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25 'bizarre but effective' life hacks that have actually made people's lives smoother

Creating an email for your kid when they're born to create time capsule of memories is pretty genius, gotta admit.

Photo credit: Canva

A person tying their shoes on inside.

Streamlining our days is simply a necessity as life brings us more and more to-dos with each passing moment. But luckily, necessity is the mother of invention, and people have found clever ways to make mundane tasks more efficient, more enjoyable, and more likely for us to fit into a routine.

Odds are you’ve come across a list or two sharing some of these strategies (we’ve certainly written a few), and might be thinking you’ve seen it all. That certainly seemed to be the thought going through someone’s head when they asked folks online, “What's your weirdest but most effective life hack in 2025?”

This person clarified that they didn’t want “obvious” answers, like automating bills, and used one friend’s hack of bulk-recording “angry customer rants” to play when they were put on hold too long as an example.

“Just looking for fun, clever hacks, especially for the kind of tasks you always put off, like chasing refunds or fighting with a warranty department,” the OP added. Over a thousand people responded with their kooky ways of making life more livable.

Laundry seemed to be one of the biggest dreaded tasks that people tackled. But once they found a system that worked, there was no going back.

 productivity, life hacks, cleaning hacks, productivity hacks, chatgpt for productivity, health hacks A person folding clothes.Photo credit: Canva

“If you hate putting away laundry as I do, this is the absolute best way to do it. Fold and put away like two shirts at a time then gtfo.”

“Once I recognized that you are never done with laundry it was a game changer… I identified anything that doesn't need to be folded (socks, underwear, athletic clothes, etc) and gave them bins that I can toss in laundry as I get to it. Towels were the same way. Who am I folding towels for? This ain't a hotel…I have a process flow too. When the hamper is full, do laundry. Clean and dry laundry goes into a big hamper I named the "laundry inbox". If the inbox is full...I sort. If I touch the clothes in my hamper I fold them (or at least a few)…No more rifling through clothes to find something to wear and leaving them in the bin. I probably spend a few minutes on laundry every day and this works so well. It's never done. I just keep moving things forward.”

“As soon as washing machine finishes, clothes go straight onto hangers, then hangers go straight onto the line. I even hang my underwear around the ‘neck’ of the hanger. When clothes are dry, I just grab the whole lot of hangers (with the clothes on them) together on the line, and they go straight into my wardrobe.”

“That laundry folding technique…the one where you fold items neatly and symmetrically, and then I fold the T-shirts in half again so that they slot into my drawers - you almost ‘post’ them into their slot in the drawer, and you can see your entire wardrobe at once from above.I can see all my clothes, and simply pick out the one I want without disturbing any of the others…No fumbling, unfolding them, etc. The whole process of getting dressed takes half the time it used to, and you’re never hunting for anything, turning anything inside out, getting the wrong T-shirt because you didn’t see the pattern, etc. Of course, folding the clothes takes a bit longer, so I do that in one go whilst watching TV. Time spent up front, time saved later on.”

Cleaning was also a big one. Several folks had tips for keeping things tidy despite being busy, organizationally challenged, unmotivated, neurodivergent, etc.

 productivity, life hacks, cleaning hacks, productivity hacks, chatgpt for productivity, health hacks Two people doing chores. Photo credit: Canva

“One tiny thing I like to do is that every time I leave a room, I make an attempt to leave it tidier than when I entered it. Just tidy one thing as I leave.”

“Laundry and clean the house on Thursday night so I don’t have to do shit on the weekend.”

“I work in a school, and my house gets pretty gross during the school year because my husband and I get too busy/burnt out to clean. So I invite people for a dinner party the second weekend after school ends, so I'm forced to clean up right away and we start the summer with a clean house.”

“I sweep my floor daily before bed…That way the amount of dust is bearable every day instead of clumps of cat hair from the whole week. “

“I tidy/clean every day for 15 minutes. I set a timer and stop when it goes off. This has all but eliminated the need for hour-long cleaning sessions with bigger intervals.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many people found success by sourcing some of their time management to AI. We don't need to debate the environmental or ethical implications of those (that’s another conversation), but it is worth noting how a major obstacle keeping so many of us from streamlining in the first place is mental exhaustion, plain and simple.

 productivity, life hacks, cleaning hacks, productivity hacks, chatgpt for productivity, health hacks A person using AI to streamline their workflow. Photo credit: Canva

“I struggle with decision making fatigue…I've trained my Chatgpt to be my productivity coach. So every time I struggle these days - I just go to it and type in short hand what I'm supposed to do and what I'm feeling. And just blindly follow it's advice. Like..’heyy as my productivity coach, I've been procrastinating planning this upcoming meeting. I feel like I don't have all the pieces and keep pushing it away. I have 25 mins now, help me fix it.’ Works like a charm.”

