5 Online Life Hacks to Help You Unwind

Life can be rough, which means you need to kick back and take a load off from time to time if you want to keep your sanity. But instead of unplugging, you can use the tools of the trade to get yourself into a calmer and more relaxed state. These 5 online life hacks will help you leverage the newest and best technologies so that you can unwind in style.

Provide Self-Service WiFi to Guests with QR Code-Based Qifi

Want to have friends over for a good old-fashioned hangout but don’t want to have to configure every single mobile device they bring with them? Get your guests on your Wi-Fi without lifting a finger with a custom-made QR code that your guests can scan to receive your SSID and key information themselves.

Using a site like Qifi makes it both safe and easy to generate QR codes for people to use so that you don’t have to pull your hair out with frustration every time someone new comes to your home and asks for your WiFi password. Even better is that the QR codes are generated and stored locally, preventing any possible security breaches. Just print out your code, hang it on your refrigerator door, and tell your guest to get you a beer.

Never Spend an Hour Trawling Netflix Again

It’s been a long day, and you’re ready to put your feet up and relax. You’ve got a nice cold drink, your favorite snacks, and an evening of binge watching ahead of you. There’s only one problem — you can’t find a thing to watch! Before you know it your drink is warm, your dinner is cold, and you’re still scrolling endlessly through your streaming services for something to watch.

Luckily, the web provides you with plenty of online hacks to put an end to that, my favourite is WatchOnline. The platform is an aggregator guide website that lists all the different tv shows that are available on cable television and streaming services like Hulu, Amazon Prime or Netflix. The site provides reviews and even links to the platforms that have the streaming content you’re looking for. Another option is OnlineMovies, that lets you find the best online platforms where to stream all your favourite movies, even the ones most recently released.

Be sure you’ll never stare numbly at your Prime Video list again!

Get Better, More Restful Sleep

Once you’ve finally found something to watch and you’ve had a nice evening with friends, it’s time to hit the hay. But what if you’ve got to be up by a certain time for work the next day? How can you be sure you’ll be getting as much sleep as you can be and that it will be as restful as possible?

That’s where Sleepyti.me comes in. Simply input the time you need to wake up the next morning — or what time it is now — and the site will calculate how many sleep cycles you need to experience so that you can wake up refreshed instead of feeling terrible. This makes Sleepyti.me a great tool to maximize your productivity while still ensuring you get some much-needed rest

Get to Sleep Fast — And Stay That Way

Once you’ve figured out what time you need to go to sleep so that you can be relaxed and have a productive, stress-free morning, it’s time to actually get into bed and close those peepers. Or it would be, if your mind wasn’t racing and you weren’t tossing and turning for what seemed like hours. If only you could get to sleep in the first place!

Now you can. Harnessing the power of white noise, you can use RainyMood to lull yourself into dreamland. Available on both desktop and mobile devices, RainyMood offers a selection of soundscapes like thunderstorms, surf, or even the sounds of murmuring patrons in a coffee shop to soothe you and let you relax. We recommend the mobile app for its auto-shutoff timer and easy config.

The Best Part of Waking Up is Coffee In Your Cup

So you got to sleep in a reasonable amount of time and you’ve woken up feeling relatively human — it’s time to complete the process. That means getting your morning kickstart with a nice cup of coffee so you can start your day energized and feeling great. That also means that you don’t want to have to fiddle with an antiquated coffee maker first thing in the morning, either.

The Behmor smart brewer is here to rescue you from whatever doldrums you might encounter in the AM. This smartphone-linked automatic brewer can brew anywhere from six to eight cups at the perfect temperature down to the type of coffee you’re brewing and even takes into account your altitude and GPS location. Pairing it with a smart device controller like an Amazon Echo means you can just bark at your coffee maker to get it going while you ease into your day.

To sum-up, technology has become an intrinsic aspect of our daily life, whether at work or when cooling off at home. Even if the pace in which technology is advancing feels overwhelming at times, continuous innovation can be beneficial if you are able to turn it to your advantage.

And, let’s be honest, these simple online hacks are already making your life a little easier than it used to be a few years back.

5 Online Life Hacks to Help You Unwind was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.