Self-care staple
If you’re regularly taking daily mindfulness or meditation breaks (if you’re not, you should be), get more out of your few minutes of peace with the Ostrichpillow Original Napping Pillow. The cozy cocoon engulfs your head in warm, pillowy softness while blocking light and muffling sounds. If wearing it at your desk isn’t your thing, consider it for air travel instead. $99, ostrichpillow.com.
Walk it out
By now, you’ve heard about the benefits of nontraditional desks. Enhance those of a standing desk with the LifeSpan Treadmill Base. At just over 60 inches in length and under 100 pounds, this treadmill is small enough to fit under your desk while still being roomy enough to accommodate varying strides and lightweight enough to be stored elsewhere when needed. Front wheels help make transport even easier. Low noise output means it’s virtually distraction-free for yourself and others. $1,099, lifespanfitness.com.
Turn your mind off
Trouble falling asleep at night? The Dodow Sleep Aid Device helps you relax and clear your mind through a metronome-style light pulse. The light projects onto your ceiling to help you pace your breath; inhale as it expands, and exhale as it contracts. There are two light cycles: an eight-minute or 20-minute and three levels of brightness. $60, mydodow.com.
Plan to scan
Even the fastest typists are no match for the Scanmarker Air Digital Highlighter, which can scan a full line of text within one second and wirelessly transfer the content directly to your preferred word processing application (Word, Google Docs) or email server. It can even translate the text into more than 40 different languages, including Afrikaans, Hebrew, Korean and Portuguese. When working with large amounts of text, this is the tool you want to maximize your efficiency. $129, scanmarker.com.
Bundle it
Even if your physical desk is tidy, a messy inbox can leave you feeling just as overwhelmed. So when you need to get things done, but you just don’t know where to start (think that first day back at work after vacation), task batching — the process of bundling several tasks together into a single time block — will help tremendously. SkedPal is an app that integrates directly with Google, Outlook and iCloud, giving you the ability to migrate your existing tasks, assign completion times to them and prioritize them based on urgency. With this info, SkedPal will automatically schedule them on your calendar. Easy! $15/month, skedpal.com.
Roll with me
Auto-follow luggage is the next big thing in travel tech. But not only does the battery-operated Ovis Suitcase follow you, it literally stays right by your side. The 21-inch carry-on weighs less than 10 pounds when empty, has a top speed of 4.5 miles per hour, and can go for up to 13 miles on a full charge. As a bonus, it features an HD camera integrated in its handle, so you can moonlight as a travel blogger. Available in four colors, including Nova White and Carbon Black. $299.
Next best thing
The analog experience of writing with a pencil on real paper is one that can’t be replicated on a digital device. Or can it? The Paperlike iPad Screen Protector feels curiously like paper (hence its name), and when combined with an Apple Pencil, offers that same tactile feeling that digital content creators desire. Nanodots surface technology — microbeads strategically placed across the protector’s thin surface — provides just the right amount of roughness and less light refraction than the original Paperlike. Available in seven sizes. $40, paperlike.com.
Brightness on the move
Badly lit office spaces can bring down your entire mood, not to mention cause eyestrain and even headaches. Light things up around you with the Ivomax Rechargeable Eye Strain Reducing Lamp. The cordless LED rechargeable lamp moves wherever you do and features three lighting modes, with six levels of brightness. The body rotates 360 degrees for an adjustable glow that lasts up to 40 hours on one charge. $100, ivomax.com.
