Setting Up Your Home Office

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Most outdoor speakers claim they can handle water. The Soundcore Boom 3i goes further: it's fully waterproof and dustproof with an IP68 rating, but it also resists saltwater, which is still rare at this size and price. That matters if your weekends involve beaches, boats, or the ocean rather than a backyard patio. Also, it floats, and more importantly, it does so facing upward, which keeps the drivers out of the water and the sound clear. That one detail makes a real difference when waves or movement would normally flip a speaker onto its side. The …

You can customize more on your Mac than you might have realized, and that extends to the file management software you use to browse around your system. Take, for example, Finder: There are a good number of alternatives around that bring with them extra features and different layouts. I've been testing out three of the most well-known and highly rated alternatives to Finder to see what I might be missing. Each one has its own appeal, but the third in the list here is so good that I might switch to it permanently for all my file and folder needs on macOS. Commander One …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. For many of us, New Year's Eve represents not just the climax of a long holiday season, but also a time to simultaneously reflect, and to look forward to what's ahead—sometimes with optimism, sometimes with sheer dread. (Lately, mostly dread.) Movies have frequently recognized the simultaneously hopeful and perilous nature of the time. It can be a period of reassessment, or renewal, or massive change. This selection of choice New Year's Eve movies reflects that range of possibilities, including everything from romance and murder, to comedy and tragedy, to wild sex and heartbreaking loneliness. When Harry Met Sally (1989) …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. To be alive in 2025 is to assume you are being recorded at all times. There are cameras just about everywhere we go these days: Security cameras, video doorbells, and smartphones are frequently recording, and so ubiquitous that I tend to figure that if I go out in public, I'm being watched. But when you're driving, it can be a different story. Sure, there are cameras on the road—either street cameras or cameras built directly into modern cars—but there are plenty of moments behind the wheel where nothing you do is recorded. You could view this as a nice reprieve from the surveillance of modern life, but it also means that …

Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. New Year’s resolutions are all about improving ourselves, right? The same goes for your best buddy—your dog. While your dog can’t physically tell you what they need to feel their best, there are simple things you can do to help set them up for success. Right now, you can save 50% off your first box of human-grade The Farmer’s Dog pet food, so that’s a great start. Check out these pup-centric resolutions and help keep their tail wagging into 2026—and for years to come. The Farmer's Dog Save…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. There are two universal truths about tools: They’re expensive, and they take up a lot of space. If you’re trying to maintain a home or perform some DIY work in a small space or on a small budget, stacking up all the tools you might need to get the job done can strain your wallet and simultaneously pose a storage challenge. The solution is actually pretty easy: Buy tools that combine more than one function into a single item. While having the specific tool you need for every job will always be your best choice, if you lack space and/or cash, combination tools like these give you all the capability you need without eating up…

Inbox management, like so much else, is a necessary evil in our day-to-day lives. As such, it’s best handled with the use of a strict system, but those can be tricky to implement and stick to. Also like so much else, finding the right system is time-intensive and adds a new layer of stress onto an already annoying task. Here’s a system that’s simple, doesn’t take a lot of time to start using, and can actually help you get through your unreads without overwhelming you. It’s called “yesterbox.” What is the yesterbox inbox management system?This technique—and its funny name—both come from late Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who described yesterbox as a way of “relieving email guilt.…

The idea of declaring “email bankruptcy”—just deleting all the emails in your inbox past a certain date—is so popular, it has its own Wikipedia entry. I can see why it's tempting to just blow everything up and start over, and the temptation goes far beyond emails: Declaring a personal bankruptcy and mass-deleting games, movies, and e-books you fear you’ll never play, watch, or read is a practice with proponents far and wide (including some of us here at Lifehacker). But declaring bankruptcy is such a drastic step. What if you tried inbox amnesty instead? What is inbox amnesty?The idea for inbox amnesty comes from Lifehacker’s health editor, Beth Skwarecki, who advocates …

