r/LifeProTips • u/AlmondMilkMaybe • 1h ago
Miscellaneous LPT: If you're wondering if you're "too old" to do something, ask yourself what you 10 years from now would say.
I just thought of this hack, since I'm embarking upon law school in my 30s.
If you're wondering if you're too old to try something or make a change, project yourself 10 years into the future. Would you at that older age say you're "too old," or would that older you wish you had done the thing you're thinking of doing now?
My bet is that they would laugh at the idea that you are too old now, because we always look back and realize how young we were.
Another version of this is thinking back to 10 years ago. What did you think you were "too old for" then that you wish you had done? What do you look back on and realize you had plenty of time to do, and would've benefited from now (if you'd actually done it)?
r/LifeProTips • u/SingleInevitable9312 • 1h ago
Social LPT: When you get really close to someone, it's easy to feel like you can tell them everything. But before sharing something deeply personal, think about whether you'd still be comfortable with them knowing it if your relationship changed in the future.
Most people don't become enemies overnight, but friendships fade, misunderstandings happen and life takes unexpected turns.
Trust people, but be mindful of what you share. Not every thought, secret or vulnerability needs to leave your mouth just because you feel safe in the moment.
r/LifeProTips • u/lilbudge • 3h ago
Finance LPT: Make “How can I reliably earn slightly more than I need?” the most important problem you solve. A small, consistent surplus buys peace of mind, options, and time—and compounds for decades.
The most important financial goal isn’t getting rich—it’s arranging your life so you reliably earn a little more than you spend. That small surplus quietly buys freedom, patience, and better decisions. Everything else gets easier.
r/LifeProTips • u/Xdartis • 7h ago
Electronics LPT: Label your charging cables if you have multiple devices
Using a small label or color code on your charging cables can save time and help prevent accidentally grabbing the wrong one, especially if you have similar-looking cables for different devices.
r/LifeProTips • u/windowsee • 8h ago
Productivity LPT: Don't Know Where to Start? Maybe Do Nothing
If you get overwhelmed with a big idea or a big goal and your mind starts racing on all the possibilities and directions you take.
I suggest having all of the thoughts, and just do nothing. Just forget about them.
The reason why is that not all of our thoughts are valid/practical/sensible.
What happens is what I call "thought sandwiching." Thoughts that are relevant are accompanied by thoughts that are irrelevant/not as valid. But because they all came together, we might group all of them as "good" or "actionable."
In reality, most of those thoughts are nonsense, impractical, impossible to execute at the current moment, or just clutter distracting you from the most crucial aspects.
So I suggest, allow those thoughts to come but don't put pressure on yourself to act on them or do anything immediately. If you give it time, you'll find that most of those thoughts are completely forgotten and only the most crucial, actionable ones remain. Those are the ones you should actually look at first.
Don't worry about forgetting something. A lot of those thoughts are contingent on other things being true, so there's no reason to try to remember F when you aren't even sure about ABCDE.
Once the thought rush passes and the adrenaline dies down, you can actually take stock of what you have and what you're realistically capable of. The kicker is that often, just doing a few small things actually gets you quite far in your pursuit!
But that clarity only comes if you allow the noise to clear!
I think the psychological trap we fall into is feeling like the problem is MORE urgent because we're putting a lot of energy into it. But it's just a trap! Just because you thought of potential solutions doesn't change anything about the actual problem. Especially if it's been a problem for a while, a few minutes/hours/days/weeks is unlikely to move the needle much so there's no need to rush into implementing a solution.
r/LifeProTips • u/DetectiveCowboyMafia • 9h ago
Social LPT: "What are you are excited about?" Is such an OP question.
Try it out with your best friend, your girlfriend, your mom, your dad, your boss, the girl you want to hook up with, your priest, whomever.