But it’s not just this kind of tech that people have used to streamline their life.

 productivity, life hacks, cleaning hacks, productivity hacks, chatgpt for productivity, health hacks A person doing all their emails at once. Photo credit: Canva

“I keep a burner email address just for warranties, returns, and shady sign ups, and I forward all receipts there manually right after a purchase.”

“I struggle with waking up, especially when an alarm is involved. Often because I have a hard time falling asleep in the first place. But I noticed on a vacation where the bedroom had skylights that couldn’t be covered that I woke up well with natural sunlight…So we installed automatic blinds in our bedroom, where it opens up a little bit at sunrise, and halfway at 8am, etc. I wake up SO much better now, which helps with the rest of my day!”

“When your kid is born…start an email address just for them. Whenever you have a thought, take a picture or video, or want to save a memory send it to that email. Over the years you will have a perfect little journal of your life with them that is safe from fires or getting lost. And when they turn 18 you can surprise them with it and give them the password as a present and they can read / see all the times you were thinking of them over the years :)”

And never underestimate the power of a good list.

 productivity, life hacks, cleaning hacks, productivity hacks, chatgpt for productivity, health hacks A person writing a to-do listPhoto credit: Canva

“I wrote a list of meals we actually all like and realistically cook all the time anyways. We pick out a meal per day on Fridays, make our shopping list and are set for a whole week without thinking once ‘whats for dinner.’”

“I make my to do list, sit down to do a leisure activity (read, watch tv, play a game), and set a 15 minute timer. When the timer goes off, I pick a task to complete from my list. When it’s done, I set a new timer, and chill for another 15 minutes. Works every time!”

“To do list for every. Single. Thing. Even the smallest, dumb things like ‘google that:...’ I don't have to store it in my brain… SO satisfying.

People also swore by doing away with daily routine tasks and consolidating them to one designated, optimal time.

 productivity, life hacks, cleaning hacks, productivity hacks, chatgpt for productivity, health hacks A Now & Later list. Photo credit: Canva

“Instead of answering messages, email, answering phone as things come in… I do it in small time blocks 3 times a day. morning, afternoon, evening. 99.9% of things aren't urgent and can wait.”

“Identify weekly tasks that can be changed to monthly. Identify monthly tasks that can be changed to every two months.”

“I invoice monthly instead of at the end of each project…I only have 1 day each month I need to check for outstanding payments rather than every day or week. You do have to get better at buffer and cashflow though.”

Finally, we saved the best, most unique ones for last:

 productivity, life hacks, cleaning hacks, productivity hacks, chatgpt for productivity, health hacks A person tying their shoes inside. Photo credit: Canva

“My biggest hack is making commitment bets with friends when I’m in a high energy state…If I have a bet I never fail it’s crazy.”

“This is a common one in the various ADHD subs but- keep your shoes and pants on until all of the tasks are taken care of… If you take your shoes off at the door, get a pair of house sneakers. If you struggle with being productive at home, put some shoes on. For some reason, having shoes on kickstarts my energy and makes me want to do things. I even bought some light sneakers I only wear inside now.”

“For the past two year, I have committed to learning one new skill every quarter. This means I focus on four skills in total each year, ranging from networking and communication to personal finance and investing, Phyton programming, running etc. To dive into each skill, I choose one high-quality book or podcast that resonates with the topic. I dedicate time to not just consume the content, but also to engage with it through listening, reading, and writing. This approach has allowed me to gain a solid understanding of each subject and apply what I've learned to real-world scenarios. The results have been remarkable! Not only has my perspective on various aspects of life expanded, but I've also seen significant growth in my professional network. Engaging with new concepts has sparked meaningful conversations and connections with like-minded individuals.”

