Looking longingly toward Nordic cultures for solutions to our problems is practically a cottage industry at this point. Between Scando design principles (more light, less stuff); sustainability initiatives (The Netherlands have figured out how to feed us all); education (Norwegian forest schools, anyone?); and health (Finland invests in public saunas), there's plenty to love. (And if you are a taller, more full-figured lady like me, I implore you to check out Swedish fashion; comfy, colourful, and proportionally smarter than American brands by a mile.)

Sometimes we waste money on things we don't need without even realising.

It can be difficult to spot things that are wasting cash because an item's affordability is subjective based on situation and personal preferences. Here are five things that may be a waste of your money.

If you end accidentally leaving important items at home in your rush to leave the house in the morning try stashing your keys under what you don't want to forget.

If there's an area in your life that could do with some improvement, a good audio book might be able to steer you in the right direction. Best of all, they can be readily absorbed while driving or multitasking, which makes them perfect for people with busy schedules (i.e. - nearly all of us.) We asked Amazon's digital audiobook arm Audible to share some of its best-selling self-improvement titles. Here are their picks.

There's no time like the present to grow or refine ourselves a little bit more, and few resources are as helpful as TED talks. In that vein, here are the top 10 TED talks we've featured on Lifehacker or that have been popular on TED.

I don't know about you, but I've heard a lot of people say that they want to quit some particularly addictive aspect of modern technology in 2018. Maybe you want to delete Candy Crush from your phone once and for all. Maybe you only want to check Twitter once a day. Maybe you want to stop hate-reading a feed or forum, maybe you want to quit Instagram-stalking your ex and maybe you just want to spend more time interacting with something besides a screen.

The new year can be a meaningful time to implement a momentous change. But not everything needs to be a total overhaul - small, simple changes can have surprisingly powerful effects.

"Self-improvement" is a tricky framework for resolutions. We take the phrase for granted, but what is it really saying? That changing a lifestyle habit improves your very self? That implies moral value to your choices, labelling some habits intrinsically "good" and others "bad". This ends up at the idea that your lifestyle choices affect your inherent worth and value as a person. And honestly, that sucks.

In the days before Google, a tiny, cryptic ad in the back of a magazine had a lot of potential. The seller might not be able to fully describe their product, but if the product wasn't very good, that may be a plus for them. Here are some bait-and-switch ads from the 1950s and beyond, and what you'd get if you sent in for them.

When you want to change your life, you probably have a specific goal in mind. However, if you only adopt new habits to meet that goal and then stop, you'll end up back where you started. Instead, focus on building whole new habits.

Rock climbing is one hell of a strength-building workout. Not just for your upper body, but for everything. I recently joined a rock climbing gym in Los Angeles, paying $US79 ($103) each month for something I actually love to hate. And yet I keep going because, in addition to training my body, I am really training to get over my fear of failure.

I tend to view a good life as being one that's full of good investments. If you use your resources (money, time, energy, etc.) in a smart way, they're going to give far more value back to you in return.

Spelling and grammar are the cornerstones of professional writing: but that's only half the battle won. To really make your writing shine, you need to avoid cliches, fluff, nondescript adverbs, redundant phrases, purple prose and filler words. This infographic from GlobalEnglishEditing lists 23 phrases you need to pull back on, along with suggested alternatives.

Creating new, better habits is a challenge on its own, no matter how motivated you are. Check out these four common stages of habit building to identify where you are in the change process -- and push yourself through to the next step.

The end of the year is a time for reflection. We all have ups and downs, but a recent study suggests you'll be happier if you keep your walk down memory lane focused on a few specific types of memories.

Some pieces of advice are so common they have become a cliché. That doesn't necessarily mean that they're invalid. If you're trying to improve an area of your life, don't start with exotic new trends. Stick with the basics at first.

Building good habits is a difficult process. Most experts recommend doing it through small changes and not being hard on yourself when you falter. The "Game of Life" system is built around this idea.

Whether you have your eye on the top of the ladder or are just focusing on the next rung, there are many ways you can grow your career. If you're not sure what to do, here are four specific areas you can work on.

The 'perfectionist trap' happens when you see the successes of the people you look up to and aspire to them, forgetting (or not seeing) the hard work and failures required for them to get there. You try, you struggle, and assume you should give up. Don't: they're more like you than you know.