Here’s my list of 10 Quirky One-Minute Hacks to be more productive and more fun in 2019.

 

1) Get 3 seats on airplane. Be the last person to board the flight and keep walking until you find a row with 3 empty seats (usually at the back). Since you are the last person to board, you know there is no one coming behind you. Take the seats, take off your shoes, turn on a movie, and have a business class experience 😉

2) Turn on “Lower Power Mode” on your smartphones once the battery reaches 50%. You will get a full day worth of power time back without any noticeable performance loss. 

3) When buying anything from the street shops, ask for price and act surprised at the quoted price. Even remark, “Woah, too expensive!”and look disinterested. Shopkeeper will end up negotiating with himself/herself, and 9/10 times, quote you a discounted priced immediately.

Here’s the full blog post on How To Save 40% Costs While Traveling Through 1-Minute Negotiation Technique.

4) Carry 1.1 L water bottle with yourself and aim to finish 3 of these in a day. You will feel you are drinking 3 L of waters a day, but that extra 300 ml excess will keep your skin fresh and acne out. (It really works! Don’t believe me? Try it for a week and comment below)

5) Put the alarm for either 6 hours later or 7.5 hours later. Most of us sleep in 90-min sleep cycles. If you wake up in between, you will keep rolling in bed and feel groggy.

6) Turn on airplane mode on your smartphone before going to bed and don’t turn it off until lunch. This will make your mornings 10X more productive.

7) Prepare 7 lunches in advance. Prepare one dish in large quantity for 7 lunches. Fill it in 7 lunch-boxes and throw them in freezer. Take 1 out each day, microwave and enjoy. It tastes as fresh as freshly-cooked food because of the immediate freezing after cooking. Making food choice everyday kills willpower.

8) Always use hair dryer with matte wax after shower (guys, it’s for you!). Your hair will have volume – just like every celebrity’s ever.

9) Delete bottom 20% of your Facebook friends. Go to your friend’s list. Scroll down. The bottom 20% never see or interact with your posts. Unfriend them. They are liabilities. Declutter your life.

10) Focus on looking in one eye, instead of shifting between eyes, when talking to people. It increases your dominance and influencing powers when telling someone something. Would the other person notice that you are fixated on one eye? No! Humans can’t look at the other person in both the eyes at the same time, so he/she wouldn’t notice the difference.

Here’s the full blog post on How To Make An Influencing Eye Contact While Talking To People

 

Did you know that everything is overpriced for travelers?

From big money drainers, such as hotels or car rentals, to small things like souvenirs, bus tickets, and even food.

If you have ever travelled out of your home city, you have surely rented a place to stay or a car to drive around.

You must have also bought those hippy-looking pants or souvenirs to take back home.

Haven’t you?

 

I travel a lot. 4-5 backpacking trips a year on average.

I have developed this technique after countless trail & errors, refined it, and now follow it mindlessly to pay 30-40% less on almost everything during my travels.

And yes, I’m an Asian, so it’s in my genes to negotiate!

 

On my recent 1-week Thailand trip, I spent only $420 on accommodation, deep sea diving, thailicious street food, shopping, and craziest full-moon beach party in the world!

I calculated the total price I would have paid if I didn’t negotiate on all these things – it would have been around $750!

 

Many of you are too shy to ask for discount.

Have you not found yourself at a loss of words that one time when salesman was selling you that red sweater at a ridiculous price?

Or when you were at the reception desk with little money and desperate to rent a bed in a budget hostel?

 

It’s because you didn’t really know in the heat of the moment what to say and how to say, without putting your self-esteem at risk.

 

After reading this, you will feel good about yourself after every sales encounter.

Even in those situations when you didn’t realize in the past that there was a room for negotiation. You can thank me later!

 

HERE WE GO

(My own hidden camera video at the end)

The 4-Step Negotiation

1. Never make the first offer

Casually ask for the price and pretend shocked at the quoted price.

Even a little head shake or subtle rolling of the eyes should convey your disbelief at the offered price. This would make the salesman negotiate with himself.

His self-talk would be, “Oh that seems too high. Should I lower a bit?”

“If I don’t, this customer is going away for sure.”

You stand there, do nothing, and almost certainly you will get the first drop in price. Usually within first 5-10 seconds.

 

2. On his second offer, respond immediately

“Oh c’mon, you know that’s too expensive. It’s not in my budget. Is this the best you can offer?”

or

“Oh c’mon, you know that’s too expensive. It’s not in my budget. What is your best price?”

This should get you the second drop.

 

3. On his third offer, respond after a 2-second pause, pretending to think

Say, “I like it that you are interested in selling this to me. But my budget is $X. It’s really the maximum I can pay. Let’s just call it a deal.”

Here is where it gets interesting. While you are saying this sentence, take the cash out from your pocket and present it to him.

Salesman, on seeing the real money in front of him, gets the psychological signal to take it.

This tangibility of showing money rigs the game in your favor. Ah, poor human psychology!

 

4. If the salesman agrees, thank me 🙂

If he doesn’t, he will still present his fourth offer which will be higher than yours but lower that his third offer.

On that you say, “Alright, I can’t really afford it but let’s split the difference half and half”, and you quote him the middle price between your previous offer and his final offer.

Here you might wanna add a line, “I’ve really stretched myself here, please let’s not negotiate further”.

Deal closed. You have negotiated successfully for 30-40% drop in price.

 

Hidden Camera Video

I shot this for my readers last month in Cambodia. It’s gonna go too fast so I’d recommend read the process above first before you see it so you can follow along.

Also, don’t bother about the exact words – focus on the framework. It’s a mindless process, and it took me just 50 seconds to buy a $10 souvenir for $4.

This amount might seem small, but overall for a week’s trip, when you negotiate with the same script for hostel rooms, tickets, shopping, food, and activities, you end up spending let’s say $600 instead of $1000 that you would have otherwise.

 

 

ok, great. but isn’t it too much of work?

I won’t lie to you. The first couple of times you will do it, you will stutter a bit and struggle to find the right words.

But like all great skills in life, the returns will be exponential over your lifetime!

The routine stays the same. The process stays the same. You will keep on discovering new situations and new reasons to negotiate.

Hundreds… in fact, thousands of times you will be negotiating over your lifetime – from small deals to big bank balance draining situations.

It doesn’t hurt to have this skill and confidence in your arsenal.

 

What if I don’t get discount on any 1 of the 4 steps?

It is very likely. I didn’t get as well in my video above. Still ended up buying $10 souvenir for $4.

Salesmen negotiate for a living. They are not incompetent enemies of you. Especially those who have dealt with Indian customers before are well-trained!

It does not matter if you don’t get the drop in price on any one step. Just move onto the next step.

The framework is designed in a way that every next step’s outcome is not based on the previous one.

You can start anywhere or skip any step, but you can’t go back. Meaning, don’t go to step 2 after step 3. Follow from top to bottom.

 

That’s it folks!

I can’t wait to hear your experiences in using the framework.

Email me at [email protected] when you get your first discount.

I love reading awesome stories!

Happy Travelling!