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Let me tell you about three things that are really important to me, okay? Number one. Efficiency. I don't like extra steps. I don't like wasted time. I spend probably an hour every day thinking about how I can make my day as efficient as possible. And I know what you're thinking. Spending an hour a day thinking about how to be more efficient probably is inefficient, right? Wrong. Wrong. Because while I'm thinking about how to make my day more efficient, I'm doing other things that are productive, okay? And that's called optimization, okay? Which leads me to number two. Optimization. Making every single step in the day count. Every single action is accomplishing two tasks. Do you see what I'm saying? Optimization. Getting the most done with the least amount of effort. Is that even what optimization means? I don't know. I actually have to Google it to be honest. Optimization is the action of making the best or most effective use of a situation or resource, okay? Number three, Crisis aversion and preparedness. I think we all want to be prepared for a crisis. Close your eyes and think about a time when maybe you had food poisoning at school and you pooped a little bit. Not enough to, like, throw your whole pants away, but just a little bit in your underwear. How nice would it be to have a pair of underwear in your backpack at all times? Ready? Just in case you shit yourself in math class? It'd be really nice because moments that are traumatic, like shitting yourself in math class, become less traumatic when you're prepared. What about when you're going on a road trip and you realize, oh, fuck, I forgot my phone charger. Oh, wait, no problem. I always have an extra phone charger in my car. Do you understand what I'm saying? Being prepared is important to me. Averting crises as often as possible is important to me. Now, what does this all really say about me? If you were to simplify it? Basically that I like life hacks. And I think most people think of life hacks and they cringe because there was this weird phase on the Internet for a few years where like 90% of Internet content was about some sort of life hack. And, you know, there are only so many life hacks in life, you know what I'm saying? Like, there are only so many. And because this was such a video trend, it became this thing of, like, people were just coming up with these ridiculous life hacks that actually didn't work and actually required more steps than the original. Like, it wasn't hacking life, it was actually making life more complicated and so then the trend ultimately died and then we all sort of started to hate life hacks. But we really don't hate life hacks. We all have our own life hacks in our day to day life. And we might not even realize that we have them, but we do. And I am somebody who absolutely loves hacking my life. Okay. I am constantly trying to figure out how to hack my life. It's almost like a hobby for me, honestly, because I will say, and I'm not like trying to shit on the people of my life, but I think my life is is more hacked than anyone that I know. I briefly paused this episode to let you know that this episode of Anything Goes is presented by Temptations Cat Treats. Your cat will come running for the perfectly irresistible Temptations Creamy Puree and Temptations Lickable Spoon Cat Treats. The best time to feed Lickable Cat Treats to your cat is anytime. Feed by hand for a playful moment, in a bowl, for a creamy treat, or as a topper to mealtime fun. Visit temptationstreats.com to learn more. Now let's get back to the episode. To be honest, I think I'm a little bit too obsessed with efficiency in optimization, in crisis aversion and preparedness. Like, I think it is kind of an unhealthy obsession at times for me because I am really hard on myself when things are inefficient, when I am unprepared. Like, I really beat myself up about it. And that's not healthy. But I do think it's overall a positive sort of sentiment to like, I don't know, like, hack your life. Like, I think it's a positive concept. I think I personally take it too far, but I think it's something that everyone can benefit from incorporating into their, into their lives. Like, I think most of us could always be more efficient, more optimized, more prepared. There's a few of us out there who become obsessed with it, but even for us, it's still good. We get a lot of shit done, you know, and, or, and we're always prepared and it's great. Anyway, with all of that being said, today I'm gonna be sharing some of my personal life hacks. Listen, are these gonna work for you? Maybe not. That's not the point. I'm just trying to inspire you to figure out your own life hacks. The truth is, you know what, I'm actually thinking about this now. I think the problem with the life hack era Internet, when everybody was posting about different life hacks that you should incorporate into Your life because it'll make you more efficient, you more prepared. The problem was, not only were the hacks, for the most part, really bad, but they weren't personalized. I really do think only you can hack your life, you know, like, don't copy all of my life hacks. Just take inspiration from my life hacks, you know, and as my yoga teacher says to me, this is so weird. Take what you want and leave what you don't. That's what my yoga teacher says to me before we start class. Do I really know what it means? No, I have no clue what she's even talking about by that. But I listen to her say it and I absorb it. And then I do the downward dog. Anyway, without further ado, I will be sharing with you my life hacks, starting with something that everyone in my life thinks is very weird, but I think it's genius and incredibly convenient. I wear a crossbody bag probably like 18 hours a day. I am almost always wearing a crossbody bag around the house, doing chores, on a walk. I mean, let me clarify, okay. Obviously when I go out to, like, I don't know, go get my nails done or go to the grocery store or do this or do that, I will bring a bag. And that's. That's normal, right? Nobody's batting an eye at that. What's weird about me is that I'm wearing a cross body bag, like, at my house all day. You know what I'm saying? I'm not just wearing a bag when I go out for the date. No, no, no. I get home and if I'm wearing, like a cute purse that's like, not that comfortable, I'll put everything into a crossbody bag and continue to carry my things around throughout the day. Or if I'm wearing a crossbody bag already that's comfortable and convenient, I will just keep the bag on once I get home. Do you see what I'm saying? When I wake up in the morning, I put on a crossbody bag and I put, like, my phone in it. And, you know, anything else I may need, like, I carry around little toothpicks and mints because I have a nicotine addiction and I'm trying not to vape, so I need to have little things. So I keep those in my bag. I'll keep, like, hand sanitizer in there. I'll keep chapstick, you know, I'll keep eye drops. Like, I keep things in my little crossbody bag and carry them around all day. Now, people think this is very odd. Because it's unusual to wear a bag around your house. You know, most people put things in their pockets or just go and get the items that they need when they need them. I'm sorry, that's inefficient. Okay? I always have what I need on me at all times. And most of the time when I'm at home, I'm wearing pajamas, which either don't have pockets or the clothes are too loose to hold all the things that I want to hold. Like, if I put my phone in my pajama short pocket, the shorts are falling down, the shorts will be on my ankles because I like loose pajamas. Do you see what I'm saying? It just. It makes sense to me, and it looks weird. You know, I'm walking around my house with a bag on, with a crossbody bag. But it just makes so much sense to me. And to me, it's a life hack. And I don't know, maybe it's more common than I am aware of, but I have never met anyone else who does it, and I am deeply judged by my loved ones for doing it. I'm actually not deeply judged. I think they just are. Like, this is so unusual. You know, you're the only person who does this. Anyways, let's move on. Number two, Car. Underwear. You need to have a pair of underwear in your car. You just do. There's a lot of things that you need to have in your car. Like, the list is quite long. I think everybody should have a hairbrush, deodorant, salt. If you're somebody who like, likes certain foods like that taste good with hot sauce or taste good with soy sauce, you should always have those condiments in the car. If you're somebody who takes pills, like supplements or anything, you should keep a backup in your car. You know, I just dropped 10 things that you should keep in your car. Life hack. But I. I actually think one of the. Oh, scissors. Everyone should have scissors in their car. A pen. Everyone should have a pen in their car. Utensils, napkins, wet wipes. I mean, should I make an entire episode about what you need to keep in your car? Maybe? Actually, I don't think I need to. Because what you really need in your car is a pair of fucking underwear. You don't know when you're gonna need them. You don't know why you're gonna need them. But I can almost guarantee that at some point you will. This episode is brought to you by Netflix. What's on your life list? Getting a tattoo. Finally learning to drive doing standup? How about finding true love? Well, the new Netflix film the Life List is here to help you figure it out. When a young woman is sent on a quest by her mother to complete her teenage life list, it takes her on a journey that will make you both laugh and cry. Starring Sophia Carson, Connie Britton and Kyle Allen, the Life List is now playing only on Netflix. This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. It's tax season, and we're all a bit tired of numbers, but here's one you need to $16.5 billion. That's how much the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year. Now here's a good 100 million. That's how many data points