I’ve been upgrading my daily to-do notebooks with these self-adhesive library card pockets. It’s just an easy way to keep receipts, post-its and other notes together until I integrate them into my digital filing system or task list. These manila pockets along with my better pen holder help to keep my love alive for my analog to-do list. — CD

In my experience laser printers are superior to inkjet printers for precision, speed, and reliability. If you are an occasional printer, laser is the way to go because they don’t clog up. Until recently, however, color laser printers have been out of reach in price. But now a new crop of inexpensive color laser printers are available. I am really happy with my HP Laser Jet Pro M255dw, which does 2-sided color printing for $300. Cost of replacement toner, per page, is similar to ink. — KK

In the US, 41 states enable early voting. Early Voting is the national clearing house linking the procedures for early voting for each state. Vote early to be sure. — KK

Skinskool is a “dupe finder” that compares the active ingredients in your favorite skincare products and matches them to other products on the market. This is such a useful tool if your favorite serum or cream has been discontinued or you just want to find a less expensive alternative. — CD

The Loclock webpage offers a dead-simple way to see what time it is anywhere in the world. Click the little menu icon in the upper left corner to choose which cities to include on a 24-hour circle. — MF

Author and marketer Ryan Holiday recently posted a list of advice he called “33 Things I Stole From People Smarter Than Me.” They’re all worth reading, but here are a couple of my favorites — MF

• 17. Steve Kamb, the founder of NerdFitness.com, told me that the best and most polite excuse is just to say you have a rule. “I have a rule that I don’t decide on the phone.” “I have a rule that I don’t accept gifts.” “I have a rule that I don’t speak for free anymore.” “I have a rule that I am home for bath time with the kids every night.” People respect rules, and they accept that it’s not you rejecting the offer, request, demand, or opportunity, but the rule allows you no choice.

• 32. The personal finance advisor Ramit Sethi talks about how you can just… not reply to things. It felt rude at first, but then I realized it was ruder to ignore the people I care about to respond to things I didn’t ask for in the first place. Selective ignoring is the key to productivity, I’m afraid.

I am a big advocate for talk therapy. Paying someone to listen me vent/ramble, who in return offers sound advice and clarity has improved every aspect of my life. Having shared that, Catherine Andrews, who I consider a self-care expert, has written a very thoughtful post on her favorite healing resources to help you move past talk therapy. I was excited to discover some tools I had never heard of before, like Embodiment, Future-Self Journaling, and Sound Baths. — CD

In our region we have a large green bin as part of our weekly trash pickup. All compostable kitchen and yard waste goes in it. But in the kitchen, the trash liner gets messy with wet food and scraps. Recycled paper bags are soggy, and you can’t toss in plastic bags. The solution is green compostable liners, like large doggy poo bags, so we can transfer the entire bag right into the compost bin. These compostable bags made from plant starch are so convenient, we use them for all trash now, to cut down plastic waste. There are a number of brands; we use Unni Tall Kitchen Trash, 50 bags. — KK

Right now the prettiest thing on my screen is an image I found on Visuals of Earth, which has a trove of dreamy and magical wallpapers that are free to download for your phone. The @visualsofearth Instagram also reposts and shares lovely images by digital artists. — CD  

My wife got me one of these tiny Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator PO-14 Sub Synthesizers for Christmas last year. It’s made by Teenage Engineering, creators of the amazing (and expensive!) OP-1 Synthesizer. This pocket model is only $50 but is a lot of fun to play and very versatile. Watch this video a feature rundown. — MF

This is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. Yet nothing about its subject would suggest greatness. My Octopus Teacher is about a tired middle-age man who befriends a small octopus in a South African kelp reef. He visits the octopus every day for a year (while filming it), and what he learns from the octopus is oceanic. This tiny creature is otherworldly, a superhero alien from another galaxy, and her life connected to the particular reef expands until it fills the universe. Everything is divinely photographed. Must see. — KK

After our recent kitchen remodel, every appliance in our kitchen is now stainless steel and of course, easily smudged. My husband then added the Weiman Stainless Steel Cleaner to our cleaning supplies and honestly, I was surprised at how flawless it left every surface. Every home should have this. — CD

Claudia recommended Readwise a while back, but since then this powerful ebook and article highlighting app has added a lot of new useful features. You can highlight excerpts from Pocket and Instapaper, and even grab clips of podcasts, which are automatically transcribed into text (using the new airr podcast player). Best of all, I can browse and search all my ebook, article, and podcast highlights on the Readwise website or Evernote. It’s an indispensable tool. — MF

Pilot Frixion pens and highlighters have hard plastic erasers. Rub them over the ink and the writing vanishes. Unlike a pencil eraser that wears away the paper, a Frixion eraser creates heat, rendering the ink invisible. I use them for my paper to-do list, book highlighting, and tabletop gaming. — MF

This year I’ve watched more movies at home than I thought possible. When I finish a movie I enjoyed I always check the “more like this” tab to find related films to watch, and now as an alternative discovery engine, I’ve been searching Cinetrii, which pulls any mention of influences or inspiration from movie reviews to suggest films with similar moods. — CD 

I crave insider knowledge. This Reddit thread feeds my desire to hear what’s really going on in everyday businesses. It simply asks people “What’s an industry secret in the field you work in?” There’s a  couple hundred responses, like: Goodwill throws away most of what is given to them; in vodka, the bottle costs more to make than the vodka; it’s easy to get library fines waived; bouncers make up the rules; there is way more butter than you think in almost every dish at fancy restaurants; etc. — KK

Why don’t they just make spaghetti noodles half as long so you don’t have to messily break them to fit into the pot? Well, they do! Half-sized, or what they call “pot size”, noodles are available from brands such as Mueller’s and Barilla, and from big box stores and on Instacart. As far as I am concerned, this size should be the standard. — KK

The premise of this book, Time Off, is that you can’t maintain a great work ethic without having a great “rest ethic”. You have to take time off, vacation, go on sabbatical, pause, rest, sleep, slack, play, and goof off in order to be and do your best. I’ve long been a champion of slack time and mandatory time off, and I am delighted all the arguments and evidence for this take are presented in this hefty book. Includes examples of very productive people, and the latest scientific evidence. Time off is not only essential to a good life, it is something you can get better at. — KK

Almost any vegetable you can think of tastes better roasted, and this article by Emma Christensen, shows you how to do it. The key is cutting the vegetable into bite-size pieces to increase the surface-area-to-volume ratio, using enough oil, and spacing out the pieces in the roasting pan. — MF

Here is another free ambient sound website to add to our ever-growing list of musical streams we enjoy — myNoise.net. There are hundreds of different noise generators available for free listening that you can adjust to your sound comfort level. What I really like about myNoise is that once I calibrate the soundscape to my liking I can create a custom URL that I can save and go back to, like this “Chapel Voices” mix. — CD