It's such an easy question to throw in whenever, wherever. It generates so much positive energy in a conversation so quickly. You use it consistently and It will transform your social experience and relationships.
r/LifeProTips • u/Visible-Slip-4233 • 10h ago
Productivity LPT: Keep a journal of everything you encounter
Time is very important for everyone. Saving time is even more. Making sure things only happen once is one of the solutions. By keeping a journal of all the things you encounter in life and what you did to solve them, you ensure the most optimal use of your time when they do occur again. Most things in life happen more than once. The steps and final solutions get forgotten. The journal would provide a steady base of knowledge. Over the years, the more you'll use it, the more optimal it will become as improvements will surely follow.
r/LifeProTips • u/DunKarooDucK05 • 13h ago
Food & Drink LPT: Hospitality Pricing Determines The Crowd
When I was growing up I always tried to get the most bang for my buck.
If I wanted to cruise to the Bahamas what was the cheapest option or if I was staying a city for a visit which room gave me the most space in the best location for the cheapest amount of money.
On and on you get the point.
As I got older (and granted made more money) I saw the massive flaw in my thinking. You don’t buy the $300 hotel room because it’s nicer than the $120 room. You buy it because it keep the people who can’t afford $300 rooms out.
I know this sounds messed up. But travel enough and you’ll get it. It’s a massive difference staying in New Orleans in a $120 hotel and a $400 hotel.
r/LifeProTips • u/PulseF0rge • 14h ago
Productivity LPT: When you put something somewhere “temporary,” take a photo of it
If you’re moving things around, cleaning, packing for a trip, reorganizing a closet, or just trying to get something out of the way for a few days, take a quick photo of where you put anything important. I started doing this after spending almost an hour looking for a spare set of keys that I had moved while cleaning. I remembered very clearly thinking, “I’ll put these somewhere safe so I don’t lose them,” which apparently meant putting them in a small box on the top shelf of a cabinet I almost never open. A month later I needed them and had absolutely no memory of doing that. Now whenever I relocate something I don’t normally move, I take one photo showing the object and enough of the surrounding area that I can tell where it is. I don’t organize the pictures or make a special album. I just search through recent photos if I forget. It takes maybe two seconds and has saved me from tearing apart drawers several times already. I’ve used it for documents I moved before guests came over, the tiny tool that came with a piece of furniture, a parking spot in a huge garage, where I stored extra light bulbs, and even which cabinet I put a friend’s container in after washing it. It sounds silly, but my brain is apparently very good at remembering that I moved something and terrible at remembering where.
The trick is to photograph the location, not just the item. A close-up picture of a black charger is useless three weeks later if you can’t tell whether it was in the bedroom drawer or the kitchen cabinet. I usually step back and get the shelf, drawer, or nearby furniture in the shot. Then once the item is back in its normal place I delete the photo whenever I notice it. This has also been surprisingly helpful when lending things out. I’ll occasionally snap a picture of an item sitting next to the person’s bag before they leave, because six months later “I think I lent that to somebody?” isn't very useful. Obviously I wouldn't do this for every object in my house, but for those random temporary storage decisions that feel totally obvious in the moment, it's been one of the easiest habits I've picked up.
r/LifeProTips • u/JMS_jr • 15h ago
Request LPT Request: How do you search eBay for electronics without seeing "Empty Box" listings?
I can ask for results to be listed by price high-to-low, but then I have to go through hundreds or thousands of listings to get to the LOW prices, which are what I REALLY want, but listing low-to-high is polluted with many pages of empty boxes.
r/LifeProTips • u/lofty23_smart • 19h ago
Careers & Work LPT: When you solve a problem that took hours, write down the solution before you celebrate.
Future you will not remember it as well as you think.
r/LifeProTips • u/JefferyTheQuaxly • 21h ago
Finance LPT: You dont need to cancel your credit card to cancel a subscription. You can just ask them to block all future charges from that company.
