When you're doing intensive physical work and start to feel it build; know when to stop and step away. You might be delaying completion of your task a bit a little, but if you toss out your back or have a nerve pinch and take a fall, you're useless for a lot longer than taking a break. I pushed it on a long trip with lots of heavy baggage and equipment, and suddenly my left side started failing me and I thought I was having a stroke and I fell hard on tile. I was trying to catch a flight so I had little choice, but before that I ignored all the little pains and misused my chances to sit down and heal a little so I could sightsee. Same feeling started building a couple weeks later when I was doing some landscaping and I was still pushing it, and my leg almost gave out for a second and I nearly took a fall on concrete. So I walked away and laid down. And I felt no shame in that.

For non-physical work: take an Aleve when you feel it coming on (not too often to avoid dependence or building a tolerance) to get in front of it before it compounds.

For all the lifestyle exercise tips mentioned here, I'd add to make sure you get enough fiber. It's surprising how much intestinal distress can worsen existing back pain.

Due to work pressure I would do a bunch of stress eating of fast food or ordering pizza. Where I found a nice balance was getting some tasty bread -for me it was loaves of asiago bread from Safeway since it was cheap and has a long shelf life if you store it right- and just toss on some simple deli meat and cheese but put it along slices of tomato and cucumber as finger food on the side. The latter two fill you up with nutrition, the former gives you the sodium and fat injection, and it's super quick to put together so you don't feel discouraged to make a "meal."

Since I usually have a portfolio or some similar notebook with me and I know the people who act like this; I just keep scribbling stuff in my thing and act like I wasn't listening or maybe passively listening, so then I can just be like "I'm sorry, what was that?"

If you make jerks repeat something out loud it throws off their rhythm. If they bother to repeat it, then you can just say "oh ok, cool" and turn back to your scribbles.

Ice cube, paper towel and elbow grease. It's more of an immediate-response solution but it does work surprisingly well on blood. I sold a couch to a friend and they had no clue there was a sex-induced period stain hiding in its history.

Good one! I squeezed an extra couple thousand a year on my salary in a transfer to a new job because I was friendly with Payroll over the years, worked close with them, helped them when they needed it. Then asked when I got the new position and they found I technically qualified for more than the offering. Little rules and classifications that would have gone overlooked if they didn't take an extra half hour of research for a friend.

Seconding the plunger thing. Hadn't thought to buy one in a new apartment, hosted a New Years party, friend got trashed and destroyed the bathroom and wouldn't come out. Had to turn off the water to it and keep leading people to the least visible place in the yard so they could piss.

Be overly kind and get friendly with the maintenance folk. Admin staff too, for that matter. Don't be too demanding or impatient when something breaks, show you want to be mindful of their schedule. Thank them for random things. Chat here and there like a buddy. Hell, be a buddy. No reason not to.

The leeway and deference it grants you when you have a busted fridge, a couple day delay on rent because you were busy or waiting for a check to clear, the general feeling of safety...it is totally worth the social effort.

If you want a dog to like you just feed it some fatty treats and try to time it so that you are both locking eyes when it farts. There's nothing funnier than a dog farting and being confused by it. Act similarly confused. You share that moment together and you're friends forever.

Oregon football fan? I used to see trucks and RV's decked out like this when I had to travel there.