These 20 People Online Share The Best Life Hacks They Learned Way Too Late In Life

A life hack (or life hacking) is any trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method that increases productivity and efficiency, in all walks of life. The term was primarily used by computer experts who suffer from information overload or those with a playful curiosity in the ways they can accelerate their workflow in ways other than programming.
Sometimes we discover that there is a simpler approach to carry out tasks that we have been performing in a laborious manner. And occasionally in life, that insight appears a bit too late.
But it's never too late to pick up a skill that makes life a little easier. The question "What's anything you did 'the hard way' for the longest time, since you didn't know there was a lot easier method" was asked lately on Reddit. Many people disseminated the wisdom they had acquired rather later in life.

#1

Source: acover4422

Existed.
Turns out I had undiagnosed ADHD. Getting a diagnosis and medication, at the ripe old age of 27, was life-changing. It’s like your whole life you’re walking against a current, never knowing any different; then, suddenly, the current is gone.
(Disclaimers: everyone’s ADHD is different; medication isn’t a magic “cure”; medication isn’t the solution for everyone, and that’s okay.)

#2

Source: patti2mj

Cleaning the damn microwave. I struggled to scrub all the dried up bits off then a friend told me to just put a small dish of water in it and turn it on for a couple of minutes. Everything wipes right out. I was such a dumb a*s.

#3

Source: chrisdante05

CTRL backspace to delete entire words instead of letter by letter

#4

Source:  Navyblazers2000

Hanging pictures. I used to meticulously measure and line up so my nails so they’d match the hardware on the back of the frame. Now I just use a piece of painters tape, lay it on the back of the frame, mark hardware on the frame and then remove the tape and place it on the wall and that gives you the exact placement for your picture hanging hooks and nails.

#5

Source: tomyownrhythm

When I was a kid I was bad at nail clippers. I knew to put my nail in the chompy bit at the end, but I didn’t realize that the handle/lever folded out. So I would just squeeze really hard until I broke my nail off in the blades. This went on for an embarrassingly long time before my mom saw me and taught me how to open the lever.

#6

Source: SuspectNumber6

I thought working hard (giving 120%) brought many benefits. Turns out, I still get the same benefits + my sanity by only working 80%.

#7

Source: robertodurian,

Not me but a friend of a friend hated having baths. She said it was uncomfortable lying back against the taps because they would dig into her back.

#8

Source: XabiAlon

Windows Key + V opens a list of your last 10 copies.
I think the option is turned off by default also so pressing Windows Key + V enables it initially.

#9

Source: ClownfishSoup

As a kid, whenever my bicycle wheels got warped (I crashed into stuff a lot), I would fix them by smashing the rims with a hammer. It mostly worked.
Eventually I learned that you can just tighten and loosen the spokes to straighten warped wheels. So much easier, and much less destructive.

#10

Source: truthorbrick

When you learn that *scissors* –
cut your pizza, it’s *legit*!
Pizza cutter? Leave it, brother.Piece of utter *s**t*…

#11

Source:  likes_big_books

Pumping gas. For years I held the handle the entire time. Life changing when I realized I could lock the trigger in place.

#12

Source:  three-sense

After taking a shower, you can dry yourself off (after turning the water off, of course) while still in the shower stall to prevent the bathroom floor from being wet

#13

Source: ClassicTower475

Putting the colander inside the pot on top of the food and using like a lid to drain.

#14

Source: A-D-T-P

We had a pool when I was a kid, swam at the public pool all winter. So lots of water time. Worst thing was having to get out and go pee, because as a girl you’d have to pull your bathing suit down and sit there cold and naked and then have to pull on a cold, wet suit and it was sticky and icy and awful. I’d hold it until I absolutely had to go.
Occurred to me as an adult you can just pull the crotch part to the side, and it stays put while you pee.

#15

Source:  ethottly

Parchment paper. No more scrubbing off baked- on cheese and sauce. If it goes in the oven, I use parchment paper.

#16

Source:  regcrusher

My dishwasher is across the kitchen from my utensil drawer. For years, while unloading the dishwasher I would stuff as many utensils as I could in my hands. I’d inevitably drop some, and there are a few knicks in my hardwood floor from dropping forks and spoons.
One day at work, a coworker unloaded the dishwasher and removed the utensil basket and carried it over to the utensil drawer. I never felt so dumb.

#17

Source: man-panda-pig

I’ve been opening pistachios with my thumbs for 30 years until I saw my wife use half a shell to wrench her next one open and then my mind exploded.

#18

Source: AlterEdward

Clean your blender by making a hot water and dish soap smoothie.

#19

Source:pob125

Keep shaking the shaving gel and struggling to more than a quarter of the can out…till it dawned on me that they are pressurised and every shake causes it to lose pressure therefore makes dispatching it harder…I’ve now used many and actually got the bottom of every can by simply not shaking them…I’m 40 and also an engineer.
Had a complete and utter brain fart since I started shaving.

#20

Source: LateMojito

My BlackBerry had the worst predictive text system I’d ever seen. It kept suggesting accented characters, words that didn’t exist, and was a total clusterfuck in every way.
After a year or so I was browsing the settings and found that predictive text had been set to “French”.