Unexpectedly, you can decrease the fatigue of zooming all day if you don’t see your own image on the screen all day. The easiest way to hide your self picture in Zoom is to hover over or right-click your image until a blue square appears in the upper right corner. Click on the 3 white dots, and in the dropdown menu, click on “Hide Self View”. Once it was gone I noticed the absence of an irritant I had not been aware of before. Zooming is calmer. — KK

My guilty pleasure is watching people work, watching machines work, and watching people and machines work together. I can’t explain it. I am utterly hypnotized by repeating exactitude. My source for mesmerizing videos of machines at work is the twitter feed of Machine Pix. — KK

A cleaning hack I just learned: cut the corner of the sponge I use solely for the cast iron vs all the other dishes. Found in The 30 Most Brilliant Cleaning Hacks of All Time. I guarantee you will find some tips you’ve never heard of before on this list, like microwaving your cleaning rag or using a mesh laundry bag in the dishwasher. — CD

As I write this, construction workers next door are nailing shingles on the roof. But I don’t hear the nail gun or the air compressor because I’m wearing my AirPods Pro and playing the sounds of coffee shop chatter at the Rainy Cafe website. You can mix in the sound of rain, too. The sound helps me concentrate. It’s better than silence. — MF

I bought Apple’s AirPods a couple of years ago and was fairly happy with them, but the battery life was disappointing. They would run out near the end of a one hour zoom meeting. I recently got the AirPods Pro and they not only have much better battery life (2.5+ hours of talk time) they also have excellent noise cancellation. I don’t need my big heavy Bose Noise canceling headphones any longer! — MF

I’m upgraded my old period tracker for the Stardust Period Tracker (iOS only). It integrates science and astronomy to link my menstrual cycle to the moon cycles and makes “predictions” for my symptoms, cravings and moods, and you know what? It’s pretty spot on! I appreciate getting “day of” notifications warning me that my progesterone levels might be high and to avoid “the dark side” (aka mood swings). — CD

This Stanford TEDx talk, Designing Your Life, serves two purposes: in 25 minutes it introduces the modern method of “design thinking,” developed at the Stanford Design School, which is a powerful process for designing anything (a product, a house, a service, a city). This is the best succinct summary of this cool tool that all creators should know about. Then this talk illuminates how you can apply this “design thinking” to designing your own life. The process maps well, and I realized that I have been using its principles as I deliberately design my life. — KK

It’s soup season and I got tired of having to wait for my bowl to cool down in the microwave, or worse, the inevitable disaster that happens when I try to take it out with a kitchen towel or too quickly without one. These Safe Grabs are a successfully pitched Shark Tank product and they work as a trivet or a splatter guard. They are heat resistant, so you can just store them in the microwave and use it when you need to pull out a hot bowl or plate. — CD 

“Most of us don’t plan ahead for losing a job, for dealing with a week-long water outage, or for surviving the night if our home goes up in smoke,” writes the author of this 30,000 word guide for surviving life-altering events. Unlike doomsday prepper manuals, this one offers common sense advice for dealing with uncommon circumstances. — MF

Handheld steamers are pretty inexpensive now, and I’ve had mine for almost two years. I never use our old iron. Steaming kills bacteria and removes odors so I’m washing my clothes a lot less. Here is a great how-to article on dry-cleaning your clothes at home. “It’s a lot less complicated than it sounds—you only need homemade spray, a clothing brush or a steamer, and you’re ready to DIY dry clean.” — CD 

The inexpensive Streamlight LED flashlight is so tiny you have to see it to believe it. But it’s much brighter than my smartphone flashlight so I keep it with me in my pocket. It uses 4 button cell batteries (included). — MF

The easiest way I found to share our wifi with visitors to my office or our home is with a large QR code printed on heavy paper, and posted wherever. Visitors aim their phone at the glyph and are then logged in. Easy-peasy. You can generate the Wifi QR code at this free website: Pure JS Wifi Code Generator. SSID is the name of your wifi, and “key” is the password. — KK