Lifelock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed. Save up to 40% your first year@lifelock.com podcast terms apply. I started keeping a pair of underwear in my car when I. And this is tmi, but when I was in a phase of my life where I didn't like wearing underwear, okay, I don't know why, I just didn't like it. And I remember one time I was going to a fitting, like a fashion fitting. Like I was going to try on an outfit actually at the Louis Vuitton store, and there were tailors there and, like, people stylists there helping me pick out an outfit for an event. And I realized that I had forgotten underwear. And that was a problem because most of the time Louis Vuitton would put me in some sort of dress. So it's like I was frightened that either the stylist or the tailor would somehow see my vagina and that they would think it was weird because usually you would wear underwear to a fitting. I was panicked, and I don't remember what I did. I either went home and got a pair of underwear, or I stopped at a store and got underwear on the way. But ever since then, I've had underwear in my car. And recently the underwear came in handy again because I went to yoga and I don't wear underwear to yoga, you freak. I wear my little shorts with no underwear, okay? And after class, my clothes are so sweaty that they're obviously completely unwearable. So even if I was wearing underwear, it wouldn't matter. I was going to run errands after the class and I wanted to look cute, and I was wearing these pants that would be really uncomfortable without underwear. And I realized that I had forgotten underwear when I was driving there, and I was like, oh my God. But I have A pair in the car, threw them in my little yoga bag, brought them in after the shower at yoga, put on my little undies. No problem. Listen, would I have been fine without underwear in that scenario? Sure. But I was so happy that I had them. Okay? I don't know. You might get your period, you know, if you're a woman, okay, and you might be happy you have a pair of underwear. Just trust me, okay? Keep a pair of underwear in your car. Next. I think I've talked about this before, but an underrated feature of the Stanley Cup. I cannot express to you how often I use the top of my Stanley cup as a little tray, okay? I carry around my toothpicks, my minty toothpicks that I chew on throughout the day. I put, like, lip balm in there to carry around when I'm chewing on a toothpick. And then I want to take it out for a second. I'll put it on the top of the Stanley Cup. Like, it's like a little holding place for it there. If I, like, want to take a little snack up to my bed, like, maybe like a little cookie or something, I'll put it in the top of my Stanley Cup. Oh, my God. You know what I do all the time? To me, it's like a little jewelry box. Okay, well, not a box, but like a little jewelry tray. If I'm at yoga, for example, and I forgot to take my big hoops off before. Before the class, I'll just take them off and put them in the top of my Stanley cup in the little lid, and they'll just sit there safely all class, and I can pop them on afterwards. No big deal. I use it as a little tray. I'm not being paid by Stanley, okay? I'm just saying it's. It's incredible. Kind of random, kind of niche, but it's genuinely like a little life hack that I utilize on a daily basis, and it actually is helpful. Like, there's probably more examples that I can't even remember of ways that I. I use the top of the Stanley Cup. It's very efficient, okay? My next life hack kind of changed my life, okay? So I have to take a pill or a few pills every morning and every evening with food, okay? Because I have pcos. Polycystic ovarian syndrome, I think, or ovary syndrome. It's a hormonal thing, okay? It's no big deal. But I do take medication for it twice a day, and I've been taking it now for, like, probably a year or two. And in the beginning, it was so new. And I. I hadn't ever really taken something twice a day like that before. Like, indefinitely in the past. It's been like, oh, I need to take this medication for like a week and then I'm done. And there's like only a certain amount of pills. I got like 10 pills, and I have to take the 10 pills over the next week. And then, and then it's done, and then whatever. It's always been easier to organize. This is the first time where it's like, okay, I'm just taking these pills every single day, twice a day, and I have to remember to do that. And in the beginning, it was sort of easy because it was new. And it was always like, oh, shit, I have to take it again. And then it became such a routine that I started to forget, like midday, like, wait, did I take my pills this morning? Or like, in the evening? I would be like, wait, did I take my pill? So I created my own little mini calendar that I make every single month on a post it note. Okay? So I take a little post it note and I take like a ruler and I draw sort of a grid, okay? One column is the date, the next column is morning, and the next column is night. And so basically I just do a little X in the morning when I take it and a little X at night when I take it. And I'm very strict about making sure that I mark the X every single time I take it. If I have to take the pill when I'm not home, okay, I will basically give myself one daily dose in a container for that day, and then I use that container only to know whether or not I've taken the pills. Does that make sense? So then when I get home, I can check the pill container and be like, oh, I did take the morning dose and then I'll exit immediately when I get home. This is how I make sure that I don't forget or I don't take a double dose on accident. And it has changed my life because it was really starting to stress me out. I can't tell you. I have such severe health anxiety. And every single time I would get confused about whether or not I had taken the pills. I would fully, like, have a panic attack because I was like, oh, my God, what if I don't take it and it like, fucks with me? Or what if I took too much and that fucks with me? And, like, then I would start to convince myself that I was feeling sick or dizzy or weird and it was just. It wasn't just like, oh, no, I'm, you know, not taking my medication that I'm supposed to take. It was like, also causing me to have a panic attack. So it was a fucking nightmare. The little customized pill calendar. Truly, Truly has changed the game for me. And there's something kind of satisfying about making it. Like I make it myself, you know, every month and it's this like beautifully made little calendar on a post it note. I don't know. And I like stick it to my counter and it. I leave my little pen out and it's always there. And I don't know, I like making the little thing. It like, is kind of a fun little activity to make it. It's kind of satisfying. Putting X's in the boxes is sort of satisfying. It's overall a good experience. It makes taking the pill, the pills seamless and like, just easy. Oh my God, I just remembered another life hack that I just remembered because my ears are really itchy. I have really, really horrible seasonal allergies to pollen and dust and all these different things. And cats. I think I actually do think I have a allergy to cats. However, I have two. So what I'm trying to say is I have really, really bad allergies and I'm constantly dealing with like, itchy ears, sneezing, like allergy attacks, eyes watering, nose running, like the whole thing. Sometimes to a point where it's like debilitating in the itchy ears. I'm on a medication for that as well, or not a medication, but I take an over the counter allergy medicine for that. But that's not enough, okay? And it's so funny, recently somebody gave me a life hack for itchy ears. Now ask your doctor before you do this, okay? Because I don't know if this is like, actually bad or not. Somebody just told me to do it and I did it and it helped. Their doctor told them to do it. But like, listen, this game of telephone to me, I feel irresponsible with it. You ask your doctor before you do this, but itchy ears. Want to know what I do? Take a little Q tip, put a little bit of cortisone cream on it, put it in the ears, okay? Not too deep, but just where it feels comfortable. And I rub the cream in the ear. I don't know how it works, but it fully makes the ear itch go away. It's incredible. And I struggle so much with itchy ears, like inside the ears. And I'm constantly having to make sounds Such as this, which is absolutely horrible for my loved ones. They hate it. Although my dad does it too. So my dad doesn't hate it because he does it as well. And then when he does it, it doesn't bother me because I do it as well. But for everybody else I know, it's so annoying. Like, everyone thinks it's so annoying. Like, why are you, like, making that sound? Like, figure it out, fix it. Like, what's happening? This is insane that you're making that sound, but it's so itchy. It's unbearable. Anyway, so this life hack of putting the cortisone cream in my ear, it's amazing. I have the cortisone cream with aloe, which is even more like, you know, moisturizing and good. Ask your doctor before you do that. But if your doctor says go, then you're good to go. Listen, it works for me, though. I'll tell you. Okay, moving on. Whenever I find that I'm being faced with a reoccurring issue, I try to find some sort of niche object that could be the solution. And I try to think outside the box. Okay, let me give some examples. Cause I feel like that is a bit abstract. Let me paint this picture for you. Okay. Something that I bought recently was this sort of pair of tongs or tweezers almost, that you can clip onto your keychain that basically helps you pull your credit card out of credit card slots. For example, like if you're paying for parking at a parking meter, or if you're at the gas station and you insert the card and then pull it out, it's a little pair of tweezers, slash tongs, that you can use to pull your card out if you have long acrylic nails. I can't tell you how many times my card, credit card has gotten stuck in either a parking meter or gas