that inhibiting the enzyme stopped mice with Fragile X Syndrome behaving in erratic ways.”

What sci-fi brain hack are you most excited about? Tell us in the comments below!

Tucker is a writer and social media professional living in New England. When she's not staring into a tiny electric box, she engages in pointless acts of stupidity at BadBoozeReview.com and posts daily at MargeryJones.com

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Fact or Fiction?: 5 Sci-Fi Body Hacks That Are More Plausible Than You Think

After yesterday’s post about Sci-Fi Brain Hacks, I thought it was only fair to showcase some equally interesting hacks that increase the performance of your body (especially since some of you went out of your way to say how much you enjoyed yesterday’s post when you were filling out your reader surveys.)

We’ve all seen sci-fi flicks where people hack their brains, but what about stories where people hack their bodies? Here is a roundup of some of the craziest fictional technologies for body enhancement that may be more plausible than you think.

1. Super Soldier Serum

As seen in: Captain America (comic book and film)

In the Captain America comics (and in the upcoming film), Steve Rogers tries to enlist in the army during World War II so he can fight the Nazis. However, he is a scrawny weakling, and so they turn him down. After multiple attempts to enlist, Rogers is admitted to a secret army program where he is given a serum injection that bulks him up and makes him the perfect soldier: Captain America.

So what are the odds of something like this serum being developed and administered to soldiers in real life?
Well, DARPA started a $3 billion super soldier project in 2008. The project’s goal was to create a “Metabolically Dominant Soldier,” and specific projects include “drugs and genetic enhancements… for regeneration, faster healing, muscle strength enhancement up to current Olympic levels, cognitive enhancement…[and] fixing your cells so that you could live off your fat.”

In addition, Professor Peter Wayand of Southern Methodist University is researching gene therapy techniques for enhancing human muscle fibers. It has been reported that his research aims to get humans running at speeds of 45 miles per hour and rocking a 5 second times for the 100 meter dash.

2. Exo-suits

As seen in: Iron Man (comic books and films)

Playboy billionaire Tony Stark creates the first exo-suit, capable of taking his body above and beyond its normal capacity. It makes him a super-soldier, but unlike Captain America, this body hack is done with metal, not medicine. Fans of the most recent Iron Man flick probably remember the scene where Stark testifies before the Senate that every other country in the world is 20 years away from mastering his technology. But how far away are we from a real life Iron Man suit?

Tsukuba University’s HAL exo-suit is entering hospital trials next year. This full-body exo-suit can help the wearer lift heavy loads, and has both military applications and potential for aiding the disabled or senior citizens. And Berkeley Bionic’s HULC exo-suit can be used to carry a load of up to 200 pounds at a top speed of 10 miles per hour.

3. Second Skin Body Suits

As seen in: Tons of superhero comics and sci-fi flicks

From superheroes to space babes, there are tons of examples of performance-enhancing body suits that hug the body, rather than encase it like a bulk exo-suit. Some of these suits have been compared to the suits used by characters in The Incredibles, and offer features like protecting skin from trauma and boosting speed.

These types of suits are already in development, and you’ve probably seen them in use at the Olympics. Spyder has developed “d3o, an engineered material with ‘intelligent’ molecules, reduces padding volume by 40 percent and has the ability to flow with a skier moving down the course or lock together and stiffen should the skier fall (to absorb the impact).”

4. Organ Replacement

As seen in: Repo Men (film)

One of the most enduring sci-fi tropes is extending your life with replacement organs, either grown from stem cells or created from artificial materials, like the organs in the film Repo Men.

In real life, experimental work is being done with growing new organs from stem cells over a “skeleton” of biological material that allows the organs to grow into the correct shape.

5. Bionics

As seen in: Wait, you really have to ask?

Bionics were at the center of two of the most iconic sci-fi TV shows of all time: The Six-Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. And while these two old shows seem pretty dated today, they may have been spot on when it comes to predicting the use of bionics.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the bionic eyes of Steve Austin or Geordi LaForge are more plausible than you might think.

Second Sight Medical Products Inc. has developed “a pair of glasses to send images to a receiver implanted on the retina. From there, the image is transmitted to the brain through the optic nerve. The device is targeted to patients who have lost most of their vision as a result of retinal degeneration and whose nerve connections are still intact.”