I’ve become a convert to the well-worn workshop practice of covering your worktop with a wide sheet of heavy kraft paper torn from a roll. Especially useful if you are using a multi-use table. Paper on top, I am less concerned with spills, paint, markers. I can jot notes, dimensions, diagrams right onto the sheet. Tiny things don’t disappear into cracks. When done, the paper is ripped up, recycled. There is no feeling like starting a new project with a pristine new cover sheet. 200-foot rolls of kraft paper come in widths of 30 or 36 inches for $20. (I made a short video describing how I made a kraft paper roll dispenser for my studio.) — KK

Johnny Webber (@johnny_webber) posted a Life Assessment Checklist on his blog to help you identify the things you might need to work on. I quickly went through and discovered that: (argh) I really have to commit to stretching everyday. I don’t have a 5-year career plan! Do I really need one? And, I’m not sure if I can confidently say I contribute to my community. Does Recomendo count? These are all things I will reflect on. — CD

Adobe Illustrator is mission-critical for my work so the monthly subscription to Creative Cloud – which costs $53 a month and also includes Photoshop, Acrobat, Premiere, Audition, and InDesign, all of which I use frequently – is worth it. The problem is a Creative Cloud subscription works on up to 2 computers at a time, and there are times when 3 or even 4 members of my family need to use it. So I bought this Mac app called Amadine, which is a very nice clone of Illustrator. One of my daughters uses it now and likes it just as much as Illustrator. I tried it and agree, it’s excellent, as are the tutorial videos for it.  It’s usually $20, but it’s on sale for $10. A great deal. — MF

iPhones have a built in Air Quality Index (AQI) which will tell you the air quality in your present location. Go to the default Weather app, and just below the week forecast is the AQI, which is measured by local sensors. —KK

There are often good reasons for saying “no” to a request. You might be overcommitted, you might be the wrong person to do it, or you might not want to do it. This article presents a good guide on saying no. — MF

1. Remind yourself that time is valuable and once it’s spent you absolutely can’t get it back.

2. Ask yourself: “Would I be willing to do this thing tomorrow?” It’s easy to sign yourself up for something in April when it’s only September. Do your future self a favor and try this little exercise.

3. Respond quickly. Don’t leave people hanging once you know you’re saying no.

4. Own your “no” if it’s not a priority (because something else actively is): “Thanks so much for thinking of me. I’m not going to be able to take this on, but I wish you the best with X.”

5. Reframe your “no” to assuage your guilt (if it’s something you genuinely wish you had time for). Acknowledge that this commitment is significant to you, even if you’re not taking it on. A good sample script: “This is so important that it deserves someone’s full energy, and since I can’t do that because I have XYZ other things, I would be dishonoring the importance of this event/role/weekend getaway by saying yes.”

I’ve had my IKEA BEKANT Motorized Standing Desk for almost 3 years now with no issue, my only complaint being it has no drawers. Luckily, I found these self-adhesive small hidden drawers (TuTuShop Under Table Drawers, $15/2pk) that I was able to stick underneath the table to keep my favorite pens and sticky notes close by. To see how I install and use them check out this week’s Recomendo Short on YouTube. — CD

I am saddened by how few bicycles have bells. A bell, even a small one, will throw a warning further than your voice. No matter what your mood, its sound is polite and cheerful. A small one weighs little, and takes up almost no space on your handle bar. I prefer a bell with an external striker, like the brass Zotemo ($12). Its all-metal construction won’t wear out. Operated by your thumb, it’s loud! One quick ding on the Zotemo from a long ways off, and pedestrians instinctively know a bike is cruising behind them. A bike without a bell is like a car without a horn. Get a bell. — KK

I bought this King size set of bamboo bedsheets for $40 because they have side pockets to stow a book, Kindle, or phone. I wasn’t expecting them to feel so nice! They are much more comfortable than the $200 bamboo sheets we bought at Bed Bath and Beyond (which didn’t come with pockets). — MF