“Get whiteboard erasers and write on the lid of your freezer everything that is inside. No need to go rummaging around trying to see what you have. Any time something new goes in, add it to the lid. Any time you take something out, erase it.”

“Take the time to consume art. Whether that’s finding artists you like and literally going to galleries, or even it’s just going to the garage or a different room with the sole reason to listen to music…But try and see the beauty in it. After a while, you start to see the beauty in everyday life.

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Difference in how 'managers' and 'makers' view time explains why some hate meetings so much

Paul Graham's explanation is spot on.

Reese Jones/Facebook

The way makers use time makes meetings far more disruptive than they are for managers.

Most people don't look at their work calendar on any given day and say, "Yay! I have a meeting!" Most of us just understand and accept that meetings are a part of work life in most industries.

Some people, however, are far more negatively impacted by scheduled meetings than others. For people involved in creating or producing, meetings are actively disruptive to work in a way that isn't often the case for managers.

A viral post with an explanation from Paul Graham breaks down why.

Graham is a computer scientist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author. In 2009, he described on his website the differences between the way managers and makers utilize work time and how meetings affect their workflow. It's a brilliant observation that rings true for people in various fields, and understanding this difference can help bridge the gap that often exists between those who work in creation or production and those who manage them.

Graham's explanation was shared by Reese Jones on Facebook with a graphic that shows the difference in how time is seen between managers (people who manage others—the bosses) and makers (writers, artists, programmers—the creators). The manager's time during the day is split into small blocks, whereas the maker's is split into two large chunks.

"One reason programmers dislike meetings so much is that they're on a different type of schedule from other people," Graham wrote. "Meetings cost them more."


Graham explained that managers and makers work on two different types of schedules. The manager's schedule looks more like an appointment book, with the day broken into one-hour intervals.

"You can block off several hours for a single task if you need to, but by default, you change what you're doing every hour," he explained. "When you use time that way, it's merely a practical problem to meet with someone. Find an open slot in your schedule, book them, and you're done."

Generally, the folks in power are on this kind of schedule. But those who make things don't think in hours. Writers, artists, programmers, and others who create for a living work in half-day units at least.

"You can't write or program well in units of an hour," wrote Graham. "That's barely enough time to get started."

Then he got to the heart of the problem with managers making meetings for makers:

"When you're operating on the maker's schedule, meetings are a disaster. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon, by breaking it into two pieces each too small to do anything hard in. Plus you have to remember to go to the meeting. That's no problem for someone on the manager's schedule. There's always something coming on the next hour; the only question is what. But when someone on the maker's schedule has a meeting, they have to think about it.

"For someone on the maker's schedule, having a meeting is like throwing an exception. It doesn't merely cause you to switch from one task to another; it changes the mode in which you work."

Bingo. As a "maker" myself, I can attest to this description being spot on for me personally. If I have to attend a meeting, it's best for it to be right at the beginning or end of those two blocks of time. Tossing one into the middle of the morning or middle of the afternoon is far more disruptive than someone who isn't a maker might understand.

Many people in the comments complained about meetings being a waste of time, but I don't think that's the case all or even most of the time. I see the value in many kinds of meetings and as someone who largely works alone, I actually do sometimes look at the calendar and say "Yay! A meeting!" The issue isn't so much meetings themselves as their timing.

Graham explained that a meeting can sometimes blow half a day for a maker—not that the meeting itself takes half a day—purely due to the interruption of the workflow.

"Each type of schedule works fine by itself," he wrote. "Problems arise when they meet. Since most powerful people operate on the manager's schedule, they're in a position to make everyone resonate at their frequency if they want to. But the smarter ones restrain themselves, if they know that some of the people working for them need long chunks of time to work in."

Graham's post can be read in its entirety here. It's worth perusing whether you're a manager or a maker. The more we understand the different ways different people operate, the more we can learn to respect and honor one another's needs, which ultimately makes us all more successful.


This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Self-proclaimed 'master procrastinator' takes us on a tour of his mind. It's so relatable.

The war between "Instant Gratification Monkey" and "The Panic Monster" is real.

Credit: TED/YouTube

Tim Urban giving his "Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator" TED Talk in 2016

Procrastination is a common but baffling phenomenon that doesn't make logical sense but most of us engage in to some degree. We know we need to do something that we don't really feel like doing, so we put it off until we have no choice but to hustle and get it done.

