Setting Up Your Home Office

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If you've got the funds and the need for more than one computer on your desk, then you may well want to use the same mouse and keyboard for both of them. It's more convenient if you're switching between systems, and it means you can find a keyboard and mouse combination you love and stick to it throughout. This is particularly helpful if you're working on a laptop and a desktop in tandem. Even the best laptops tend to have cramped keyboards, just through the limitations of the form factor, and a mouse is often preferable to a trackpad for several tasks (such as detailed image or video editing). Sharing your mouse and keybo…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Sometimes, determining which projects you should devote your time and energy to first takes energy you don’t have to spare (which is why I have tips for how to do it). But even when you know what tasks need to be done, you still need to figure out how to prioritize them, so you can tackle them in the right order while giving each the amount of attention and resources they actually need. Here's where you can use the 3-3-3 method. What is the 3-3-3 method?This technique comes from Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. He advocates planning each workday around a 3-3-3 model: First devote…

Ninite has long been a godsend for anyone setting up a new computer. With it, you can install a number of applications in just a couple of clicks, as opposed to downloading a bunch of individual installers. Ninite is well known for simplicity, too. There's no package manager to learn or commands to type; just visit the website and pick the apps you want to install, then download and run the installer. Installations all run in the background, with no prompts. It's magical, and I've long wondered why Microsoft hasn't built anything similar—something powerful, yet easy to use. Well, it seems like someone at the company finally got around to it. A new Microsoft site called A…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. This Lenovo ThinkCentre M90q Mini PC (2021) is on sale for $455.99 on StackSocial right now, offering business-grade performance in a compact form factor small enough to hide behind a monitor. Inside its 7-inch frame sits a 10th Gen Intel Core i5 processor with six cores, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD. That’s enough muscle for multitasking, large spreadsheets, or running several browser tabs at once without slowdown. It’s not built for heavy graphics work or gaming, but for office productivity or remote setups, it’s more than capable of kee…

There are many ways to set a schedule, from using a pen and paper planner to getting out some dry erase markers and scribbling on your clock. They range from tedious to totally archaic, but there's a technique for everyone. One method I have come to enjoy aims to work by giving you more insight into how you spend your time—and helping you manage your day down to the minute. It’s called time blocking. What is time blocking?Time blocking is the act of arranging your schedule so every activity you need to do in a day is accounted for visually. Ideally, you’ll do this using a digital calendar tool like Google Calendar or iCal, but it's possible with a planner and some highlig…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The 2021 Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Touch isn’t new, but it still has a few good years of life in it, especially if you need a solid secondary laptop for home, travel, or light work—and it's on sale for $599.99 on StackSocial right now. It’s powered by an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 chip that can reach up to 4.7GHz, paired with 12GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. That combination is fast enough for multitasking, web browsing, and even moderate creative work. The touchscreen is a bonus, making it easy to scroll, tap, and zoom without relying on a trackpad. This model also…

In a culture overwhelmed with ridiculous beliefs, an unlikely hero of rationality has emerged: reality star Kim Kardashian. Kim raised a healthy amount of skepticism of psychics in a recent TikTok video: In case you don’t follow the ins-and-outs of reality stars, Kim K.'s recent life cycle/plot development sees her trying to become a lawyer. She’s been taking an apprenticeship in the industry and presumably studying hard. She also consulted psychics, who read tea leaves or whatever and concluded that she would pass the California bar exam. Except, sadly, she did not. “Psychics are full pathological liars” —Kim Kardashian“All of the fucking psychics that we have met with,…

If there's one thing all of us smartphone owners have in common, it's that our devices rarely have enough battery life. Some phones are better than others, especially when paired with battery-saving settings, but in general, it's a universal anxiety to feel like your phone might die before you reach a charger again. There are many reasons your smartphone's battery might drain fast, but some of the likeliest culprits are poorly-designed apps. Some of these programs use too much processing power when you're actively using them, while others needlessly run in the background. You can always check your device's battery stats to see which apps are the worst offenders, but what…