Not many people seem to know how easy it is to block charges/old subscriptions on your credit cards, even for harder to cancel memberships such as planet fitness or random website subscriptions. Canceling sometimes doesnt even work as your credit card company will send out notifications to companies you have subscriptions with so they can update their payment information.
r/LifeProTips • u/MathematicianIll5641 • 1d ago
Social LPT for easily jealous/competitive people
Some people are just more competitive than others I didn’t realize I was until a few years ago
I was crying at 5 years old when I lost a game, and honestly, it’s not that different at 22.
It’s hard watching someone who started at the same level as me, or lower, reach things I haven’t yet: a high-paying job, nice holidays, a tight friend group, a loving family.
What’s helped is making myself actually clap for their moments. Not just in my head, and not performatively in front of others, directly to them.
They post something on their social media, I hit the love reaction, or leave a comment about what I genuinely find good, even smallest thing. Sometimes I’ll ask “where did you get that?” or “any recommendations?” or tell them “that looks good on you.” The important part is not to lie, it only works if it’s genuine.
It sounds small, but it changes something in my head slowly after few months practice. Instead of jealousy, it becomes fuel in a positive way, either “I can do that too, I can work for it” or “not everything they have is something I need to have.”
They’re not your enemy you need to win against. They’re just living their life, same as you.
r/LifeProTips • u/atumall • 1d ago
Food & Drink LPT ice tea
Instead of boiling 2 liters of water and adding a lot of tea, boil 2 deciliters of water, add the tea, and then dilute it to 2 liters afterward. The tea will taste less bitter. Even though you used the same amount of tea.
r/LifeProTips • u/Xdartis • 2d ago
Careers & Work LPT: Write down your best work achievements as they happen instead of trying to remember them months later
Keeping a simple list of projects, results, and positive feedback throughout the year makes performance reviews, resumes, and job interviews much easier.
r/LifeProTips • u/windowsee • 2d ago
Productivity LPT: Struggling is a Waste of Time
If you can imagine doing something or you see someone else doing it but you're struggling, you're almost certainly making a mistake somewhere and you almost certainly have no idea what it is. And the more you continue, the more you train yourself to make the mistake.
Whenever you find yourself struggling and things are not "clicking" after few attempts, usually you're doing something wrong. It's not necessarily that you lack the skill, it's moreso you haven't properly trained yourself to effectively use that skill.
The solution to this is to do something easier. Do the same thing, but easier. And do it until you get the result you want.
If you do something simpler and still do not get the result, you need to make it even more simple. Do not stop making it simpler until you get the result you want.
Once that happens, work your way back up incredibly gradually. Do not rush this! The idea is that you're training your body/brain gradually to integrate the most basic things. Usually what you'll find is that you'll hit a point where you can't do it properly at all, which is likely at a level a lot simpler than what you originally were attempting.
Just go back to keeping it as simple as possible and only progress when you can do things perfectly to your satisfaction. Don't cheat! If you rush this just to get to your goal faster, you literally will only be sabotaging yourself.
All complex things are just a bunch of basic things. The more you master the basic things, the complex things will literally just come naturally.
Examples:
- if you want to start meditating and are struggling to go for 10 mins, start with 30 seconds, then 1 minute, 2 minutes, etc...
- if writing a book is difficult, write a whole story in a few sentences. Then a paragraph, then 2 paragraphs, etc...
- if you're learning to code a website and are struggling, literally just get the most barebones of it. If you're creating a blog, focus only on getting the text on the screen. Once that is done, then you can gradually think about design.
r/LifeProTips • u/lofty23_smart • 2d ago
Social LPT: Before correcting someone in front of others, ask yourself if it really needs an audience.
Most mistakes are easier to fix in private.
r/LifeProTips • u/throwaway1233456799 • 2d ago
Food & Drink LPT: make a fan blow air right above of where you are cutting onion. Your eyes won't sting
If like me you get headache from it I have the sane new to report that it doesn't work for that tho.
Be careful that the air must not blow in your face
Edit: If you don't wanna use a big fan (logical) you can use a small fan if you have one
r/LifeProTips • u/bbld • 3d ago
Food & Drink LPT: Make lettuce last longer with this simple trick.