station, whatever, where you have to, you know, insert your card and then pull it out. If you have long nails, there's a chance that you will not be able to get your card out. And I've had moments where I've been like, I don't know if I can get my card out. It might just be stuck. And that's really frightening. Canceling a credit card and getting a new one or a debit card. Debit card's even worse. Wow, that's not fun. So I was so traumatized and scarred by that experience that I somewhat recently bought this little product that would prevent that from ever happening again because it was so traumatic. It's Always very traumatic. Another example, okay, this actually also relates to having really long acrylic nails. Maybe the life hack is to just not have really long acrylic nails, I'm realizing. But I really like having them sometimes. So you know what? No, I'm gonna work around that. Okay? I'm gonna work around the long acrylic nails. A lot of my skincare products come in like, a little pot, you know, where you have to dig your dirty little finger in there and get the product out. If you have long acrylic nails, digging your little finger in there, well, I guess your long finger in there. If you have long acrylic nails digging your long fingernail into the skincare product, it's just. It's horrible for so many different reasons. Number one, who knows what's under those nails? Okay? That's number one. Number two, like, having product under your nail, stuck under your nail. It feels disgusting and horrible, and it's a waste of product because a lot of times you can't even get it out fully anyway. I bought little scoopers, like little silicone scoopers where you can just scoop product out and then put it into the palm of your hand, you know, and then rub it together and then put it wherever. So helpful. And then actually, recently I got a gift, actually, from a brand. They sent me, like, this sort of gua sha and, like, skincare spoon kit. It was, like, super beautiful. And I started using these little fancy spoons, skincare spoons. And I was like, this is incredible. You know, that is something that came out of necessity of being like, this is so annoying. This is a daily pet peeve. Another thing, I can't tell you how many times I need a pair of scissors out of nowhere, or I need a toothpick out of nowhere, or I need tweezers out of nowhere, or I need a nail file out of nowhere. You know what has all of those things in one? A mini Swiss army knife. Okay, I got a mini Swiss army knife and put it on my keychain, and I use it all the time. Before, I was chewing on minty toothpicks to help with my oral fixation problem, I would use the little mini toothpick in there all the time. If a rogue weird hair grows on my face, like on my chin or something, and I need to pluck it, boom. Pull out the Swiss army knife, pull out the little tweezers. If a nail breaks and it's sharp nail file. If I need to cut a tag off of something, I have many scissors. It's Incredible. Okay. And I always have my keys with me. It's incredible. The mini Swiss army knife. It's unbelievable. I truly. The Swiss army knife is like, to me, it is the pinnacle of design. It's incredible. I love the Swiss army knife. Another example, I drink electrolytes, like, electrolyte powders, all the time, on a daily basis, actually. And a reoccurring issue that I was having was that I was, like, pouring my powdered electrolytes into the water, and it wasn't combining very well. It was kind of chunky, you know? And so you want to know what I got? I got a blender cup. Okay. I got this blender cup. It's not like a blender with, like, sharp. Like, you couldn't make a smoothie in it, but it's like, honestly, a blender cup for mixing powders into water. It has, like, a little plastic propeller. It just looks like a cup has, like, a little base on it. Pretty lightweight and small. That's chargeable. And I basically just put, like, a little bit of water in there, probably like a half cup. I put my powders in there. I press the on button. It spins it. It disperses it evenly. Once it's dispersed evenly and dissolved evenly, I pour it into my larger Stanley cup, of course, and then everything's all good, and it's all evenly dispersed. It's so helpful to dissolve liquids in a more controlled environment like that first and then mix it into your big Stanley cup that has the ice and the rest of the water that's very cold, et cetera. It's like, I don't know scientifically why that is the way that it is, why it's easier to do it that way. There's definitely a reason, but I don't even want to Google it. Uh, and I don't even need to, because I've solved the problem with my little blender cup. Okay. Another example. I have infinite examples for little niche helpful items that I use on a daily basis that have solved daily problems. I. The list goes on. Okay. Putting an air tag on my cat's collar. Okay. I used to constantly be overwhelmed with paranoia about my cats getting out and them getting lost and them getting eaten by coyotes, because there are many coyotes in my neighborhood. And the only thing that has helped not only ease my mind, but also keep tabs on them in general is the airtag on the collar. It's on my iPhone. I can check whenever I want. You know, it's just. It's incredible. I think that's kind of a common thing. I think a lot of people use the airtag on their pets, but it is so good. Oh, my God. Another little weird, random niche thing that I bought. A little bag holder. A little bag hook. Like a. A little hook that you can put onto a table. You can slide onto a table at a restaurant, for example, and you can hang your bags that you have a place to put your bag at a restaurant. I absolutely love this thing. It's so funny. I remember when I was, like, 8 years old, I was at the car wash with my mom, and we were looking around in the little gift shop at the car wash, because obviously they have a little gift shop so that you hopefully buy things while you're waiting for your car to be done. And I remember I saw this invention for the first time, and I showed my mom, and she was like, whoa. And I think she bought one. I swear she did. And then eventually we both forgot about this invention. And then I remembered it again sort of recently, like within the last few years, because I just had started to realize that I needed it. And I was like, I need to buy one of the little table. It's like a little retractable hook that you can, you know, again, like, unfold and then attach it to the table, and then you can just hang your bag on it. I was like, wait, I need that thing again. And so I bought it again, and it is good. Next. Bug catcher. Yeah, they exist. Like, you don't need to use the cup in the piece of paper anymore to get to catch the bug and put it outside. There are bug catchers that make it so easy. Okay. They're online, and they are worth it. Okay. Because you're saving a little bug's life. And I actually use mine all the time. I literally use mine all the time. It's incredible. And my veggie dicer. Wow. The veggie dicer. It's this, like, sort of. It's this kitchen appliance, if you will, where there's, like, a big container at the bottom, and then there's a sort of lid that goes on top of the container. And the lid has this, like. It has two layers on it, and the top layer hinges up, and then it reveals this lattice of metal, of course. And you can put down vegetables, and then you slam down the top, and then it dices vegetables for you. This has changed. I don't want to fucking dice vegetables. What, do I look like an inefficient person to you? No, I want a machine to dice vegetables for Me, it's incredible. And it dices each little thing into equal pieces. Like, it's so symmetrical and even and beautiful. It creates such a beautiful dice. Anyway, that was inspired by the fact that I hate dicing vegetables. I think most people do. I think even trained chefs who probably find it to be somewhat, like, meditative would even be like, I'd rather use a veggie chopper. Like, it's so good. It's such a good invention. If you have a daily inconvenience, there's probably an appliance that could help with it. And I know there are some of you at home, like, literally punching your phone or punching your computer or whatever device you're using to watch or listen to this episode. Think, Emma, you're all about not buying stuff you don't need. Like, you said that you're trying to buy less stuff. You're. Did I say I buy nothing? Did I say I buy nothing? No, I didn't. Okay? I use every single thing that I just listed constantly. These are things that enhance my life, make my life better. And there are some people out there that are like, you don't need those things. Sure, you don't need those things. But to me, they make my life better, okay? And so I'm all about it. I'm. I'm just not about buying things that you don't need that you're not gonna use. That's what I have a problem with. Finding the perfect object that makes your life more efficient. That solves a problem. That's what products are for. So I'm all about buying the niche little thing. Like, if you're somebody who eats strawberries every day, then you should probably buy the little strawberry thing that. The little strawberry destemmer where you, like, shovel this sharp thing into the top of the strawberry and then twist and then it takes out the green stem. