Honestly, samb42, that "really" feels a bit harsh to me lol. I know it sounds silly to call it focus, but some of us need a little brain reset to not zone out completely. Counting anything, even carpet squares, can be that anchor when the meeting is dragging and you're fighting to stay present. I've done the carpet thing myself back when I had to sit through hour long budget talks, and it beats looking at my phone or just staring off into space. It's not about the squares, it's about giving your brain one simple thing to hold onto so you don't totally check out.

Gotta push back on this one because I think the fancy layouts can actually help in certain fields. If you're applying for a design or creative role, your resume is basically your first portfolio piece. A boring plain text resume screams "I have zero visual sense" and they'll toss it just as fast as a cluttered one. Plus, not every hiring manager is scanning like a robot. I've had friends in small companies say they actually read the whole thing because they get like 20 resumes total, not 200. So the whole six second rule really depends on the industry and company size.

lol your boss sounds like a tool. ive been tracking hours in Google Sheets for years and it works just fine. spreadsheets are actually more flexible than most of those paid apps if you know what youre doing. no reason to get laughed at for a perfectly good system.

Oh yeah permissions are a huge part of it but honestly even if you say no to all the extras sometimes they still find a way. I had the same thing happen with a little astrology app on my old account like two years ago and it got into my friends list and started sending weird messages to everyone. The worst part was Facebooks recovery system kept asking me to verify my identity with a code sent to my email but I couldnt get into my email because the app had changed my password too. It took me calling my phone provider to get a new sim card and resetting everything from scratch. So yeah it's not always just about clicking yes to permissions sometimes these things are just sneaky.

Yeah I've dealt with piles like that too. The trick is to get some kind of accelerant mixed in there, like old motor oil or even some dry kindling in the middle first. Once you get that core burning hot enough the wet stuff on top will start to dry out and catch.