Tips & tricks

Save articles for later — and read them in a batch

Instapaper, Pocket, or bookmarks: save an article in a second and read it later in peace, without twenty tabs open on your phone.

Android: customize your Quick Settings tiles

Your Quick Settings panel can have exactly what you use — flashlight, screen recording, QR scanner. And in the order you want.

Grayscale mode: a colorless phone is half as tempting

Grayscale turns your phone into a tool instead of a dopamine machine. Ideal for focus blocks.

A home screen with just your tools

Social media and entertainment off the home screen — leaving calendar, tasks, notes. What you don't see, you don't open without thinking.

App limits: 30 minutes of social media a day is plenty

iOS and Android can both lock an app once you've hit your daily limit. Extra friction that actually works.

iPhone search: swipe down to find anything

Swiping down on the home screen opens search — apps, contacts, messages, and calculations. Faster than hunting for icons.

Bedtime mode: your phone goes to sleep before you do

An hour before bed, your phone dims, quiets down, and stops tempting you. Set it once — and sleep better every night.

Type by swiping: a third faster

Gliding your finger across the keyboard looks odd and works great. After a week you won't remember why you tapped.

Android: two apps on screen at the same time

Notes next to your browser, or a calendar next to email — split screen is genuinely usable on bigger phones.

Batched notifications: a summary instead of a drip

iOS and Android can both hold non-urgent notifications and deliver them as a summary at times you choose. Your phone stops yanking at your attention.

Hold the space bar: your keyboard turns into a trackpad

Landing a finger right in the middle of a word is a lottery. Holding the space bar turns your keyboard into a touchpad for precise cursor movement.

iPhone Shortcuts: your phone switches into work mode by itself

The Shortcuts app can do automations: arriving at the office turns on Do Not Disturb, opening Instagram starts a timer.

iPhone: tapping the back triggers anything

A double-tap on the back of your phone can launch the flashlight, a screenshot, or a shortcut. A hidden button hardly anyone knows about.

In-depth guide · 21 min

AI makes things up with total confidence. Verify it

A complete guide with prompts: why models hallucinate, three verification methods, the two-source rule, and a workflow for content that leaves the company.

In-depth guide · 16 min

“Explain it to me like…” — AI as a private tutor

A complete guide with prompts: explanations at your level, the Feynman technique, test questions from your notes, and the trap of illusory understanding.

In-depth guide · 19 min

Dictate your thoughts, let AI turn them into text

A complete guide with prompts: how to dictate a usable transcript, tidy it into an email or notes with one prompt, and turn commutes into writing time.

In-depth guide · 21 min

AI search engines with citations: research with verifiable sources

A complete guide with prompts: when to use AI search instead of Google, how to ask so the answer rests on sources — and where the tool reliably fails.

In-depth guide · 18 min

Your first conversation with AI: the complete guide for absolute beginners

A complete guide with copy-paste prompts: how to pick a tool, what to type into the first empty box, and telling a good answer from plausible nonsense.

In-depth guide · 17 min

Custom instructions: set up AI once, it applies forever

A complete guide to standing instructions: what belongs in them, how they differ from a Project, testing them — and ready sets for common professions.

In-depth guide · 19 min

A long document? Let AI make an excerpt with page numbers

A complete guide with prompts: four summary types by purpose, extracting risks from contracts, comparing two versions, and checking nothing vital got lost.

A distraction blocker: stronger than your willpower

Apps like Cold Turkey or Freedom block chosen websites for a set period. Decide once, and it holds for the whole morning.

Anki: learn in half the time with spaced repetition

Flashcards with an algorithm that quizzes you right when you're about to forget. For languages, exams, and professional knowledge alike.

Obsidian: [[links]] weave your notes into a network

Double square brackets create a link to another note — and backlinks show you where it's referenced from.

Obsidian: the daily note as a safety net for your day

One place where you dump notes, ideas, and links all day long. Sort it out in the evening — or don't; search will still find it.

Shift+F3: change letter case without retyping

Shift+F3

Caps Lock stuck on by accident? Select the text and Shift+F3 cycles between lowercase, Title Case, and UPPERCASE.

Word without distractions: Focus mode

View → Focus hides the ribbons and leaves just the page. Writing without visual noise.

Find and Replace in Word: more than just text

Ctrl+H

Ctrl+H can also replace formatting, double spaces, and paragraph marks. Cleaning up a whole document in a few clicks.

Word: heading styles instead of manual bold text

Heading 1 and Heading 2 aren't just about looks — they power the navigation pane, an automatic table of contents, and chapter collapsing.