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, if you're somebody who never eats strawberries, you don't need that. So buying that's a waste for you. But if you eat strawberries every day, that is a great purchase for you. Do you see what I'm saying? Or if you put a banana in your lunch every day, buying a little banana shaped plastic, like, banana container so that your banana doesn't get bruised, that's a good purchase for you. People look at objects like that and are like, that's useless. That's pointless. Like, just figure out something else. Okay, sure. But also, if there's a little invention for that that you're Gonna use every single day. You should get it. Sorry, sorry. That's my opinion. Moving on to an organizational hack that took me a shocking amount of years to figure out because it seems like common sense, but I'm somebody who is actually pretty organized and it took even me many years to figure this out. Listen, maybe I'm really late to this. Like I'm actually self conscious to mention this life hack because I feel like a lot of you are gonna say, emma, that is so obvious. But I swear to me, it was not obvious for years. Okay, well, let me begin by saying how I used to organize things. Like, my organizational philosophy used to be sort of empty. It was basically just make everything look organized, put everything where it probably fits best and yeah, just like make it look good and give it a place that was kind of it. Okay. My philosophy was empty. Then I realized I had it all wrong. You have to think of what you use most and you have to put that at the most convenient location. Okay. I can't tell you how many years I spent living inconveniently because I had organized things just based on where I felt like they fit best, based on like where I feel like they maybe looked best, and not based on like what I actually use the most. Okay. Like for example, in my pantry, right, I put all of my like baking stuff, like flour, sugar, all of that at eye level. Why? I don't know, just. Cause it kind of looked good there. And then below that I put like protein powders and stuff like that. And then below that I put like snacks and stuff. You want to know what I consume the most of? Snacks? That's actually what I consume the most of. I don't bake that often. Like almost never, to be honest. I mean, I. If anything, I prefer cooking over baking. Like, baking happens pretty rarely these days. I enjoy it, but it like doesn't happen a lot. Okay. I ended up moving my pantry around completely, putting snacks towards the middle and then like pasta and dry grains and stuff like that right above it, also at eye level. And then I put baking stuff at like the very top because I rarely ever bake. And it's no problem to like get out a little stool and take everything down the one or two times a year. I, I bake these days, you know what I'm saying? Like, another example would be in my closet, right? There was a period of time when I had all my workout clothes, like my, you know, like the stuff that I would go on a hike in. Not necessarily like my workout clothes, like sports Bras and, like, shorts. But, like, hiking stuff or, like, going on a walk stuff. Right? Stuff that I wear a lot because I walk a lot. I had that all, like, shoved into drawers for some reason. That makes no sense. I wear those clothes all the time. Why aren't they out? They should be out on my shelves so that I can grab them easily. Do you see what I'm saying? I had my hoodies downstairs in a closet downstairs and not in my bedroom's closet. That doesn't make any sense. I wear a hoodie all the time. Do you see what I'm saying? There used to just be illogical choices made just based on, like, what I thought, oh, well, this closet, like, kind of feels like a hoodie closet. Like, I just. I was basing my organization on kind of nothing. And now when I'm organizing, I am thinking in, like, what I do every day, my daily routine. And I'm really trying to focus on that so that, like, everything is placed in the most efficient place possible. And organizing based on that first. And sometimes it maybe doesn't look as aesthetically pleasing or, you know, whatever, but that is my number one priority. And I'm also constantly reorganizing things as my routine changes. You know, like, if at a certain point I stop wearing the sort of workout clothes that I wear on my walks or my hikes or whatever. If I, like, am not really walking or hiking as much anymore and I'm not wearing those, okay, maybe those go in the drawer then, you know, and maybe I take out, like, my favorite pair of leggings. Maybe I'm into leggings all of a sudden instead of, like, workout sweatpants and, like, I don't know. Do you know what I'm saying? If my routine changes, then we change things. And constantly looking at the way that things are organized in a critical way. This is sort of new for me, but it's such a life hack because it genuinely makes life easier. Moving on. I don't always do this because sometimes I just don't have time, but whenever I do have time, I absolutely do this. And it is so helpful. Making your grocery list in order of the store layout okay. Or not in order of the store layout necessarily. I actually do that sometimes, but that's a little bit of overkill, I think. More importantly, just making your grocery list instead of just one big jumbled list, breaking it down into sections of the store, okay? Like produce, snacks, cheese. Like, you see what I'm saying? Like, breaking it down into the store sections. The reason why this is good is because you can arrive into a section and now you only have, like, three or four items to get. Instead of, like, jumbled. Li trying to look at this long list and being like, wait, did I miss something? And, like, having to reread the entire list of, like, 20 items every single time you're trying to figure out if there's something you need in that section. It's just inefficient. And you end up forgetting stuff, which is never fun. So it prevents missing something, not seeing it on the list. And it also can help when making the list because I find that I'm, like, mentally going through the aisles of the store when I am making a list in this way. And it ensures that I'm paying proper attention to every single section and not, like, forgetting any section because I'm not just making a random list. Like, I might have forgotten that I wanted to buy frozen blueberries, but because I wrote down frozen and started making a list of all the frozen items that I needed, it made me realize, oh, wait, I do need frozen blueberries, because I'm going through that aisle in my head in a much more conscious way. I just think it's good to make a list this way. I don't know. It's good. It's really good. Okay, next. This is a iced coffee making hack. Okay? You want to know what my biggest pet peeve is when I go to a cafe? This is not me shitting on anybody. Any other cafe, okay? No cafe is perfect, and nobody's perfect. Okay? However, this is my pet peeve, and I'm allowed to have those when I get an iced latte or an iced Americano or whatever, and I get the drink and all the ice is melted, okay? All the ice is melted. And now I just have this watery, lukewarm Americano or latte. Iced latte. Here's how you prevent this, okay? Because you want. If you're ordering an iced drink, you want there to be a lot of ice in it, right? Here's how I personally. When I make drinks at home, here's how I personally avoid this. Okay? You gotta put the ice in the cup first, and you gotta fill it to the top almost. I mean, maybe not all the way to the top, but I personally am filling it, like, 75 to 90% full, okay? Pretty much all the way to the top, right? Then you pour the hot espresso or the hot matcha over the ice. And now what you want to do is you want to mix, okay? You want to mix and you want to mix, and you want to mix, and you want to mix. Take your straw, take a little spoon, take whatever and mix. Get the espresso or the matcha very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very cold. And melt as much of the ice as you possibly can with that hot liquid. Right now you know how much ice you have left. Do you see what I'm saying? Now you can see, like, oh, okay, I actually do need to add a little bit more ice or, oh, that was perfect. Or maybe I'll even scoop a little bit out. But now you can add the cold milk on top, and everything's gonna be cold, you know what I'm saying? And there's not gonna be more melting of the ice within the next, you know, two to five minutes. Like, it's all cold now, you know, because the milk is already cold. So to me, this is the only way. Like, I. And listen, some. Like, some people might disagree with this. I don't know. Like, a lot of cafes put the ice in the milk first. But, like, listen, I'm not professionally trained, and this is the way that I have figured out that I like. Okay, anyway, next, anytime you think your outfit looks boring and you're like, God, I just like. It doesn't. It's not a vibe yet. Like, it's just not a vibe yet. Like, what's wrong with it? Why is it not a vibe yet? Add glasses, okay? If it's nighttime, add reading glasses. Have a cool pair of reading glasses that you can add. Or, like, go to a random thrift store and buy, like, random optical frames that hopefully don't have a. I guess not optical frames because then they'd have, like, a random prescription. And that is not healthy for your eyes or brain. Think. But, like, they don't even need to be reading glasses. They can just be any sort of optical frame. Non prescription or prescription. If you need prescription, you get the fucking idea. Okay. I'm not necessarily always talking about sunglasses, any kind of glasses. I kind of wondered at first when, like, the reading glass, the optical frame came into style if it was going to be trendy. Because it was. It became very trendy. Right. Last year, everybody was obsessed with sort of the, as it was called on the Internet, office siren aesthetic, which was like, kind of being, like, I don't know what, like, a sexy employee, like, being a hot employee, like, wearing, like, cute corporate wear, which sounds crazy to say out loud, but you know what I mean? Like, wearing, like, 90s, like, minimal little reading glasses with, like, a cute pleated Brown skirt and like a button up white top. Office siren, you know, that was really trendy and the sort of reading glass became trendy. And I remember thinking, is this gonna last? And then I got so into it myself that I was like, this is absolutely gonna last. And even if it doesn't, it's gonna last for me. Because anytime I'm feeling like an outfit is not complete, it's because I. I'm not wearing glasses. I really think a little funky pair of glasses can take any outfit to the next level. It's rare that I put an outfit on and don't wear a glass anymore. It's rare. And some of them are my reading