Lifehacker

Good sleep matters, but even if you have what it takes to get a good night’s rest you still have to combat the world around you. You can’t control the sun or the noise outside, but you can do a few things to make your bedroom dark and quiet when you need it so they don’t stand between you and a good night’s rest.

Karen Walrond has been many things in her life—a lawyer, speaker, photographer, author, leadership consultant, and a mother. She was born and raised in the Caribbean, met her husband-to-be in London, and they are now raising their teenage daughter, who they adopted at birth, in Texas. Walrond and her family are also…Read more...

A PlayStation Plus subscription and up to 30% off Anker speakers lead Tuesday’s best deals.

The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are the first living-room video game consoles to have all-digital versions at launch. That means no discs to fiddle with, and is a lower price tag—at first.Read more...

Even if they haven’t gone so far as to get formal self-defense training, many people (particularly women) have considered what strategies they’d deploy if they were attacked by a stranger. A popular thought is that one would use an object on your person as a weapon of defense—like keys, for instance.

If your WhatsApp conversations are anything like my Facebook ones, they’re probably stuffed with piles of GIFs, pictures, and videos. This normally isn’t a big deal, because all this content gets stored on a server somewhere—out of sight, out of mind.Read more...

In this pandemic era, true vacations are few and far between. Flying to a destination is not ideal unless absolutely necessary, and some places are re-imposing stricter quarantines and business closures in response to rising COVID-19 case numbers.

Luxury is a tricky concept. Expensive things are often thought of as luxurious, but luxury has less to do with price point, and more to do with time and labor. Though it shouldn’t be, having the time to shop, cook, and feed oneself at a leisurely pace is quite luxurious, as are goods that require a lot of labor or…Read more...

Over the past few years, we’ve gotten much better as a culture at recognizing burnout at work. Though that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ve made the changes necessary to address the root causes of burnout, even simply being able to identify when we’ve reached that point (or are about to) has been a step in the…Read more...

iPad 8th Gen (128GB, Gold) | $395 | Amazon

If you’re tired of seeing your mailbox stuffed with pre-screened credit offers, you can opt out from those mailings for five years, or even permanently. All it takes is filling out a form.

If you’re looking for a quick and dirty exit to a romantic entanglement with someone you’re not too likely to run into again, ghosting can seem like a tempting, blissfully simple option. (Especially when social venues are closed, and online dating makes for countless relationship options that are easy to enter, and…Read more...

At least 21 percent of the U.S. population has access to one of the official COVID-19 contact-tracing apps developed by various state governments, but only a fraction of people actually use them.

Monday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

What surprised me was not that the president contracted the coronavirus, but that it took so long. He doesn’t wear a mask; he is often surrounded by others who do not wear masks; he tells people speaking to him to take off their masks. It almost seems like he was relying solely on the frequent testing of those around…Read more...

When I used to work at Apple, the company would often put on gigantic “close the rings” challenges. You’d pair up with your fitness-minded colleagues, work your butt off to meet your goals, and get some kind of dorky reward for your efforts: a t-shirt, an Apple-branded cooler bag, et cetera.Read more...

This week we’re breaking free from our mental prisons of victimhood, fear, and hopelessness with help from psychologist and Holocaust survivor Dr. Edith Eger. Listen to hear Dr. Eger talk with Jordan and Alice about how our thoughts create our feelings, and how changing the language of your thoughts can lead you to a…Read more...

We’re weeks into the longest, most hellish school year of our kids’ childhoods. It’s possible you’ve settled into a nice little routine with whatever “learning” looks like in your home. If so, that’s great! If, instead, the mood inside your home is more akin to complete and utter misery, it might be time for…Read more...

This has been a hell of a year, and you’re not alone if you’ve found pandemic life has affected your mood. But are you suffering from a mild case of lockdown blues, or do you have depression that could benefit from seeing a professional? A depression screening could help.Read more...

Sometimes when your child is all wound up about something, whether it’s anxiety or excitement or energy, the best way to snap them out of it or calm their nerves is with a sensory experience. A bath or a shower is a good start; adding a popsicle to the mix, however, takes it to the next level.Read more...

If you have a few 401(k)s from old jobs lying around, should you be consolidating them into your current 401(k) plan? There are definitely advantages to combining these accounts, but you’ll want to make sure you’re merging into a good plan by avoiding excessive fees and limited investment options.Read more...

A free Atlas Coffee Club bag and Hershey’s Halloween candy lead Monday’s best deals.

Advertisements are an unavoidable part of consuming content online, and using adblockers to disable or hide them doesn’t always make for the best reading experience. Beyond that, if you’re trying to focus on the words, even the basic design of a website can be a distraction. If these sound like problems that plague…Read more...

Google could have dropped a bombshell on the Android market last week by announcing a flagship device with big batteries, crazy cameras, a Snapdragon 865+ processor, and other dabs of Google magic cooked-up in a quarantined laboratory somewhere. Instead, we got the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5—fine smartphones, sure, but…Read more...

People love to talk about “sweater weather,” but—to me—the changing leaves and dropping temperatures mark the beginning of gravy weather. Much like a sweater, gravy makes everything it enrobes feel a little warmer and cozier, and both sweaters and gravies are better when they’re on the thick side. That’s where the…Read more...

