Tips & tricks

Drag a folder into a Save dialog — and you're there

You don't have to click your way through a Save dialog: drag a folder or file from Finder into it and the dialog jumps straight to that spot.

Cap charging at 80%: your battery lasts years longer

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.

Camera at eye level and light from the front: two minutes for a better impression

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.

A free booking page: Google Calendar can do what Calendly does

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.

Google Calendar from the keyboard: C creates an event, T jumps to today

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.

A second time zone in your calendar: no more counting hours

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.

Cable order in a minute: a clip on the edge of the desk

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.

Three fingers on iPhone: copy, paste, and undo

The iPhone has gestures for working with text: a three-finger pinch copies, a spread pastes, and a swipe left undoes the last action.

The Action Button: A Physical Shortcut on the Side of Your iPhone

Newer iPhones have a programmable button above the volume controls. Voice memo, flashlight, camera, or a custom shortcut with one press-and-hold.

A Forgotten Password? Your Browser Knows It

A password your browser once saved can be revealed anytime — uncovering a login you thought was lost for good.

Turn an Email Straight Into a Calendar Event

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.

Forward as an Attachment: A Whole Thread in One Email

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.

Send and Archive: Two Actions, One Button

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.

Grouping Sheets: Edit a Dozen Excel Sheets at Once

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.

New Window in Excel: Two Sheets of the Same Workbook, Side by Side

Switching back and forth between the sheet with source data and the sheet with results? View → New Window shows both at once.

Alt+; in Excel: Copy Without the Hidden Rows

Alt+;

Copying a table with hidden rows and they paste in too? Alt+; selects only the visible cells — the hidden ones stay home.

Choppy Video Call? A Cable Fixes What Wi-Fi Can't

“You froze” usually doesn't mean slow internet — it means unstable Wi-Fi. An Ethernet cable is the single most reliable upgrade for calls.

The Two-Screen Meeting Rule: One for People, One for Notes

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.

A New Version of a File in Google Drive: The Link Stays the Same

Don't upload a corrected PDF as another file. Manage versions swaps it out under the same link — for everyone who has it.

In-depth guide · 15 min

What loops are: the agentic cycles said to replace prompting

An explainer with prompts: what it means to let AI run in a loop, what's true in the hype, what's overblown, and how to safely try your first loop.

Screenshot the Whole Page — Even the Part You Have to Scroll To

Ctrl+Shift+S

Edge and Firefox capture an entire web page from header to footer with a single command. No extensions, no stitching pieces together.

In-depth guide · 23 min

Beeper as your message hub: Claude pulls promises out of your chats before you forget them

A complete guide with prompts: Beeper unifies WhatsApp, Messenger, and Slack into one app, and Claude pulls promises and deadlines out of them via MCP on a regular schedule and writes them into Notion. Includes a patient introduction to the terminal for anyone who's never opened one.

A Ten-Minute Subscription Audit: Search Your Own Inbox

You don't have to painfully recall every subscription you're paying for — searching payment confirmations in your inbox plus two system screens puts the list together in ten minutes.

Quick Share: Files From Android to Windows, No Cable

AirDrop's counterpart is built into every newer Android phone — and with a free app from Google it sends photos and files to Windows too.

Gboard Has a Clipboard History — Win+V in Your Pocket

The Gboard keyboard remembers what you last copied, and you can pin important items permanently. Just turn it on.

Ask AI What It Assumed

Gaps in your prompt get silently filled with the model's own assumptions. Have them listed out — see what the answer is standing on before you build work on top of it.

A Letter From an Agency: Have AI Translate It Into Plain English

Paste an official letter into AI and get four answers: what they want from you, by when, what happens if you don't, and exactly what to do. No legalese, no panic.

A Table Locked Inside a PDF: AI Puts It Back Into Excel

Copying a table out of a PDF turns the columns into one tangled noodle of text. Upload the PDF to AI, ask for CSV — and check the control total.

Word on the Tip of Your Tongue: AI as a Reverse Dictionary

You know the meaning but not the word? Describe it to AI and get ten candidates with the shades of difference between them. Works for technical terms and cliché-free synonyms too.

Added to a 30-Email Thread? AI Tells You What's Expected of You

A forwarded conversation, “see below,” and thirty emails of history. Drop the thread into AI and ask: who's claiming what, where's the agreement, and what are you supposed to do.