Mind tricks that will make your life easier
These days, with smartphones, tablets, electronic assistants and many more mod cons, getting through our daily lives has never been easier. Whether it’s making friends or comparing product prices, technology has taken over much of what we relied on our brains for. However, there are certain things that technology just can’t do.
In an unearthed Ask Reddit thread, the online community was asked to share their best “mind tricks”. What they had to say will astound you.
1. Get a full answer to your question – “If you ask a question, and receive only a partial answer, respond with polite silence. Simply wait. A more complete answer will usually follow.”
2. Find a lost object – “If you're trying to find something, try looking right to left as opposed to left to right. Your eyes tend to skim over things if you search in the direction you are used to reading in, so skim the opposite way. It takes me a bit more effort to do this, but I notice more details.”
3. Remind yourself without your phone – “If I need to remember to do anything at all the next day I will put something in my room out of place. This works every time. Say, for example, I really want to remember to email my professor before leaving for class, I will put a movie on the floor. I will initially think ‘Why is that—oh right, email Ernie.’”
4. Get people to agree with you – “There's something in sales called the Sullivan Nod. Basically, when you're asking someone something, nod up and down while you're asking. Their mirror neurons start firing and they begin nodding and agreeing with you subconsciously.”
5. Make someone agree to do you a favour – “The door-in-the-face technique. The general idea is that you ask someone for a huge favour which you're relatively confident they'll say no to. Then you ask them for a small favour. Subjects who initially refuse the huge favour have a much higher compliance rate on the small favour than if you just ask directly for the small favour or if you present both at once.”
6. Improve your self-defence – “I took a self-defence course at my university and learned the best self-defence trick I could have never thought of: Act crazier than the person attacking you. 9 times out of 10 they will see you as unpredictable and not want to even mess with you.
7. Make people warm to you easily – “When talking to someone, if you copy their posture, they will subconsciously perceive you as a friendlier person.”
Do you have any tricks to share? Let us know in the comments below.