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. Black Friday sales officially start Friday, November 28, and run through Cyber Monday, December 1, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over. Follow our live blog to stay up-to-date on the best sales we find. Browse our editors’ picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices an…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Apple's newest AirPods Pro are great. They have excellent sound quality, up to twice the noise cancellation of the previous-generation Pros, and even include a built-in heart rate sensor. Those features don't come cheap, though. Like most brand-new Apple products, they're expensive, and typically fetch $249 at any store you choose to buy them from. While they're certainly pricey, I don't think the MSRP is unwarranted. $249 has always been the price for a new pair of AirPods Pro, and this third generation adds new features without raising the cost. …

As it does every year, Google has picked its favorite apps, games, and books of 2025 from the Play Store catalog—and the annual selection is always useful as a pointer towards some high-quality titles for your Android devices that you may have missed so far. Topping the pile is Focus Friend from YouTuber Hank Green, which aims to keep you on task and undistracted via a series of cutesy animations and cartoon living spaces. The less you check your phone, the better the experience for your 'bean' inside the app. It's an app we've written about before, and I've given it a go myself while trying to focus on writing this article with as few distractions as possible. I've also …

Whether you actually go back and look at photos, watch videos, or review files from years past, you may someday be disappointed if those memories disappear forever, either because you didn't back them up or your one backup was destroyed along the way. I know I have done a poor job of keeping track of media as I have upgraded computers and phones over the years, and I've lost my fair share of photos, videos, and documents along the way, whether on misplaced or damaged external drives or from simply forgetting to back up at all. Here's how to ensure your data is available for years to come. You need multiple backups of your dataOne approach to backing up your data is the…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Black Friday deals used to be relegated to the day after Thanksgiving. These days, however, they start much earlier—so why not take advantage? If you’re shopping for gifts for your favorite DIY enthusiast, or you just want to take advantage of deals for your own tool set, now is a good time to start looking. I usually take the opportunity to expand my tool battery collection if there isn’t an exciting new cordless tool I haven’t tried yet around this time of year, and that’s how I have kept a rotating collection of batteries to power all of my carpe…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. A price drop always stands out more when the product in question already has a reputation for delivering above its size, and that’s the case with the Bose SoundLink Plus. It hasn’t been on the market for long, but it’s already earned strong reviews—CNET even labeled it “the Goldilocks of Bose Bluetooth speakers.” And right now, ahead of Black Friday, it’s down to $199 from $269, which price trackers show is the lowest it’s ever been. Bose SoundLink Plus Portable Bluetooth Speaker …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. I've reviewed a ton of high-tech smart glasses for Lifehacker, and this early Black Friday deal on the RayNeo Air 3s Pro display glasses is excellent. They are on sale for $249 on Amazon (originally $299) until Dec. 1. RayNeo Air 3s $269.00 at Amazon …

You know it's important to prioritize your to-do list, and may have tried various methods to do so, from the Eisenhower Matrix (to determine how timely and urgent each task is), to the Pareto principle (to decide how to allocate your time to maximize your results). The problem is that determining what's actually a priority can be an abstract problem. Some people work best when dealing with cold, hard numbers—and there's a way to take a more quantitative approach to prioritizing your to-dos. Why prioritize your to-do list?The Pareto principle, mentioned above, suggests that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your work, so you have to be picky about what you focus o…

Sometimes, it's not the tasks on your to-do list that overwhelm you, but simply the act of sorting them out and figuring out where to start. Before you can prioritize your responsibilities and setting out a schedule for getting everything done (using strategies like "eating the frog" or creating a 1-3-5 to-do list), you have to identify what those big tasks are and what capacity you have to take them on. If you are the type of person that finds it helpful to visualize these things, let me introduce you to a pair of strategies that both involve imagining tasks as rocks: The "pickle jar theory" and the "big rocks theory." What is the pickle jar theory?The pickle jar theory …