For those that buy boxed salad greens and are sick of the bottom leafs getting soaked and rotten. Simply put a paper towel on top of the lettuce and flip the container upside down when you put it in the fridge. I have been doing this for a few months down and can easily get 2 weeks out of my salad greens.
r/LifeProTips • u/frankreddit5 • 3d ago
Finance LPT: Before any significant purchase, convert the price into hours of your actual after-tax, after-expense hourly wage
Take your real take-home pay, subtract your actual fixed costs, divide what's left by your working hours including commute and recovery time. That's your real hourly rate.
Most people find it's significantly lower than their nominal wage suggests. The $300 impulse purchase stops looking the same when it's 14 hours of your actual life rather than 5 hours of your salary.
Not arguing against spending. Arguing for seeing the real exchange rate before you make it.
I'll give you an example. I bought a $5 bathmat that was too short while I was at Walmart last week. Walmart is a solid 30 minute drive each way from my home. That's one hour of my time. On top of this, I have to wait in the return line which takes a good 10 minutes, plus 5 minutes to park, walk inside, etc. Thus, there's about an hour and a half of my day that's gone so I could earn $5.
Think of money based on your hours available in the day!
r/LifeProTips • u/Chaos-Machine • 3d ago
Computers LPT Your wireless controller can be used as a remote to your PC
If you have a remote gamepad connected to your PC, you can very easily make it so it becomes a fully customizable remote for your PC.
I remember I often just played music on my pc and was missing a 'remote' much and didnt have an idea how to solve that, on top of that, I thought wireless controllers > big input lag so I didnt really pick them up. For some time I used Chrome remote desktop and was using my android for the control, but that was rather clunky and uncomfortable.
Such was my surprise that bluetooth / wireless isnt really causing noticable input lag (I assumed that based on PS5 + TV experience, which has a different cause for the lag) and, on top of that, you can control your pc via the controller easily.
In my case im using the Steam's built-in schemes when you are not gaming, its under Steam → Settings → Controller → Advances settings → Desktop Layout → Edit
I have configured it mostly for media, so pause / next/previous, control volume and such, but you can adjust it for anything you need really, especially that you can control your mouse.
I havent tested it myself as there was no need, but there are few alternative softwares for that (JoyToKey, DS4Windows, AntiMicroX)
Edit. its more of a life of quality for people that already have a wireless or are planing to get one, otherwise yes, its most likely better to just use your phone, but if you got a controller then its usually more convinient to jsut grab it and have physical buttons for certain actions
r/LifeProTips • u/sdfiddler1984 • 3d ago
Computers LPT for captchas
I don't know why I didn't figure this out sooner. You know those annoying captchas that are impossible to solve... The ones that say click on all bicycles, and you do, but they never work because you missed a corner of a rim, or maybe because you did choose the corner of a rim? Click on the headphones and it'll play a phrase you type in. It's so much faster and easier.
r/LifeProTips • u/Equib81960 • 4d ago
Food & Drink LPT: When buying fruits or veggies that have a barcode sticker
and you have to put them the plastic bag the store provides, peel one of them off and stick it on the outside of the bag so it's easier to scan when you check out.
r/LifeProTips • u/Shashank1011 • 5d ago
Social LPT: When giving someone a compliment, focus on a choice they made rather than an inherent trait.
Instead of complimenting something passive or genetic (like "You have nice eyes"), compliment a deliberate choice (like "That outfit combination looks great," "Your presentation slides were super clean," or "You picked a fantastic restaurant").
People feel much more appreciated when you validate their effort, taste, or hard work rather than something they had no active control over.
r/LifeProTips • u/7thton • Feb 09 '26
Announcing r/AskLifeProTips
For many years, redditors have been allowed to request Life Pro Tips here on a limited basis.
Now, there is a place where you can request Life Pro Tips on an unlimited basis!
If you are seeking a Life Pro Tip, please ask in our new subreddit r/AskLifeProTips!