At least once a week, I move a tabletop mirror (similar to this one) onto my desk to help with my sitting posture. I keep it just to the right of me so it’s not distracting and I position it so that if I can see myself in it out of the corner of my eye, I know I’m sitting up straight. — CD

Before oil, empires fought over gold. And before gold, empires fought over spice. There were six spices that opened up the Americas, and bound Asia and Europe together permanently. Kate Humble, a BBC host, journeys to the remote geographical sources of these 6 spices in her series The Spice Trail. The depth of her research and travels are astounding. I am in awe of how ignorant I was about these substances, and now I am grateful how intimate with them her travels made possible. There are 3 sessions available on YouTube: 1) Pepper and Cinnamon. 2) Nutmeg and Cloves. 3) Saffron and Vanilla. History + Travel + Food. Highly recommended. — KK

I stopped using mood tracking apps a while back, because I got better at recognizing slight mood shifts and anticipating my own needs in the moment — whether that’s asking for space, taking a screen break, or hugging my dog. But now I’m back on the mood tracking app bandwagon, because How We Feel is more than just a mood tracker — it’s created by scientists, therapists, designers and engineers, so not only does it help you find the right word for your feelings, it helps you understand the science behind emotions and provides strategies to regulate your mood with elegantly produced videos, and the analytics of your mood over time are displayed in beautifully-designed patterns and colors. It’s free and I believe it’s in beta, so it will only get better. — CD

I played Ransom Notes with my family a couple of weeks ago and we laughed ourselves to tears. Each player grabs a handful of about 75 words printed on magnetic strips (they look like refrigerator magnets) from the inventory. Someone draws a card from the deck and reads the instructions. Example: “Tell someone you’ve clogged their toilet during a party.” Each player has to use their word magnets to form an answer on a small metal plate. Example, “I have elaborate booty chaos please not mad,” or “did dump tough disappear.” You are supposed to vote on the “best answer,” but we were too busy laughing hysterically to keep score. — MF

David Allen’s Getting Things Done changed my life when I read it almost 20 years ago. It describes how to create a process you can trust to capture everything you need to do, and then create physical actions to complete those tasks. The benefit is that you can stop using your brain for remembering what to do and instead use it to focus on what to do next. The book is worth reading, but everything you need to know about practicing GTD can be found on this webpage, GTD in 15 Minutes - A Pragmatic Guide to Getting Things Done. For me, it was a valuable refresher. — MF

Freelearninglist.org is a directory for finding the best education resources on the internet — including links and descriptions to free courses, YouTube explainer channels, podcasts, subreddits, effective thinking newsletters, how-to websites and more. Each listing is scored on effectiveness, design and popularity. It makes me want to never waste time on the internet with so many mind-enriching resources like this available. — CD

I am a convert to Apple AirTags. I hide these tiny buttons in my luggage to keep track of where it is. On a recent walk in England our luggage was forwarded each day, and with the AirTag I could track their whereabouts. If I stray too far from my daypack (as if I had forgotten it) I get an alert on my phone. And attached as a fob on our car key, I can track where in the house the keys were left using my phone. I have a friend who slips one in critical packages he ships. I am putting one in all my bicycles. Each AirTag is $29, and its replaceable battery lasts about a year. — KK

Take the legendary Planet Earth TV series and marry it to Jurassic Park technology times one million and what you get is the fantastic new nature series narrated by David Attenborough, Prehistoric Planet. It’s about the life of dinosaurs 66 million years ago. It employs state of the art synthetic beings and the latest scientific understanding to depict everyday dino life with stunning veracity and clarity. It genuinely tracks like an intimate nature documentary. Streaming on Apple TV. — KK

Unlike regular jigsaw puzzles, which have pieces that don’t match up with the artwork, this puzzle’s 40 large pieces are cut in the shape of the black and white creatures from artist M.C. Escher’s 1957 lithograph Mosaic II. The puzzle is a lot harder to solve than you may think. It’s out of print, but used ones are available on eBay and Etsy. — MF

There’s rarely a day that goes by that I don’t listen to my Meditative Mind: Music & Sleep app. There are hundreds and hundreds of soothing and immersive soundscapes, chants, mantras, nature sounds and world music to choose from. I use it when I need to focus, meditate or sleep. The app is free to download and try out, but I happily pay the $38 annual subscription for access to their full library, unlimited downloads and an ad-free experience. There is also a YouTube channel with lots of long-format music tracks added almost daily. — CD

