From The Tips Box: Musical Reminders, Battery Power

Readers offer their best tips for makeup on the go, reminding yourself to do something with a timed playlist, and changing your Windows theme when you go on battery power.

Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons — maybe they’re a bit too niche, maybe we couldn’t find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn’t fit it in — the tip didn’t make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favourites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or use the contact tab on the right.

Use Music as a Short-Term Alarm (Without the Startling Buzzing Noise)

Photo by JustProd.

Big D shares his preferred method of setting an alarm, in response to our tips on fixing chronic lateness:

Something I’ve been trying for the last few months is music. Many of us sleep/wake up to music anyway, so this wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to add into your normal schedule.

Basically, figure out how long it takes you to get ready without distractions, from the time you roll out of the bed till you are walking out of the door. Let’s say 45 minutes. Then you make a playlist that is shorter than that time, so 40 minutes. Start off with slower, more dreamy songs and progress into more upbeat songs that get stuck into your head.

The trick is that when the music stops playing, it is a warning that you have only 5 minutes left before you must leave the house. And I haven’t been late in months.

Change the Windows Theme Automatically When on Battery Power

Curlymeatball38 shares an AutoHotkey script for Windows laptop users:

I wrote an AHK script that changes your Windows theme whenever you switch your laptop to battery power. All you need to do is change the path to your desired theme. I chose Windows Classic to switch to because it saves the most power. Themes are located in C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes and C:\Windows\Resources\Themes.

You can grab the script on Pastebin. I don’t have a laptop running Windows at the moment, so I haven’t tested this one myself — let us know if you have any problems in the comments.

Split Makeup Pencils in Two for an On-the-Go Alternative

Java-Princess cleverly makes the most of her makeup:

When you’ve just paid $US25 for your eyebrow pencil or lip liner at Sephora get out your junior hacksaw (yes I have one) and cut the pencil in two. Keep one half on your dresser and one in your pocket book.