Category: How To

How to… do stuff

Posted on

How To Nap: The 4 Ingredients of the Perfect Nap

After much research and experimentation I have developed the perfect recipe for Napping.

Sometimes 8 hours of sleep just isn’t enough, and you might need a “Power Nap” or “Nana Nap”.

The 4 Ingredients of the Perfect Nap:

1. Nap between the hours of 2pm to 5pm

  • Napping in the evening is too tempting to sleep through the night
  • Napping in the morning is just ridiculous, you’ve only just got up!

2. Nap in an environment as similar as possible to your normal sleep

  • In your own bed, curtains drawn, no noise etc

3. Set an alarm for 45 minutes. Get up when the alarm goes off

  • This time includes an allowance of about 15 minutes for falling asleep
  • Make the decision before you nap that you will get up within 2 minutes of when your alarm goes off
  • Don’t be tempted to keep sleeping
  • This is very important to avoid sleep inertia which is when you feel groggy and want to keep sleeping, this state kicks in after about 30 minutes

4. Don’t worry if you weren’t asleep during the entire 45 minute nap

  • Even just resting with your eyes closed is immensely beneficial
  • Don’t extend your alarm (or ignore it when it goes off)  if you think you didn’t get enough sleep

More Napping Resources

What About You?

  • What napping technique works for you?
  • What’s the most inappropriate place you’ve had a nap? Wedding? Funeral? At work?

Write your comments below.

Posted on

How To Print Only Newest Section Of Email In An Outlook Email Conversation Thread

print-outlook-emailSometimes, you just need a hardcopy version of an email for quick reference, right?

But do you feel guilty when you print out the entire email conversation (10 or 20 pages sometimes) when all you needed was the last one or two emails?

With Gmail, it’s easy. You can choose exactly which emails in the conversation to print.

With Outlook it can’t be done. You’ll end up with the whole conversation. A waste of paper!

Well here’s how you can print just the emails you want, out of a long email conversation with Microsoft Outlook:

  1. Click on the “forward” button
  2. Delete the older parts of the email conversation
  3. Print

Easy!

Posted on

How To Measure Your Lung Capacity In 9 Easy Steps

  1. Take the deepest breath you can
  2. Inflate a balloon with a single breath (if you have already completed step 1 and haven’t got a balloon yet, release your breath, go and buy one, and repeat step 1)
  3. Tie it off
  4. Get a large, deep oven tray and put it on the floor
  5. Fill an empty bucket and put it in the centre of the oven tray
  6. Top up the bucket of water with extra water until it is full to the very top (don’t let any slosh into the oven tray)
  7. Gently dunk your balloon in the water. The water will start pouring out of the bucket and into the oven tray. Fully submerge the balloon (try not to slosh extra water out of the bucket when doing so)
  8. Take the balloon and bucket away
  9. Either:
    • Poor the water from the oven tray into a measuring jug, or
    • Weigh the oven tray with the water in it, empty the oven tray and weigh it, the difference in weight is your lung capacity in litres (because 1 litre of water weighs exactly 1 kg)

How many litres of water did you collect? That is your lung capacity.

Why would you want to do this?

I don’t know.

Seems like a lot of work for just a number to brag to your friends about…

Posted on

How To Pick A Perfectly Ripe Avocado

perfect-avocadoMy mum asked me to try avocado when I was young. I thought it was revolting at the time.  But in my late 20’s I thought I’d give it another shot, and I freakin loved it!  And I’ve been eating them ever since.

I’ve had avocado in my sandwhiches every day for the last 4 years.

During the off season they can cost $3.50 each so that tells you how much I can’t do without them.

So I’ve chosen and eaten about 600 avocados in the last 4 years so I know a thing or two about choosing them.

The secret to picking a perfectly ripe avocado:

Ripen it yourself at home on the kitchen bench.

It is the only way.

Sorry, you can’t just grab one from the supermarket or fruit and vege shop.  If you do you’ll probably only be able to use half of it because it will be covered in bruises.

So avocados aren’t an impulse purchase. You have to plan ahead.

So buy them when they are bright green. This ensures that no-one has come along and squeezed it!

From that stage they can take 3 to 5 days to ripen.

3 Tests to tell you if your avocado is perfectly ripe and ready-to-eat

  1. What colour is the avocado?
    • When the green skin darkens to black, you are almost ready
    • Just a hint of green skin remaining means just one more day on the kitchen bench is required
  2. How easy is it to remove the tiny remaining stalk (left over from the avocado vine) with your thumb?
    • Very gently, try to remove it by rocking it back and forth with your thumb
    • If it is difficult to remove, wait another day
    • If it is easy to remove, it’s another indication of perfect ripeness
  3. How firm is the avocado?
    • Hold it gently in your hand, and squeeze gently. GENTLY DAMN YOU! Don’t bruise it!
    • If it is very firm, wait another day
    • If it gives a little, it is ready

Ok, if your avocado passes those 3 tests, you are ready to cut it open and take a look.

Hopefully, the flesh is bright green, smells fresh, doesn’t have stringy bits, and is free from “avocado tumors”, and the stone removes easily.

