上週五，當我們把員工每週的升級工作彙總到一起時，我們的編輯們開始接受IFTTT，嘗試芭蕾，最後把東西從我們的地板上清理下來，放到書架上。

本週，我們將收聽環境噪音、簡化節日禮物、解決失眠等。

你這周做了什麼升級？請在評論中告訴我們。

Listen to rain sounds while you work

I’ve been listening to Rainy Mood while I work. The sound of rain and thunder is really calming, especially here in Southern California where we don’t hear it too often. It helps me with flow. The app has several different ambient noise opti*** (like “chatter” and “shoreline”), but I just go with the standard rain sounds in a browser.

michelle woo, parenting editor

Make gifting easy with a public Amazon wishlist

In a conversation with my coworker, Nick, I realized everything I want for the holidays is stored in a single location: my Amazon wish list. Turns out, you can make that list easily accessible to anyone remotely interested in getting you something by modifying your Amazon account settings. So I took some time, filled out my Amazon profile (complete with image to ensure potential gift-givers had the right Patrick Austin), and made my wish list public. Want to search for a friend’s account? Hit up your own Amazon wish list page, select the Your Friends tab, and enter their name or email address.

patrick austin, staff writer

Do all your streaming in once place

I started listening to podcasts in Spotify instead of iTunes. This way, if I begin listening to a podcast on my phone, I can ask Alexa to resume it, and vice versa. This upgrades my life because I have an Echo Dot in the kitchen for the sole purpose of listening to music while I cook or do dishes. I never wash dishes long enough to finish a podcast, so now I can listen to podcasts that way, too.

beth skwarecki, health editor

Out**art your insomnia

As a lifetime bad sleeper, it’s rare that I come across a new or effective hack, but I recently listened to an episode of Fresh Air with sleep scientist Matthew Walker, who offered a counterintuitive, but totally effective hack for insomnia: get up. According to Walker, tossing and turning in bed teaches your brain to associate that space with being awake, which isn’t good for establishing a solid sleep habit. Now when I can’t sleep, I move to the living room. More often than not, I either end up snoozing on the couch, get tired again and return to bed, or get some work or reading done—which is all a lot better than staring wide-eyed at my ceiling and wondering what time it is.

caitlin schneider, social editor

Outsource your cold brewing

This isn’t a recent upgrade, but I’m still obsessed with Trader Joe’s Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate. I brew my own cold brew coffee sometime, but the simplicity of pouring a little of this magic elixir into a glass then adding some water for dilution makes having a morning coffee easy and relatively cheap. It tastes great and lasts a good while too! I love it.

patrick allan, staff writer

Splurge on discounted furniture

As happens every holiday season, I may or may not be doing more shopping for myself than I am for other people. Oh well. I’ve been slowly but surely furnishing the apartment I moved into in July, and this week I made a big ticket purchase I’ve been putting off for a while: a sleeper sofa. I got this heavily discounted model from Wayfair, and am eagerly awaiting its arrival. I’m excited to have my living room look more pulled together, and also, to have a place for out of town friends to sleep when they come visit.

virginia k. **ith, managing editor

Commit to a new calendar system

I got this, the “Uncalendar,” which is my favorite organizer on this earth. It has t*** of boxes and columns for making lists, and lists are what keep me sane. I have tried using other calendars/planners, and they just don’t have enough boxes and columns for lists.

claire lower, food & beverage editor