Whether you’re talking to strangers or close friends, people can be hard to deal with sometimes. Without knowing what to say or do, meeting new people and getting through awkward situations can be a challenge. To help you out, here are some quick life hacks designed to make things easier.
1. Asking for Favors
It can be hard asking people for favors, especially if you’re asking for a lot or you’re not that close. To make things easier, try asking for a bigger, more unreasonable favor that they’ll probably turn down, then follow up with your real request, which they should be more likely to agree to.
Rating: 8/10 since it depends on the favor and who you ask for, but as long as you keep both generally reasonable, people are usually more open to a favor.
2. Interrupting Conversations
There’s nothing worse than when you need to interrupt an important conversation, but you can avoid being annoying by paying attention to people’s feet. If the person you’re talking to moves their torso and their feet when you approach them, they’re interested in talking to you. If they only move their torso and not their feet, they’re busy.
Rating: 9/10 because people almost always subconsciously move toward things they’re interested in, except this only works when you’re interrupting people who are standing.
3. Talking to New People
Meeting strangers is always awkward, but you can make a bad situation better by paying attention to who you’re talking to. Pay close attention to what they say, match their body language and look for their eye color, which maintains the right amount of eye contact.
Rating: 7/10 since matching energy with who you’re talking to can work well when they’re social, but not as well when you talk to someone who speaks very little and keeps to themselves.
Music from iMovie, text and captions from Veed, and featured image from YourBigSky