# Ten small life improvements

I've accumulated a lot of small applications and items that make my life incrementally better. Most of these ultimately came from someone else's recommendation, so I thought I'd pay it forward by posting ten of my favorite small improvements.

(I've given credit where I remember who introduced the item into my life. Obviously the biggest part of the credit goes to the creator.)

Video speed
-----------

[Video Speed Controller](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/video-speed-controller/nffaoalbilbmmfgbnbgppjihopabppdk?hl=en) lets you speed up HTML 5 video; it gives a nicer interface than the YouTube speed adjustment and works for most videos displayed in a browser (including e.g. netflix/amazon).

(Credit: Stephanie Zolayvar?)

Spectacle
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[Spectacle](https://www.spectacleapp.com/) on OSX provides keyboard shortcuts to snap windows to any half or third of the screen (or full screen).

Pinned tabs + tab wrangler
--------------------------

I use [tab wrangler](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tab-wrangler/egnjhciaieeiiohknchakcodbpgjnchh?hl=en) to automatically close tabs (and save a bookmark) after 10m. I keep gmail and vimflowy [pinned](http://www.wikihow.com/Pin-Tabs-in-Google-Chrome) so that they don't close. For me, closing tabs after 10m is usually the right behavior.

Aggressive AdBlock
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I use [AdBlock](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom?hl=en-US) for anything that grabs attention even if isn't an ad. I usually block "related content," "next stories," the whole youtube sidebar, everything on Medium other than the article, the gmail sidebar, most comment sections, etc. Similarly, I use [kill news feed](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/kill-news-feed/hjobfcedfgohjkaieocljfcppjbkglfd?hl=en) to block my Facebook feed.

Avoiding email inbox
--------------------

I often need to write or look up emails during the day, which would sometimes lead me to read/respond to new emails and switch contexts. I've mostly fixed the problem by leaving gmail open to my list of starred emails rather than my inbox, ad-blocked the "Inbox (X)" notification, and pin gmail so that I can't see the "Inbox (X)" title.

Christmas lights
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I prefer the soft light from christmas lights to white overhead lights or even softer lamps. My favorite are multicolored lights, though soft white lights also seem OK.

(Credit: Ben Hoffman)

Karabiner
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[Karabiner](https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner) remaps keys in a very flexible way. (Unfortunately, it only works on OSX pre-Sierra. Would be very interested if there is any similarly flexible software that )

Some changes have helped me a lot:

*   While holding s: hjkl move the cursor. (Turn on "Simple Vi Mode v2") I find this way more convenient than the arrow keys.
*   While holding d: hjkl move the mouse. (Turn on "Mouse Keys Mode v2") I find this slightly more convenient than a mouse most of the time, but the big win is that I can use my computer when a bluetooth mouse disconnects.
*   Other stuff while holding s: (add [this gist](https://gist.github.com/paulfchristiano/77077c0a0a9094bfc6802271907608aa) to your private.xml):
    *   While holding s: u/o move to the previous and next word, n is backspace. 
    *   While holding s+f: key repeat is 10x faster.
    *   While holding s+a: hold shift (so cursor selects whatever it moves over, e.g. I can quickly select last ten words by holding a+s+f and then holding u for 1 second).

I'd definitely pay > a minute a day for these changes.

Keyboard
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I find split+tented keyboards much nicer than usual keyboards. I use a [Kinesis Freestyle 2](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009ZNBJBM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) with [this](https://www.amazon.com/VIP3-Accessory-Kinesis-Freestyle2-Keyboard/dp/B008BVNQW4/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499635913&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Kinesis+Freestyle2+VIPTM+Accessory+Features+AC820-BLK+%28Keyboard+sold+Separately%29) to prop it up. I put my touchpad on a raised platform between the keyboard halves. Alternatively, you might prefer the [wire cutter's recommendations](http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/comfortable-ergo-keyboard/).

(Credit: Emerald Yang)

Vimflowy
--------

[Vimflowy](http://vimflowy.bitballoon.com/) is similar to [Workflowy](/workflowy.com), with a few changes: it lets you "clone" bullets so they appear in multiple places in your document, has marks that you can jump to easily, and has much more flexible motions / macros / etc. I find all of these very helpful. The biggest downside for most people is probably modal editing (keystrokes issue commands rather than inserting text).

The biggest value add for me is the time tracking plugin. I use vimflowy essentially constantly, so this gives me extremely fine-grained time tracking for free.

Running locally ([download from github](https://github.com/wuthefwasthat/vimflowy)) lets you use vimflowy offline, and using the SQLite backend scales to very large documents (larger than workflowy can handle).

(Credit: Jeff Wu and Zachary Vance.)

ClipMenu \[hard to get?\]
-------------------------

Keeps a buffer of the last 20 things you've copied, so that you can paste any one of them. Source for OSX is on github [here](https://github.com/naotaka/ClipMenu), I'm not sure if it can be easily compiled/installed (binaries used to be available). Would be curious if anyone knows a good alternative or tries to compile it.

(Credit: Jeff Wu.)