About
Industrial Engineering, applied to life at home
Hospitals and Offices are incorporating SPC, Lean, and hiring industrial engineers to make them more efficient.
Saving 4 minutes a day on a process, over the course of your lifetime you will save 1200 hours. That’s a half year of vacation.
This is engineering for Us, Everyone, the consumer.
>Metric driven cost comparisons, Calories Per Dollar, Protein Per Dollar, Vitamin A Per Dollar, Caffeine Per Dollar, Alcohol Per Dollar, and more.
>Daily life process optimization- Process Flow Diagrams to find waste in morning routines, shower error proofing, all save minutes everyday. Industrial Engineering Life.
>Only Math- No no, the scientific method said you had to prove it.
Why
We love it. And it makes our lives better too.
There are 7,000,000,000 people that have to eat, get dressed, deal with hygiene, and more applications of Industrial Engineering. This is big.
Support us
Our goal is to study Industrial Engineering on Life, and teach Everyone. No pay-walls.
Efficiency Is Everything is run at a loss. To support us, you can donate and we will use those proceeds to hire Engineering Interns, and they will complete studies that will help Everyone.
You can also support us for free by sharing this information with your friends. Teach everyone how they can apply Industrial Engineering to life.
Thank you,
-Michael Kirk, Lead Engineer Efficiency Is Everything
Time Efficient 5k speed training (Bonus: 30 minutes of Audiobook)
After a 12 week training program, I ran a 18:54 (sub 19) 5k for the first time in my life. Bonus: I weighed 186lbs, it was 80F+ degrees outside, and I had been multitasking by listening to nonfiction audiobooks for almost all of the training program. Now my resting heart rate is under 50!
If you want a 5k training program that makes you faster, your cardio significantly better, without wasting time, this is the program for you.
Some personal background
The thing I’m most proud of, I didn’t change my lifestyle for it, I worked it into my regular workout schedule.
At the start of 2025 I made a New Year’s Resolution to do 30 minutes of combined cardio + (nonfiction) audiobook per day. Health benefits, energy benefits, and more knowledge.
I didn’t need to run fast. One of the purposes of the combined 30 minute audiobook + cardio was to not care about speed, as I tend to have more willpower than physical ability… and I seem to injure myself.
By the start of summer, I decided I wanted to further improve my cardio for health reasons. Enter: The Speed Day.
The Routine
- 1 Speed Day Per Week
- 1 Distance Day Per Week
- 3-5 Easy Days Per Week
Attached is the routine in a spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LbSnZhED202-CJIyUAzuSnFcc8o0y5dkZyJydMCAbpE/edit?usp=sharing
To determine your times use this website: https://vdoto2.com/calculator
More details and tips below.
The Efficiency
I cannot make claims this is the most pure Efficient 5k running plan, there is science missing here. This is no Pi= C/D perfection here. However the running coach who made this routine combined their college athlete level experience with my requirements of 30 minutes of cardio per day. The engineer in me says: If it meets spec, good enough.
To make this as Efficient as possible, I did the following:
- Audiobooks during all easy days, distance days, and during speed day warmups and cooldowns.
- This was typically done as a break from work. I’d use this when stuck on a problem or exhaustion.
- I would go to our local run club for 1 easy day/week, listening to audiobooks in the car, and socializing/networking/meeting people at the event.
Only 1 speed day per week meant only sacrificing ~15-20 minutes of audiobook time. Distance days were longer than the desired 30 minutes, but I still listened to audiobooks, and once you get into running, having 1 distance day per week is normal.
The Speed Days
These are the important days. The rest of the week, you can casually mess around and not care about your times.
If possible, I’d wait until the weather was nice. This is the only workout that matters, so I would typically look for the best day between Tuesday and Thursday(and rarely Monday or Friday). The rest of the days get filled in with easy days.
If the weather was too hot and sunny, I’d do my 1 mile warmup to the shady part of my route. Even if you have to run under hot conditions, your workout is going to push your cardio. You are always winning on speed days, even if you can’t quite hit the time due to weather.