When you're wading through all the emails, Slack messages, and other notifications you get on an average day, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. When that happens, you can might yourself getting distracted and missing important messages—at least, that's what happens to me, unless I have some kind of plan in place. There are a few different approaches you can consider to prevent this, but the "OHIO" technique is the one to try if you need extra help being decisive—though it's important to note that while it can ease your decision paralysis, it does have a few limitations worth considering. What is the OHIO method of time management?OHIO is an acronym for “Only Handle It Once” …

If you are still using the same email address for everything, it’s time to diversify. Don’t make the mistake I made for too long, clogging up one inbox with absolute nonsense unrelated to the things you actually want to receive and read. You likely already have separate emails for your job, school, and personal life, and many of us also have a designated “spam” email to enter into pop-up boxes in a hurry—but you might even benefit from a couple more. Here are the email addresses I advise setting up. You need an email for logging into appsI have a special email address just for my streaming services and random apps, so when Peacock or Hulu mysteriously log out on my TV, I …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Nintendo Switch 2 with Mario Kart World bundle is in stock at Best Buy after running out of stock very quickly on Amazon. The deal includes the new console with the new Mario Kart for the same price as the standalone console. You can get this one for $449 (down from $499)—the lowest price it has reached yet, according to price-tracking tools. (Note that you can only see the price once you've signed in and it's in your cart, as Nintendo restricts retailers from promoting anything below the "minimum advertised price" of $499.) To top it off, Best …

Spotify playlists are a surprisingly big part of my life. I make a handful of new, curated, choreographed ones for the spin classes I teach every week and otherwise meticulously maintain quarterly playlists designed to represent the overall vibe of specific, three-month periods in my life. I only edit those during the 12 weeks of the quarter, then leave them alone so I can revisit them and relive the era. This means I am constantly fiddling with the present playlist to make it just right, searching for songs that feel precisely aligned with however I'm feeling. It's actually a time-consuming hobby—but I stumbled across a feature the other day that has made creating spin p…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Pixel 10 came out in August this year, and at a $799 starting price, it was worth considering. Fast forward a couple of months, and now you can get one for almost half off, at $449. Amazon is discounting the flagship Pixel 10 (128GB) to $549, and there’s a promo code (PIXEL10) that drops it down a further $100. At under $500, this might be the best Android smartphone deal of the year. Google Pixel 10 …

For many students and workers, Windows is just the default way to use a computer. It's where all your apps work as intended, where all your Microsoft Office documents sync easily, and where you play all your games. But if you peel back its layers, Windows can be a lot more than that. Power users can take advantage of hidden features, and utilities from Microsoft and third-parties to not only speed up their workflow, but to improve productivity and fix some of the most annoying quality-of-life issues that plague Windows PCs. Control everything using the Command Palette …

Because it’s Christmas time, I’ve been digging into myths and misconceptions we have about the holiday: Yuletide misinformation is rampant, and I’m setting the record straight. Last week I dug into who Santa Claus really is, with side quests about St. Nicholas bringing children back from the dead and the religious war between Santa and Kris Kringle. One thing I didn't talk about? His elves. Christmas elves feel like they’ve been around forever, and people have strangely consistent ideas of what they’re all about—they’re small, they wear green, they make toys out of some innate magical compulsion, they love shelves— but that variety of elf is a recent invention; “real” el…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. At $749, the unlocked 128GB Google Pixel 10 Pro has slipped into its most affordable price yet on Amazon, down from its original $999 launch price, according to online price trackers. Stack the promo code PIXEL10, and you shave off another $100, which reframes the phone entirely. At full price, it felt like a confident but pricey Android flagship. At this discount, it becomes a far easier recommendation for people who value polish over raw benchmark wins. Google Pixel 10 Pro …

To manage your inbox, you need dedication. You need a plan. You need acronyms. One such acronym is RAFT, which will literally keep you afloat in the sea of emails you receive every day. You can combine it with others, like LIFO and 4D to maximize its benefits, but first you need to know what to do with it on its own. What is RAFT email management?RAFT stands for the following: Read Act File Trash. Easy! With this management system, you take the time to read an email first, then act on it however you need to—if you need to, that is—before either filing it away somewhere or deleting it. That’s basically all there is to it, but it works because it requires you to focus on e…