But some of us are habitual procrastinators to the point where we put off things we desperately don't want to procrastinate on. Unless it's something fun or super interesting, a task will get delayed until the last minute, when our panic causes a superhuman ability to kick in that enables us to complete the task in record time. Then we kick ourselves for creating so much stress over procrastinating something that we could have simply done earlier.

One such "master procrastinator," Tim Urban, gave us a glimpse inside his mind with an entertaining and oh-so-relatable TED Talk. Using rudimentary illustrations, self-deprecating humor and characters like Rational Decision-Maker, Instant Gratification Monkey and The Panic Monster, Urban demonstrates what happens in a procrastinator's brain at every point in the process.

Watch:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Urban begins by explaining how he wrote papers in college, not gradually doing a little work on it each day but rather doing it all right before it's due. But then he had a 90-page thesis to write, which should take a year. Theoretically, you would do a little at a time, building up over the course of the school year with a bigger push toward the end. But Urban kept struggling to get started, pushing his plan further and further, until he had only three days to get it done.

"And so I did the only thing I could," he said. "I wrote 90 pages over 72 hours, pulling not one but two all-nighters—humans are not supposed to pull two all-nighters—sprinted across campus, dove in slow motion and got it in just at the deadline."

Spoiler: It wasn't good.

The three characters that live in the mind of a procrastinator

Now a writer and blogger, Urban wanted to explain to non-procrastinators what happens in the brain of a procrastinator. He showed that a normal person's brain has a Rational Decision-Maker at the helm, whereas a procrastinator has both a Rational Decision-Maker and an Instant Gratification Monkey. When the Decision-Maker makes the rational decision that it's time to get some work done, Instant Gratification Monkey resists.

"He actually takes the wheel, and he says, 'Actually, let's read the entire Wikipedia page of the Nancy Kerrigan/ Tonya Harding scandal,because I just remembered that that happened,'" Urban says. "'Then we're going to go over to the fridge to see if there's anything new in there since 10 minutes ago. After that, we're going to go on a YouTube spiral that starts with videos of Richard Feynman talking about magnets and ends much, much later with us watching interviews with Justin Bieber's mom. All of that's going to take a while, so we're not going to really have room on the schedule for any work today. Sorry!'"

media.giphy.com

He explains that the monkey is only interested in two things: Easy and Fun. That causes a conflict when Rational Decision-Maker knows that we need to do something to reach a goal and have a good outcome.

"For the procrastinator, that conflict tends to end a certain way every time, leaving him spending a lot of time in this orange zone, an easy and fun place that's entirely out of the Makes Sense circle. I call it the Dark Playground. Now, the Dark Playground is a place that all of you procrastinators out there know very well. It's where leisure activities happen at times when leisure activities are not supposed to be happening. The fun you have in the Dark Playground isn't actually fun, because it's completely unearned, and the air is filled with guilt, dread, anxiety, self-hatred—all of those good procrastinator feelings."

So how does a procrastinator get out of the Dark Playground? The Panic Monster, of course. Asleep most of the time, The Panic Monster comes out when a deadline gets too close and there's some scary consequence, be it public embarrassment or a career disaster, that looms. The Panic Monster is the only thing Instant Gratification Monkey is afraid of. When he shows up, the monkey flees, allowing Rational Decision-Maker to take the steering wheel once again.

"And this entire situation, with the three characters, this is the procrastinator's system," Urban explained. "It's not pretty, but in the end, it works."

Procrastination without deadlines is actually harder to manage

However, he added, there are actually two kinds of procrastination—the kind with a deadline, where The Panic Monster inevitably always shows up, and the kind where there is no deadline, which means The Panic Monster stays asleep.

"It's this long-term kind of procrastination that's much less visible and much less talked about than the funnier, short-term deadline-based kind," Urban shared. "It's usually suffered quietly and privately. And it can be the source of a huge amount of long-term unhappiness and regrets." He said that he had heard from people who struggle with this kind of procrastination and come to the conclusion: "The frustration is not that they couldn't achieve their dreams; it's that they weren't even able to start chasing them."

Urban concluded his talk by sharing a visual of boxes, each representing a week of a 90-year life.

"That's not that many boxes, especially since we've already used a bunch of those," he said. "So I think we need to all take a long, hard look at that calendar. We need to think about what we're really procrastinating on, because everyone is procrastinating on something in life."