I hesitate to tell you the following because I didn’t know I was allowed to fail on speed days. There were 8 x 600m repeats that I would successfully do 5, then the last 3 were painful struggles that I would fail on. Not even the shame of failure could get me to move faster. I thought I had 0 chance of completing my goal. But… Apparently it didn’t matter. Pushing myself hard was the workout.
I broke tradition and would alternate fast and slightly less fast. While conventional wisdom says to have a consistent speed, I break tradition here. My reasoning is that doing the same form means lactic acid is going to build up for the entire workout. If you alternate between two forms, it gives your muscles a break. Admittedly these were both fast, but one was super fast, and the other was a recovery fast. Coach disagrees with me here.
Eating
A constant fight me and my running coach had was over food.
A 185lb person is going to use more energy than a 135lb runner. I insisted that I needed to lose 15lbs. Coach insisted I needed to fuel.
I relented and ate.
My compromise was after the 12 week plan, I’d cut 10-15lbs and retry when the weather was 20 degrees colder. To my shock, I still hit my goal.
As a fun fact, this whole thing has me inventing a new type of competition. Momentum race. Whoever has the highest weight * average speed wins. More details Here.
Easy Days
Easy days are super fun. There are basically no expectations. I was running at 9 or 10 minute mile pace (my 5k pace was under 6:06).
3-5 days a week, you will be running easy. This means you could take a day off cardio. I personally didn’t due to my 30min/day goal, and I think this helps with habits for psychological reasons.
I would listen to my audiobook and take voice to text notes while running.
At least 1+ easy day per week, I’d stationary bike. This is important to mention. You should be giving your body time to repair. Do not run 7 days a week.
A tip on these easy days: Feel good, get blood flowing to your legs. After a speed day, my legs would feel wrecked. There is something that feels good about running with different forms. While most of my easy days would be mindless, I’d occasionally feel good changing up my form:
- Running on my tip toes.
- Running with high knees.
- Running fast for a few seconds before slowing down. (I believe people call this ‘Strides’)
- And of course, normal mindless running.
Distance Days
These were typically easy, but I have a caveat.
After the middle of the routine, the coach gave me 2 different distance days to alternate. Easy and progressively difficult. Easy is just like the easy days above.
Progressive distance days started at 9 minute mile pace and would reduce down to 7:30 pace by the last mile. For 9 miles, this means reducing by 10 seconds per mile.
Injury/Pain
Less running and more rest. This means more stationary bike days(or whatever cardio). You can eliminate distance days if necessary.
At one point, I took 1 week off speed days to recover.
I nearly always run the day after a speed day or distance day. I’m a believer in getting blood flowing.
Hot tubs or hot showers with stretching may help as well.
Admittedly as the race day was approaching, my knees were not 100%. However I knew I had less than 10 days left, the last week was easy, and after the race, I could take it easy.
Race Day
Other people like to sign up for races. I like picking the best day, time, and location for me. In this case, I waited until the sun went down and I was feeling good.
Of course eat good/carbs. Maybe some caffeine before the run.
Here is the big tip: Go for your goal.
If you had the goal, do it. Know your pace and keep to it. I accidentally ran faster on my first mile, and was happy to know I had a little bit of wiggle room. If I compromised on the run, I would have ran a slow first mile and had 0 chance of recovery.
The training plan you have been working on for 12 weeks and struggling was built for you to struggle. You are likely capable of hitting your goal. This was all built in.
Don’t compromise.
Race day tips from Coach
Do not go into the run thinking you will fail, or you definitely will.
Go into the run and grit out the pace for as long as you can.
You can do this.
Race day adrenaline is legit.
Clothing and Equipment
Shoes
I had 2-3 shoes to cycle between. An old pair, a new pair, and speed shoes.
My speedy shoes force you on the front of your feet and would feel weird running on the back. This is your race day shoes. They were purple and sparkly, forcing me to run fast or be embarrassed haha.
