I have never understood the word “life hack” I mean, how first world problem can you get? Buying expensive gadgets and spending tons of time organizing, getting specials apps, etc so you spend slightly less time and energy on tasks later. It just doesn’t make sense to me as someone who is impatient.

I’m obsessed with saving time in a practical way, not so I can be cool but so I can spend as little time as possible actually doing unpleasant tasks. So I guess that’s still life hacking but life hacking that actually has a purpose…and isn’t extra work. That said here’s my top 6 life hacks for lazy triathletes.  They are all things everyone says you “Should” do and easy “life hack” ways to accomplish them.

1. Don’t push snooze, get up as soon as your alarm goes off. Apparently sleep stolen after pushing snooze is not quality sleep, is just delaying the inevitable, and is ultimately a waste of time. I mentioned this one before on the how to get up early post for Energy Lab. I have often admired the denigrating/motivational notes folks write to themselves next to their Iphone alarms, but it’s never occurred to me to actually ask anyone how you go about making those?  Do you have to have an app? An Iphone 5? Do I finally have to download IOS 7? (there’s another life hack for you right there.. not downloading IOS7. My life is great without it )

All that prelude to say what I do instead is grab my phone and open my email as soon as the alarm goes off. There is always something on there that makes me want to get up. If not, I flip over to social media and find something there.

2.  You shouldn’t gobble your food, you should eat slowly.  Everyone knows you’re supposed to eat over the course of 20 minutes in order for your stomach to send signals to your brain that you’re satiated..or something like that. Yet that has the potential to be boring and take forever. What’s the simple solution? Trade your spoon for a knife.

For some unknown reason, I started eating my Fage with a butter knife a long time ago. I think originally it was because the container is small and it’s hard to get everything in the fruit partition  with a spoon. Anyways, the result was that it take a lot longer to eat my yogurt and I enjoy it a lot more. In fact, I now can’t stand the thought of eating it with a spoon. Much to the joy of butter knives all over the house as the butter knife is definitely most oft overlooked and underutilized utensil. Try it.. what else is a butter knife really good for?

 

3. Don’t waste time chatting at the water cooler = Avoid  answering the phone if you don’t know who it is or what it’s about. This is not because I dislike people or talking to people. In my world, unless there is a specific task to be accomplished or you’re limited by geography, the best/most purposeful interaction takes place either in person or by email.

 

 

4. Don’t waste hours of your life getting ready. Ladies, this one is for us. Cut down on getting ready time= Embrace the locker room.  Once upon a time, I hated showering at the gym. Not only is it a peep show that you can’t unsee, it’s germy and other people’s germs to boot.

 

No more. Now I have favorite showers at several different LA Fitnesses, and when I visit a new one I admire the minor variations in the bathroom tile or perhaps comment on the differently patterned carpet. There is nothing as efficient as having ~40 locations in metro Atlanta to get ready. Just this weekend I went straight from riding my bike to Cartersville to touring the Kennesaw Wade Green LAF, to a wedding shower in no time at all. Bam.

5. Be prepared for any situation. This translates to keep (leave) stuff in your car- This is related to the above hack, but it eventually comes in handy to have extra crap in your car. In my old job this was much more complicated because I needed a whole extra category of things in my car such as heels and  dresses, etc.  It Always paid off though to not only have SBR equipment ready to go at all times (and extra running shoes) but a spare suit, heels and whatever else, too.

 

6. Take your easy days easy. You need to take the easy days easy, so you can truly work hard on the hard days. Everyone knows this, it’s actually Doing it that’s the problem. The crux of the issue? Training partners. Training partners are known to destroy your best laid plans to run or bike easy.

What’s the solution? Get a dog who likes to run slower than you. Sadie likes to literally stop and enjoy the flowers, early and often during a 3 mile run. Bailey is down for an easy run or some speedwork. They both need lots of exercise …or they’re unbearable bless their hearts. So I frequently run parts of runs with Sadie, then Bailey. Like warmup with Sadie (out and back) then switch dogs and run tempo or whatever with Bailey. Or if it’s just an easy short day altogether, I will run with both, but that ends up being ultra-slow. Then I save the human training partners for tougher training days. Works great and everyone wins.

What’s your favorite life hack?