Would you ever consider augmenting your body with sci-fi tech? Tell us in the comments below!

Tucker is a writer and social media professional living in New England. When she's not staring into a tiny electric box, she engages in pointless acts of stupidity at BadBoozeReview.com and posts daily at MargeryJones.com

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10 Workout Hacks for Building Muscle

One of the best aspects of your daily routine to apply a life hack to are your personal fitness goals. This is something we’ve covered in past posts, but today we’d like to expand the list.

By carefully selecting the time of your workout, the combination of techniques, and the proper post-workout snacks, you can maximize your workout to build muscle. Here are the essential tips you need to know.

1. Work out at the right time of day

The time of day when you choose to work out can make all the difference when it comes to working out to your maximum potential. According to Dr. Stuart McGill, an expert in back pain, you should avoid working out first thing in the morning. This is because the discs between your vertebrae fill with fluid during your sleep, making you more susceptible to injury in the morning.

2. Weights before cardio

According to the minds behind Dumb Little Man, “trainers, serious athletes and bodybuilders do weights first: this way, your heart rate goes up and when you lift, your body is in more of a fat burning mode. Doing the opposite means that your muscles are already tired by the time you get to weight-training.”

3. Eat frequently (and take in more calories)

Keep your energy up and give your body plenty of fuel for building muscles by eating small meals every three hours or so. Make sure to eat plenty of protein, ideally the equivalent amount of protein in grams as your current body weight in pounds. For example, a 150-pound man would aim to take in 150 g of protein per day.

Diet and Fitness Expert Dr. Melina Jampolis adds, “Your body can build at most about a half-pound of muscle each week, so if you eat too many extra calories trying to build more muscle, you will gain fat, too. I would suggest consuming an extra 250 to 500 calories per day.”

4. Eat a snack immediately after your workout

According to Nancy Clark, M.S., R.D., senior sports nutritionist at Healthworks Fitness Center in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, protein-heavy snacks should be eaten within 15 minutes of wrapping up your exercise routine. “It might optimize the healing of the tiny muscle injuries that happen [normally] while people exercise,” she says. “Also, protein is satiating”…and that means you won’t be tempted by junk food later on.

Men’s Health also agrees with the need for protein, but argues that it needs to be balanced with carbs as well. “Although you might think that the carbs will slow weight loss, the opposite can be true. Carbs plus protein helps build muscle (especially if you eat the combo just before and after exercise), and that can indirectly enhance fat loss, because muscle is metabolically active tissue that helps burn more calories around the clock.”

5. Stay hydrated

The last thing you need complicating your workout is a cramp or fatigue, so drinking water before, during, and after your workout for best results.

6. Never skip the warm up (or the cool down)

Stretching prevents muscle strain, gets your blood pumping, and can help lower cholesterol when done as part of a yoga or pilates routine. Muscles also need to realign themselves after an intensive workout, which a few minutes of stretching can help to accomplish.

7. Combine compound and isolation movements

While isolating certain muscles is important, you need to alternate compound motions as well, which will target multiple muscle groups at once. Compound workouts are good for beginners and for toning certain parts of the body.

However, fitness expert Mark McManus argues that compound exercises do have a downside. “ If one muscle within the group being worked is quite weak, it will be responsible for the termination of the set before the other muscles obtain the requisite intensity to stimulate growth. With compound movements, you’re only as strong as your weakest link. Take the lat pulldown for example:  the weaker biceps and forearms will fatigue before the more powerful lats do, meaning you didn’t thoroughly stimulate the body part you intended to when you selected this exercise!”

8. Gradually increase your weights

Increase the weight you’re lifting on each exercise by 5 percent each week. If you bench-pressed 100 pounds this week, for example, then next week you should try doing 105 pounds. This gradual increase will yield the best muscle building results without overly straining your body.

9. Budget the correct amount of time for your workout

The team at Muscle Hack argues that timing is of the essence when planning your workout. “You shouldn’t train for much longer than an hour at any one time,” they say. “At the end of the day, if you’re not willing to spend an hour in the gym, you haven’t got the right mindset for success.”

10. Get narcissistic

By which we mean, of course, to do all your weight lifting in front of a mirror. That way, you can correct your posture and make sure you are fully extending your muscles. Correct form means means maximized results.

