The latest craze among teenagers and adults is the corner-cutting phenomenon known as a life hack. For those people who don’t know what a life hack is (Tyler), it is a short cut or tip that makes life easier. These little tips are life savers when trying to cut corners and be exceptionally lazy, so if that sounds appealing, try out some of these life hacks.

So this may or may not be a “life hack” at the judgment of the rest of the staff, but I make my s’mores open-face. Basically what this means is instead of the top graham cracker, I just top it off with chocolate and eat. Ok, so maybe this isn’t a life-changing-why-didn’t-I-think-of-that type of thing but it’s so much cleaner and more efficient than double-graham, because when you bite down on it all the squish doesn’t come out the sides. Plus, it keeps the chocolate-to-marshmallow-to-cracker ratio in check. [Allie Gruszkiewicz]

After thorough explanation, rolled eyes, and my failed suggestion of “eating a banana for breakfast,” I now finally somewhat understand what a “life hack” actually is. I don’t have many activities or shortcuts to make my life easier, but I do have something that helps me study. I always try to color code my notes so I can pick out different time periods in history or different theorems in math. It may not work for everyone, but I have taken up this practice over the summer after seeing some of my friends from Governor’s School do it. In addition, I write my homework down in four different colors for each of my four classes. I may just be a little OCD…but just a little. [Tyler Hotz]

Laptops can be a pain, and attending a school that revolves around them isn’t always easy. Don’t you hate it when you’re just chilling on your bed your laptop in your lap and the bottom is so hot you can’t stand it for very long? Well, I like to use an old egg carton. Place your laptop on the top and say goodbye to laptop burns. [Madison Tenney]

Coffee is almost every student’s life force. In the summer, I tend to enjoy iced coffee, but after a while the ice melts and it tastes awful. A quick fix to the problem is to pour some coffee into an icecube tray the night before and place it in the freezer. The next morning pop them in your coffee and bam – when they melt – no watered down coffee.  [Cassidy Bailey]

Putting on foundation in the morning is a pain to begin with, but if you’re like me and wake up 25 minutes before leaving the house, the whole putting-on-makeup-debacle is just way too time consuming. Instead of trying to make time for painting my face everyday, I’ve instead invested in a majestic product called BB cream, which not only produces the same concealing and correcting effect as foundation, but is simultaneously a moisturizer and a sunscreen. All you have to do is rub it into your skin, and it just makes my life a lot easier. [Maggie Kimber]

When that alarm clock goes off in the morning, the last thing I want to do is wake up and actually use my brain. I reluctantly get out of bed and thankfully realize that I already have my outfit for the day planned out. No thinking for me this morning. My favorite life hack is planning my outfits for the week on Sunday. That way, I can roll out of bed and act like a zombie until I actually need to function like a normal person. So if thinking is too much to handle in the morning, try planning outfits for the week in advance. [Katie Matthews]

When I want to play video games (mainly NCAA Football), but I also want to stay in bed, I use a simple but useful life hack. I FaceTime my laptop with my iPad, and set up my iPad so it faces the TV in my bonus room. I then bring my laptop to my room and watch the FaceTime call with my iPad, which is a perfect view of the TV. Luckily, my bed room is close enough to the bonus room for the wireless controller to still have a signal. [Wyeth Wilson]