My new shoes were typically worn most of the easy runs and most of the distance runs. Especially when going to social running events. They looked nice.
My old shoes were a nice change. You can imagine slightly different angles mean different muscle use and different muscle wear and tear. I’d wear these ~1 time per week if I remembered.
Clothing
On sunny speed days days: white shirts. It reflects the sun. I specifically cut a tshirt from sleeve to waist to allow breathing. It looked silly, but it does reflect the heat, and it does allow breathing.
Nothing special on shorts or socks.
Tight underwear, to prevent chafing.
In the winter, before starting this routine I’d wear the following: Shirt, Hoodie, neck gater, sunglasses, one tight underwear, one loose underwear, sweatpants. I’d also run on trails when the road froze over.
Smart Watch
Cheap Garmin.
Halfway through I got the Strava app.
Hypee
This program can work for you too.
You will improve your cardio health. You will have some vanity numbers to show off to friends. You will be faster!
You can do this.
Time Efficient Packed Lunches
When my daughter came home with uneaten Red Pepper slices, something Mrs. Efficiency had spent labor to cut up, I decided this had to be studied.
Bonus points if your kid packs their own lunch. Although given pre-school chaos, this might be more ideal than real. Could pack lunches at night.
Specifications/Requirements
A packed lunch had a requirement Not to be something heated. No leftovers would meet this criteria. The grey area here is that some typically warm foods like Pizza are enjoyed cold. This can be cultural, and more power to anyone who can eat leftovers cold.
Food must have some caloric content to give energy for the rest of the day. A bunch of celery sticks isn’t enough, even if by volume they could satiate and fill a stomach. Let us set a goal for ~500 calories.
Foods must have some desired nutritional content. Protein and vitamins are deemed universally acceptable in this case.
Known winners
Ready to eat Fruit and Vegetables
The best:
- Bananas immediately come to mind. They are among the most perfect of foods that satisfy the Requirements. ~100 calories, have vitamins, and take almost no time to put into a lunchbox.
- Small, easy peal, Oranges, they arent as many calories, but I suppose you could get larger oranges or pack multiple.
- Dried fruit, these are semi-heavy in calories, depending on the fruit they have varying amounts of nutrition. Dried blueberries are higher in nutrition than rasins, but more generally these are great options
- Baby Carrots, low in calories but high in nutrition
Lesser options that come to mind, but they have some downsides:
- Blueberries also need to be washed, but have significant enough vitamins and enough of them do hit caloric goals.
- Strawberries need to be washed and are relatively low calorie, but they do have significant vitamins.
- Apples, they need to be washed and do not have the vitamin content found in Bananas or Oranges.
- Grapes, these also need to be washed and similar to apples do not have the vitamin content found in Bananas or Oranges.
- Celery Sticks, these don’t to be washed, but they are low calorie and low vitamin, these are somewhat a waste of time, but could be filling by volume.
As you can see, spending time washing fruit is an unwanted time-sink. To save time, you could get all your fruit out, wash it at the start of the week and package it.
Protein
Smoked/preserved meats come to mind as ‘The Best’ when it comes to fast. I am aware that these are costly and potentially have carcinogenic properties, but I believe it would be wrong to not include them for their Efficiency:
- Beef Jerky: Expensive but tasty
- Meat Sticks: Heavier in fats could be useful if trying to hit caloric goals
-
Lunchmeat: Turkey, Ham, that sliced stuff. This is only Efficient if you don’t make a sandwhich, however if you were going to add something simple like bread, cheese, or mayo to supplement calories(see later section), this could be acceptable. Just don’t spend time adding something calorie-free mustard.
Lesser:
- Hardboiled eggs: Easy enough to toss a carton of eggs in water, let it boil, and use them all week. Eggs have lots of nutrition and for a caloric goal, fat.
- Nuts: High in calories and often banned at schools, at least it has some protein.
Calories
These are almost too easy.
- Crackers
- Bread
- Cheese sticks
- Cereal
- Yogurt
- Granola Bars
- Trail Mix
Covering everything in oil. As long as it takes almost 0 time to prepare, I consider these meeting requirements.
