Christmas Lifehacks: Essentials for a 21st Century Santa Claus

Jolly old St. Nicholas has been around for years. After watching a recent live-action redux of “The Year Without a Santa Claus” where Santa has shifted into the new millennium, I started to think about what the 21st century Santa would have in his toolkit in order to make his rounds on Christmas Eve in a more efficient and effective way.

It turns out he may have some of the same tools we’re using today in order to get more done. Let’s break down what Santa Claus of the 21st century could (and should) be using this holiday season.

Traditionally, this has been written down by Santa on what appears to be a never-ending scroll of paper. This is a problem for the following reasons:

What if the child was nice at first, then turned naughty? That means a whole lot of crossing out of names.Where does he keep this monstrous list? He’d need a pretty big file folder. And for archival purposes, he’d need a really big file cabinet.How does he remember that list anyway? Santa’s not getting any younger, and the chances of him missing a house or two during his Christmas Eve run is becoming more likely every year. Even saints aren’t perfect.

So what Santa needs in this day and age is some sort of application htat can be easily modified, doesn’t take up a ton of space and is portable.

Sounds like a job for an app like Evernote.

Evernote is available on a ton of platforms, is mobile and can be used to keep trck of both those who are naughty and nice. Santa could have a Naughty notebook and a Nice notebook, and could even use location-awareness if he saw fit.

With Evernote’s ubiquitous nature, he has a wide variety of devices he could choose from to run it on – and it syncs so there’d be no real need to “check it twice”.

As for the device he’d use to run it, I’m sure his elves could make him one that could run an OS that Evernote supports.

Santa’s sack is massive – and magical. There’s likely no replacing it with anything manmade…yet.

But that doesn’t mean he can’t update his wardrobe to fit a few more things in. Perhaps a pair of pants from Scott-E-Vest would be ideal for him to hold the keys to his sleigh, his Evernote-equipped mobile device and all those cookies he gathers during his travels would be a good, er…fit.

Mind you, they don’t come in red.

It’s tough to keep track of inventory of any store or warehouse, but one can only imagine how much Santa’s got on his shelves in his workshop. If he wants to keep his stock levels lean and mean, then he’s got a number of choices to help him do just that.

Delicious Library 2 for the Mac would let him keep tabs on what he has for personal stock, and Bento would allow him to keep a deeper inventory available for quick reference on the Mac, iPad and iPhone. Even Google Docs would work to keep tabs on what he has on hand – and it’s cross-platform.

How to offload some of that stuff during the Christmas season is an entirely other matter, but Santa can pinpoint who might want what with an iOS app called Gift Plan. Evernote can also work in a pinch since he’s already using it for his naughty and nice list.

So with all of this technology at his side, Santa can head out on Christmas Eve and do his thing faster and better. That should give him some time to work on shedding a few of those unwanted pounds during his down time, right?

You know, I think there’s an app for that…

Speaking of apps, if you have other suggestions of applications that would be great for Santa Claus (or yourself) to help you get the kind of stuff Santa does done, leave them in the comments.

(Photo credit: Santa Claus with Laptop via Shutterstock)

Mike Vardy is a writer, speaker, and "productivityist". You can follow him on Twitter, listen to him regularly on his podcast, ProductiVardy, and read more from him at MikeVardy.com and at Vardy.me.

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Celebrate the Season with Stepcase Lifehack’s 12 Days of Giveaways Promotion

'Tis the season for giving...

It’s the time of year where gifts are given and received, and the Stepcase Lifehack team wants to be one of those doing the giving.

Well, starting on Thursday December 8th at 1 pm Eastern Time, we’ll be offering the first giveaway in our holiday promotion, Stepcase Lifehack’s 12 Days of Giveaways! This is our way of thanking our readers for spending part of your day with us throughout the year. We hope we’ve helped you achieve improved productivity by visiting Lifehack.org, and this promotion is offering more in the way of resources that will help you level up your life even more.

So how does the 12 Days of Giveaways promotion work?

We’ve partnered up with some great software developers, merchants and authors to bring you holiday gifts for you that you can either start using right away or set aside for next year when you start to really rev up your personal productivity.

Some of the folks that we’ve partnered up for Stepcase Lifehack’s 12 Days of Giveaways promotion include:

…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

There will be multiple chances to win a prize on those days, so be sure to check out what you need to do enter on each day.

Each of the giveaways has a theme to it, and all of them serve to help you “hack life” not only faster going forward – but better as well. Speed just isn’t enough; thoughtfulness and mindfulness are huge factors in making a real lifehack in today’s world.

‘Tis the season for giving, so be sure to come back for the next twelve weekdays to enter Stepcase Lifehack’s 12 Days of Giveaways promotion. It’s our way of making your holidays that much happier – and hopefully much more productive.

(Photo credit: Christmas Decoration by Shutterstock)

Mike Vardy is a writer, speaker, and "productivityist". You can follow him on Twitter, listen to him regularly on his podcast, ProductiVardy, and read more from him at MikeVardy.com and at Vardy.me.

