#TeamMoonsail compiled our favorite hacks that use creativity and innovation to make life easier and more efficient, so we can all have more time to do the things we love, like hammocking and painting.
Work Hacks:
- Use PicMonkey to resize photos
As #TeamMoonsail’s resident photographer, Katie is dedicated to her craft. Not only does she spend time capturing the perfect shot, she has to ensure that the image size is appropriate for whatever project we’re utilizing it for. In the pursuit of image-editing software, Katie came across PicMonkey and hasn’t looked back since. Available for free online (and without an account!), PicMonkey is Katie’s go-to platform for fast and easy image alterations like resizing, cropping, adding text, and more.
- Toggle between social media accounts
As communicators and strategists, #TeamMoonsail spends a lot of time managing social media accounts. On certain platforms, it can be extremely difficult to toggle between multiple business and personal accounts (we’re looking at you, Snapchat). Sedora appreciates platforms that offer user-friendly toggling functionality. Twitter has always allowed users to toggle, while Instagram is the latest platform to jump on the toggling bandwagon — you can toggle between up to five accounts now! It’s super fast and easy — get the directions here. You’ve made our collective work-lives easier, Instagram.
- Manage time effectively with StayFocusd Chrome Extension
Managing multiple social media accounts translates to spending a lot of time on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (and even Pinterest!). As you can imagine, this can occasionally become less-than-productive time. Time management and staying on track are essential when living the #StartupLife so Emily has found that the StayFocusd Chrome Extension makes her life easier by limiting the sites she is allowed to visit during a certain time frame. Using StayFocusd to manage her time has significantly decreased the amount of time Emily finds herself going down the rabbit hole that is social media.
- Use Asana to handle tasks
Rose tries to keep her email inbox to zero — this keeps her working more efficiently. Ever meticulously organized, she uses the web application Asana religiously to handle tasks, rather than rely on email to drive to-dos.
- Workaround faulty links by uploading your own image
Sharing curated content on multiple platforms is one of Scott’s fortes. He relies on a useful — and surprisingly easy — hack when images attached to articles or websites don’t automatically load in the preview. (This hack works on all major social networking platforms, but it is not as intuitive on LinkedIn.) To add your own image to a link on LinkedIn, hover your mouse over the plus sign and click ‘upload image.’ Then, select a photo from your desktop — you may have to download the image from the article/site separately.
Life Hacks:
- Find anything with Reddit
Scott is #TeamMoonsail’s resident Redditor. Can you think of a thing? Well, there’s probably a subreddit for it. Cats standing up? You bet. Weird eggs? Sure. Joe Biden eating sandwiches? Of course! Believe it or not, there are useful applications of this technique. For example, Scott has become a ninja at finding streams of soccer matches that aren’t televised here in the U.S.
- Amplify sound with a wine glass
Katie’s life hack is so brilliant, we might start referring to her as MacGyver around the office. We’ve all been there — unable to hear the song (or podcast or Ted Talk) playing from our phone while we’re in the shower. Katie’s solution: place your phone in a wine glass to amplify the sound!
- Read a children’s book to change your perspective
Rose’s hack is a reminder that sometimes the best life hacks aren’t the most complicated. In fact, sometimes the best hacks are the most simple. As the co-founder of Moonsail North, Rose lives, eats and breathes #StartUpLife. In order to distill something complicated down — whether in life or in business — Rose picks up a favorite children’s book. One of her favorites is The Day the Crayons Quit.
- Open a can sans can opener
If there were one #TeamMoonsail member who would survive a zombie apocalypse it would be Sedora, and her hack reflects that: how to open a can without a can opener. As a huge The Walking Dead fan, Sedora is all about hacks that will help her survive a zombie apocalypse. Additionally, as a California resident, a really bad earthquake could happen at any time. It’s good to know how to get into food if she finds herself without a can opener.
- Prevent watered down coffee with cold brew cubes
Like every other member of #TeamMoonsail, Emily is a coffee fanatic. Hot coffee, iced coffee, lattes, cappuccino — she doesn’t discriminate. In the pursuit of great coffee that won’t A) scald the tastebuds off her tongue or B) become gross and watered down, she stumbled upon a Pinterest hack that revolutionized her coffee drinking experience — cold brew cubes! These handy little coffee cubes ensure that hot coffee and iced coffee alike will be at a tolerable temperature and won’t be watered down (like with regular ice cubes).
If you’re interested in additional life-hacks, see our first installment of #TeamMoonsails favorite life hacks from last year.
What are your favorite life or work hacks? Share them with us!