If you're a Windows user, this is your monthly reminder to ensure you install all available security updates. Microsoft's November Patch Tuesday release fixes one zero-day vulnerability that has been actively exploited in the wild, with 63 flaws patched in total. As reported by Bleeping Computer, the November Patch Tuesday update addresses 29 elevation of privilege vulnerabilities, 2 security feature bypass vulnerabilities, 16 remote code execution vulnerabilities, 11 information disclosure vulnerabilities, 2 denial of service vulnerabilities, and 3 spoofing vulnerabilities. (Note that these figures do not include patches for Microsoft Edge and Mariner.) In addition to t…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. As YouTube TV and Disney continue their feud over rising channel rates, it's customers that are losing out. One of my coworkers found this out last night when her family couldn't (easily) watch their home team, the Philadelphia Eagles, play—and that was with an NFL Sunday Ticket package added on to their YouTube TV plan. The ESPN/ABC blackout is hitting YouTube TV's sports fans hard, and with Google already issuing compensation to customers, it seems like there's no end on the horizon. Luckily, YouTube isn't the only game in town for watching NFL football. There are a number of alternative solutions you can try while you …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. I have bittersweet news that is mostly sweet: Soon, I will have a Tonal, one of those ultra-modern tablets that attaches to your wall and uses magnets to create resistance that mimics the use of a cable machine at the gym. I'm getting it so I can review it for you, which is good news for us all, but it's going to render a lot of my other at-home workout equipment useless for a while, so I want to take some time to memorialize the inexpensive tools I have accumulated that make even the most basic yoga on my living room floor a better experience. While I am pumped to have the Tonal, which costs about $4,000 depending on whi…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’re tired of your laptop speakers sounding like they’re inside a tin can, this Lenovo M0520 2.0 Wired Desktop Speaker Set might be an easy fix that doesn’t break the bank, and it's on sale for $16.99 on StackSocial right now. It’s about as simple as audio upgrades get: You plug it in through USB, no power adapter or extra cords required, and it’s ready to go. For anyone who just wants clearer sound for work calls, YouTube videos, or background music, this tiny setup does the job. The pair delivers 1+1 watts of output, not booming by any stretc…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Your home is under constant threat from the elements—but especially from water. From roof leaks to burst pipes—water damage is the second-most claimed loss on home insurance policies, just below “wind and hail.” In fact, there are way more losses due to water damage than fire. And the most troubling aspect of water damage is how silent it can be. You can have a leak for a long time before the damage becomes bad enough to notice. And even if you know you have a water leak somewhere, locating it can often be difficult because water can travel a long way from the source before making its presence known. That’s why you need th…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Sterlin Harjo, of Reservation Dogs fame, is back with another unique and critically acclaimed series, this one starring Ethan Hawke as a folksy citizen journalist (or "truthstorian," as he prefers), based loosely on the real-life activist best known for uncovering new details about the 1921 Black Wall Street massacre in Tulsa. Joined by Keith David's Marty (and a genuinely impressive supporting cast), Hawke's Lee Raybon has a relentless need to explore the dark corners of his community and its history, and unfailing ability to find trouble in the process. There are crime drama and neo-noir elements, but blended with a loos…

Most of our apps these days continue to receive AI upgrades—whether or not we actually want them. That's no surprise from a company like Google, who is among those leading the AI charge right now. If you use Chrome, Android, or Google Workspace, you've likely dealt with Gemini in some capacity. The charge, as you might expect, continues to this day. On Tuesday, Google announced a set of new AI-powered features coming to Google Photos, for both iOS and Android users. Google doesn't yet have a definitive release date for these new features, but it seems they're rolling out soon. These are largely optional—you can keep using Photos as an image library, and avoid using the A…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon announced its Black Friday and Cyber Monday plans this week—although it won't start until Nov. 20, you can already find early Black Friday deals on Amazon devices. Their "like-new" Kindle readers, in particular, have good discounts right now. The Kindle Paperwhite is $106.99 (originally $143.99), the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is $126.99 (originally $179.99), the 16GB Kindle Scribe is $212.99 (originally $309.99), and the 64GB Kindle Scribe is $278.99 (originally $404.99). …