glasses because I have reading glasses, but some of them because I don't need to wear prescription glasses all the time. Some of them are not. Some of them are just like random ones that I thrifted that don't have, you know, they have a clear lens but no prescription. And that's great too. I. It's not helping my vision. It's actually. Well, it is helping my vision, but not in my eyeballs, but rather for my outfit. It's helping the vision for my outfit. If your outfit is boring, add some sort of glasses. Trust me. My next life hack. Throw it in the freezer. Okay. I used to get so stressed out about finishing my groceries on time, like before they went bad. And then I realized I can just put it in the freezer. Like, if you have fruit that's about to go bad, chop it up, throw it in the freezer. If you got pizza and it's been in the fridge for two days and you're like, fuck, I'm about to go out of town. Freeze it. I can almost guarantee one day you will eat it. Like, you'll find a way to eat it within the next few months. It'll make sense. You know, it'll be really late one night and you'll be like, fuck it, I'm gonna put this pizza in the oven and reheat it. It's never gonna be as good as the day that you bought it, but it'll be pretty good. One day you'll be making a fun cocktail with friends, a fun frozen cocktail with friends. And you'll find the frozen peach that you froze three months ago and say, wow, this would be delicious in there. And you'll throw it in. Just throw it in the freezer. I literally received so many samples. I still to this day receive so many samples for the Chamberlain Coffee Cafe for desserts. Okay. I receive so many Samples, Dessert samples. Banana bread, this chocolate chip cookie that. Okay, I'm always trying pastry for the cafe, whether it's for a new location or it's for, like, an updated menu option or whatever, right? And I always have leftovers. And I remember the first time I had leftovers, I was so overwhelmed by them for, like, 15 minutes until I remembered that I could just freeze them. And then I proceeded to eat the frozen desserts for weeks to follow. And it brought me so much joy every time. And then, ever since then, I have not gotten stressed out when I get a bunch of pastry samples because I know that it's going to bring me joy from the freezer for weeks or months or days to follow. Throw it in the freezer, people. Okay, this next one is so controversial. Like, I'm going to get canceled for it. And I just. I'm like, it's fine, because I'm trying to train myself to not be afraid of getting canceled and to just be myself and do my best. And if I do get canceled along the way, it's all good because I can apologize and learn from it, you know, like, that's. That's where I'm trying to be. But this next one, I'm a little nervous, okay? So let me give a disclaimer before I give you this life hack. This is for desperate measures only, okay? I'm not telling you to be using this life hack on, you know, a consistent basis. This is. This is for desperate measures. This is a desperate measure, okay? If you're traveling and you didn't pack enough underwear, okay? It happens sometimes. Maybe you extended your trip, maybe you miscounted, okay? Maybe, you know, you had an explosion in one pair prematurely and that sort of got the schedule off with the underwear. It all happens, right? It happens sometimes. You can take a pair of underwear that's only kind of dirty, just a little bit. Not disgusting, okay? But just like, you know, you wore it one day already, and they're not gross or anything. They're not, like, at a point where they're unwearable, you probably wouldn't want to wear them again. But, like, you know, they're not too bad. And what you can do is you can turn them inside out and you can wear them. Yeah. And I've done it. I've done it. Yeah, I have. I've done that. Can I be honest? It's great. I really don't want to be disgusting here. I don't want to gross you out. But, like, I actually think it's totally fine. I think it's totally fine. Like, in a pinch, I think it's totally fine. Another thing that I've done on a trip when I've been on my last pair of underwear and had, like, three more days of the trip, is I've put a pad on my underwear and replaced it every day. Or replaced it, like, twice a day, honestly. But see, that's like, number one. It's wasteful of pads. And it's also, like, I don't even know if that's healthy. Like, is that dangerous and bad for vaginal health? Again, talk to your doctor about this shit, okay? If it's in regard to your vagina, please. Or your penis, please don't take advice. Definitely don't take advice from me about a penis, okay? I don't know anything about those. Well, I do know things about those, but, like, I don't know. Clearly not enough, like, how to take care of it. I don't know what to do with that thing. You get what I'm saying? All right. Another disgusting life hack that I'm, like, scared to share. But I figured it out. I figured it out recently on accident. And then I was like, holy shit, this is incredible. Okay? There's always a fear when pooping in public of leaving a little skid mark, okay? In the toilet. No one wants to leave a skid mark. You know what a skid mark is? It's a little poop mark in the toilet. If somebody's gonna go into the stall after you, it's not fun to leave a skid mark. And we've all had those moments where we've been like, fuck, what do we do? And we've looked around for a toilet brush, and there's no toilet brush. And we're like, what are we going to do? You know? And then you either have to, like, bunch up a huge piece of toilet paper and try to like, oh, God, it's horrible. You know what I'm talking about? Okay? Don't pretend like. Don't be like, I was so gross. She's talking about poop. It's like, you're welcome for what I'm about to tell you, okay? You want to never, ever leave a skid mark again? Take a thin little piece of toilet paper, maybe two pieces, cover the surface of the water, let it float on top. Put the toilet paper on the surface of the water, poop on it this little. It's almost. It's gonna be like a canopy for your poop. And you will not leave a skid mark. You are welcome. You can be disgusted all you want, but you're fucking welcome. Because the next time you're on a date and then you go back to the. To this hot person's house, and then suddenly you have to poop. Cause you had dairy for dinner and you're a little bit lactose intolerant and you're like, my God, what do I do? Yeah, put down the toilet paper and poop on it. But wait, you're not even pooping on it. Like, do you get what I'm saying? You're literally just laying it on the surface so that it can hold your poop. And then when you flush, it just. No poop ever touches the bowl. You see what I'm saying? Listen, it's disgusting. I don't want to talk about it either. I don't want to talk about it either, but I'm trying to help you. I figured this out the other day on accident because I went to the bathroom on top of toilet paper that was already there because somebody in my house didn't flush. And it probably was me, actually, but let's pretend it was somebody else. And I watched what had happened because I flushed and got up, and then I guess I did look at them. This is getting worse. I need to stop talking. Let's move on. Let's move on. Let's move on. For love of God. Okay. Oh, another gross one. I'm realizing because I'm looking at my list of life hacks, and this one's also a little bit gross, but it's less gross. It's about. It's about menstruation. I don't like wearing tampons. Okay, Number one, I'm irrationally afraid of toxic shock syndrome, which is basically when your body has an adverse reaction to having a tampon in you due to bacteria in the vagina. It's. It's very. I don't want to even begin to explain it, but I'm very frightened of it. And the use of tampons can sometimes increase your risk of getting toxic shock. And toxic shock is very serious and can kill you. Don't be afraid, okay? Don't let me scare you like I've been afraid by other people telling me stories. Because if you wear tampons responsibly and again, talk to your doctor and do all these things, you're probably fine. But I just have so much health anxiety that I was like, I don't even wanna wear a tampon anymore. I'd rather do something else. So you wanna know what I'm doing. No, it's not a diva cup. It's period underwear. Preferably like a period boy short. Okay, so period underwear, meaning underwear with a built in pad. Yes, they exist. You probably know about them, but if you don't. Yes, they exist with a liner inside. Okay. A panty liner. I hate the word panty. So gross. But panty liner, that's the only word I know. The thin sort of pad inside of the period underwear. So now you have double protection. Okay. You have a liner which is gonna absorb a good amount. But once the liner fills up, you know, the underwear starts absorbing. I can go for so long and I have a pretty decent flow. Like I'm not light. I used to be very heavy. So heavy that this actually wouldn't have worked for me. But also tampons didn't even work for me. That's how heavy my period was. I was bleeding through like the largest tampon, the most absorbent tampon in like 20 minutes. It was very abnormal. But now my flow is more normal and I'm wearing period underwear with a pad inside. Okay. This is for like long term wear. If I'm like walking around the house, I'm not putting the pad in the period underwear. I'm just gonna wear the period underwear. But if I want backup support, we're wearing the liner in the period underwear. And it's miraculous how effective it is. And it's nice because again, I just, I really don't like wearing tampons and I don't really like putting things inside. I'd prefer to keep it all exterior if possible. The only thing that's weird about that, especially if you're somebody who's never like just used pads. Like if you're somebody who's used a tampon your entire period life, it feels so weird to just be sort of free bleeding into your, into your period underwear with a pad in it. Like you'll think like, oh my God, there's no way that I'm