Best-value list
The tier is the original author’s judgment, not the evidence grade.
Stay alive
Best valueBuckle up, front seat and back
Wearing a seat belt in the front seat cuts the risk of dying in a crash by more than 40%. The back seat counts too.
Face droops, one arm fails, speech slurs. Call now
Ask for a smile, both arms up, and a short sentence. If any of that fails, call 119 in Japan or 911 in the U.S. Don’t drive them yourself.
Cool a burn under running water for 20 minutes
Run cool water over a burn for 20 minutes. Not ice. Don’t put on toothpaste, soy sauce, oil, or flour.
If they can’t speak, alternate back blows and thrusts
If someone over 1 year old cannot cough or speak, give 5 back blows and 5 abdominal thrusts from behind. If they collapse, start CPR. Don’t fish in the mouth for something you can’t see.
On the way in, spend 10 seconds finding the exit
Bars, karaoke, escape rooms. Look for the exit as you walk in. If it is locked, blocked, or the sign is dark, pick another place.
If a drink left your sight, get a new one
Don’t take candy, snacks, or a vape from a stranger. If your glass left your sight, don’t finish it. Get another.
Body upkeep
Best valueDon’t starve or purge to control weight
People with anorexia nervosa died at about 5.9 times the rate of their peers. Long stretches of severe dieting made an eating disorder much more likely. Moving more is the safer side of weight control.
Money wall
Best value“Guaranteed high returns” is a no
If the same sentence promises a high return and a principal that cannot fall, decline before the pitch finishes. “I’ll try a small amount” is still a way in.
Among similar funds, pick the lower fee
A fee that is 1 point higher each year leaves you about 18% less after 20 years and about 26% less after 30, if the pre-fee return is the same.
Don’t buy pricey supplements to “fix” the body
A bigger box does not turn the contents into medicine. If you want to show care, food or a trip to the clinic connects to the rest of the book better than a tonic.
Time and focus
Best valueTurn “I’ll do it” into “When X, I’ll do Y”
Write one line: “Tuesday at 8, when I sit at the desk, I write the opening.” Across 94 tests, people who wrote if-then plans reached their goals more often (d = 0.65).
Protect a few seconds of thinking
An interruption of about 2.8 seconds roughly doubled the next mistake. About 4.4 seconds roughly tripled it. Close the door, or turn notifications off.
People
Best valueDon’t leave someone alone the day after a death
The 24 hours after a significant death were linked to a much higher rate of heart attack. Keep prescribed medicines going. Chest pressure, breathlessness, or one-sided weakness means 119 or 911.
If you lend money, write the amount and the date
How much, when it comes back, both names. Leave it on paper or in a message you can both still open. Memory drifts.
Digital defense
Best valueTurn on two-step verification. Prefer the prompt
In a Google study, device prompts blocked over 94% of phishing takeovers and 100% of automated ones. Prompts beat text-message codes. Start with email.
A lock screen on the phone, a PIN on the SIM
A lost phone still has a SIM. Someone can move that SIM and receive your codes. A SIM PIN stops that at the moment they move the card.
Lost the phone? Suspend the SIM first
The order is: suspend the SIM, lock the phone remotely, change email and payment passwords from a computer, file a police report, then freeze cards if you need to. You can call the carrier from a borrowed phone.