Completed pre-packed lunches
We all know about Lunchables and similar foods. They follow this
Things to avoid
As mentioned earlier, avoid:
- Washing
- Cutting/Chopping
- Complexity: Keep the number of items limited so you aren’t making many trips to cabinets, pantry, and refrigerator.
What combinations can you vision?
Considering everything said, could you further optimize by getting items from the same location? Hypothetically, if you were making a lunch with Beef Jerky, a banana, and crackers, you could put everything in the same spot on the counter, and pack everything without taking any extra steps. Alternatively and a bit more strange, if you were making a lunch of meat sticks, dried fruit, and crackers, could you put everything in the refrigerator?
Power Efficiency – Increase your Power Dynamic with little cost
‘I didn’t invent the laws of nature, I just follow them.’
Like it or not, Power (as a macro effect) is a real thing that determines outcomes of interactions. It cannot be avoided and even if you pretend it doesn’t exist, you are subjected to its effects.
Power Illiteracy is a real thing, and hopefully from this article alone you will benefit from this dynamic of the world. Everyone has their own theory on Power, I think its simplification of a few effects.
Power explained
“The POWER of a Man, (to take it Universally,) is his present means, to obtain some future apparent Good.” – Hobbes
Imagine a case where a smart well dressed person is having a conversation with a super smart person with bedhead and rags on. This is a conversation among equals, where each side must take their turn and test boundaries. Now imagine this same super smart person is equally as well dressed. This is no longer a conversation among equals, there is a superior and an inferior. The superior now decides the topics, can interrupt, decide norms and ethics of the conversation. All because they changed their clothes and styled their hair.
That is an example as Hobbes would say Power of Form(Beauty).
In the modern era, much power comes from Economic sources. Its a ‘good enough’ short cut to say Money = Power. Outside of politics and fame, there are few ways to get substantial power other than money. However we can use Form(Beauty), economic/social efficiencies, to give you more power.
Instant Power Increases
Look Better
Look Better
Stand up taller, fix your posture.
Don’t think about personal examples of this truth too long, it’s painful. There are stories of diplomats getting shorter chairs than their hosts to make their hosts appear taller. Standing up taller and fixing your posture can be the difference between among equals and or among superiors and inferiors.
It is worth checking your appearance before a major meeting or encounter. If you can think of any instant things you can do to look better, you should do it.
Sound Better, Be Charismatic.
I’m no expert here. The boldest claim I will make is that you shouldn’t say ‘Um’ or any variants. “Think before you speak.” If that is even possible.
I’ve also heard a random person on the internet say: “Talk Lower and Slower”
Can you understand the general idea here? Sound better. It increases your relative power to the other person.
(Give yourself a bit of a break, these simple rules are insanely difficult in the momentary nature of interactions. Practice makes perfect.)
Sleep Less
Me and Dr. Mandy Kirk have been doing biphasic sleep for almost a decade. 6 hours of nighttime sleep and a 20 minute nap. Alternatively, I’ve found 4 hours nighttime and 2 hours daytime nap has worked with my family’s lifestyle. We have 4 kids.
Be Intentional
Its easy to get into autopilot and do easy, low value activities. A simple todo list can spark a memory of an easy, high value task that can be done while you are drinking a morning coffee.
On a similar note, I’ve found fun, high value activities on my todo list that got me running first thing in the morning.
The goal here is to be intentional and organized at least a little.
Increase Your Power In 5 Minutes
Change your Clothes
I know sweatpants and a zip up are soo nice to feel, but I don’t make the rules.
I might dread the stiffness of a dress shirt, but I’ve seen the difference it makes as mentioned in the opening example.
I’d like to lend one more example. For the second time in my life, I was meeting my Kid’s teacher. This time it was for an extra privilege, asking to attempt to test out of a grade. I had considered wearing jeans and a shirt, but decided that regardless of the length of time we were talking, it was the event that was important. Not only did the janitor think I was important enough to let into the school early, but I also had that teacher’s full attention. These little factors may be something subtle, but the totality can be the difference between Among Equals or between Superiors/Inferiors.
