# Life hack

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This article is about the concept. For the Singaporean television show, see [Life Hacks](/source/Life_Hacks). For the 2025 British thriller film, see [LifeHack (film)](/source/LifeHack_(film)).

Trick to make life easier

A keyboard inexpensively hacked with [K'Nex](/source/K'Nex) pieces to allow an operator suffering from wrist pain to press the control, alt and ⇧ Shift keys with the thumb

A **life hack** (or **life hacking**) is any trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method that increases [productivity](/source/Productivity) and [efficiency](/source/Efficiency) in all walks of life. The term was primarily used by computer experts who suffer from [information overload](/source/Information_overload) or those with a playful curiosity in the ways they can accelerate their workflow in ways other than programming.

## Overview

The term *life hack* was coined in 2004 during the [O'Reilly](/source/O'Reilly_Media) Emerging Technology Conference in [San Diego, California](/source/San_Diego%2C_California) by technology journalist [Danny O'Brien](/source/Danny_O'Brien_(journalist)) to describe the "embarrassing" [scripts](/source/Scripting_language) and shortcuts productive IT professionals use to get their work done.[1][2] It is used to describe an inelegant but effective solution to a specific computing problem, such as quick-and-dirty [shell scripts](/source/Shell_scripts) and other [command line](/source/Command_line) utilities that filtered, [munged](/source/Mung_(computer_term)) and processed data streams like [e-mail](/source/E-mail) and [RSS feeds](/source/RSS_feeds).[1][3] O'Brien stated "[Hacks](/source/Hack_(computer_science)) are often a way of cutting through an apparently complex system with a really simple, nonobvious fix. And for most people, geeks or not, modern life is just this incredibly complex problem amenable to no good obvious solution. But we can peck around the edges of it; we can make little shortcuts.[1]

O'Brien and blogger [Merlin Mann](/source/Merlin_Mann) later co-presented a session called "Life Hacks Live" at the 2005 O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference.[4] The two also co-authored a column entitled "Life Hacks" for O'Reilly's [*Make* magazine](/source/Make_(magazine)) which debuted in February 2005.[5]

The [American Dialect Society](/source/American_Dialect_Society) voted *lifehack* (one word) as the runner-up for "most useful word of 2005" behind *[podcast](/source/Podcast)*.[6] The word was also added to the [Oxford Dictionaries Online](/source/Oxford_Dictionaries_Online) in June 2011.[7]

## See also

- [Chindōgu](/source/Chind%C5%8Dgu) – Gadgets creating more problems than they solve

- [Improvisation](/source/Improvisation) – Process of devising a solution to a requirement in an ad hoc fashion

- [Kitchen hack](/source/Kitchen_hack) – Technique to make cooking easier

- [Jugaad](/source/Jugaad) – South Asian term describing a creative hack or kludge

- [Jury rigging](/source/Jury_rigging) – Term for a makeshift repair

- [Kludge](/source/Kludge) – Unmaintainable solution

- [MacGyver](/source/MacGyver) – Fictional character and title character of MacGyver

- [Self-help](/source/Self-help) – Self-guided improvement

- [Urawaza](/source/Urawaza) – Quirky, ingenious technique that optimizes an everyday activity

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-ob_int_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-ob_int_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-ob_int_1-2) ["Interview: father of "life hacks" Danny O'Brien"](https://web.archive.org/web/20110903195914/http://lifehacker.com/software/interviews/interview-father-of-life-hacks-danny-obrien-036370.php). *Lifehacker*. Lifehacker.com. 2005-03-17. Archived from [the original](https://lifehacker.com/software/interviews/interview-father-of-life-hacks-danny-obrien-036370.php) on 2011-09-03. Retrieved 2010-03-11.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-lh_presentation_2-0)** ["O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference 2004"](https://web.archive.org/web/20070918035304/http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2004/view/e_sess/4802). Conferences.oreillynet.com. 1999-02-22. Archived from [the original](http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2004/view/e_sess/4802) on 2007-09-18. Retrieved 2010-03-11.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-cd_notes_3-0)** ["Cory Doctorow's notes from Danny O'Brien's first Life Hacks presentation"](https://www.craphound.com/lifehacksetcon04.txt). Retrieved 2010-03-11.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-lh_live_4-0)** ["O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference 2005"](https://web.archive.org/web/20070910143756/http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2005/view/e_sess/5958). Conferences.oreillynet.com. 1999-02-22. Archived from [the original](http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2005/view/e_sess/5958) on 2007-09-10. Retrieved 2010-03-11.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Life_Hacks_Column_5-0)** ["Life hacks"](https://web.archive.org/web/20120527175904/http://makezine.com/lifehacks/). Makezine.com. Archived from [the original](http://makezine.com/lifehacks/) on 2012-05-27. Retrieved 2012-07-01.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-ads_6-0)** ["Words of the Year 2005.pdf"](http://www.americandialect.org/Words_of_the_Year_2005.pdf) (PDF). Retrieved 2010-03-11.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-digitallife_7-0)** ["'NSFW,' 'ZOMG,' and 'Twittersphere' added to dictionary"](http://www.today.com/money/nsfw-zomg-twittersphere-added-dictionary-122978). today.com. 3 June 2011. Retrieved 2015-10-22.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Life hack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_hack) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_hack?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.