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Ask HN: Little hacks that make your life easier?

48 points by ajonit ↗ HN
Everyone has those own little workarounds that make life easier.

Here are a couple of mine -

1. Using AutoHotKey to write my signatures, frequently used expressions (ex: plm becomes "Please let me know if you need some more information." , answers to frequently asked queries by customers, open specific files with a keyboard shortcut)

2. Using IFTTT : This tool helps a lot. One of the ways I use it is to save my monthly utility bills (arriving in Gmail) automatically every month direct in my chartered accountant's shared dropbox folder. That email in turn is auto archived, so such bills are completely out of my way.

What are your time saving hacks that you use frequently?

83 comments

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Mizza
ag. I use this tool between 50 and 100 times a day.

https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher

jasonlotito
How does it compare to just using git grep?
jeffreyrogers
It works outside of git repositories and is faster than grep or awk.
ics
Especially helpful in emacs with projectile (which has a function projectile-ag). Create a quick binding to locate all the FIXMES and feel free to experiment. Maybe it should also open file and mark the lines in a new frame for ultimate bug squashing...
jaredmcateer
It's noticeably faster than grep but I would say, in my experience anyways, only academically faster than ack. Both are so fast I can't really notice a difference when scanning my massive codebase.
ivan_ah
The Mac OS text-to-speech tool is awesome for proofreading.

Another use for it is to be read blog posts to while doing the dishes and making coffee.

jeffreyrogers
You can also use it from the terminal with the `say` command, e.g. `say -f myfile.txt`
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philip1209
Create a public link to your availability from google calendar and share it with people to decrease the time it takes to schedule meetings.
notduncansmith
A Mac app called Alfred has saved me countless hours. It comes with a clipboard manager (extremely useful), and the ability to create custom workflows/hotkeys, which I use to switch back and forth between Skype, Chrome, and Sublime. iTerm2 already has a hotkey feature built in, but if it didn't I'd have made one (takes <30 seconds).

Following Gary Bernhardt's advice, mapping Caps Lock to a modifier key (he recommends Control I think, I mapped it to Alt) has been awesome.

Aliasing common Git commands to 2-3 letter commands has been nice. gc -> git commit, gaa -> git add --all, gpom -> git push origin master, etc.

Vimium for Chrome is nice if you're used to Vim keybindings for navigating.

hop is a command-line tool for jumping to directories (or SSH'ing into servers). Immensely valuable.

philip1209
We have an internal wiki page with custom alfred formulas for our company.

"customer <email>"

"domain <domain>"

"logs <logs>""

It makes life for engineers, support, and sales much more efficient.

notduncansmith
I wish there were enough Mac users at our company to make this worthwhile. Is your whole team on OS X?
philip1209
No, but in general company laptops are macbooks. They play nicely with virtualized operating systems, SSHing into *nix servers, windows via bootcamp, etc.

The Alfred formulas are shared more out of courtesy than a company need.

alialkhatib
I actually feel like Vimium is nice even if you're not familiar with Vim. Or that was my experience. And when I later made a conscious effort to learn Vim's commands and use it more frequently, the navigation controls I had learned in Vimium made the learning curve less steep than I think it typically is for people first starting out.
lenage
I also recommend autojump, it make cd directories easier
thatswrong0
When I'm paying with a card I hold my wallet until I get my card back. I wrote myself a script and have my dot files on github to make setting up a new machine quicker. Tons of gmail filters. Ian's knot to tie my shoes (I know, doesn't really save time, I think there's an XKCD that shows the break even point on time investments like that). Aliases like 'helpme' that remind me of some Git commands I always forget. Brush my teeth while peeing.

Yeah, mostly stupid little things.

freditup
I like these tips: - Holding your wallet also helps you be sure to put the card back in your wallet and not someplace else. - I think everyone agrees that the dotfiles one is useful - I personally need a better shoelace know as opposed to a faster one haha, but always fan of when people are willing to do something unconventionally and better
myhf 

    echo 127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com >> /etc/hosts
grimtrigger
Whats this do?
TeMPOraL
Easily increases your productivity by factor of 2-4.
notduncansmith
On a busy news day, probably closer to 8 for me. Seriously. It can be a real problem. I actually took the plunge and did this for a while, and now I feel I've built up enough self-control to not need it. The difference has been amazing.
pizza
Blocks HN by re-routing requests to HN to localhost
m3mnoch
weird. i think he's gone. i guess we'll never find out what it does now.
yamaneko
For those using Windows, the file is C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts.
[dead] pennies
Every time a penny passes through your hands, stick it up your ass and then spend it. It’s a long-term strategy. I’ve been doing this for 11 years now. Every day for the past 11 years, I’ve stuck $30 dollars in pennies up my ass. I use them for everything: cab rides, movie theaters, groceries. That’s a lot of ass pennies I’ve got out there, my friend. And here’s where the magic comes in: When I meet with someone who intimidates me, who put me on edge, a real hard-ass, I just think to myself, "They’ve probably handled one of my ass pennies." In fact they probably have one in their pocket right then. That just seems to give me the upper hand. I mean, hey, I haven’t touched anything that was in their ass.
joncrocks
Never underestimate the power of ass pennies.
saurabh
1. Synergy

I use Synergy to use my netbook's keyboard and touchpad for my workstation. I just zoom everything up on the workstation and lay back on the bed and code. Very cool. Bash alias on both systems is "synergize"

The next thing that I am going to do is switch the server and client roles automatically so that when I am using the workstation I would be able to control my netbook.