People in the comments appreciated feeling seen, even though many of them said they'd had the video saved to watch for months or years before finally getting around to it.

media.giphy.com

"Really the worst part of being a procrastinator is the guilt you endure everyday. Man it legit hurts."

"'The frustration wasn't that they couldn't achieve their dreams, but they weren't even able to start chasing them.' That one sentence has beautifully and effectively summed up my feelings in a way I haven't been able to."

"The worst feeling is being in the dark playground and something makes you think of the stuff you have to do. You just get that quick hit of anxiety."

"As a procrastinator I often feel like everybody else is moving forward and im just standing still."

"He just explained my whole life in 14 minutes."

Urban's talk doesn't offer much in the way of solving the procrastination problem, but he does have a whole long blog post on his website, complete with more illustrations, with advice for reducing the procrastination habit. Find his "How to Beat Procrastination" tips here.

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Finance influencer shares 'number one trick to get anything done' without procrastinating

"Task stacking: Doing something you have to do + something you enjoy doing."

via Jenny Park (used with permission) and Canva

Influencer Jenny Park and a bored woman doing chores.

A big reason many tasks don’t get done is that they are boring and seem to make time go slower than usual. Cleaning the house, doing the dishes, or folding your clothes can be a drag, so it’s easy to put them off until the last minute.

Jenny Park, a finance influencer on TikTok, has found a way to stop procrastinating: by taking advantage of the body’s ability to produce dopamine, the “feel-good” neurotransmitter.

Dopamine is part of the body’s reward center and is released when we are feeling pleasure. It floods our brain with a “rush” when we are having sex, doing drugs, shopping, scrolling through social media, or smelling cookies. It also plays a role in learning, blood vessel function and mood regulation.

Once we get a dopamine hit, we’re likely to return for more. That’s why people are easily addicted to scrolling through social media, or in extreme cases, cocaine and heroin.

Park says we can stop procrastinating over understimulating tasks by pairing them with dopamine-releasing activities.

@mohaewithjennypark

Steal this life hack and you’ll be way more productive!! #bigsisteradvice #lifetips #dopaminemenu #howtobemoreproductive #goals #productivitytips #lifeadvice #20sontiktok #adhdinwomen #adhdtips

"If there are certain mindless things around the house that I just dread doing, like putting away clothes or unloading the dishwasher, I will save certain YouTube videos or podcasts that I can only do for these specific tasks," Park explains in the video. "I'll listen to the podcast and then mindlessly do the task and it makes the time go by so much faster, then I'm tricking myself into getting dopamine from this task."

Park is right that podcasting can make mundane tasks more pleasurable. When people listen to long-form conversations that require deep engagement, their brains release dopamine, which makes them want to seek out more podcasts. So, when people say podcasts are addictive, they are correct.

"Steal this life hack and you'll be way more productive!" Park captioned her video.

The video was a big hit on TikTok, earning over 30,000 views. Park’s followers in the comments shared how they use the dopamine trick to accomplish things they don’t want to do.

“Task stacking: Doing something you have to do + something you enjoy doing,” Samantha wrote. “This is how I trained for a half marathon. I was only allowed to watch ‘New Girl’ on the treadmill and it works!” Maiden added.

This is how I get myself on the treadmill, lol,” Cait wrote. “I’ve been saving shows to only watch when I’m at the gym and it makes it fly by and makes me go in the first place.”



For Park, getting things done is all about creating the perfect space for herself to be effective, whether listening to a podcast she loves while doing something mundane or altering the timeframe for a task.

“I definitely used to struggle with procrastination until I stopped seeing it as a character flaw,” she told Upworthy. “For bigger tasks like work, I now just know that I do my best work in a tight time frame. So I will intentionally try to create that environment and not feel stressed. Or, I’ll find ways to get dopamine while still being productive. These days, I’m way more productive and less stressed.”

The bottom line on Park’s hack is that everyone works differently, and it’s okay for you to find your own way to accomplish a task, whether that means listening to a podcast or watching an episode of “Friends” while you’re doing it. Altering the time frame can also mean giving yourself a sense of urgency, as in Park's case. The key is to find what works for you and to run with it.

Follow Jenny Park on TikTok here.

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