By age 9, many kids are ready to take on more grown-up roles and responsibilities. Whereas before, they may have pretended to cook a meal in a toy kitchen, kids this age may have the coordination and cognitive ability to follow a recipe and prepare a real home-cooked meal.
A backpack is a staple of your school wardrobe—it will accompany you to class, the gym, late-night library marathons, and early-morning coffee runs. So it’s important to find one that will carry all of the supplies you need for a long day, as well as be comfortable, affordable, and stylish. Since our first round of testing, in 2015, we’ve tested dozens of backpacks in a variety of styles. These five bags are some of the best we found for any high school or college student.
Few things will kill your workout vibe faster than a pair of ill-fitting, hard-to-use headphones. The Jabra Elite Active 75t wireless earbuds are the best headphones for working out at the gym because they fit comfortably and will stay secure and out of your way even during rigorous workouts. The controls are easy to use, and the earbuds are resistant to sweat and water. Plus, they sound great for both music and phone calls.
Whether you’re traveling to work or school, using a backpack is the most comfortable way to carry your laptop, books, and anything else you need for the day. A backpack is more ergonomic than a messenger bag, holds more than a briefcase, and looks more stylish than a rolling bag. We’ve tested 53 backpacks on buses, trains, cars, bikes, and planes to find the best laptop backpacks for commuting.
Unless you are a motionless back-sleeper, most earbuds and headphones are far too bulky to wear comfortably overnight. Even the smallest pair of true wireless earbuds can fall out, become lost, or cause other problems. Sleep headphones are supposed to be the solution for people who want to block out sounds, fall asleep to music, or mask issues such as tinnitus—but when we set out to find the best sleep headphones, our dreams were dashed. Every pair we tested let us down in some way. We still have recommendations to address specific needs, but you should be prepared to accept a number of compromises.
If you thrive on the competition and camaraderie of studio cycling classes and are intrigued by the idea of replicating that experience at home—where many people have moved their workouts these days—a Peloton Bike could be for you. Becoming a member of the Peloton pack is an investment: roughly $2,500 for the first year and nearly $500 each year thereafter. And that’s for the base model. But for a set of indoor-cycling devotees, these recurring costs for live-streaming and on-demand classes make financial sense. Namely, those who typically take four or more Peloton-like studio classes a week may find the at-home bike and classes to be a superior value in as few as six months.
Like many people, I’ve had my share of “I’m on fire” productivity days and a handful of “I can’t focus and I hope I don’t get fired” days. But after more than a year of pandemic isolation, those unproductive days had really started to pile up. I was in a rut.
So I did what I usually do when I run into a tough situation: I asked my Wirecutter co-workers what helped them get back on track. As usual, their advice was excellent, and I hope it’ll help you as much as it helped me. Whether you’ve been feeling less productive for a while or are just going through the common “afternoon slump,” try using these prompts to give yourself a boost. For a full refresh, I highly recommend devoting an entire day to working through these steps, revamping your workspace and your work system.