2. Tmux

I ssh to the workstation from my netbook and attach to a running Tmux session. Feels like working locally.

3. Redshift

Decrease brightness in the evening, I have a bash alias called "soothing" which does the job.

4. Wake on Lan

Start the workstation in the bedroom if I am in another room. Bash alias "wakywaky"

5. Map Caps Lock to Esc

Just do it. Useful if you are a vimmer.

6. Vimium

Useful if you are a vimmer.

7. A simple text file to track TODO's with vim

Vim makes it super easy to track TODO items. No plugin required. You can move around and makes changes quite fast.

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sciurus
Related to #7, I use a shell alias to open vim with three splits:

    alias wl="vim -o $HOME/worklog/{todo,progress,done}"
Tasks flow down the splits. If you'd prefer tasks to go left-to-right, use `-O`.
saurabh
Nice. I am stealing this. I have the leader mapped to <Space>. And I move around splits and tabs using this.

    "New horizontal split
    nmap <leader>s :split<CR>

    "New vertical split
    nmap <leader>v :vsplit<CR>

    "New tab
    nmap <leader>t :tabe<CR>

    "Easy close
    nmap <leader>q :q<CR>

    " Split navigation
    nmap <leader>j <C-W>j
    nmap <leader>k <C-W>k
    nmap <leader>h <C-W>h
    nmap <leader>l <C-W>l

    "Tabs like Vimium 
    noremap <S-j> :tabprevious<CR>
    noremap <S-k> :tabnext<CR>
ejstronge
You should check out `:help CTRL-W_v` and most of `:help opening-window` in general; the first few of your shortcuts are already in Vim by default. I had similar shortcuts until a serendipitous trip into the help docs.
saurabh
You are right. I used to use them but pressing Ctrl was a pain in the pinky finger. :sp and :vs is 2 more keys to press. Using Space as a leader makes everything available at the flick of my thumb. I rarely ever move my eyes to the command pane.

I forgot to mention that I have mapped Space+P to CtrlP fuzzy finder. That too is a one pinch like operation, even though it requires two keypresses.

lenage
Also related to #7, I use Todo txt(http://todotxt.com), and also create an alias to switch to my project folder

   cd ~/my/project/path && todo -+@ ls +project
that will show my TODO list
ramoq
Give Planleaf a shot for (7). I use it to track everything. Just send an email to tasks@planleaf.com with a blank subject line and enter your tasks starting with a dash in the body. It will append to a personal todo list. Rinse and repeat. It sends awesome daily digests on all my tasks :)
notduncansmith
I don't find myself needing Esc very often in Vim. Then again, I do have jk mapped to Esc, and ;; maps to Esc: which is usually why I want to leave insert mode in the first place.

I have Caps Lock mapped to Alt instead, which pairs nicely with various app hotkeys (Alt+T for iTerm2, Alt+E for Sublime, Alt+S for Skype, Alt+Space to pop Alfred, etc), plus the Cmd+Alt+whatever bindings for various things.

mjdwitt
Moreover, pressing alt while in insert mode causes the next key to run as if pressed in normal mode. I usually use this instead of escape for those times when I don't want to go into command mode.

One caveat, however. I recently switch to OS X and have yet to figure out how to get alt/option to behave this way. Really my only major gripe about OS X vs. linux.

thomasvarney723
I can't recommend LastPass enough. Also, PIA for VPN. I put a little cash and my credit card in my phone case so that I have only one thing to carry and always have money on me. I really liked f.lux when I used windows, if only I had a decent replacement for ChromeOS.
tokenizerrr
I really want to like LastPass, but I can't get over all of my passwords being stored on someone elses server. Doesn't that seem like a terrible security risk?
berberous
Well, this scares me:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/11/lastpass-finds-security-hol...

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/07/severe-password-mana...

PeterWhittaker
The LastPass vulnerabilities affected only bookmarklets (used by less than 1% of LP users, according to LP) and OTPs (no estimates for use).

I've been using LP for over a year, didn't know either feature existed until the disclosure: I use it strictly for its main capability, encrypted and unique site passwords.

nacs
The data is decrypted client side only. The server only stores an encrypted version that you send via SSL.
dblandin
I'm a big fan of KeyPassX which you use can easily store locally or sync via Dropbox.
elementai
You can use orange/yellow tinted glasses instead of f.lux, also works vs other sources of blue light.
LVB
My shirt rack has three "zones". Clean clothes go in zone 1. When I take out a shirt, I put a special color hanger in its place. At night I hang up my shirt in the next zone, or chuck it in the hamper as appropriate.