Here’s a short video to explain a bit more:


Enjoy!

perfect-avocado

Posted on

Jar Lid Stuck On Tight? 6 Ways To Open A Jar

#1 Trick to opening jars with stuck lids

First turn the jar upside down and hold it with one hand (don’t touch the lid).

Slap the bottom of the jar with an open hand as hard as you can.

Try and open the jar.

Didn’t work? Try this:

#2 Trick to opening jars with hard-to-open lids

Run the jar under hot water for a minute or two.

Quickly dry it off and try to open it.

Didn’t work? Try this:

#3 Trick to open a jar

Carefully put the tip of a bread-and-butter knife under the lid of the jar and twist the knife a little bit.

Hopefully, this will let a little bit of air into the jar.

Didn’t work? Try this:

#4, #5, #6 Three more quick-fire last resorts when a jar just won’t open

    • Watch infomercials until you see one of those jar clamps for old people. Buy it.
    • Call a lawn mower man and ask him to come around to give you a quote, when he arrives, ask him to open it and then tell him his price is too high
    • Smash the jar by throwing it on the floor, eat the contents with a spoon (spit out the glass) Hint: wash the floor first.
      Posted on

      How To Get A Carpark Without Driving Around For Ages

      How many times have you zipped around the block again and again in the vain hope that someone will miraculously give up that park right infront of you?

      Good news: You don’t have to any more because I will tell you my secret

      The secret to getting a park is… to chill.

      Here’s how it works:

      Say you’ve come up on a block of parks with 30 minute maximums. There are 15 parks, they are all taken.

      Do you:

      • A: Keep driving, one might be just around the corner…
      • B: Pull over as far as you can and wait

      The correct answer is B.

      Its all maths.

      If there are 15 cars and the limit is 30 minutes that means someone is likely to pull out in just 2 minutes!

      All you have to do is try and make it clear to the cars zipping past you that you somehow knew ahead of time that a car is about to pull out of their park.

      If its a 2 hour area and there are 40 parks, how long do you have to wait? 10 minutes? 5? Nope. Just 3. (2hours x 60 minutes per hour = 120mins divided by 40 parks = 3 minutes).

      Good luck! (Not that you’ll need it, just patience!)

      Posted on

      How To Maximise Efficiency When Heating Your Home

      Reportedly the most efficient form of heating for a household is with a heat pump. I don’t really understand how they work. I mean, how do they take cold air from outside and extract the heat from it and pump that into your house? And they are spose to be 150% efficient. I just don’t get it.

      Anyway, what I do get is how to use a thermostat properly. I’m stunned that so many people have no idea how to use one! And what results is high running costs and a big electricity bill at the end of the month.

      The most common reaction is “hey, its cold, lets turn on the heater!” and they crank it to the highest setting to heat the room the fastest. This is a false. The room won’t heat any quicker! The maximum power output does not change, the thermostat controls what temperature at which the element is turned off.

      For example, if you set your heater to 10, it may never turn off because that temperature may be 40 degrees. The thing is, you don’t notice anything until you are too hot. At this point you take off a couple of layers and turn the heater off. You have wasted power, it should have been turned off 30 minutes ago!

      The trick is to find the precise setting on the heater which heats the room to a comfortable point. For my tiny oil filled column heater that mark is 3/10. I resist the temptation to crank it to 10 when it is cold, I leave it at 3 and a comfortable and energy efficient evening results.

      Posted on

      How To Pick A Trustworthy Mechanic

      The simple answer is that they don’t exist.

      Lets face it, you go for a warrant, it is their best interest to fail you on something because that way they get more business.

      Of course you should go to a independant Vehicle Testing Station for warrants.

      I’m an AA member so I’d like to think I can trust a company I partly own (because I’m a member), but at the end of the day, there lies the same incentive.

      Damn.

      There’s just no getting around it…

      Posted on

      How To Wash Your Car Correctly

      People often ask me “how do you get your car so clean” and I always reply “it comes down to correct car washing technique”. So here are my tips for correct car washing technique.

      • The only equipment you need is a hose, a soft bristled brush and a good quality car wash detergent (TurtleWax is excellent).
      • The best time of day is early in the morning and out of direct sunlight. If its too hot, the suds will dry before you rinse them off and you may get marks on the paintwork.
      • Don’t be tempted to use a high pressure hose. The water can blast thin layers of paint off your car over time.

      Founding principles

      The correct technique is to scrub and rinse in decending layers. The idea is to keep the water and brush as clean as possible by washing the cleanest areas first and the dirtiest last. Usually, the closer the section of the car is to the ground, the dirtier it will be. Remember also, that rinsing frequently prevents the suds from leaving marks on the paintwork.

      Step by step

      1. First, thoroughly wet your car. Hopefully this will remove a bit of the dirt and grime too.
      2. Next, scrub the roof and all the windows. When you are done with that section, rinse thoroughly with the hose.
      3. The next layer to scrub is the top half of the doors, the bonnet and boot (or hood and trunk for the Americans). Stop and rinse thoroughly
      4. Next, the nose and tail and the lower half of the doors
      5. Finally, the skirting around the doors, the mudguards and wheels

      It is also a good idea to wax and polish when you’re done. Unfortunately the technique that I have outlined above takes so bloody long I’m sick of cleaning once I’m done so never get around to the waxing.