Change your hair
Bed head is obvious in my life. I need to shower, or at least spend a few minutes wetting then styling my hair.
Sometimes I will add water and styling product + blow dry in about 60 seconds. Its a hack job, but most of the time, its better than nothing.
Changing your clothes + doing your hair is a combo that I cannot recommend enough. Its bizarre how different people will treat you.
Increase Your Relative Power in Hours
Money and appearance increase your absolute power, however your power is most often relative in value. For instance, I might have lots of money, but I’m not really powerful to a plumber when I have an emergency issue.
The suggestion is to diversify and give yourself more options. I’ve written other articles about how getting 3 prices give you a decent statistical average. For high stakes items I got for 5-6 quotes.
On a similar note, I’ve had to hire people for jobs and I’ve decided I prefer having departments of part time workers over a single full time worker. Diversifies.
I have 4 kids, if one of them refuses dinner, I can give it to the other 3. They are well aware of this and act accordingly.
Negotiation Tips
When using this power, you have two options: Unilateral actions and bilateral negotiation.
Unilateral Actions
These are relationship hurting, but it can accomplish your will.
Fait accompli, meaning, ‘Its already been done’. This is when you just do whatever you want and deal with the fallout. If you are the stronger power, this should go uncontested. If you are among equals, it will hurt your relationship significantly. If you are the lesser power, it might not work at all.
Consider changing the topic in a conversation. When you do it, ‘it is done’. However, if you are a lesser power, the greater power may revert back to the topic without skipping a beat.
Bilateral
This is your classic negotiation. My advice here is to find some mutual ground to base off. You shouldn’t expect the other side to completely capitulate or change their desires. You shouldn’t personally value ‘atmospherics’ like useless titles, but rather tangible goals. Beware of people who are not at the negotiating table claiming you can get 100% of what you want with no compromise, these people do not have buy-in, and get to enjoy moral high grounds without sacrificing anything.
Moral Coating
Instead of merely making demands, its best to explain Why you deserve your outcome. When being selfish, you can make claims that your survival is important. When working with a greater power, you can make claims of equality and fairness. Whatever you choose, find an overlap in Values that your adversary and bystanders would agree upon.
Should you use Power?
While every interaction involves a power dynamic, it doesn’t mean you should be using Unilateral tactics because you can. One aspect of power is ‘likeability’, and by using unilateral tactics, you reduce this. Alternatively, spending money to achieve your will, means potentially less money in the future.
Even if you do not plan on any active use of Power, these laws of nature affect you regardless. Other people will be using them, and its best for your own sake to be aware and optimize in your best interest.
Sequencing aka Multitasking but with each body part.
We all multitask, or attempt to. This idea of multitasking is a bit finer as it attempts to utilize your idle body parts.
Imagine you grab a bag of cheese out of the refrigerator and are walking to your stove to put cheese on some food. Instead of opening the bag of cheese when you arrive, you can open it during your walk. This makes use of both your legs and your arms.
If you can apply this daily and save 2 seconds, that adds up to ~10 hours in your lifetime. Suppose you find ~5 of these useful, that can be 50 hours of savings.
I look at this list and admittedly they seem a bit trivial or obvious, but I went for breadth in order to give a plethora of ideas.
Kitchen Ideas for sequencing
- Pealing Fruit
- (Un)cap spices
- Begin tearing lettuce
- Opening yogurt/applesauce
- Shake a drink
- Open a snackbag
- Shell a hardboiled egg
- Open a vitamin/medicine container
- Open a jar
- Open a cheese bag
- Peal off stickers from fruits/veggies/produce.
- Uncap a waterbottle
- Unwrap food items
- Unscrew baby bottles or sippy cups
Household Ideas
- Sort mail, potentially open mail.
- Open a trashbag
- Open up a package
- Click a pen
- Tear tape
Clothing
- (Un)button a shirt
- (Un)zip
- Put on a watch/bracelet.
