What is a “Life Hacker?”
The term “life hack” was coined around 2004 by a journalist studying ultra-productive geeks. He found that they used various shortcuts and automation techniques to make their working time far more effective than other people. He published an article and the terms “life hack” and “life hacker” soon took off. These terms quickly expanded to include any way in which a person might “hack” life, through shortcuts, automation, tricks, and often completely rethinking conventional wisdom.
Purpose
Our leaders have admonished us to make our lives more simple. Yet, it seems like the general membership has not received the message. People complain and resist because the gospel, or their calling, seems to be a burden. We think the problem stems from the lack of knowledge on how to maximize the resources we already have. To illustrate, watch this video:
A life hacker is anyone who seeks to make their life simpler, increase productivity in any aspect, and make time for the most important things. As the video clearly shows, these are things that every member of the church should care about and be focused on. Our purpose here is to help people to “be innovative” and thoughtfully allocate their resources of time, income, and energy, as Elder Ballard challenged.
Origins
This website was inspired in part by Tim Ferris and his book “The 4-Hour Workweek”, and the website Lifehacker. Other great sources for life hacking are 43folders.com, Lifehack.org, Dumb Little Man, Getting Things Done, and more.
Mormon Hacker
In 2006, Brett McKay decided that LDS doctrine introduced enough peculiarities into Mormon lives that the LDS community needed their own source for life-hacks. He created a blog called “Mormon Hacker” and posted many great tips and resources. He soon became too busy with other projects.
Mormon Life Hacker
In 2010, Tevya Washburn had the same idea as Brett. In searching, he found “Mormon Hacker” and was eventually able to contact Brett, who turned the site over to him. Now it has been reborn as “Mormon Life Hacker.” The intention is not to copy the blog Lifehacker, but rather use it as a model, while presenting unique and helpful life-hacks for members of the LDS community.
In 2016, John Dye (previously a director of social media strategy and influencer outreach for Bonneville Communications) took over the administration of the blog with the intent to continue with the life hacks already being shared but broadening the scope to include Mormon news, entertainment, and other unique content, specifically showcasing content for the LDS and like-minded online influencers he worked with daily. In 2019, John started to focus more on the COME, FOLLOW ME curriculum and highlighting the best online resources he found to help supplement official Church content.
Editors
Mormon Life Hacker is currently updated, authored, and edited by John Dye and various guest authors. Are you interested in submitting content? Please email john@mormonlifehacker.com.