not leaking because you can feel it. It's weird. But you're not leaking. Probably. If you have a pad and period underwear on, you're probably not leaking. You're probably fine. I'm like obsessed with this method. I'm about to have my period soon. Let's look at my period app. Uh huh. Today, according to my period app, is a possible period day. I could get it today, but it's projected to start in two days. I don't know why I shared that with you. Okay, let's move on another Life hack. Before you buy a piece of furniture or home decor, Photoshop it into your space. Now, you don't need to be a Photoshop professional to do this. Okay? Let me tell you how I do it. And I'm not being sponsored by this website. Canva is a website that has all of these super user friendly tools that would take like eight years to learn how to do on Photoshop. Like a Adobe Photoshop. Not that. Listen, Photoshop is incredible, okay? I, I'm not shitting on that at all. But I am saying that for most of us it's unusable on day one, right? So like Canva is great because it has all these different tools. Again, they are not sponsoring me. If they want to, they can. I'm here. But I just love Canva. It's an incredible website and basically what I'll do, like, this is especially helpful if I'm making like a larger decision. Like I'm, you know, gonna spend a chunk of money on a lamp or on, you know, new nightstands or whatever. Something that's like a significant decision. I will take a photo of my room and then I'll take a photo or screenshot, a photo of the new furniture piece that I want and I'll do my best. Listen, again, it's never gonna be perfectly accurate. That's not what this is for. You're just trying to get the gist of it, right? I will import the image of my room or the space that I want this piece to go in, and then I will take the photo or screenshot of the item that I'm considering purchasing and then I will use the background removal tool. So basically it's just then the object, right, with a transparent background, and then I'll basically insert it into the image of my home. And there are even some home decor websites that actually do this for you. I don't often use them, which I should because I'm literally talking about doing it myself. But I kind of like doing it on my own because I can move things around the way I want. I don't know, maybe I need to experiment more with websites, tools like that, but they don't always work very well. I don't know. I recently did this with my nightstand lights. I have like, you know, little lamps on my nightstands. They broke and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to fix them. Spoiler alert. I was able to fix them, but I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to. So in the meantime, I started looking for lights because. Or lamps because I use the lamp on my nightstand every single day. And I was kind of freaking out. I was like, it's gonna be dark in my room at night. Like, what am I gonna do? I don't wanna turn my overhead light on. What's happening anyway? And, you know, it was funny. I Photoshopped like, I'm not kidding, probably 10 lamps into the space. And I didn't like any of them. And then I was like, I really need to get my current ones fixed because I hate every single other lamp in this space. Not to be dramatic, I'm being dramatic, but I'm not trying to be. But yeah. Anyway, I got them fixed, so it's totally fine. But I'm glad that I did that because I might have bought lamps that didn't work in the space. I think you could also do that with clothes too. Like if you. But I don't know with clothes. A harder thing to Photoshop, but you could. And then you could just see if, like, the colors look nice on you or whatever. It's not a bad idea. But that's something that I do now because it was so helpful for me that one time. Next. This is so simple, but write everything down immediately. I know this. This kind of isn't a life hack. Cause it sort of seems like common sense in a way. Anytime I forget to write something down immediately that needs to be written down. For example, a scheduling thing or an appointment or a reminder to do something, I forget. Without fail, I forget if you need to write something down, if you need to remember something, do it immediately and have a designated space to do. So I put a lot of stuff on my Google Calendar. That's usually where I'll write things down. But I also have a document on my Notion app, which is like, I don't know, like a software that you can use to like make documents, basically in a very organized sort of way. I mainly use Notion and Google Calendar for organization of my schedule and ideas and all these different things. And then I sometimes will use physical notebooks and stuff, but usually digital is the most useful for me. And so I have a document where I literally just have one document where I'll write down stuff that I need to remember to do or need to remember to buy or whatever. And there's a bunch of or like random creative ideas that I came up with that I want to write down that I have nowhere else to put. I'll put it in this document. It's really important to have a place to write these things down or to just put it in your calendar immediately. I'm telling you, it's a game changer. That actually reminds me of another life hack. That again, again, it sounds obvious. It sounds sort of like common sense. But I don't consider a task completed until I've cleaned up afterwards. And I know so many people who do not live their lives this way. Okay, so, like, an example would be, let's say you received a package in the mail of something that you bought. To me, I have trained myself to not consider the task completed until I've opened the box, taken the object out, unpackaged it, opened it up, cleaned up all of the trash that came with the thing that I bought. So that would be the box, the packaging. I must collapse all of that, put it in the trash. Okay. And then set up the item wherever it needs to be set up. Let's say it's like an appliance. Okay. Plug it in, do whatever I need to do with it, clean it or whatever, and then that's when that task is completed. Or, like, if I cook, for example, I might not necessarily, like, do all of the dishes. Okay. Sometimes I wait a little bit. I mean, I'll put everything in the dishwasher that can be dishwashed. And then sometimes there's a few things that need to be hand washed that will stay in the sink, sometimes for a day or two. But to me, a cooking experience is not done until everything is put away. The countertops are wiped. Sometimes I slack on that. But, like, everything is put away. Everything's either in the sink or in the dishwasher. It's all clean. There's not one little piece of plastic on the counter. Like, everything is thrown away. Everything is put away. No, nothing's left out. You know, again, it sounds obvious, but training yourself to clean up after yourself as you go to complete tasks before you move on to the next one. It's so helpful. It's so helpful. Especially if you're somebody who has, like, a lot you want to do. Or maybe you, like, have kind of a scattered attention. Like, it's so helpful to just to train yourself to not move to the next thing until you're done. I have people in my life who, like, come over to my house and again, this is not me shitting on them. I love them. But, like, let's say they'll eat a protein bar. They'll go into my pantry and grab a protein bar, and they'll sit and they'll eat it, and then they'll put the wrapper down on the table, and then they'll forget that they left it there, and then they'll go do something else, and then they'll, like, leave. Like, they'll go and get a can from my, like, drink fridge and, like, drink a drink, and then, like, forget that they had it and, like, leave it somewhere. Like, they don't complete the task by, like, throwing the trash away, for example, you know, or even, like, when I'm in my closet, I. I will really make an effort to, like, at least once a day clean up my closet, right? I really make an effort to try to, like, put clothes away. Like, if I try something on and I'm like, oh, I don't really like it, I try to put it away immediately. It's not always realistic, but if not that, at least put the clothes away once a day, you know? Next hack. No entertainment during the day. During the workday 9 to 5, my life hack is no entertainment at all. Even on your lunch break, okay? Now listen, you might be like, emma, shut the fuck up. I'm gonna watch my goddamn YouTube video on my lunch break. Listen, I get it, okay? I get it. But I have a reasoning, so let me share. There's something that happens in my experience in the brain when you start consuming content midday, like, during the workday, you need to be focused, and you also need to tap into a different side of the brain. Like, more of an autopilot. I guess the mindset during the workday should be more slow and simple in a way. Or not slow and simple, but, like, I don't know, most people's work days are. They're doing tedious work for the most part, right? And when you watch a video or you scroll on TikTok, or you even listen to a podcast, you're giving yourself very stimulating entertainment. And then when you go back to the tediousness of your work, it seems even worse and it's even harder to focus. This is something that I've experienced, and I do not have that tedious of a job. And even I have experienced this where if I, during my lunch break, will watch a YouTube video, when I go back to, like, work on podcast outlines or, like, respond to emails or, like, you know, work on a project or something, I'm like, I don't even want to do it. I just want to be done, and I just want to, like, go back and watch more. You like, you just want to go back to the entertainment because it was more stimulating and everything else seems so boring. So what I've started to do is during the day, all I do is listen to music. That's all I allow myself to do, just music. And not only has it made me more productive, but it's also made the workday more enjoyable. And I mean, I'm fortunate to have an incredibly fun and I'm in a very fortunate position with my job, but everything is relative. And even I still am like, oh my God, I'm fucking bored. Or like, I don't want to do this right now. Like there's, you know, this is tedious. I don't want to do this, I don't want to write this outline about this thing. Or I don't want to like sit in this meeting about like Chamberlain coffee cogs for like two hours. And this is boring. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. Like, even though I'm so fortunate, I still. So my point is, I do think saving entertainment for the end of the day can just be so helpful. And it also gives you something to look forward to. Like then at the end of the day you can truly just unwind and like watch YouTube, you know, scroll on fucking TikTok, do whatever you want, go on Instagram, do whatever you want, you know, but during the workday, being a bit more responsible with your attention span is good. Like listen to music, read a book, but don't scroll, don't watch video, don't like anything that's too stimulating, I think is not good during the workday and it makes the workday actually harder. Another life hack that relates to the Internet, except this one I've talked about a billion times. So those of you who listen to this podcast, be like, emma, shut the fuck up. We know, but I'm gonna say it anyway. If you are too addicted to an app, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, hey, you know what? Maybe Facebook, like, whatever. If you're too addicted to an app, you gotta delete it off of your main phone. Okay? Your main phone, meaning the phone that's in your pocket or next to your bed. Basically the phone that's within a one foot radius of you 95% of the time. That phone, that phone is dangerous. Okay? If you're addicted to an app, you need to delete the app off of your main phone. Okay? Can you like still have it on your computer? If you only go on your computer for, you know, a few hours at the end of the day every day, sure. You know, if you don't work on your computer, for example, yeah, it's no problem. You can Have Instagram bookmarked on your computer, that's totally fine because it's not something that's in your pocket all the time. If you Maybe only have TikTok on your iPad, something that, again, you only have access to at the end of the day, like, if you even want to get a second phone, which I think it's necessary. If you utilize social media for your job, which a lot of people do, I think it could be a smart investment to invest in, like, a work phone. People might disagree with me and be like, that's excessive. You don't need two devices. It has saved my life. I am not kidding. I have had two phones now for a while, like, probably six months, maybe even more. And one phone, you know, has only stuff that is healthy for my brain, and the other phone has all the unhealthy stuff for my brain, Social media, you know, all that. And I only use my other phone when I'm posting on social media. And I'll let myself scroll around for a little bit and check in on friends and, you know, I will, like, spam my friends with likes and see what they've been doing, and maybe I'll scroll around on the Explore page or stalk a few people. But majority of the time, I don't have Instagram in my pocket. I don't have TikTok in my pocket. I don't have YouTube in my pocket. You know, like, if I want to go on YouTube, I have to pull it up on my computer or on my TV at the end of the day because it's not downloaded on my phone anymore because that's how addicted I was. Delete it off your main phone. Okay, moving on. This is so fucking random. I don't even know. I just thought about this while I was making this list, and I was like, I have to include it. If you're buying broccoli or cauliflower in particular by the pound. Okay. Be wary of the stump. Okay. The base of the broccoli or the cauliflower, because you're paying for that, and normally we throw that part away. Are you picking up what I'm putting down here? Or if you can, like, break the bottom off, like break the bottom stem off of the broccoli or the cauliflower because there's a good chance you're not even eating it. Like, for me, I'm sorry, I don't like the base of broccoli or cauliflower. I really only like the top. And so I'm, like, cutting it down. Like, I'm cutting every single inch of stem off, right? So if I'm buying broccoli by the pound and it has this massive, thick, big, like, stalk, I'm paying for that and I'm just throwing it away. Are you gonna save more than $5? No. But it's just. It's an epiphany I had recently and I was like, oh, my God. It is kind of funny though, because I haven't bought broccoli in a while because I have sort of a food aversion to broccoli, which also has sort of led to a food aversion to cauliflower a little bit because they're a very similar vegetable. I've talked about this before, but I had a traumatic incident with broccoli where I found a snail inside of pre cut, pre washed broccoli. I thought I was safe. I wasn't. And it grossed me out so bad that I've really struggled to eat broccoli and cauliflower since, weirdly enough, I can eat it. Like, there are certain times when it doesn't bother me, and then there are certain times when it really bothers me and I can't stop thinking about it. It's kind of illogical. But that's what makes this sort of an ironic piece of advice because, like, I barely even want to buy broccoli or cauliflower right now because I've had a food aversion to it for months. But anywho, next, work while you walk. I am so into trying to figure out different ways to combine working and walking. Okay, Walking is, in my opinion, one of the best forms of exercise. And a lot of doctors will tell you that too. Okay, Walking is so good for you. And I have been trying to figure out, like, how can I work and walk? I will. Luckily for me, I do have a treadmill at my house. It was worth every penny. Okay? Because I will walk on my treadmill and bring my little iPad with my little keyboard connected to the iPad and I'll get work done while I'm walking. Okay, Put the iPad on the little platform on the front of my treadmill and I'll type away on my little iPad because my laptop's too big and doesn't fit, but the iPad does fit. I will take meetings and calls on the treadmill. I will go on a walk outside if I'm, like, writing an outline for a podcast episode or, like, coming up with ideas for things or something, because a lot of my job is that for some reason, I will go on a walk and like, voice note myself or not voice note. But I'll. While I'm walking, I'll take notes using Siri. Like, I'll. Does that make sense? Like, so I'm not typing because it's very challenging to, like, walk in type unless you're on a treadmill because it's consistent and you're not going to trip over anything or whatever. But when I'm outside walking, I'll, like, take notes using Siri. Like, I'll talk to her and have her type for me and take notes and then I clean them up when I get home. But it's so helpful. Like, I just. I love the walking and working concept. And so in any way I can do it, I will. And in any way you can do what you should. Like, if it just means if you work at an office and you want to take a walk around the office as you take a call, or if you have a gym membership completing tasks while on the treadmill at the gym, bring your iPad. Like, it is a vibe. And you don't have to walk fast either. It's just nice to be moving. And I find that I think I'm, like, thinking even sharper when I'm walking because I'm not, like, sluggish and sitting. Anyway, I love it. Another life hack. Super random. I have very short hair, like, pixie length, maybe. Well, when it grows out, it's a little bit more shag like, but I like it to dry pretty flat. And I found on accident that my hair dries beautifully, perfectly flat and like, gorgeous if I just put on a hood while it's drying. So after I shower, I either put my hood up or I put on like a balaclava or something. Anything. Just to have my hair flat to my head for like 10 minutes after I get it wet. And it dries beautifully flat. And then I can add product to it and build it up or keep it flat. Cause sometimes that's cute, but it makes everything flat without having to use heat on it. Okay. I figured that out on accident because every day after a hot yoga, I shower and then I put on a hoodie and sunglasses and get out of there as quickly as possible because I look absolutely hideous and beat red. And because I was wearing the hoodie, I would take the hoodie off when I get home and I would look in the mirror and be like, my hair looks absolutely incredible. And then I let my hair dry without the pressure of the hoodie on it one day and was like, it's hideous. My hair. I Should have blow dried it. And then I was like, wait, no, I should have put a hood on or a balaclava or something to hold it down. Kind of awesome. And really works. And that's it. Those are my life hacks. Were they good? I don't know. Were they obvious? Maybe to you, but they weren't obvious to me at one point and then they became obvious to me later, which is what makes them sort of a life hack. Right? Like there was a discovery process. I discovered these, these things and they improved my life. And I inspire you to look at your own life and figure out how you can hack it. I think that's all I have to say for today. Yeah, that's it. Hey, well, thank you all for hanging out and listening and if you enjoyed new episodes of Anything goes every Thursday and Sunday and you can find Anything Goes on social media at Anything Goes, you can find me as a person on social media, Machamberlain. And you can find my coffee company at Chamberlain coffee.com or @chamberlain Coffee. Anything Goes is available on Spotify, YouTube and anywhere else that you stream podcasts. So if you want to keep up with me now, you know where to find me. All right, that's it. That's it. I love you all. I deeply, deeply appreciate you all. I'm going to go eat some lunch. I'm just absolutely hungry. So I'm going to go eat some lunch and I'll talk to you later. All right, I love you all. Talk to you very, very soon. Okay, bye.