- Use a hair tie on your hair.
Pets
- Open bags
- Break up treats
Everywhere
- Check your phone/reply to messages
Greater Takeaways
I partially want to apologize about how simple some of these are. I hope the greater takeaway is a new consideration of using your hands and mind while walking. These are merely ideas to consider in the future that can save you literal days of your life in efficiency gains.
Pleasure Duration Per Calorie, 7.5 Minute Per Day Bodybuilding, 60s French Toast, and more
This is the complete output of 2024’s studies and ideas. Enjoy.
News
Efficiency Is Everything is looking for a part time Website Director, responsible for legwork on articles, books, webpages. You will have a chance to research your own Life Industrial Engineering studies. Looking for an Efficiency Is Everything fan with MBA or equivalent. Email michaelkirk@efficiencyiseverything.com
Where have I been? Programming automations. It is more Economically Efficient than Industrial Engineering. I have more money now. Hopefully that can explain the Website Director posting above.
I continue to automatically think and study Life/Home efficiency. I have been trying to make 60 second meals and optimize Pleasure Per Pain. Here are the finished studies for 2024:
Quality of Life
Pleasure Duration Per Calorie: Comparing various foods and consumption methods to get the most Pleasure per Pain of food.
Time Saving
7.5 Minute Per Day Bodybuilding: Complete an intermediate bodybuilding program in minutes a day, get healthy, get good-looking, make more money.
Fastest Ways To Lose Weight: Compare Fasting to Exercise, no magic here, just calories burned per day. It makes me want to fast and exercise, but not waste time on walks while eating at maintenance. Goal is to be miserable for fewer days.
Automatic Fish Tank Cleaners: Plants. I can attest to this being a 5/5 quality of life improvement if you are a fish tank owner.
ChatGPT to Save Time: Personalize diet choices, plan parties and decorations, and get quick feedback on low stakes professional questions.
60 second ‘French Toast’: I was told I’m not allowed to call this French Toast, but once you dump syrup on it, does it matter?
Save Money
Thrift Store (Date Night) To Save Money on Clothes: Need clothes but don’t have the time? Have a partner that would enjoy the surprise of finding a cool piece of clothing? Want to save money? Friday Night Thrift Shopping.
Buy Nothing Facebook: For Free, my wife has cleaned and cluttered our home, gotten clothes, Halloween outfits, and more from Buy Nothing. This one is from Mrs. Efficiency, Dr. Mandy Kirk.
Onto 2025
My biggest ask is to tell your friends about Efficiency Is Everything, or share it. Hopefully that is easier than spending money. Plus you will look super cool and smart for Min/Maxing life.
Our collection of Human Life Industrial Engineering knowledge grows.
Best Regards,
Lead Engineer
Michael Kirk
Using ChatGPT4 to Save Time
Some ideas on how to utilize AI to save time.
As a note, this is only tested on ChatGPT4. One time ChatGPT4 was down and I ended up going to Google’s Gemini to do the work, it was alright.
Food
Want to start eating healthy or a specific diet, but not sure what to buy? Ask
I am *insert Keto/Vegetarian/Gluten Free/Low FODMAP*, what can I buy at *insert restaurant*
I am *insert Keto/Vegetarian/Gluten Free/Low FODMAP*, what should I buy at the grocery store this week?
I am *insert Keto/Vegetarian/Gluten Free/Low FODMAP*, what snacks that don’t require refrigeration can I buy?
Ask ChatGPT how to modify a recipe according to whatever you want. I will warn you, this is probably best for seasoned cooks because it can occasionally give bad advice like add way too much soy sauce (or at least that seems far too much to me).
It wins far more than it loses.
Ask it for recipes (No endless scrolling of cooking spam articles!). Include dietary restrictions. Tell it to add extra vegetables. Ask what to do if you are out of an ingredient. Replace expensive/seasonal ingredients.
