If you want Microsoft Teams to keep showing you as Online while you're away from your computer, there’s a simple trick:

1. Create a new meeting with only yourself in it.
2. Join the meeting. Your status will change to Busy.
3. Manually change your status back to Online.
4. Leave the meeting running.

As long as you remain in the meeting, Teams will keep displaying you as Online, even if you're not touching your computer.

Other people can't see that you're sitting in an empty meeting. To them, you simply appear Online, and they can still call or message you normally.

Edit: Guys... Obviously, don't put the meeting on your calendar. Just create it and join it directly.

I draw lines with a ruler a lot and I wanted to prevent smudges from globs that grow on a ballpoint pen tip, so I bought a Japanese auto roller pen. My handwriting has gotten markedly better right since I picked it up, maybe because the friction is slowing me down and making my movements more deliberate... There is other common advice to slow down, relax your grip, use your arm more, etc., but this was instant, effortless improvement to horribly sloppy writing that nobody could read.

I bought the described pen, but I'm sure other roller gel pens would work the same. I don't have any ruler globs, either.

I work at a theater and have a few things I just want to say.

First and most obvious, never buy candy at a theater. That shit is marked up like fifty percent. Buy the candy from a gas station or something and bring it in stored in a purse or cargo pants or whatever. Your average employee working concessions does not care but if a manager sees it they may raise an issue.

Now I have two relating to popcorn. First off, never EVER buy multiple popcorns. Unless you have a massive group it is not worth it. I've had people come in buying a small popcorn for each of their kids, and that shit cost them like 40 dollars when a large bucket would be 12 with the same amount of popcorn. The second is to never get "extra" butter, because I can't spend time making sure you get EXTRA. Yeah, I'll put on more than usual, but there is a line I need to keep moving. Instead, ask for layered butter, as in I scoop in some popcorn, butter it, scoop in more, butter it, until the bag/bucket is full. This means I won't spend extra time using the butter dispenser that other people need to get to.

As for drinks, this one applies everywhere that doesn't do self serve soft drinks. Get light ice or no ice. Protocol is to fill the cup with a lot of ice, so if you say light ice I'll do less for you.

That is usually your chance to offer help instead of another request.

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)?

Future you will not remember it as well as you think.

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.

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.

Often I see movers and contractors do this by sticking a rock or a tool in the door at the hinge. This puts a lot of stress on the hinge and often bends it or pulls out the screws. When this happens, the door gets out of alignment and no longer closes properly.

Instead use a doorstop or prop near the handle side of the door to put less stress on the hinge.

Many people know companies must post salary ranges on job ads. What many don't know is that in pay transparency states like CA, employers must also give current workers the pay range for their job code if they ask.

Your rental car will likely come with an E-Z Pass type transponder to pay road tolls as you go. If you use it, it will trigger a daily “convenience" fee on top of the amount of each toll. For AVIS, for instance, it’s $7 every single day you trigger a toll payment. I’ve seen some agreements that charge you every single day of your rental, even if you don’t incur a toll. Not hard to spend an extra $50 or this way over a week -- plus the cost of actual tolls.

Here’s how you cut that off:

1. Usually the transponder is mounted in a little box on the windshield. Leave that CLOSED so it can’t be read.

2. Make sure you record the license plate, make and model of your rental car.

3. Right after your rental is over, go to the website of the tolling authority of the state(s) where you drove. You’ll find that you can input the license plate and set which dates you had the car and want to call up tolls for. Then you can pay those tolls directly with the tolling authority, at face value.

The rental car company never ends up seeing those tolls and trying to charge you some inflated price for them, because you’ve cut them off at the source.

I’ve done this in California and Illinois, but I’m sure it works in other (all?) states as well. Obviously smart to check this out before your trip to be certain it’ll work for the state you’re visiting.

Another option, sometimes, would I guess be to pay tolls in cash when available. But that’s slow and kind of a PITA at this point -- and you also run the risk of missing some unseen toll camera on a bridge or something if you don’t CYA by going to the toll website.

Keeping a simple list of projects, results, and positive feedback throughout the year makes performance reviews, resumes, and job interviews much easier.

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.

Most mistakes are easier to fix in private.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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