Silver Clipboard

How to Make Your Laptop Battery Last Longer

On Apple’s website there is a page where they go into detail on how their batteries work and how to keep them lasting as long as possible. There are a few useful tips, and they’ll even schedule into your iCal the regular maintenance you should perform.

[Click here to go to Apple’s Battery page]

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Header photograph by Demion

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The Packing Problem

This past summer I helped my parents retire from New York to a Confederate elephant graveyard of suburban development in search of a lower cost of living.

To pack for the move, my parents individually wrapped each of their belongings, placed them in boxes, then wrote on the outside a list of the contents. They didn’t write ‘kitchen supplies’ or ‘books’ as normal people would, instead they listed all the kitchen supplies and the titles of the books. My parents are obsessively neat people.

Near the end of the packing, my mother looked around the house — 80% empty at this point and said: “I’m glad most of this stuff is packed. It shouldn’t take long to finish.”

But it did. Many more hours of work lay ahead — more than had passed already.

In our packing, we forgot an important truth: the 80/20 rule applies to all things, even moving. In this case, the last 20% of stuff takes 80% of the time to pack.

Why is this so? Because people start packing with the easy items: books, dishes, clothes. These things live in clearly defined places and fit snugly into boxes. The last 20% of stuff is widely dispersed throughout the house and is awkwardly shaped. These knickknacks, souvenirs, gifts and other unintentionally accumulated stuff, straddle the line between between ‘throw out’ and ‘keep’. They drag on the mind and require the most decisions.

To help quicken the packing of the last twenty percent of stuff here are two suggestions:

1. Decide your default position. Make a decision, in advance, about what you are going to do with unclear items — things you aren’t immediately sure if you want to keep or ditch. The two options are: ‘when it doubt, throw it out’ or ‘when in doubt, keep it’. It doesn’t matter which option you choose, just decided before you start to save yourself hours of dithering and trips down memory lane. (Alternatively you can also photograph your items, then throw them out.)
2. Get thyself to a Container Store. Buy a big box filled with many smaller boxes. For that last 20% of stuff you keep, don’t try and sort it — that will take forever. Just start packing a small box with the miscellanea and when it’s full, add it to the bigger box. Lather, rinse, repeat.

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Header photograph by Jared

How and Why to Keep Book and Movie Lists on Your iPod

How many times have you been waiting for a train or plane without a book and looked around a bookstore knowing full well that you’ve been recommended many books, but now can’t think of a single one? Or perhaps you’ve been in a hotel and wanted to rent a movie, but can’t remember the title that your friend suggested.

Well, here’s a little tip to make those situations less frustrating: keep book and movie lists on your iPod. For many, their iPod is one of the devices that is always with them. Why not use it to store useful information?

Here’s how to keep book and movie lists easily on your iPod:

1. If you haven’t already, get your address book synchronized with iTunes. Connect your iPod to iTunes. On the main page, click the ‘contacts’ tab. Then check the box labeled ‘sync address book contacts’
2. In Address Book create new contacts called ‘book list’ and ‘movie list’. Add your books and movies in the ‘notes’ section.
3. Sync your iPod and you’re done. To access the lists on your iPod go to ‘extras’ then ‘contacts’.

As long as you keep the lists updated (don’t forget that ubiquitous capture) you’ll never be lost in a bookstore or video shop again.

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Header photograph by generated

Control Your Power Cords

Gina at Lifehacker.com has written a short but informative piece on how to get control over your power cords. No matter how many ‘wireless’ devices you buy, you still have those power cord to tame. Follow her advice and get it under control.

[Click here for ‘Optimize Your Power Strip’ at Lifehacker.com]

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Header photograph by Fiona MacGinty

Laundry Lifehack

This is a perfect lifehack: near-zero effort to implement and near-infinite decrease in frustration.

When you do your laundry, after you pour the detergent in, rather than wipe the goo off the cap, just throw the cap in the wash. No more messy, sticky streaks down the bottle.

[Click here for ‘Laundry Hacking’ on 43 folders]

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Header photograph by Lex in the City