Party Planning
In moments I can ask:
Give 10 different cuisines I can *insert cook/cater* from and give 3 possible examples of what specific foods and quantities will be needed for *insert number of kids and number of adults*.
It gives a bunch of ideas, no brainstorming time needed.
Then ask:
I want the theme to be *insert theme*, what are 20 extremely easy, fast, and simple ways to decorate?
Finally, whenever a crisis happens, ask ChatGPT for advice, there might be a simple solution.
Watching/Answering Children’s Questions
My kids ask a lot of questions, and since ChatGPT can understand phonetically spelled words, my 4 year old can ask ChatGPT questions. It’s similar to a Google/Siri thing, but there’s a higher level of detail in output. I specifically have a bot that tells ChatGPT that they will be talking to a 4-year-old who spells things phonetically and that the answers should have simple words.
Law Questions
While this isn’t for high stakes things, I feel comfortable asking ChatGPT about low stakes legal questions. I’ll often read some document and not understand a sentence. I could just ignore the problem and sign anyway. I could pay a lawyer $100-$200 to read it. I could ask ChatGPT and confirm my understanding with further reading. The nice part is that ChatGPT is awake at 4am when I am working, my lawyer isn’t awake until 8am and my $100 question is small fries to them.
Medical Corruption
Avoid unnecessary medical procedures, ask ChatGPT before you are billed and waste time on unnecessary treatment. As an example, I had a stomach bug and the nurse was pretty pushy about an x-ray. I told ChatGPT about my symptoms and it thought the x-ray was unnecessary. An anti-biotic later, I feel great. No x-ray needed. (I then listened to this nurse go down the room and ask everyone if they wanted x-rays for any condition imaginable).
Car Repair
Confirm that what your mechanic is saying is true. Ask ChatGPT to confirm everything from diagnosis, pricing, etc…
Bots
You could turn all of these questions into ‘Bots’. Bots are literally copypasting your question/prompt/command before you send your new question. You could do this manually by… copypasting your question/prompt/command before sending your question. For instance:
Always copypaste this:
“You are a master chef and come up with ultra healthy recipes that are filling, high in protein, high in nutrients, and easy to cook. Come up with simple recipes I can make up at home”.
Then type whatever you want after before hitting send.
“I want 3 meals that only require a few ingredients from the grocery store”
Then you get a customized answer.
The ‘bot’ thing, is saving the pre-prompt in the ChatGPT4 system… Yeah, they copypaste for you. Its actually kind of nice 🙂
Final thoughts and tips
I often reply to AI with: “That was a 2/10 answer, give me a 10/10 answer” or “Be realistic, not idealistic”. These really do work, the technical term is called Chain of Thought.
Application is up to you. You will get better at asking AI questions.
Save Time With Fish Tanks
Our Efficiency Assistant had some ideas for saving time caring for fish tanks. When she mentioned plants, I personally could attest to how much time this saved.
Efficiency Abigail:
There’s something magical about watching colorful fish glide through the water, however I knew I didn’t want my tank to become an overwhelming time suck. I researched and researched, discovering a few tricks to save time, money, and stress.
Here are my top three tips for creating a thriving, low-maintenance tank.
Choose the Right Tank Setup
A well-prepared tank makes everything easier. I started with a 10-gallon tank – it’s big enough to create a stable environment without being overwhelming to care for. I cycled my tank for almost three (3) months, prior to adding any aquatic life. This helped my tank to build up beneficial bacteria that will keep the water healthy. For filtration, I swear by sponge filters. They’re budget-friendly, easy to clean in between your water cycles and a deep clean of your filtration system.
Focus on a Self-Cleaning Ecosystem
What really saves me time is focusing on a natural setup. Live plants like Anubias and Java Fern have been game-changers for my tank. They improve water quality by absorbing toxins and reducing algae, which means fewer water changes for me. Combining these plants with natural cleaners like algae-eating fish and scavengers creates a balanced ecosystem.
Efficiency Michael Kirk: We have also added plants to our tank, we got some from friends who said their plants had grown too much.