What tips can you share to help build lean muscle? Tell us in the comments below, follow us on Twitter, or take the conversation over to Facebook.

Tucker is a writer and social media professional living in New England. When she's not staring into a tiny electric box, she engages in pointless acts of stupidity at BadBoozeReview.com and posts daily at MargeryJones.com

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10 Hacks For Spicing Up Your Tired Wardrobe (Without Breaking the Bank)

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American family spends over $1600 per year on new clothing, with more money spent on women’s apparel than on clothes for men or children. That’s a ton of money, especially during tough economic times.

If you want to look your best without spending a lot of money, there are a couple of tricks, tips, and tactics that can help you spice up your tired wardrobe.

1. Check the Fit

Examine every single piece of clothing you own (even your underwear and bathing suits!), and make sure it fits properly. Have a friend watch you model each outfit if you need a second opinion about how your clothes are fitting.

Toss what doesn’t work at all, and tailor the rest. If you can’t afford tailoring, get creative with the rest of your ill-fitting clothes: use big belts to cinch oversized shirts and dresses, or sew side panels into your favorite jeans to add room to the legs and color to your ensemble.

2. Stay Organized

It’s time to go shopping in your closet. But just like with any store, you need to neatly organize all the merchandise. Pull everything out, and you will doubtless find entire outfits you had forgotten all about. When you put everything back in the closet, set aside the stuff that’s out of season, and organize the rest by occasion, and then by color. This will make getting dressed in the morning a much more streamlined affair.

3. Get Crafty

The humble t-shirt likely makes up a large percentage of your wardrobe. To inject a breath of fresh air into your tired stable of t-shirts, all you need is a pair of scissors (or maybe a needle and thread, if you’re feeling adventurous.) Use scissors to cut a larger, boatneck-style opening at the top of the shirt to show off more shoulder or collarbone, or shred the sleeves and back for a vintage biker look. If you’re handy with a needle and thread, cut the front of the t-shirt down the middle, remove the collar and buttons from an old button down shirt, and sew the two together to create a button down t-shirt.

4. Get a Haircut

So what does your hair have to do with sprucing up your wardrobe? Quite a lot, actually. Imagine a woman dressed in tight black jeans and a black trench coat. Now imagine her in the same outfit, but with long curly hair. Now with a blue mohawk. Now with dreadlocks.

She looked completely different, right?

Changing your hairstyle completely changes the way your entire outfit is perceived. Spend $40 on a haircut, or spend $400 on a new wardrobe? The results will likely be pretty much the same.

5. Swap ‘Til You Drop

Get together with your friends and swap clothes and accessories. Also keep an eye out for swap events in your nearest metropolitan area, which are generally free or ask for a suggested donation to benefit local charities.

6. Make New Accessories

Have a drawer filled with shirts that are missing buttons or skirts with tears that you’ve been meaning to fix? Transform your clothing junk drawer into fresh new accessories. A length of fabric from a skirt can be used as a scarf, or braided together to create a woven belt. Take leftover buttons and use them to create earrings or necklaces, and scavenge any beading or decorative elements to use on future projects.

7. Think Long-Term

Long-term storage, that is. Here’s the thing. The stuff you have now that’s 5-10 years old is outdated, but not yet old enough to be cool and vintage. Store those items for another decade or two, and you’ll have a vintage wardrobe that will be the envy of everyone in 2031.

8. Buttons

Swap out the buttons on your shirts with fun and funky buttons from your local craft store. It’s a small change that only takes a small amount of time and money, but can completely overhaul the look of the staple pieces in your closet.

9. Deep-clean

You can make tired items look brand new by taking proper care of them. Brighten whites with bleach or Oxi-Clean, and choose detergents that protect color. Always separate your whites from your colors, and wash your clothes in cold water to prevent against color loss over time.

10. Distress for Success

Rub jeans and t-shirts with 100-grit sandpaper to give them a distressed look. Why pay a hundred bucks for ragged jeans when you could just make them yourself?

Conclusion

Reinvigorating your bland wardrobe might take a little planning and elbow grease, but your wallet will thank you for doing it on the cheap.

Do you have any tips for improving your wardrobe on a shoestring budget? Share them with us in the comments below!

