502 tips · new ones added continuously
Every tip is one concrete thing you will do better or faster. Filter by what you use and who you are — or just search.
Plenty of monitors and laptops run at 60 Hz even though the hardware can do more. One setting, and scrolling suddenly feels buttery smooth.
With an external monitor and keyboard, a laptop can run closed and save desk space. Just change one setting for what closing the lid does.
Most people sit in their chair exactly as it arrived from the store. Three checkpoints — elbows at desk height, knees at a right angle, feet on the floor — take a minute to fix.
Default pointer and scroll-wheel speed is tuned for monitors from a decade ago. Two sliders save hundreds of arm movements a day.
A monitor rotated 90° shows a full document page, a long email, or code without endless scrolling. Windows and Mac both handle it right in settings.
A laptop permanently docked at 100% is wrecking its battery. Almost every manufacturer has a hidden option that stops charging earlier — and multiplies the battery's lifespan.
A laptop sitting on the desk shoots your chin and the ceiling from below, and a window behind you turns you into a silhouette. Camera height and light direction fix more than a new webcam ever will.
One checkbox in your calendar shortens default meetings to 25 and 50 minutes. Between calls you get a breather you don't have today.
Send a link, the other person picks an open slot themselves, and the meeting lands on both calendars. A built-in Google Calendar feature almost nobody knows about.
Don't arrange a meeting time over email. Google Calendar and Outlook lay attendees' calendars side by side, and you spot the open slot at a glance.
C
One letter instead of clicking: C for a new event, T for today, D/W/M to switch views, J and K to page through. A question mark shows every shortcut.
Google Calendar and Outlook can both show a second time axis next to your own. Plan a meeting across time zones by looking, not by doing math in your head.
A cable that falls behind the desk every time you unplug it is a daily micro-frustration. An office clip and a few reusable cable ties end it for good.
API response as one unreadable line of mush? jq formats it, colors it, and pulls out exactly the field you're looking for.
Right-click a tab for “Close other tabs” or “Close tabs to the right.” And Ctrl+click selects multiple tabs at once.
A password your browser once saved can be revealed anytime — uncovering a login you thought was lost for good.
Gmail turns an open email into a Calendar event in three clicks — with the subject as the title and a link back to the conversation.
Gmail can forward an email as an .eml attachment — even ten messages at once. The recipient gets the originals, headers and all, not a mangled copy.
A hidden Gmail setting adds a second button to Reply that sends the email and tidies the conversation out of your inbox in one move. One click instead of two.
An urgent fix comes in and your code is half-finished? git stash tucks it away in a drawer, git stash pop brings it back. No half-baked commits.
Bad reset, deleted branch, a rebase gone wrong? git reflog shows the history of everywhere HEAD has been — and lost commits can be brought back.
Files from your system and editor don't belong in every project's .gitignore. Set up a global ignore file instead — it applies to every repository.
A forgotten file or a typo in the message doesn't need a new commit. --amend rewrites the last one, as if the mistake never happened.
One file has both a bug fix and an unrelated cleanup? git add -p walks through the changes chunk by chunk and asks what belongs in the commit.
Ctrl+click on sheet tabs groups them — and whatever you type into one gets written into all of them. Fix twelve monthly sheets in one move.
Switching back and forth between the sheet with source data and the sheet with results? View → New Window shows both at once.
Alt+;
Copying a table with hidden rows and they paste in too? Alt+; selects only the visible cells — the hidden ones stay home.
“You froze” usually doesn't mean slow internet — it means unstable Wi-Fi. An Ethernet cable is the single most reliable upgrade for calls.
Ctrl+Shift+U
Built-in read-aloud with surprisingly natural voices. Listen to an article while cooking or on the way home from work.
Put the meeting window on the monitor with the camera, notes and materials on the other. You look people in the eye, never share anything private, and minutes write themselves.