Pick Hardy Species
My tetras, grouped as an all-female “Cheerleader Squad,” thrive as social creatures. African dwarf frogs delight me with their antics, while a Rubber Lip Plecostomus and my Nerite Snail handles cleaning the glass. There are two Albino Cory Catfish which love sifting through the gravel and sand for leftover food.
Easy on the budget and relaxing
Fishkeeping has become a relaxing, budget-friendly hobby for me. With the right setup, hardy species, and natural cleaning methods, my tank practically cares for itself.
60 second “French Toast”
It seemed my friend and the social media world was appalled, but they didn’t taste it.
Imagine doing the following first thing in the morning, upbeat and as quick as possible.
Or whenever.
The Process
Get a plate, a bowl and a fork, Eggs, Bread, Cinnamon, and nonstick spray. You should do this along the path of your kitchen in the most efficient way possible.
Crack 1 (or more) eggs into the bowl and whisk
Spray plate with nonstick spray
Dip both sides of bread in the egg. Place on plate. Repeat for all bread.
Shake cinnamon over top, put in microwave long enough for the egg to cook. Probably 75 seconds for 1 slice, 2 minutes for 4 slices. I don’t mind overcooking.
Go do something else while waiting
You have about 2 minutes of microwave time.
Grab the syrup, clean up, answer text messages.
Enjoy
Coat in syrup and eat. It might not be the exact texture you expected, but I am sure it tastes great.
What other corners can be cut in favorite recipes to have them prepared in 1 minute? Hard problem, but I’ve seen it work.
Weight Loss Per Day – Fasting, Exercise, and more compared
I don’t think anyone will be surprised to see “Not Eating” + “Doing Exercise” is the fastest way to lose weight. However the noteworthy comparison is the Efficiency of weight loss. This can be used to limit the pain needed to lose weight.
There are plenty of websites about fasting for multiple days, look into those or the Electrolyte loss + Refeeding Syndrome can kill you.
Data and Findings
Fasting with exercise wins, this is easier said than done if you’ve fasted for a few days. I’ve been able to run ~1 mile and walk 2-3 miles during a 5 day fast. This is approx 300+ calories.
Something interesting here. The extra exercise is gives you the same weight loss per day as if you never fasted, however the absolute when fasting is higher. Its easy to dismiss this as obvious, but if you ever found yourself buying an extra item because it was Buy One Get One Half Off and you ended up spending 50% more money than you expected. My point being: If you are going to be suffering during a fasting day anyway or its urgent to lose weight, you could add an extra 300+ calories in exercise.
This also highlights how insignificant some exercise is. 1 hour of causal walking burns ~300 calories max. It is quite time intensive to burn calories this way. Meanwhile if you could run 6 or 13 miles, you could be burning 800 or 1700 calories in a day. These stacked with a caloric deficit can get decently high in weight loss per day.
Personal Application
If you can handle fasting, it clearly shows to be the best. I will do this a few times a year for ~2-3 days to lose weight but not get into ketosis. Being obsessed with Efficiency, I admittedly will do sometimes a 1 mile run then take the kids ~2 miles round trip to the park.
More regularly, I’ll eat 1 large-ish meal and 0-1 smaller meal/snacks through the day. Then I’ll do some cardio, often 6 miles. 1500 calories eaten, ~800 calories burned. 1800 Caloric deficit! Lose a half pound in 1 day!
This is semi-reasonable to do this and similar all week. Swapping 6 mile runs for biking to let muscles rest won’t burn as many calories, but it will give you a break and still burn extra.
Final Thoughts and Long Term
I consider losing weight a temporary condition. I don’t plan to live like this forever. I plan to lose the weight and stay some-what around that weight.
If I gain 5-15lbs in a year, I can lose this weight in weeks. This can beat some of the mental difficulties with weight loss. We are often inspired for the first ~2 months of a new lifestyle before the excitement is gone.
Apply this law of nature and sprint at weight loss for 2 months before taking a break and eating normal. When you are excited to take on another round of weight loss, you are ready to begin.