After decades of being a hunt-and-peck typist, I’m finally forcing myself to learn touch typing. After trying a bunch of different typing websites, I’ve settled on How To Type as my favorite. It’s not fancy, but the drills have helped me to become more accurate. — MF

FutureMe is a tried and true free service for sending yourself letters in the future. I use it to remind myself of goals I have or enlightening quotes I want to be reminded of. — CD 

I tend to write like I think, run on and using a lot of commas. If I drop my text into the Hemingway Editor it will highlight unnecessary words, and tell me what to fix to make my writing more concise. — CD

These succinct tips for how to write an op-ed piece are clear, 100% correct, and useful for any kind of factual writing. Compresses a whole course, or book, to 15 bullet points. — KK

Tyke is a free, simple MacOS menubar app that opens a small text-only scratch pad. It converts copied text into plain text, which I like. I’ve only had it for couple of days, but I’m already using it multiple times a day. — MF

I’ve long been a fan of blank (no-lines) Moleskine notebooks, large and small. I recently switched to Minimalism Art notebooks which are very similar, maybe better quality, and half the price. They also come in bright cover colors. — KK

This 8¼” x 6” spiral bound notebook costs $3.50. It has light green paper and 30 college-spaced rules per page. I like the smaller-than-usual size because it takes up less room on my desk and in my backpack. — MF

This small, watercolor kit by Sakura is perfect for the occasional wannabe artist like me. It comes with a brush that stores water, so you can always be ready to paint. It was so easy to incorporate this into my journaling/sketching routine. — CD

I bought this $8 Japanese pencil case a couple of years ago and my daughters liked it so much I ended up buying one for each of them. Despite its small size you can pack a lot of art supplies in it, thanks to its book-like middle “page” that holds pens and pencils on one side and small items on the other side. — MF

My daughter, an art student, bought this small hard shell pencil case ($7) to hold a few pens and an eraser. It’s just the right size for a small messenger bag or backpack. I ended up getting one for myself. — MF

I met one of my favorite cartoonists this week, Tom Gauld (his new book: Baking With Kafka ). He draws all of his cartoons with a Pilot Precise V5 Roller Ball Stick Pen. He gave me one of his and I love it. They are $13 for a pack of 12. Tom said the ink does not fade, even after many years. — MF

A good pen that writes reliably in opaque white is hard to find. Black or dark paper will kill an inferior white pen. Ways of failure are legion: skipping, too thin, too transparent, wavering, plugging up, etc. The best white pen is the Signo White Gel from Uni-ball. It puts down a serious, dense, even, opaque line of white immediately and consistently each time. — KK 

My friend Bob Knetzger is a toy inventor. He uses Paper Mate Flair felt-tip pens to sketch out his designs. I bought a dozen for $7 and was reminded why I liked them so much in the 1970s. The lines are smooth and you can vary the line weight by changing the angle between the pen and paper. — MF

Every now and then I try out a new pen but I keep returning to my trusty Pilot G2 Gel pens. Smooth, fine, dark, cheap to lose, and pocketable. YMMV, but they are perfect for me. — KK

Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pens come in a 2-pack for less than $5. They look like pens, but instead of a nib they have a brush, which allows you to draw lines of varying widths. They’re a lot of fun to use. — MF

Jacoby Young, who works at an elementary school in Hawaii, created a list on his website called “Less, More, and None,“ which categorizes activities he wants to do less often, more often, or not at all. It’s a great idea. I want to make a similar list for myself. I’m starting with less Twitter, more time outside, and no working on holidays. — MF

I am giving up social media and other distractions for the 2 hour rule, which encourages setting aside two hours each week for purposeful mind-wandering. The author of this article touts this method as used by Einstein and other geniuses. He says that while it helps to focus on specific questions, the biggest benefit comes from the time spent after you’ve run out of things to think about. — CD

Expand this webpage to full-screen, turn up the sound and listen to ocean waves for two minutes. If you click on your mouse, or press the keyboard, the timer starts over. Just enjoy the break. — CD 

Upgrade your pros and cons list by assigning additional value. Rate how important each list item is to you from 1 to 5, and when you’re done add them up to find out which has more points. You might find that even if you listed more items in one column the other might affect your life more. — CD

SortMyList is worth bookmarking if you ever need to sort a list of numbers or names. It’s quicker than copy and pasting into a spreadsheet, which can be finicky sometimes. — CD