A Fitbit or other step counting challenge can be a great way to inspire yourself to be active. But then again, it’s easier to just sit on the couch and pretend you’re logging tons of steps. Here are a few ways to game the system, even though ultimately you’re just cheating yourself.

You don’t need to be in the office to get work done—but sometimes it’s a good idea to make it look like you’re there.

Being strategic about what you say to your partner in front of your kids is pretty crucial. And most of that strategy involves what you don’t say. Around the time we realise that our kids are actually starting to understand our words, we’ve got to (mostly) rein in the cursing, we have to really consider how our word choices will make them feel, and we very quickly learn not to ponder out loud anything they might like to do that we’re not fully committed to yet.

I am not the hugest fan of food-based practical jokes. Feeding people things without their consent is not cute or funny, but pulling the ol’ bait and switch can be amusing (to you) as long as it occurs before anyone has ingested anything against their will.

Sure, you could sneak around, hiding your favourite treats in the box of the blandest cereal in your pantry, devouring them in secret once the kids are safely in bed for the night. But why do that when you can brazenly enjoy it right in front of them because they believe that piece of chocolatey goodness is actually really gross?

If you’d like to fill your home with beautiful plants, you can buy them, like a sucker. Or you can remove a leaf or two from a plant you come across somewhere—one that won’t be missed—and coax it to grow into a full plant of your own.

Every year, Lifehacker celebrates the dark side of life-hacking with Evil Week. From today, we'll be highlighting all the things you shouldn't do - assuming you're a good person. Let the trolling begin!

If you've been in the workplace for any extended period of time, chances are you've encountered a psychopath at some point in your career. Contrary to popular belief, not all psychopaths are serial killers or axe murderers. In fact, only a small minority of psychopaths are actually violent at all.

Instead, you'll find that psychopaths will almost always be superficially charming, yet can prove to be self-serving and callous on closer inspection. Thanks to the specific set of traits that defines psychopathy, they're far more likely to be drawn to certain careers than to others.

Evil Week is winding down, but that doesn’t mean your evil deeds need come to an end. To paraphrase Tracy Jordan, you can live every week like it’s Evil Week.

You’re likely familiar with money laundering as a concept from your favourite TV show or the news. Whether it’s Walter White legitmising meth money via a carwash or Al Capone using literal laundromats to clean his cash (which is where the term reportedly originated), it’s the stuff of pop culture and criminal legends.

A lot of games require a big time investment — at least, if you want to have the best gear, the funniest emotes, the most locations unlocked, a shot at completing all the achievements, etc. And while you could play fair and square, you could also be that person and use hacks, exploits, or other creative techniques to achieve whatever it is you’re trying to do in your favourite title, even if that’s “ruin everyone else’s day by using a utility to kill them a lot faster than they can kill you.” That’s fun too, right?

The file-storing service Mega usually cuts free users off once they’ve downloaded around 5GB or so, forcing you to wait hours before you can resume whatever it is you were transferring. It feels like Mega is more generous nowadays (I downloaded 18.75GB of data the other day before I hit the wall), but it still has some kind of download quota. And if you want to get past it without waiting, there’s only one trick left in your arsenal.

You might be unfortunate enough to have an annoying coworker in your vicinity. You know, the one that talks about how much he loves eating quiche for breakfast. Let's call him Chad. While you (probably) can't put Chad's headphones in jello to get back at him for pinning last week's soccer loss on your bum knee, you can slowly drive Chad mad where it hurts the most: in his precious YouTube goofing-off time.

When your friends express hurt feelings over something you deem trivial, it is appropriate to take the piss out of them by miming a violin performance. If you want to take your mockery to the next level, this video tutorial explains how to make tiny violins out of paddle pop sticks.

No one should buy their own drinks on their birthday. And besides getting freebies from your obliging friends, plenty of bars will give you a free birthday drink or two if you sign up to their newsletter. If you plan ahead, you can turn that free drink into a free bar crawl.

Manipulation is generally a bad skill to use to get what you want, but sometimes it's justifiable when you have a noble cause. Perhaps you're trying to get someone to live a healthier lifestyle or enjoy an activity with you. When other tactics fail you and it's time to resort to a little manipulative behaviour, here are some tricks you can use to get what you want without being completely abandoning your ethics.

According to some old Bible verse, you reap what you sow. Alternatively, you can hop over your neighbour's fence and reap the crap out of their tasty, tasty harvest. They sow, you reap. Everybody wins!

Air travel is stressful, and one of the easiest ways to alleviate stress is to get slightly blitzed. Plane drinks are, however, a little overpriced: Therefore, we feel ok about offering a few sneaky ways to get free libations while you’re flying.

Have you ever envied those people who seem to have a birthday week, or even a whole month rather than a single day? If you're someone who really just loves having birthdays, here's how to make yours as much of an event as possible.