People have been sharing their most effective cheat codes for life – 17 little hacks that make a big difference

Unless you’re incredibly lucky and privileged, you may have noticed that life can be a little tough from time to time.

Don’t despair though. Reddit user Soggy_BreadCrust has pooled together the collected intelligence of r/AskReddit to make life a bit easier. And they did it by asking this question to the good folks over at r/AskReddit:

‘What’s a “cheat code” you discovered in real life that actually works?’

Here are the top answers which you never know might actually make your day-to-day just a little bit smoother…

1.
‘For any (non-violent) conflict, treat the problem as the enemy. The other people in the conflict are your greatest allies in destroying your enemy.

‘So many people are terrible communicators and when you can actually facilitate these things, it makes everyone feel much better and issues actually get solved in a respectful way.’
-Veggies-are-okay

2.
‘Lower the resistance to the things you want to do.

‘Want to study for 15 minutes? Tell yourself you’ll do just 1 minute. Then, at the 1-minute mark, decide if you want to keep going. Chances are you will.

‘Inertia is a powerful thing. Use it to your advantage.’
-Germanspartan15

3.
‘Start taking your seasonal allergy meds at least one month before you actually need them.

‘Thank you random stranger who told me that over 10 years ago. Haven’t had a bad season since.’
-SaltyGoatsicle

4.
‘You’d be surprised what people will do for you if you just ask.

‘My mom was really big on “you won’t get what you don’t ask for” so I grew up with a lot of practice just asking for what I wanted. When I took this to the real world, people were always shocked at how just asking for something nicely can get you exactly that.’
-Colonel_Moopington

5.
‘Listen. Just listen. People love to talk and you will learn a lot about who people really are. Whether that’s positive or negative.’
-boredandmessy

6.
‘People think I’m a genius because I read the manual.’
-eboody

7.
‘Compliment people. Not every time you see them, but every once in a while. Be sincere about it. They will be happy and they will be nicer to you and you will be happier as well.’
-Educational_Dust_932

8.
‘I’m a bouncer at a club. People give a lot of attitude when I don’t let them in cause they forgot their ID or it’s expired.
I’ve just started being like “yeah man I totally get it but that guy” (I point to a random patron near the door inside the club) “works for the liquor board. He’s doing a sting on me right now n he’s watching everything I do like a hawk. His partner could have a fake, an expired ID, no idea”

‘99.9999% of the time it immediately diffuses the situation while eliminating the “nobody is gonna know!” excuse and the person leaves without a hassle.’
-ExpiredPilot

9.
‘Asking people to do an extra step before you do something for them, greatly reduces unnecessary requests. Example:

“Yeah, I’ll resend you that file you can’t find, can you please tell me the date I sent it to you so I can find the email?”
They have to search for the email and find the file themselves in the process. Works great with lazy coworkers or students.’
-SpicyAbsinthe