If you're in the market for a laptop, you have no shortage of choices. But unless you need something with exceptionally powerful hardware or are operating on a very tight budget, I'm here to end your search right now: You should buy the M4 MacBook Air, especially while it's on sale for $749 before Black Friday. M4 MacBook Air $749.00 at Best Buy $999.00 Save $250.00 …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Black Friday is nearly upon us. From the day after Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, you will be inundated with deals from stores and companies alike. But even before Black Friday officially begins, stores are putting up discounts. As Lifehacker's tech editor, I've combed through the various tech deals across stores like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart to find the offers actually worth considering. While there aren't a huge number of excellent deals running at the moment, there are some good ones you can take advantage of right now. In fact, many o…

I am a frequent user of Google's NotebookLM, an AI tool that functions similarly to ChatGPT and other LLMs, but only pulls from sources and materials the user inputs. I noticed a few days ago that it has a new feature: A research function divided into "fast research" and "deep research." After playing around with it a little, these new features seem to completely defeat the purpose of why I started using NotebookLM in the first place—with one big exception. What the new "fast research" and "deep research" options in NotebookLM doIn short, "fast research" and "deep research" make NotebookLM work a lot like other AI tools—they pull information in from the web on your beha…

Back in the Windows XP days, when the only search functionality was a cartoon dog in the sidebar of Windows Explorer (not a joke), Google released Google Desktop. If you installed the application, you could search the files on your computer the same way you could search the web. The application made finding your own documents quick—as a small town reporter in northern Alberta, I constantly used this service to dig through my old notes and previous articles. The service was shut down in 2011, announced via a blog post, which stated that the feature was no longer necessary in the cloud storage era. And that was the end of Google offering to search files on your computer—unt…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Gifting season is coming up, and this affordable 2023 edition of the Fire HD 10 Kids Pro tablet makes an easy, practical gift. A convenient way for kids aged 6-12 to consume Amazon content safely, it’s 45% off at $104.99 (originally $189.99) in three different colors, marking its lowest price ever. The tablet, which has won awards for its strong parental controls and earned an “Excellent” rating from PCMag, features built-in safeguards that enhance online security. It comes in a durable slim case with a kickstand handle and a 10.1-inch Full HD displ…

A lot of people are wrong about low testosterone. The "low testosterone" hashtag on TikTok features over 20,000 videos from real doctors, fake doctors, real doctors who seem like fake doctors, bodybuilders, wellness weirdoes, straight-up scammers, and, seemingly, everyone else. Some of the content is accurate, some is wildly inaccurate, some is in the middle, but the overall impression is a confusing miasma where solid medical information is given equal space with people recommending boosting your testosterone by exposing your privates to direct sunlight for 10 minutes a day. So let's clear this up a little. What low testosterone actually isTestosterone is a hormone prod…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Giving the gift of tools can be tricky, because the person you’re buying for might have specific preferences and needs. Knowing the type of thing that a handy person likes to do—such as woodworking or car maintenance—can get you started, but you can also take a peep at the tools they already have. Accounting for what cordless battery system they already own and what brand of hand tools they use can help guide your choice when picking out a tool to gift—the key to choosing the right cordless tool for a DIY enthusiast is figuring out what battery system they already have. Once you know that, you can look for tools and batter…

TikTok's algorithm is infamously addicting. The app picks up on your interests quickly, and before you know it, you're falling down an hours-deep rabbit hole every time you launch it. But the algorithm doesn't always get it right: Sometimes, you end up seeing too much of one type of content, no matter how many times you hit "Not Interested." With the rise of AI-generated content, this problem only gets more frustrating. AI video generators like Sora are empowering people to produce more hyperrealistic AI slop than ever, which means you've likely encountered it on your feeds—whether you know it or not. I've certainly laughed at some AI clips here and there, but for the m…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. As someone who's still rocking an M1 MacBook Air, an iPhone 12 Pro Max, the Apple Watch SE (Gen 1), and the AirPods Pro (Gen 1), I can proudly say that using older devices is a great lifestyle decision. It saves me a lot of money and I still get access to premium products with almost all of the features I need. And now that the AirPods Pro 3 are out, it's a great time to start looking for deals on the older AirPods Pro 2 before stocks are cleared. This Walmart deal brings the AirPods Pro 2 to an all-time low price of $139 (which is $100 off the list…