How to say no is a collection of email templates that you can use to decline social events, meetings, dates, phone chats and other work-related requests you might get. Some of these are examples given by notable productivity experts like James Clear and Tim Ferris. You can even download these canned templates and install them into your gmail. — CD

The 6-part Netflix series Babies changed my ideas about human babies. Babies are far more smarter and adaptable than they appear. This series uses video from scientific experiments on babies to demonstrate their remarkable intelligence and stunning development. I look at them with renewed wonder now. The series is a remarkable work of science communication. I strongly recommend to any parent or grandparent. — KK

You might already know you can enter a flight number in Google and get tracking information. Another easy way to find out when a flight is departing or landing and if it’s on time is to enter it in Mac OS Spotlight. Also, if you send a message with a flight number, you and the recipient can click it and see where the plane is on a map. Here’s more about this handy feature. — MF

In a bit of self-promotion, I’d like to recommend my 50-year passion project, the 3 volumes of Vanishing Asia. In it I photo’d and designed 1,000 pages of old Asia. I am happy that it is finally available on Amazon at a price that is almost as cheap as the original Kickstarter price. In fact with free Prime shipping, it is probably cheaper. (I don’t think Amazon makes any money from selling it.) People who have gotten a set are very happy with the virtual trip it creates. You can easily spend a day or two just paging through all 9,000 images and captions. I can promise a book unlike any other book in the world. — KK

Being able to identify tree species is something I ache to learn, but I am intimidated by the amount research and reading involved. For now, I just enjoy noticing them and taking pictures of them. Also, I just discovered Monumental Trees, a website where people all over the world can submit their tree photos that you can filter by species and country. I still haven’t discovered all this site has to offer, but for now just looking at the photos satiates my curiosity! — CD

A few quotations I’ve recently come across:

“So what’s the Original Sin of the Internet? Nearly all business models it supports require spying on consumers and monetizing them.” — Bob Sullivan

“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” — André Gid

“I always thought burnout happened when you work too much. Now I get it. It’s investing emotionally and then not getting a return on that investment.” — @spamap

“When a person I don’t really know or have a regular relationship with reaches out on email or in the DMs, wanting to hang out or has an ask of me and I do not have the time or desire, I have started simply… not responding at all. This feels like next-level boundary setting (and next level guilty and selfish, which I am practicing sitting with). Beforehand, I was at the stage where I could say no, but I would have a lot of excuses and wordiness about it. Now, it’s just, delete”. — Catherine Andrews

“Twitter is so low-friction it might as well be lubricated: You can create an account and accidentally get the entire nation of Malaysia angry at you within 20 minutes.” — Max Read

— MF

Here are some of the recent beautiful quotes and metaphors and advice I’ve been collecting:

• “The fragrance of flowers is their prayer.” — Bulgarian philosopher Peter Deunov

• “People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” — Joseph Campbell, h/t Down The Rabbit Hole

• “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu, h/t Dense Discovery

• “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” — Dutch Theosophist Jacobus Johannes van der Leeuw

• “When stumped by a life choice, choose “enlargement” over happiness.” — Oliver Burkeman, h/t The Mental Health Update

When writing out my daily to-do list I often remember this advice tweeted by Writer Jenée Desmond-Harris: “I started dividing my to-do list into 1) things I have to do, 2) things I want to do, and 3) things other people want me to do. Life changing! I often don’t get to 3 and I finally realized omg, is this what it means to have boundaries?!” — CD

I do Zoom meetings with people all over the world, and I use Every Time Zone to find times that are convenient for all participants. It’s free, it’s browser-based, and it remembers my settings. I keep it in my menu bar. — MF

I’m traveling in England and no stores seem to want to use cash anymore. Everyone uses Apple Pay even for the smallest purchase. Contactless payment made by hovering your phone near a device is rapidly becoming common all around the world, US included. I was immensely surprised how easy it was to hook my credit card up to my iPhone to make payments. Took 30 seconds, and no new accounts, no bank, no wallet, just my usual credit card. Now it’s Apple Pay all the time for me. — KK