Tucker is a writer and social media professional living in New England. When she's not staring into a tiny electric box, she engages in pointless acts of stupidity at BadBoozeReview.com and posts daily at MargeryJones.com

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Best Life Hacks from “The Little Black Book of Secrets”

The little black book, quite literally, fits into the palm of my hand. And despite its small size, it packs quite a whallop. Plainly titled “Book of Secrets”, this micro-book is a treasure trove of life hacks, trivia, quotes, and “secret information”. Compiled by a team of authors (Lloyd Bradley, Thomas Eaton, Emma Hooley, Patrick Humphries, and Charlotte Williamson), this 152 page book is so engrossing, you’ll read it in a single session.

Eaton, co-author and lead editor for the book, studied history at Oxford and Cambridge. He worked on the television program “The Weakest Link”, and has also written trivia quizzes for other TV programs and newspapers in the UK.

Beyond the facts about government conspiracies, underground movie theatres, and lost historical tidbits, there are also plenty of practical secrets and hacks, ranging from food preparation tips to business tips to sneaky tips to manipulate people.

The Look of the Book

I wasn’t kidding before when I was talking about the size: the dimensions of the 2008 edition of the book are 3.375? x 3.75?. The book is super tiny! And the size is arguably the coolest thing about the book (well, besides the content of course!). It’s tiny enough to fit in the smallest purse, a pocket, or a backpack, meaning you can take it with you to read on the go.

The cover is completely black, emblazoned only with the title “Book of Secrets”. It’s definitely got an air of mystery. The interior includes illustrations, but they are all in black and white. Each section spans between 1/2 and 4 pages, and covers subject material ranging from funeral parlor secrets to “secret lotions and potions” to weight loss tips and secrets.

Apparently, the 2005 edition is slightly larger in size, and is bound in leather. My experience with the book, however, is based entirely on the 2008 edition, which has the dimensions listed above and is bound in a thick, shellacked paper not unlike oaktag.

My Top Picks for Clever Tricks and Advice

The book covers a wide array of topics, and it’s hard to pick among the various tips and sections to determine what parts of the book were the most interesting. That being said, there are a handful of hacks and tricks that were especially interesting to me. Here are six of my favorite hacks, sections, and tricks from the little black book of secrets.

1. Quieting a Crying Baby: Feed the baby a teaspoon of onion water. To make onion water, simply place a coarsely chopped onion in a jar of hot water, and allow it to cool. This infusion can be stored in the fridge for 3 days.

2. A Collection of Tips for Flirting with Women: Among the 10 tips in this section of the book, some of the most important pieces of advice relate to how to dress, how to make her laugh, and the importance of being sincere (but not too sincere).

3. How to Get the Best Deals on Vacation Packages: The experts say that you need to shop around, plan ahead, and consider your destination’s current political and economic climate carefully.

4. Dietary Tricks to Avoid Migraines: If you are prone to headaches or migraines, you should avoid herbal supplements like ginko and ginseng. This is because these herbs stimulate blood flow, which can, for some people, lead to headaches. As a migraine sufferer, this was very important and helpful information for me to have.

5. Drink Green Tea for Perfect Teeth: Green tea not only combats bad breath, but the flavonoids in this type of tea also work in tandem with the active ingredients in toothpaste and mouthwash to provide your teeth with an extra boost of protective power.

6. The Top 20 Secrets of Winning Friends and Influencing People: This section includes tips about the importance of listening, the value of teamwork, and cultivating a personality that people will respond well to.

Conclusion

I could go on about the useful sections that will be of interest to life hackers. The advice on how to master public speaking is excellent, and the four-page section on the secrets of eggs/egg trivia was surprisingly interesting. And if you are a fan of fried chicken, the faux-Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe is definitely worth checking out. The bottom line is that if you are looking to learn some new tricks to help you succeed in life or business, this book will help you achieve that goal, while also providing you with entertaining trivia and historical info.

If you’d like to learn more about this book, you can preview selected pages from “Book of Secrets” at the website of the publisher, Andrews McMeel. Just click the Google Preview button underneath the image of the book cover.

Tucker is a writer and social media professional living in New England. When she's not staring into a tiny electric box, she engages in pointless acts of stupidity at BadBoozeReview.com and posts daily at MargeryJones.com

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“Urawaza”: 6 Fascinating Japanese Life Hacks

I recently picked up a copy of “Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan” by Lisa Katayama, and I really enjoyed it. Described by Think Geek as “the Ninja version of Martha Stewart”, the book consists of dozens of off-centered lifestyle tips, covering everything from cooking tricks to winter sports.