No matter how dedicated you are to responding to and archiving all your emails, there will always be one thing preventing you from hitting true inbox zero: all of those mailing lists you're subscribed to. These horrors will visit you at all hours of the day, making it harder to spot the truly important messages in your inbox—and it gets worse once you've gotten fed up enough to disable push notifications and they start to really pile up. It’s time to banish these buggers. And, if you're using Gmail, there’s an easy way to do it. Use filters to manage mailing list emails in GmailYou can use a third-party add-on to go through your mailing lists and unsubscribe, saying good…

The more you work out, the fitter you'll get. Your VO2max, sometimes described on wearables as a "cardio fitness" score, is a number that tends to be higher among people who are more cardiovascularly fit. But it's not the only measure of fitness, and you should know what it really means. What VO2max really is (as measured in a lab)Smartwatches and fitness trackers don't actually measure VO2max; they just estimate it. To actually find your VO2max, you'd need to go to an exercise lab and do a test on a treadmill or cycle while hooked up to equipment that measures your heart rate and the air you're exhaling. I did exactly this kind of test to compare my real VO2max to the n…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. I've been experiencing some active noise cancelling (ANC) fatigue lately, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. ANC has a time and a place, but being able to be aware of my surroundings and have conversations with my wife while working from home has made 2025 more enjoyable. I owe that to the Shokz Open Run Pro 2, which are bone conduction headphones that leave your ears uncovered. But if you prefer true wireless earbuds that have the same benefit, the Shokz OpenFit 2+ are a great alternative, and right now, they're on sale for $139.95 (originally $199…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The makers of Bevel, a health app for the Apple Watch that turns the device into a Whoop-style fitness tracker, have announced on social media that nearly all of the app’s functions will soon be available for free. Until now, Bevel required a $5.99/month (or $49.99/year) subscription. That said, the paid tier isn't going away completely. What does Bevel do?You can read my review of Bevel here, but in brief, it’s a tracking app that uses data from your Apple Watch (and other devices) to give you a Whoop-style dashboard that collects your health data in one place and analyzes it. Bevel can give you advice about how recovered…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. In 2025, I tested a ton of exotic smart glasses, e-bikes, and other gear for Lifehacker, but the tech that upgraded and improved my day-to-day life the most is a more niche product. I'm a (very) amateur musician, and Yamaha's Seqtrak is my favorite thing this year. It's an "ideastation," a music production studio small enough to slip into a backpack. Look at how tiny this thing is: Credit: Stephen Johnson Yamaha SEQTRAK …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. It never fails to annoy me when I tell my friends here in New York City that I am cold and they reply, "But you're from North Dakota! This is nothing compared to what you grew up with." I know. Why do you think I left the coldest state in the continental U.S. as soon as I turned 18? I hate the cold in North Dakota, but that doesn't mean I hate the cold in New York any less. Indeed, wherever I am in winter, I'm at war with the cold—midwestern cold, northeastern cold, it's all cold. This is why I've devised a number of plans to mitigate it, and the most useful of my anti-cold measures is the collection of heated accessories …

The holidays are for rest, relaxation, and eating your weight in cookies shaped like reindeer. Your fitness goals can absolutely wait until the new year. But if you find yourself trapped in a house where someone just said, "well, actually" for the third time in ten minutes, and you need to escape to your old bedroom before you say something you'll regret—here's a quick (and quiet) bodyweight circuit you can do surrounded by your high school participation trophies. The circuit workoutThese are my favorite beginner-friendly exercises to efficiently blow off some steam. Hopefully you have some floor space next to your twin bed. Tactical door-closed push-ups (10-15 reps)Thes…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When you're using devices that are always connected to the internet, it's difficult to completely protect your privacy. Luckily, there are plenty of great privacy hacks for your iPhone, which you can use to make it hard for trackers and spies to collect your data and snoop on your business. From built-in solutions, like adjusting app permissions, to purchasing privacy screen protectors, here are 10 hacks every iPhone user should consider to protect their privacy. Get yourself a privacy screen protectorNo software privacy hack can protect you from people looking over your shoulder to memorize your password, or from peeking …