The glory of stepping out in a shiny new pair of kicks lasts about as long as it takes for that first miserable blister to form on your poor, unfortunate foot. Maybe your feet swelled throughout the day, and the shoes you originally thought were perfectly snug are now waging a chafing war against your lower extremities. Or maybe your feet are slightly mismatched, and your left foot is just a tad too big to fit comfortably in its shoe.

Whatever the reason you find yourself limping all the way home, determined to toss your to-die-for new shoes into the back of your closet for eternity, you should know that there’s an easy fix for your predicament—and it only requires items you likely already have at home.

You’ll need a hairdryer, one regular pair of socks, and one pair of the thickest socks you can find. (If you don’t own any extra-thick socks, two pairs of regular socks should do the trick). Don your multiple pairs of socks, and then, as Lifehacker says, “shove your feet into those shoes.” If your feet feel almost unbearably squished, you’re doing it right.

After that, turn your hair dryer on its hottest setting and pass it over the tightest parts of your shoes. Once you feel the shoe loosening up, switch off the dryer, walk around while your shoes cool down, and then take them off. Try them on again without the extra socks to see if they’re sufficiently stretched out—if not, repeat the process.

Image consultant and style expert Aaron Marino demonstrates the trick in the YouTube video below, and he also mentions an important bit of advice: The dryer’s heat could melt certain fibers, so don’t try this hack if your shoes are made from plastic or any other synthetic materials.

And, after you’re done tearing up the dance floor in your newly painless pair of boots, kick back with this list of incredible (and possibly painful) shoe styles from history.

[h/t Lifehacker]

With the fresh start of a new year and a new decade, you probably have some resolutions in mind to make the most out of 2020. To keep all your goals and aspirations organized, there's the Panda Daily Planner ($25), which was named 2019's best overall planner by Business Insider.

The planner is broken up into three sections, allowing you to plan out 90 days, 13 weeks, and six months. To start, the daily sections include a short morning exercise in which you write out three things you are excited and grateful for. Once you complete the exercise, you can utilize the other sections to write in the day's top priorities, schedule, tasks, and general notes. To make sure you end on a positive, there’s an end-of-day exercise to reflect on your “wins,” and what to work on for tomorrow.

The weekly sections ask you to start by reflecting on the previous week’s “big wins” and what you could improve on. After you take the time to reflect, you can fill out the “things I will do to make this week great” section, which is broken up into personal, family/friends, work, and relationships groups. There are also sections to record what you're looking forward to, habits you want to develop, something new you want to learn, and a passion project you want to find time to work on.

The monthly calendars allow you to write in notes for each day, record goals you want to achieve, and distractions you want to avoid. When the month is over, there’s a short section to reflect on what you’ve learned and insights you’ve gained. And because there are no dates, this planner is completely customizable.

When you purchase the planner, you'll also get access to e-books with titles like How to Get Your Sh*t Together in Under 60 Minutes and The Keys to a Happy & Productive Life, as well as a video series on how to utilize the planner to maximize productivity.

While there are definitely apps to help you get organized, there are numerous benefits to writing things down. To start, on paper you can keep everything in one place, which makes your to-do list easy to reference. Whereas you probably have different apps for notes, schedules, etc., meaning you're spending more time scrolling between each one. Not to mention, opening your phone for one thing is often a gateway to finding yourself on social media, which can kill productivity.

Planners are a great way to stay organized, but for some resolutions you’ll need some added inspiration to see them through. From volunteering more to reducing “activation effort,” learn some other scientific ways to achieve your goals this year.

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