For example, you might “turbocharge” your winter sled by treating the bottom with nonstick cooking spray, or refresh stale coffee with a sprinkle of salt. Or, you might even use a household iron to help you perfect your bowling technique. If you have a common household problem, chances are that there is an urawaza trick that can help you out.

The History of Urawaza

As author Lisa Katayama explains in the introduction of the book, the culture of urawaza had its roots in post-WWII Japan. The country’s resources had been tapped by the war effort, and even basic provisions had become harder to come by.

There were plenty of families that were trying to do more with less after the war, and even in modern Japan there are many families living in tiny city apartments who are looking to make the most of their space and resources. In 1997, the Japanese TV program “The Ito Family Dinner Table” brought urawaza into the mainstream. The program became so popular that at one point, over 30 percent of Japanese households tuned in to watch the show every week.

The Look of the Book

Each tip in the book is framed on a single page, outlining the dilemma, the urawaza solution, and a brief blurb that explains why the tip works from the scientific standpoint. It’s short enough to read cover-to-cover in a single sitting, and accessible enough to skim through for only a few minutes at a time.

Even the design of the book is geared to help the reader be more productive. The front of the book is emblazoned with big friendly letters that encourage the reader to “DO EVERYTHING BETTER!”, a move that reminds me warmly of the “DON’T PANIC” cover art of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

The obi-style wrapper on top of the book jacket is billed as “an instant fast-forward” (read: built-in bookmark) to help readers mark their place and easily refer back to tips they are looking to try out.

So, What’s In This Book?

The book contains over 100 tips across seven topic sections. Readers can peruse a variety of life hacks that include health tips, tricks to “amaze your friends”, beauty advice, “household hacks”, kitchen/food tips, laundry shortcuts, and tips for the great outdoors.

Basically, whether you are young or old, male or female, there will be plenty of relevant hacks and tips for you to peruse. Whether you are looking for a way to prevent your car doors from freezing shut in the winter, or want to learn to master the perfect manicure, there’s a hack for that.

My Top Picks

Out of the dozens of great tips in this book, I have selected six that I thought were really interesting, unique, or just plain useful. Narrowing it down was tough, but the following tips are pretty excellent.

1. A Foolproof Hiccup Cure: Instead of drinking water or swallowing sugar, the book suggests that you stick a cotton swab into your mouth and try to tickle your uvula. Doing so will initiate a gag reflex that will override the hiccup cycle. Kinda gross, but foolproof.

2. Stop a Crying Baby: If you swish a little water in your mouth next to the baby’s ear, this will calm the child. This is because the sound is similar to the noises that the baby was accustomed to hearing while still in the womb.

3. Vinegar Tricks: A dab of apple cider vinegar can banish blemishes, and a mix of white vinegar and tap water can be applied to your hair to make it shiny.

4. Coffee Stains Begone: Boil spinach in water, and use that water and a toothbrush to lift stubborn coffee stains from fabrics. The oxalic acid present in spinach is good for busting coffee stains, but proceed with caution: this trick won’t work on white fabric because of the green pigments from the spinach.

5. Fix a Shrunken Sweater: If you’ve accidentally shrunk a favorite wool sweater, you can return it to its original size by soaking it in a solution of tap water and hair conditioner for about 30 minutes.

6. Use Your Washing Machine as a Shredder: Just place your documents into a pair of nylon pantyhose, and send them through the wash. The ink will fade or blur, and the paper will crumple and fall apart.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed reading this book. Although I haven’t had a chance to try out every single trick yet, I’ve found that some are better than others. For example, the “soap-in-the-microwave” trick was fun to watch, but didn’t deliver much in terms of results.

But, I especially enjoyed the “create your own urawaza” section at the tail end of the book, as well as the section devoted to the art of tsubo (Japanese pressure points). The tips are solid overall, and the book is definitely worth picking up if you are a fan of life hacks.