Having previously been tested as an experimental flag, Google Chrome's Split View feature is now rolling out in the stable version of the browser (version 142). It doesn't seem to be live for everyone at the same time, but some people are seeing it. (I've got it in Chrome on my Mac, but not yet on Windows.) To check you're on the latest version of Chrome, click the three dots (top right) in a browser tab, then choose Settings and About Chrome. If an update is available, it'll be downloaded, and you can restart your browser to apply it. If you're running the latest version of Chrome and still don't see Split View, you can either wait for the feature to reach you or switch…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon just marked down the Nothing Phone 3 to $678.99, its lowest price yet, according to price trackers. That’s about $120 off the usual $799 tag for the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage base model. Nothing Phone 3 Cell Phone $678.99 at Amazon $799.00 Sa…

Planning out what you’re going to do is huge for productivity, which is why SMART goals (and their alternatives) are so popular throughout the working world. Another important—but perhaps more overlooked—element of the productivity process is the assessment, however. Reviewing what you did is just as integral as planning how you’ll do it—in reviewing, you get a chance to plan better (and improve!) for next time, while also carving out space to appreciate what you did well—also a major motivator! What is an after-action review? An after-action review, or AAR, is a way to measure the results of your performance and improve on your processes. It was first introduced by the …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’ve been looking to replace an aging desktop without spending a small fortune, this refurbished 2023 model HP Slim Desktop might be worth considering. It’s on sale for $189.99 on StackSocial, and while that price suggests bare-bones, it’s more suited for everyday computing than you might expect. Since it’s a refurbished “Grade A” model, it should arrive looking nearly new, with minimal signs of previous use. Plus, the one-year parts-and-labor warranty from a third party adds some reassurance. The HP Slim lives up to its name. At approximately …

You already know that scheduling your tasks—whether you’re time blocking, task batching, or theming entire days—is a major priority when it comes to being productive and getting stuff done. But when you have a bunch of tasks and don’t even know where to start with scheduling them, you need an efficient method to decide what to get on right away, what to delegate, and what to forget about. Essentially, not only do you need to know what you need to do, but you need to rank those tasks based on how crucial they are, how much time they'll take, and what you'll need to get them done. What is the Eisenhower Matrix?This assessment and productivity tool is named for former presid…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. It’s been nearly six years since Microsoft released the Surface Laptop 3, but it still holds up as a solid choice for anyone who values portability, clean design, and day-to-day reliability over bleeding-edge specs. The 2019 model is available again through StackSocial in refurbished, Grade A condition (meaning it looks close to new and works like it should) with prices starting at $379.99 for the 13.5-inch i7 model with 512GB of storage and going up to $614.99 for the 15-inch version with 1TB. All variants come with 16GB of RAM and a 10th Gen Intel…

When you think about the tech companies leading the AI race, Apple is pretty much at the bottom of the list. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as far as I'm concerned. From where I'm sitting, many of us couldn't care less about the latest AI features companies are shoving into their products—we just want the products we actually use to work, and work well. But strictly focusing on AI progress, Apple is far behind rivals like Google and Microsoft. While Android and Windows are full of AI features, either through Google's Gemini or OpenAI's GPT models, Apple's first-party AI advances are much more limited. Both Google and Microsoft promote their AI assistants as a corner…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon has finally revealed its Black Friday plans in a press release, much later than the competition, which is unusual for the biggest retailer. Here is everything you need to know about Amazon's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale. What is Amazon doing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?Amazon will have an early Black Friday sale that will lead up to Black Friday and then a Cyber Monday sale that will last a few days. They will also have new flash daily deals throughout the events with Today’s Big Deals. When is Amazon's Black Friday Week and Cyber…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Each year, Apple releases new models of the Apple Watch, but the updates aren't always that significant—meaning it might make more sense to choose an older one and save on the purchase price. That's certainly a good option right now, because you can get last year's Apple Watch Series 10 with GPS + Cellular for $299, $200 off the original price, at Walmart (in four colors!). Apple Watch Series 10 GPS + Cellular 42mm …