My Favorite Resources ~ Gadgets

Time for another list of—sing it with me!—a few of my favorite things! And today I’m showing off… drumroll

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GADGETS! All the little bits and bobs that help me get through each and every day. This is a pretty random assortment, but what is life if not a random assortment of things and people and events.

Fair warning, this blog post contains affiliate links. Basically, that means that if you click it and buy that thing, I make a little money off of the sale at no extra cost to you. I’ll be sure to denote which are affiliate links. All opinions remain my own.

Right, that done, let’s get to the goodies. First up…

Google Nest ~ For random numbers, quick research, and timers, I love having one of these little robotic invaders in my office. Pictured here is the Nest Audio because I wanted something that sounded good playing music as well (background artwork from the fantabulous DnDoggos—you can find prints for sale here). It’s really nice to just say something like, “Hey, Google, how many stars are in the milky way?” and get an answer without having to break away from my document and search the internet.

Side note: I also like the Google Nest devices because they understand me better than the Amazon Echo does. Fun fact: most AI assistants are tested and “trained” on white male voices, so they have a hard time understanding commands from voices not in that demographic.

Sexism is everywhere, ya’ll.

But the Google Nest devices don’t suffer from that particular downfall. Huzzah! And speaking of not breaking away from my document…

Forest ~ This is an app to help you stay focused on what you’re supposed to be working on. And there’s the added benefit of being able to view your progress in the form of pretty plants and trees. Here’s my productivity forest for last week:

You can toggle between Day, Week, Month, and Year views as well to see when you’re the most focused—possibly a good thing to know when planning your schedule. For instance, we can look back at my focused time for all of April and see that Wednesdays and Thursdays were pretty close for the amount of time I spend doing focused work. Now, I use this app almost exclusively for writing, so I knowing that those are my two big writing days can help me make informed decisions when I plan events and outings and whatnot.

The way the mobile version works is that you set a time (or the stopwatch if you’re not sure/want to learn how long something takes you), choose a tree or plant, and then go! If you navigate away from the app, your tree or plant will die. 😵 That includes phone calls too. When they say focus, they mean focus! You can also have the app play you some soothing ambient sounds while you work. Sadly, there is no beep-beep timer for when your time is up, but my Google Nest takes care of that for me.

There’s a desktop Chrome extension as well, which works a little differently. For that, you plug in the web addresses for sites you want to avoid while working. Then, when you press go, your tree will die if you visit any of the sites on your block list.

The creators have added a fun little feature as well wherein, the more you use the app, the more coins you earn. And with coins, you can buy more types of trees.

There’s also a Timeline function and tags so you can see what you were doing when on any given day. You can find out more about Forest on their website here.

Airpods ~ Why am I bothering to include something so basic as headphones? Because (not to get all dramatic) these babies were game changers for me! I fought getting a set for a long time because, honestly, they’re expensive AF compared to a basic pair of wired headphones. I get that; Apple thinks their products are the best thing since sliced bread. But 1) I used to get the wires of my old headphones caught on drawer pulls and door knobs and whatnot all. The. Time.

So why didn’t I just get a cheaper kind? Because 2) I apparently have tiny baby ears, and the other ones I tried (there were many returns in the course of this journey) all fell out. The airpods, though, they stayed in through changing clothes and hair brushing, two activities guaranteed to make ill-fitting earphones pop right out like popcorn.

Don’t put popcorn in your ears. I just said that for effect.

And, hey, that picture I included is an affiliate link. See, told y’all I’d let you know what was what.

Phone Tripod and Remote ~ This is obviously only if you’re living that Instagram kind of life, but having a tripod with a cordless remote makes taking selfies so much easier. You can actually hold stuff instead of your camera, get better angles and distances, and I daresay it’s vital for live video like my Instagram Live sessions. Here’s the one I use (yup, another affiliate link):

Automatic Coffee Maker ~ Okay, coffee snobs, come at me! I love me a nice pour over, sure. I’ve got an electric burr grinder and a French press. I like light roasts best, so I can take whatever suspender-wearing, mustachioed insults about being basic or whatever. But sometimes you just want a coffee without having to work that hard for it. That’s where my little basic of basic coffee makers comes in. Y’all, I beg you, if there are days where you just can’t, but you need that sweet, sweet caffeine jolt, join me in being basic and just get a cheap-o coffee maker like this one I have (affiliate link).

The only drawback is that there’s no automatic shut off, and I have, a time or two, forgotten to turn it off. Whoops.

Coffee Warmer ~ And speaking of feeding your coffee habit, welcome to a world where you don’t have to keep zapping your cuppa in the microwave. At least if you’re a slow, slow drinker like me. A few months back, I got myself this little coffee warmer (affiliate link)…

…and I’ve never looked back. I tend to sip away at my hot beverages all throughout the day, so this is fantastic to have. Like the coffee maker, this also doesn’t have an auto-shut-off feature.

Coffee Subscription ~ Of course, with all these coffee goodies, you need coffee. I don’t generally go in for food subscription boxes, but your girl needs her caffeine, so I do here. I used to use Trade Coffee and really liked them, but the model is that you get a different coffee every month. And that’s sometimes really fun, but also sometimes, I just want, you guessed it, something basic, tasty, and reliable.

I am basic and unashamed.

So now I get a subscription from my local coffee shop, The Well. If this sort of thing sounds good to you, why not check with your local coffee place and see if they offer a subscription service.

If you’re giving me a bit of side eye right now, I get it. I know there are a bunch of Amazon links in this post. I know they’re a giant, evil corporation. It’s a struggle, okay? But I really do believe in supporting local as much as possible. Everyone has to make their own choices as to what ethical and unethical choices they’re going to make in this capitalistic society we all live in. These are mine.

Right, so check out your local coffee shops. And if they don’t have something, Trade Coffee helps support small roasters, so there’s that too.

Standing Desk ~ We all know sitting down for hours a day isn’t the most healthy thing for our bodies. And I used to have a standing desk “option”… which may or may not have been a bunch of cardboard boxes. And it technically worked, except it was kind of a faff taking the boxes out and resettling everything. So I finally bought a proper standing desk (affiliate link).

This not-so-little baby just glides up and down, and I’ve really liked the versatility and ease. I usually start my day standing up and will end up sitting by lunch time. Then I’ll stand again after lunch, or sometimes I’ll even switch it out hour by hour. It’s nice that there’s a little notch in it for either a phone or an iPad too. See?

As you can see, I haven’t completely eschewed the cardboard box system, but only for stuff that doesn’t move.

And that weird little lilac colored chair? That’s a saddle stool, which further helps switch up how I’m sitting. Take care of your bodies, friends. They’re the only ones we get.

That’s the end of today’s list. Do you all have any gadgets that you just can’t live without? Let me know in the comments below 👇.

Thanks for reading!

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Dana Fraedrich / www.wordsbydana.com participates in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, Audible.com, and others. This page contains affiliate links.