A Tonor condenser microphone and a Samsung 82-inch QLED 4K smart tv lead Saturday’s best deals.Read more...

Anxiety is hard-wired into our brain—and that’s not always a bad thing. This gnawing, persistent uneasy feeling is part of our fight-or-flight response and prompts us to take action in situations where we may not be safe. In situations where you haven’t already identified a source of imminent danger, your brain is…Read more...

With so much uncertainty surrounding what’s going to happen over the next few weeks, a lot of us are feeling pretty anxious about the upcoming elections. And while there’s so much that’s beyond our control, there are things we can do to help get out the vote, starting with making sure we’re registered on time…Read more...

Good morning! Today is National Taco Day, and no, it is not Tuesday. This means that there are some pretty tasty deals and freebies on offer at both national and local restaurants across the country. Here are a few you might be interested in.

Tonor Microphone | $18 | Amazon | Clip coupon + Promo code ASDWUKS4Read more...

A WD easystore 4TB external hard drive and a rainfall handheld shower head combo lead Saturday’s best deals.

Back in March, when we were first getting used to the idea of a lockdown and quarantining, people went into their extended time at home with the best intentions. They’d learn to knit! Take up painting! Learn how to bake new pastries and breads! And frequently, learning (or relearning) how to play a musical instrument…Read more...

After more than a century with an image problem, napping is getting a rebrand, courtesy of the U.S. Army. Many of our perceptions of naps—and the kind of people who take them—go back to Victorian times, when women were seen as physiologically weak and frail and prone to fainting, requiring periods of rest and recovery…Read more...

As a child, I had this bit where I’d attempt to delay my bedtime by asking my mother to read me a story, and then returning with the household copy of the unabridged Webster’s Dictionary after she sent me to pick out a book. (I’d imagine this was a common kid strategy until relatively recently). We had the 1966 versionRead more...

Baban Rainfall Shower Head Combo | $19 | Amazon | Promo code TN7PSZUERead more...

Ever since I saw Contagion earlier this year, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the guy hocking “forsythia,” that universe’s counterpart to hydroxychloroquine. In the 2011 movie, pandemic misinformation is personified in one blogger who claims that the CDC is suppressing the fake cure. People stampede and…Read more...

Has anyone managed to sleep this week? As in, gotten into bed, closed their eyes, and stayed asleep for more than 37 minutes? For those of us who look back longingly on slumbers of years past (when we only had to deal with our baseline apocalyptic levels of anxiety), anxiety-inducing events can seem like they’re…Read more...

It’s been a long six, almost seven months since the pandemic closures and lockdowns began. Remember those first few weeks when staying home was a novelty and social media was full of homemade loaves of bread? Well, it’s starting to get old.Read more...

Friday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

Sometimes the drinks I make for this column are inspired by some sort of classic cocktail. Other times, they’re forged in chaos and contain whatever happens to be in my kitchen and on my bar cart. Today’s offering falls into the latter category, and came to be because I had a few little bottles of Martinelli’s…Read more...

YouTube previously blocked the quirky hack that lets you stream its content using iOS 14's picture-in-picture capabilities for free. For unknown reasons, the company has now reversed course, and you can access the native iOS feature without needing a YouTube Premium subscription. Here’s how to do it.

A new month means new bills, and millions of Americans’ finances are well past the breaking point as they grapple with the pandemic. If you can’t pay your debt or are worried about losing your house or car, it’s time to consider these options: credit counseling, hardship relief, a debt management plan, or bankruptcy.

If you’re not already playing old-school video games with your kid, I’m here to tell you it’s time to start. It’s great for family togetherness and it’s fun to be able to beat your kid at something. I’m hopeless against my 12-year-old at modern games, but I can smoke him at Joust any day. All those quarters were worth…Read more...

Our pets may be domesticated, but sometimes we’re reminded that they’re descended from wild animals. Like when their instinctive habits cause them to wreck our couch or pee on that new rug. It’s maddening, sure—but with some effort and understanding, we can accommodate their natural needs and still maintain a…Read more...

The world of young people can be a confusing and annoying place, so let me help you translate their lives with a weekly guide to what’s happening with these damn kids. (Stay off my lawn.)

An Aukey 1080p webcam and Boltune noise-canceling headphones lead Friday’s best deals.

If you don’t like Bing, then you must really hate the Windows 10 Start menu’s web search. You may even have it disabled entirely. We don’t blame you, but there’s a second option that gives you the best of both worlds: the ability to search the web from your Start menu using a different search engine entirely.Read more...

A few years ago, I was hosting a playdate between my son, my then-foster son, and another boy. This third boy took a toy away from my foster son and was refusing to give it back. Because the boy’s parents weren’t there, I eventually stepped in when it was clear he was picking on my foster son, taunting him with the…Read more...

Apple cider can take many forms. Hot or cold, still or sparkling, hard or soft—all of these words can and have been used to describe the beverage. And though they may vary in flavor, temperature, effervescence, and alcohol content, all of these ciders have one very important thing in common: they all taste really,…Read more...

Bluetooth is convenient AF when it works and annoying to troubleshoot when it doesn’t. Conceptually, it should just... always work. One device pairs with another, they communicate happily as long as they’re both powered up, and they save you from having to deal with annoying cords and cables. Simple, right?