Liz Selbst’s Top 10 Pieces of Unsolicited Advice She Wanted to Give in 2010 but Bit Her Tongue Instead

10. if you’ve spent more than an hour on the internet researching symptoms, it’s time to stop reading and make a doctor’s appointment.

9. you can use your smartphone’s accelerometer to collect data on your sleep cycles. check out “smart alarm clock” for android or “sleep cycle” for iphone.

8. if you want to break a bad habit, head to http://www.stickk.com. give them your credit card number and pick an “anti-charity” that will receive your donation if you don’t stick to your goal for 30 days.

7. it is much easier to dress appropriately for the weather than to complain all day about the sun/rain/wind/snow/cold/sand/etc.

6. a communication failure is almost always a two-way street.

5. spice up a powerpoint presentation by using the ‘b’ or ‘w’ keys to black out/white out the screen. surprisingly effective at snapping the audience back to attention.

4. refusing to admit you’ve made a mistake is usually worse than whatever the mistake was.

3. if you want to find out how something works, try to make it yourself. if you get too cocky, take apart something complicated and try to put it back together.

2. remove unnecessary information from your email signature.

1. think broadly and resist social self-sorting. befriend people who are different from you, talk about current events with those whose political views you do not share, and explain your research to people who work in different fields.

December 20, 2010. Tags: Advice, Beautiful, Culture, Education, How Stuff Works, Liz Selbst, Opinion, Philosophy, Thoughts, Top 10, Wisdom. Crowdsourcing.