My memory for little stuff sucks, so this makes it easy to wear each one three times.

jacknews
or wear a clean shirt every day. Just sayin.
wlievens
And spend the better part your life ironing?
DanBC
A clean shirt on a clean body probably isn't gettin too dirty to wear after one or two wears.

Not washing clothes until they need to be washed is probably environmentally beneficial - saving all that water and energy.

hnriot
that's kinda gross! what's so hard about wearing clean clothes?
clarkm
Do you wash your jeans after each time you wear them?
kareemm
If I need to take something with me out of the house that I don't normally take (i.e. NOT my laptop bag, keys, etc), I leave it on the floor beside the door out of my apartment. Which means I can't help but look at it when walking out the door.
notduncansmith
My fiancee used to think I was nuts for doing this! This entire thread has really helped validate a lot of my personal habits. Thanks, HN.
tshaddox
A common one, but undeniably useful: find a type of sock you like, buy a bunch of them, then throw out or donate your old ones. Then never sort those socks again.
dgemm
Never even fold socks again. Pull out two and they always match!
reubenpressman
I've done this with all of my shirts, pants/shorts, and briefs as well.
MadMoogle
Have you ever had an issue with people asking why you wear the same shirt all week?
sjs382
I do this once per year or so. I call it "sock bankruptcy". I've also started doing this more recently with undershirts, underwear, etc.
elnate
Resealable sandwich bags. I use them to portion food, either raw or cooked, and freeze. It means even if I'm working 50+ hours this week I can cook a couple of meals on Sunday and be sorted for the week. It also means that, since I live communally but cook by myself, I don't have to eat the same meal for four days in a row.
philip1209
I use ball jars. They are reusable, they basically never spill during transit, and they fulfill multiple other roles.
conductr
My credit card details are saved in my Gmail account because when I want to buy something online my wallet is usually in another room

I feel the risk is low, I trust google enough and there's really no risk as a cardholder anyway

DanBC
The risk is low, but if the issuing bank finds out that your CC details were stored online they'd refuse to cover you if you were hit by fraud.
elementai
I store credit card details in a password manager that allows free-form entries (for example "pass").
bkjelden
I am terrible at remembering things, so for parts of my daily routine, I will just remember the number of things I need to grab/do, rather than the things themselves.

For example, there are 9 things I need to put in my gym bag when I pack it before going to the gym/work. Remembering that there are 9 things is much easier for me than remembering that list of 9 things, so I can just count as I'm packing and know when I'm done, and the probability of something foreign getting in is very low (although I have on occasion packed two pairs of socks instead of socks + underwear - never a fun way to start the day).

Or another example - I need 4 things in my pockets before I leave for work - keys, wallet, phone, work badge. The count of 4 is way easier for me to remember than the 4 things themselves.

ryandvm
I don't use deodorant. At all. I haven't for about two years now. And I guarantee you that I have less underarm smell than you.

Every morning I splash a squirt of rubbing alcohol under each arm. No smell, no white powder, no creepy aluminum salts.

MadMoogle
Same, except I use an alum block instead of alcohol. I also don't use shampoo, conditioner or soap on my body. I shower daily with cold(ish) water and only water.
elementai
Alcohol damages skin in the long term, there are a lot of safer antiseptic options.
dmishe
and why is this better?
rushi_agrawal
As someone who use git quite a lot, I have created a TON of aliases for it, so that I have to type very less. Sometimes, I have created bash functions as it needs to handle some logic too.

For example: gl (git log), gb (git branch), gr (git remote -v), gpom (git push origin master), gpuom (git pull origin master), gcam (git commit -a -m), gcaa (git commit --amend -a), gc <github-ID>/<repository> (git checkout -b https://github.com/$1), etc

attilagyongyosi
This is exactly what I did when we started our current project at work, on which we use Git. I also made aliases gl, gr, gb. gc means 'git commit -m' for me, and I have gco for 'git checkout', gcb for 'git checkout -b', gpod for 'git push origin develop' and gpud for 'git push upstream develop'. Made my life so much easier. :)
xcdz
Get a dressing gown/robe if you want to be warm at night but don't want to sleep with heavy clothing, and want to be decent if someone knocks at the door.

Sounds obvious, but I never realized how useful it is.

MadMoogle
Instead of keeping squishy balls at my desk, I have something that resembles Thor's hammer, except it's weighted. I play with it idly during the day[0], which helps strengthen my grip and forearms. I started doing this when my hands started to show signs of RSD. Haven't had an issue with it since.

[0] I don't swing it, as I'm too worried about accidentally hitting somebody.

Moemars
Stopped shampooing and conditioning hair (they either have chemicals, are expensive or smell terrible).

My showers take 5 minutes. Saves time, water and hydrates your skin.