Tucker is a writer and social media professional living in New England. When she's not staring into a tiny electric box, she engages in pointless acts of stupidity at BadBoozeReview.com and posts daily at MargeryJones.com

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Olfactory Life Hacks: Scents That Increase Brain Power

During the course of any given day at the office, you undoubtedly drink coffee to help you stay alert, or try deep breathing exercises to calm your nerves after a particularly harrowing staff meeting. But what if there was an easier way to regulate your moods and trick your brain into performing to its peak potential?

For many people, one simple life hack that can bring about an almost instant improvement in productivity is aromatherapy. By simply smelling the correct scents, you can lower your blood pressure, sharpen your mind, and improve your outlook on life.

The Science of Aromatherapy

According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, aromatherapy as a science had its start in the early 20th century. “René-Maurice Gattefossé, a French chemist, discovered the healing properties of lavender oil when he applied it to a burn on his hand caused by an explosion in his laboratory. He then started to analyze the chemical properties of essential oils and how they were used to treat burns, skin infections, gangrene, and wounds in soldiers during World War I.”

The process is still not well understood by modern doctors and scientists, however. According to the experts at UMMC: “Some experts believe our sense of smell may play a role. The “smell” receptors in your nose communicate with parts of your brain (the amygdala and hippocampus) that serve as storehouses for emotions and memories. When you breathe in essential oil molecules, some researchers believe that they stimulate these parts of your brain and influence physical, emotional, and mental health.”

What Scents Are Best For You?

The majority of aromatherapy benefits fall into one of four categories: Energizing/Invigorating, Stress Relief, Sleep Aids, or Mood Elevators. By placing a few drops of these essential oils into a diffuser in your home or office, you can feel the benefits of being exposed to these healing scents. Switch up the essential oils at a moment’s notice to trick your brain into performing the tasks you need to accomplish.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the most popular scents, along with their benefits:

Energizing/Invigorating: Orange, Rosemary, Lemon.

Stress Relief: Jasmine, Lavender, Ylang Ylang, Clary Sage.

Sleep Aids: Lavender, Chamomile, Sandalwood, Vetiver.

Mood Elevators: Mint, Basil Oil, Bergamot.

So on a day when you need to improve your mental focus, you might want to eat an orange at your desk, and leave the rind nearby where you can smell it. Conversely, if you need to ensure a good night’s sleep before a big presentation that’s got you stressed out, consider sleeping with a lavender sachet under your pillow, or setting up a lavender essential oil diffuser in your bedroom about half an hour before you plan to hit the hay.

You can use diffusers or nebulizers to aerate the oil. Alternatively, you can apply some essential oils directly to the skin to reap their benefits. Make sure to read the directions carefully before using any essential oils to make sure you are going to use it in a way that will give you maximum benefits.

Where Can I Get This Stuff?

You can purchase essential oils online, or at your local health food store. Alternatively, you can purchase whole fruits, herbs, or flowers from your local supermarket or an herbalist/new age shop in your area.

Depending on whether the product is organic or not, you should be able to pick up a tiny jar of essential oil (about 1 fluid ounce of product) for between $2 and $10. Certain essential oils are more expensive than others, of course.

Not all essential oils are created equal, however. According to Dr. Brian Lawrence, “For an essential oil to be a true essential oil, it must be isolated by physical means only. The physical methods used are distillation (steam, steam/water and water) or expression (also known as cold pressing, a unique feature for citrus peel oils). There is one other method of oil isolation specific to a very limited number of essential oil plants. This is a maceration/distillation. In the process, the plant material is macerated in warm water to release the enzyme-bound essential oil. Examples of oils produced by maceration are onion, garlic, wintergreen, bitter almond, etc.”

Conclusion

The next time you need to manipulate your brain into doing what you’re trying to tell it to, consider using the practice of aromatherapy as a life hack to increase your productivity. Our sense of smell is deeply tied to our memories and to our moods, so having a couple of vials of essential oil on hand can really help to improve brain function and tap into your hidden energy reserves. It may seem kind of new age-y, but tapping into your sense of smell can center you in a way that will really help you to seize the day.

Additional Reading

If you’re interested in learning more, check out:

A World of Aromatherapy

The National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy

Essentials of Aromatherapy

Tucker is a writer and social media professional living in New England. When she's not staring into a tiny electric box, she engages in pointless acts of stupidity at BadBoozeReview.com and posts daily at MargeryJones.com

View the original article here