Life Hacks – Spoken Edition

Welcome back to Mid-Week Meditations, Lifehacker’s weekly dip into the pool of stoic wisdom, and a guide to using its waters to reflect on and improve your life. This week’s selection comes from Socrates, by way of the stoic philosopher Epictetus. In Epictetus’s Discourses (3.

Open offices are a panopticon hellhole. They might make it easier to collaborate, and they might help your boss pack more workers into a smaller space, but they leave you in earshot of every little sound your co-workers make. (You get to see and smell them, too!) The most obvious coping mechanisms—headphones, phone booths, hiding in conference rooms—rely on closing up that openness.

iOS, Android: Keepsafe, the company behind privacy-focused apps like Blur for iMessage and Private Photo Vault (iOS, Android), launched a new app this week for browsing the web privately. Aptly named Keepsafe Browser (iOS, Android ), the browser prevents third-party trackers from snooping on your mobile web browsing and comes with a built-in ad blocker to give you a little more privacy as you peruse the web.

The hardest task on most to-do lists is the invisible one: getting motivated to do anything at all. And the more important your tasks are, the more you can scare yourself out of even starting. One trick to fight this, according to the producers of the YouTube channel How to ADHD, is a simple meditation-like technique. In a Reddit thread, Edward and Jessica McCabe share different methods for dealing with ADHD’s symptoms, including getting easily distracted from tasks.

Losing your wallet is like losing a part of you. Everything is in there—your driver’s license, your credit cards, your membership IDs, and your photos of loved ones. This clever trick can help you avoid losing your wallet forever the next time you venture out into the outdoors.

Mac: Sometimes, an app doesn’t have to do a lot to be incredibly useful. And that’s exactly why I like Simple Recorder. As its name implies, it allows you to turn your Mac into a miniature sound-recording machine, whether you’re looking to capture the noise blasting out of your speakers or the sounds of wherever it is you happen to be using your laptop (or desktop, I suppose). The app, completely free for basic use, can be found on the Mac App Store.

I’m very good at wanting to buy things. I want to buy a new sound system, for example. This would mean ripping five speakers out of my walls, patching up the holes, and buying a $700 soundbar. My wife points out that the current system works well, and asked me why I want to replace it. And I had to admit why: I have to control the sound system with a second remote, which I hate. My wife pointed out that solving this is not worth $700 and a weekend project.

Windows: I’m sitting in Las Vegas as I type this, and little makes you want to launch yourself off the face of the Earth faster than running into a group of loud, yelling bros looking for that next sweet bar where they can fill up on Coors Light. Sitting here in my hotel room, hearing people running down the hall yelling their faces off, gave me a moment to think about an app that’s perfect for a little celestial zen: SpaceEngine.

I’m a tremendous fan of dark modes. They’re easier on your eyes and your computer’s battery, and I think make using sites and apps a lot more pleasant. Unfortunately, not every site offers a dark mode (this one included). However, this week I came across a web extension that can make the magic happen anywhere you want it to.

Pringles—those stackable chips made from a slurry of wheat, rice, corn, and potato flakes—can be a hassle to get out of the can. Maybe not at first, but let’s face it: once you start eating them, no matter how gross you may feel, you’re going to keep eating them until you get to the bottom of the container. That leaves you with two options: Try to wedge your entire hand in the can to get the last few chips. Flip the container and deal with whatever falls out.

Almost every service you use on the web that involves a username and password is in some ways collecting information about you. In some cases, that info might just be your email and a few identifying data points like your age or gender. In others, (cough :: Facebook) you’re handing over information about your likes and dislikes, who your friends are, and even where you go during the day.

Taking a nap, we've seen time and again, is like rebooting your brain. But napping may be as much of an art as it is a science. The Wall Street Journal offers recommendations for planning your perfect nap, including how long to nap and when.

When I was 17, my parents decided I could have my own car. My mother had bought the car in question new 10 years earlier but wasn’t the best at taking care of it. That meant that when she decided to buy a new car and pass it along to me, it was in need of some pretty serious repairs.

Google Translate is an app that’s been critical to my success when traveling in other countries. When you don’t speak the language (or don’t speak the language well) somewhere you’re traveling, being able to quickly look something up, or speak into the phone to create a translation you can use to chat with that guy on the street can be a lifesaver. Google has offered the option to download languages to use offline for a while.

Or Mother’s Day. Or your birthday. My dad does not like gifts. Every Father’s Day I tell him I got him the same thing: the knowledge of knowing that I didn’t spend any money on something he doesn’t need. His response: “It’s what I’ve always wanted!” He claims that we don’t need a manufactured holiday to show how much we love our family.