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The 100 Best Lifehacks of 2010: The Year in Review

Happy New Year everyone! It’s the first week of 2011 and many of us are getting ready to kick off the brand new year with a big bang. As we start off 2011 with our new resolutions and goals, let us now look back at the best posts at Lifehack in the past year.

In this review post, I have gathered 100 of the best LifeHack articles in 2010. These articles have been selected based on your votes and how much YOU have talked about them in social media (Facebook and Twitter). I have categorized these 100 articles into 11 main categories of Overall Personal Growth, Maximizing Productivity & GTD, Lifestyle & Habits, Inspiration & Motivation, Goal Achievement & Success, Emotional Mastery, People Skills & Relationships, Communications & Writing, Business & Career, Creativity & Inspiration, Family and Miscellaneous.

Do not attempt to read this whole post at once! Instead, bookmark this mega list post and come back time and again to read the articles relevant to you at that point in time. I’ve ranked the posts within each category in order of popularity, with the most popular post being #1. I’ve also included the (1) author name and (2) total number of retweets and Facebook likes/shares beside the article, so you can gauge how well-received the article was among the LifeHack readers.

Let me start off with the top 10 most popular life hack posts out of the 100s of posts published in 2010. Each of them is a gem in itself. Be sure to check each of them out!

Following which, I’ll present the 100 top articles presented in the 11 catetgories. Enjoy! And remember to share this to others via the retweet and Facebook buttons above! :)