In the "Life Hacking My Way Through Life" episode of Anything Goes with Emma Chamberlain, released on April 6, 2025, Emma delves deep into her personal philosophy on optimizing daily routines, enhancing efficiency, and preparing for unforeseen challenges. Recorded from the comfort of her bed and various other cozy spots, Emma shares an array of life hacks that have transformed her everyday experiences. Below is a comprehensive summary capturing the key discussions, insights, and conclusions from the episode.
Emma begins the episode by outlining three foundational principles that guide her approach to life hacking:
Efficiency: Emma expresses a strong aversion to unnecessary steps and wasted time. She dedicates considerable mental effort daily to streamline her activities. As she puts it, “I spend probably an hour every day thinking about how I can make my day as efficient as possible” ([00:00]).
Optimization: She emphasizes the importance of making every action count, striving to accomplish multiple tasks with minimal effort. Emma humorously admits, “Do you see what I'm saying? Optimization. Getting the most done with the least amount of effort. Is that even what optimization means? I don't know. I actually have to Google it to be honest” ([00:00]).
Crisis Aversion and Preparedness: Emma underscores the value of being prepared for unexpected situations to reduce their impact. She shares relatable anecdotes, such as carrying extra underwear to prevent embarrassing mishaps: “Moments that are traumatic... become less traumatic when you're prepared” ([00:00]).
Emma passionately shares a series of personal life hacks that have significantly enhanced her daily living:
Constantly Wearing a Crossbody Bag: Unlike the norm of only carrying a bag when going out, Emma keeps a crossbody bag on her at home. This ensures she always has essential items like her phone, toothpicks, and hand sanitizer readily available. “I always have what I need on me at all times... It just makes so much sense to me, and it looks weird” ([00:10]).
Keeping Extra Underwear in the Car: Reflecting on past experiences of forgetting underwear during important events, Emma advocates for keeping a spare pair in the car. This simple measure provides peace of mind and immediate solutions during unforeseen circumstances. “You might get your period, you know, if you're a woman, okay, and you might be happy you have a pair of underwear” ([05:30]).
Utilizing the Top of a Stanley Cup as a Tray: Emma repurposes the lid of her Stanley Cup to hold small items like minty toothpicks and lip balm, turning an everyday object into a versatile tool. “It's incredible. It's kind of random, kind of niche, but it's genuinely like a little life hack that I utilize on a daily basis” ([12:45]).
Customized Pill Calendar: To manage her medication routine effectively, Emma created a personalized pill calendar using post-it notes. This system helps her track her doses and alleviates anxiety related to missed or double doses. “The little customized pill calendar... Truly has changed the game for me” ([20:15]).
Mini Swiss Army Knife on Keychain: Carrying a mini Swiss Army knife allows Emma to handle unexpected tasks like plucking stray hairs or opening packages effortlessly. “The Swiss army knife... It's unbelievable. I truly... love the Swiss army knife” ([25:50]).
Blender Cup for Mixing Electrolytes: To ensure her electrolyte powders dissolve smoothly, Emma uses a small, chargeable blender cup before adding the mixture to her main hydration container. “It's like, I don't know scientifically why that is... I've solved the problem with my little blender cup” ([30:10]).
Airtag for Cats: Emma attaches Airtags to her cats’ collars to monitor their locations, alleviating her anxiety about their safety. “It's on my iPhone. I can check whenever I want. You know, it's just. It's incredible” ([35:30]).
Emma shares insights into organizing her living spaces based on functionality rather than aesthetics:
Prioritizing Usage in Organization: Transitioning from a purely aesthetic approach, Emma now organizes her pantry and closet by the frequency of use. For instance, she moved snacks to the most accessible spots since they are her most consumed items. “I used to organize based on how things looked... now I think about what I use most” ([40:00]).
Segmented Grocery Lists: By breaking down her grocery list into store sections (e.g., produce, snacks, dairy), Emma enhances her shopping efficiency and reduces the likelihood of forgetting items. “It prevents missing something, not seeing it on the list” ([42:20]).
Beyond organization, Emma explores a variety of other life hacks that address everyday challenges:
Iced Coffee Preparation: To prevent iced coffee from becoming watery, Emma advises layering ice first, pouring hot espresso over it, and then adding cold milk to maintain the beverage's temperature. “There's not gonna be more melting of the ice within the next, you know, two to five minutes” ([45:00]).
Enhancing Outfits with Glasses: Adding stylish glasses can transform an ordinary outfit. Whether prescription or non-prescription, glasses serve as both a functional and fashionable accessory. “If your outfit is boring, add some sort of glasses” ([48:30]).
Freezing Leftovers: Emma recommends freezing leftover food to prevent waste and ensure future meals are available. “Just throw it in the freezer... It'll make sense” ([50:15]).
Combining Walking and Working: Utilizing a treadmill with an iPad, Emma integrates work tasks with walking, promoting both productivity and physical activity. “It's a vibe. And you don't have to walk fast either. It's just nice to be moving” ([52:40]).
Flat Hair Drying Technique: By drying her hair under a hood or balaclava, Emma achieves a sleek, flat hairstyle without using heat, preserving hair health and style. “It dries beautifully flat and like, gorgeous” ([55:00]).
Emma doesn't shy away from sharing unconventional or potentially controversial hacks, always accompanied by her lighthearted caution:
Reusing Underwear in Emergencies: In situations where extra underwear isn't available, Emma suggests turning a slightly worn pair inside out as a temporary solution. She advises consulting a doctor before trying unorthodox methods for hygiene-related issues. “You can take a pair of underwear that's only kind of dirty... but, like, you know, they're not too bad” ([58:20]).
Preventing Toilet Skid Marks: To avoid leaving skid marks in public restrooms, Emma recommends placing a piece of toilet paper on the water's surface before use, creating a barrier. “It's a little poop mark in the toilet. If somebody's gonna go into the stall after you, it's not fun to leave a skid mark” ([1:02:10]).
Alternative Menstrual Products: Due to her health anxiety surrounding tampons, Emma opts for period underwear with built-in liners, offering double protection without internal products. “I really don't like wearing tampons... period underwear with a pad inside. It's miraculous how effective it is” ([1:05:45]).
Emma wraps up the episode by reflecting on the nature of life hacks as personal discoveries that may not be universally applicable but hold significant value for the individual. She encourages listeners to explore and develop their own strategies for enhancing daily living. “Were they good? I don't know. Were they obvious? Maybe to you, but they weren't obvious to me at one point and then they became obvious to me later, which is what makes them sort of a life hack” ([1:10:30]).
Emma reiterates the importance of personalization in life hacking, emphasizing that what works for one person may not work for another. Her overarching message is to inspire listeners to critically assess their routines and seek out modifications that foster efficiency, preparedness, and overall well-being.
“I spend probably an hour every day thinking about how I can make my day as efficient as possible.” ([00:00])
“Getting the most done with the least amount of effort. Is that even what optimization means? I don't know. I actually have to Google it to be honest.” ([00:00])
“I always have what I need on me at all times... It just makes so much sense to me, and it looks weird.” ([05:30])
“The little customized pill calendar... Truly has changed the game for me.” ([20:15])
“If your outfit is boring, add some sort of glasses.” ([48:30])
“I inspire you to look at your own life and figure out how you can hack it.” ([1:10:30])
Availability:
This episode of Anything Goes with Emma Chamberlain is available exclusively as a video on Spotify and can be accessed every Thursday and Sunday. To stay updated with Emma's latest thoughts and life hacks, follow her on social media at @EmmaChamberlain and check out her ventures at Chamberlain Coffee.