Netflix's December lineup has a little something for everyone, from familiar original series to live sports. Emily in Paris returns for a fifth season (Dec. 18), this time set in Rome. The final installment of Stranger Things is coming at the end of the month—the first half of season five premiered in November—with volume two releasing at 5 p.m. PT on Christmas Day and the finale at 5 p.m. PT on New Year's Eve. There's also Love Is Blind: Italy (Dec. 1) and My Next Guest with David Letterman and Adam Sandler (Dec. 1), in which Letterman joins Adam Sandler backstage on his comedy tour, and What's In The Box? (Dec. 17), a new game show hosted by Neil Patrick Harris. On the…

With iPadOS 26, Apple is finally giving the iPad a software experience that’s worthy of its increasingly powerful hardware. But it’s still very much a start. Answering calls to make the iPad more like a Mac, Apple has added much-requested features like freeform window multitasking, background app processes, better file management, and more. It’s surprising how much you can now do on an iPad that was just not possible before. And for many users, especially school/college students and some business users, the new changes can actually translate to tangible productivity gains. But for most, it's probably still worth holding onto your Mac. The iPad's new windowing system is go…

To me, the under-desk treadmill is the ultimate symbol of productivity culture (read: late-stage capitalism). And I'm exactly the type to buy into the under-desk treadmill appeal. Why shouldn't I want to walk while I work, burn calories during calls, and transform my sedentary office prisons into a wellness wonderland—all without sacrificing a single billable hour? (Never mind that I don't work in an office or bill my hours.) Office fitness is the perfect hack for our optimization-obsessed culture, promising that we can have it all: career success and physical health, no trade-offs required. But when I see an under-desk treadmill, I also remember when we all swore that r…

Many Americans are in the middle of making hard decisions about their health insurance, in part because open enrollment, the period in which consumers can change their plan, is happening now. That means scammers are also busy contacting people, impersonating insurance providers in an effort to collect personal, financial, and medical information. Common health insurance scamsFraudsters especially love to impersonate representatives from Medicare, targeting older adults and others who qualify for the federal program with unexpected calls. As the Federal Trade Commission warns, scammers may have some of your personal information already and will ask you to confirm your Medi…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ in Platinum Silver is currently priced at $749.99, down from its regular $999.99, and price trackers confirm this is the tablet’s lowest price to date. That discount alone makes a premium device more approachable, especially one that PCMag didn’t hesitate to call “excellent” in their review. They also named it their Editor’s Choice and their pick for the best Android tablet of 2024, which sets a certain expectation. The S10+ meets most of it. Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ …

I've been reading and writing about productivity techniques for years now, and I continue to be shocked by the sheer variety and quantity on offer. There are so many (some admittedly more "duh" than others), and while many could easily slot right into my workflow, others led me to think, "Wow, that one wouldn't work for me at all." Obviously I don't personally use all of the methods I've written about, but it's not because I don't believe in them. The fact is that no technique will work for every person, and no one person is going to be suited to every technique. The trick is to figure out which one(s) might work for you. It's easy to learn about a technique, be persuad…

You’ve heard of a to-do list, but what you might actually need is a to-don’t list. Instead of focusing on all the tasks you have to get done, it could be beneficial for you to look at everything you don’t need to or even shouldn’t do in service of your larger goal. It sounds like a waste of time, but it’s not: Seeing clearly what shouldn’t be taking up your attention is a simple way to prioritize your time and focus on what really matters, which will lead to enhanced productivity and output. There are two kinds of to-don’t lists to employ. To-don’t 1: Bad habitsThe first kind of to-don’t list you should make is one of bad habits you want to avoid. This is all about goal-s…