42 Practical Ways To Improve Yourself (by Celestine Chua, 2176)Kitchen Hack: One-Minute Bread (by Seth Simonds, 2126)The Not-Do List: 9 Things You Need To Stop Doing (by Celestine Chua, 940)Newbie Fashion Tips for Grown-Up Men (by Dustin Wax, 924)7 Things you should stop doing at work (by Seth Simonds, 845)11 Practical Ways To Stop Procrastination (by Celestine Chua, 823)63 Ways to Build Self-Confidence (by Steve Errey, 754)13 Strategies To Jumpstart Your Productivity (by Celestine Chua, 700)Twitter Hack: 5 Ways To Up Your Visible IQ (by Seth Simonds, 505)20 Quick Tips For Better Time Management (by Celestine Chua, 497)42 Practical Ways To Improve Yourself (by Celestine Chua, 2176)Why Being A Perfectionist May Not Be So Perfect (by Celestine Chua, 367)The Quickest Way to Create a New Mindset (by Craig Harper, 263)The Law of Attraction is a Dangerous Delusion (by Paul Sloane, 249)7 Ways to Make Life Changing Decisions (by Hulbert Lee, 236)5 Steps To Move Out Of Stagnancy In Life (by Celestine Chua, 150)What Do You Need To Let Go Of? (by Craig Harper, 132)How To Save Thousands on Personal Development (by Craig Harper, 114)Can You Transform Without Getting Uncomfortable? (by Craig Harper, 99)Do Your Beliefs Empower You or Limit You? (by Craig Harper, 97)9 Ways To Tell If You Are A Self-Help Junkie (And What To Do About It) (by Celestine Chua, 90)The Not-Do List: 9 Things You Need To Stop Doing (by Celestine Chua, 940)11 Practical Ways To Stop Procrastination (by Celestine Chua, 823)13 Strategies To Jumpstart Your Productivity (by Celestine Chua, 700)Twitter Hack: 5 Ways To Up Your Visible IQ (by Seth Simonds, 505)20 Quick Tips For Better Time Management (by Celestine Chua, 497)How To Tweet in Just 5 Minutes a Week (by Seth Simonds, 229)A New Productivity for the Smartphone Era (by Francis Wade, 222)5 Types of Emails You Should be Automatically Filtering (by Sid Sivara, 170)12 Useful Ways To Get Out Of Ruts (by Celestine Chua, 164)Are You Becoming a “Productive” Moron? (by Francis Wade, 163)Staying Organized: 8 Tips for Daily Sanity (by Debbie Bowie, 160)Productivity Pr0n: 5 Unusually Useful Notepads (by Dustin Wax, 151)How I’m Getting a Smartphone, While Avoiding Crazy Habits (by Francis Wade, 144)7 Ways To Stay Grounded by Staying Organized (by Debbie Bowie, 127)Fight Bad Cellphone Habits For Better Time Management (by Francis Wade, 124)Are You a Productive Person? Look at the Number of People Waiting (by Francis Wade, 121)7 Caffeine-Free Ways to Increase Alertness (by Seth Simonds, 369)6 Steps To Remove TV From Your Life (by Celestine Chua, 357)5 Tips For Becoming An Early Riser (by Seth Simonds, 290)Do You Have A Morning Ritual? (by Seth Simonds, 279)7 Effective Ways To De-Junk Your Life (by Seth Simonds, 254)6 Proven Ways To Make New Habits Stick(by Celestine Chua, 242)9 Tips For Better Sleep (by Seth Simonds, 213)Sleep Hack: A Simple Strategy For Better Rest In Less Time (by Seth Simonds, 187)5 Simple ways to live a life you love (by Seth Simonds, 692)20 Inspirational Quotes To Brighten Your Day (by Celestine Chua, 573)7 Ways To Demonstrate True Strength (by Seth Simonds, 407)8 Life Lessons You Should Learn Today (by Mike Brown, 275)What Advice Would You Give To Your 18 Year Old Self? (by Seth Simonds, 157)11 Reasons Why You Aren’t Getting Results (by Celestine Chua, 368)11 Simple Ways To Avoid Burnout (by Seth Simonds, 348)Brilliant Thinkers Relish Ambiguity (by Paul Sloane, 340)Top 10 Resolutions To Set For The New Year (by Celestine Chua, 304)How To Be In The Right Place At The Right Time More Often (by Seth Simonds, 239)How To Start and Run a Mastermind Group (by Sid Sivara, 208)10 Tips to Create a High Performance Environment (by Debbie Bowie, 161)Change Your Focus For Better Results (by Craig Harper, 155)How To Walk On Water (by Seth Simonds, 130)How to Do What You’ve Always Wanted (by Steve Errey, 130)Education Should be More than Academic Basics (by Craig Harper, 115)63 Ways to Build Self-Confidence (by Steve Errey, 754)7 Simple Ways To Be Happier (by Seth Simonds, 509)7 Quick ways to turn a bad day around (by Seth Simonds, 449)11 Reasons to be Cheerful (by Paul Sloane, 430)5 Simple Ways To Spread Positivity (by Seth Simonds, 272)How Much Stuff Do You Need To Feel Happy? (by Seth Simonds, 254)5 Ways to Stop Second Guessing Yourself (by Steve Errey, 169)5 Ways to Brighten A Cloudy Day (by Seth Simonds, 110)9 Helpful Tips To Deal With Negative People (by Celestine, 760)9 Ways To Manage People Who Bother You (by Celestine Chua, 554)5 Simple Ways To Be A Better Listener (by Seth Simonds, 357)Top 10 Ways to Lead More Effectively with Humor (by Mike Brown, 236)5 Steps To Conquer Any Networking Event (by Seth Simonds, 183)5 Keys To A Better Love Life (by Seth Simonds, 178)5 Keys to Building Networks Over Time (by Alexandra Levit, 122)11 Paradoxes of Being a Better Public Speaker (by Mike Brown, 326)9 Expert Tips For Better Writing (by Seth Simonds, 240)10 Ways Blogging Can Improve Your Life (by Annabel Candy, 232)9 Ways To Handle Interruptions Like A Pro (by Seth Simonds, 211)8 Qualities of Powerful Writing (by Dustin Wax, 182)31 Proven Ways To Get More Comments On Your Blog (by Seth Simonds, 167)Develop Your Greatest Skill – Language (by Paul Sloane, 106)How to Tell a Funny Joke (by Hulbert Lee, 96)7 Things you should stop doing at work (by Seth Simonds, 845)8 Ways To Bring Your Creative Passions to Work (by Mike Brown, 238)9 Strategies to Make Selling Your Ideas More Successful (by Mike Brown, 192)How to Be Successful When You Can’t Plan Ahead (by Mike Brown, 190)Wise Money – 5 Tips From Billionaire Investor Warren Buffett (by Seth Simonds, 171)5 Things You Should Know About Personal Finance (by Ibrahim Husain, 137)8 Ways to Recharge a Tired Old Job (by Mike Brown, 121)How to Shine in a Job Interview (by Steve Errey, 110)It’s Time to Manage Your Online Personal Brand (by Dan Schawbel, 107)9 Great Ways to Be Exceptionally Boring (by Paul Sloane, 387)How to Feel Inspired When You’ve Lost Motivation (by Hulbert Lee, 308)12 Tips for Being Good Feng Shui (by Debbie Bowie, 256)Stop Trying To Be Creative (by Seth Simonds, 182)How to Kill a Radical Idea (by Paul Sloane, 132)The Secret to Helping Your Child Excel in School and in Life (by Erin Kurt, 183)11 Way to Instill a Love of Reading in Your Child (by Erin Kurt, 182)Parenting: 6 Myths You Should Know About (by Erin Kurt, 165)8 Reasons Why Children Misbehave (With Solutions!) (by Erin Kurt, 158)How “Fun” Can Be Your Best Discipline Technique(by Erin Kurt, 119)4 Ways to Spend Time with Your Kids When You Have No Time (by Erin Kurt, 115)Kitchen Hack: One-Minute Bread (by Seth Simonds, 2126)Newbie Fashion Tips for Grown-Up Men (by Dustin Wax, 924)11 Sinfully Easy Sangria Recipes (by Seth Simonds, 257)Kitchen Hack: 7-Minute Chocolate Covered Strawberries (by Sarah Joy Albrecht, 112)4 Tips for Getting Started and Self-Publishing a Book (by Debbie Bowie, 100)

Last but not least, here’s a special thank you to Leon Ho (founder of Lifehack.org) and all the writers at Lifehack who have contributed the articles above and more. LifeHack would not be where it is today without all of you. Thank you so much everyone! :)

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