Chances are, there’s someone on your list that lives the truly frazzled, eternally hectic, scrape-every-minute-out-of-the-day kind of life that keeps a person teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Lucky for you, this makes them easier to buy for. A gift that helps them manage, relieve, or endure the stress that comes with a “hustle ’til you bust” lifestyle shows that you understand them and care about their fragile sanity. So help keep someone out of the nuthouse this year: here are some of the best gifts for people who are just too damn busy.
Science has finally proven that you are in fact better off viewing the world through rose-colored glasses. Or, if not rose-colored, at least blue-blocking. These glasses work hard to prevent blue light from reaching the wearer’s tender brain cells, where it wreaks all manner of chemical and neurological havoc. Shielding the eyes from the harmful effects of blue light from computers, televisions, and the like is known to provide calming, sleep-enhancing, and mood-boosting benefits, among others.
The dual computer screen is one of today’s uber-nerd status symbols. Let the investment bankers have their Rolls Royces and the pimps their gold plated canes. The pinnacle of luxury living for a gamer is a super high resolution dual screen, so they can engage in some next level merkage (gamer slang). But it’s not just for video game junkies. Plenty of professionals have sworn off the single screen setup for good, pledging their allegiance to the gods of multi-tasking.
One of the first steps to managing a hectic schedule is organizing your thoughts and ideas. And while there are plenty of apps for that, some people still prefer to use the good old pen-and-paper method. The Rocketbook Smart Notebook solves this problem by fusing old-fashioned scribblin’ with cloud technology. They simply use the included Pilot Frixion pen to jot down ideas as they come up, and they’re automatically backed up to the cloud for storage and future retrieval. And when the notebook fills up, just wipe down the pages with a moist towel to erase, and it can be used over and over again.
But as everyone knows, staying productive requires more than just organizing your inner world. If the person you’re buying for is so busy that they don’t have time to manage their physical environment, clutter can become a real problem, and fast. Professional organizers make a living helping people clear the clutter and structure their physical space in a way that supports their mental and emotional well-being instead of sabotaging it. Professional organizing has become quite an in-demand industry, so chances are real good that you’ll find one nearby, as long as your recipient doesn’t live on top of a mountain.
We all carry some level of stress around with us in the form of muscle tension. Over time this can really start to cause some problems, like muscle imbalances, joint pain, numbness or lack of sensation in the extremities, and more. Massage is one of the best ways to rid yourself of pesky muscle tension, but busy people rarely feel like they have a few hours to dedicate to this kind of self-care. A handheld electric massager may not be a true replacement for a full body massage, but it’s the next best thing. The Renpho deep tissue massager delivers some serious juice to break up the gnarliest muscle knots, adhesions, and trigger points in just a few minutes.
Most of us spend way too much time in front of a computer screen, and for busy people this is even more of a problem. Eye strain can lead to headaches, blurred vision, and eventually homicide. Which makes these Finnish eye stones a real life saver.
Being ultra busy means accepting certain trade-offs in life. But one area where you don’t want to make too many concessions is in the quality of the food you eat. Fast food doesn’t just get in your mouth faster, it also gets you into the grave faster. But shopping for and preparing fresh ingredients day after day is a challenge for anyone, let alone the chronically overworked. Meal subscription services like Blue Apron take care of everything but the preparation, and help introduce subscribers to new recipes and cooking concepts. For people who have food allergies, are picky eaters, or simply like having more control over the ingredients they use, most grocery delivery services like Instacart offer gift cards too, and they’re a godsend when you’re on a tight schedule.
For most busy people, the smartphone is the indispensable portal to the world of All the Important Things. And like most electronics, smartphones are fundamentally infected with Murphy’s Law, which means that batteries only run down at the worst possible time. A portable power bank is insurance of the very best kind, warding off the sort of calamity that’s always nipping at their heels.
For years we’ve been using tracking devices to follow the comings and goings of our pets, children, enemies, and myriad suspicious characters who pass through our neighborhoods. It’s about time that we re-apply the tools of our paranoia to everyday objects. This small tracker can be affixed to any of your valuable possessions (including yourself if you so desire), allowing those objects to be quickly and easily located using the associated mobile app. Sure, it won’t help you find your moral compass or your purpose in life, but it will help you find the TV remote.
A “just good enough” chair may seem…well…good enough. But nothing could be further from the truth, at least as far as your skeleton is concerned. And just because someone is not yet at the stage of the biological cycle where their skeleton is visible doesn’t mean they should ignore it. An ergonomically designed chair by the ergonomic design OGs is exactly what the doctor ordered for an ailing office worker. Actually, the doctor didn’t order it. That’s why you need to.
Technology may be shockingly smart these days, but unfortunately your computer is still too dumb to stand up when you do. Though on that note, when it does become smart enough to stand up with you, you should probably run. On second thought, once the machines are that smart it’s already too late. Just sit back down and wait for the computer to tell you what to do next. If you don’t make any abrupt movements, it might spare you. In the meantime, buy this adjustable standing desk for someone you care about so they don’t ruin their posture.
When you put all of your energy into your daily responsibilities, exercise is usually one of the first things to suffer. A FitBit makes it easy to monitor your activity throughout the course of the day, and it makes your fitness and health objectives feel like a game as you try to get in more steps and hit your calorie and heart rate goals. It also gives you immediate feedback on the quality of your sleep, valuable information for anyone who wonders why they feel so damn tired every day.
Learning is a vital component to staying ahead in whatever field you happen to be in, and it’s another example of the kind of thing that gets lost in the shuffle when you’re too busy. Thankfully, the internet offers a way to learn just about anything you might decide you want to take up (for better or for worse). There are plenty of popular online learning platforms, but Skillshare is the easiest one to give as a gift. Skillshare is a subscription service, so once they activate their membership, they’ll have access to all of the classes on the site. Their rates are affordable, and they offer 3, 6, and 12 month gift subscription options. The courses on Skillshare are fairly broad, but tend to fall under business, technology, the arts, and creative fields like design, writing, photography, music production, and so on. It’s a great way to sharpen their skills or explore new fields in their spare time.
One of the things many busy people lament is the lack of time to read. Audiobooks take care of that excuse, so now you can find out if they really wish they had more time to read or if they’re just saying that to sound smart. Audible is the most popular source for audiobooks, and you can give a gift subscription for anywhere from 1 to 12 months, and 1 free download per month is included in the subscription price. AudiobooksNow is an alternative to Audible, and it offers more option for gifting, allowing you to give specific titles as a gift, sign someone up for a gift plan that gives them 50% off up to 12 audiobooks for one year, or simply buy a gift card with any amount of money you choose, starting at $10.
It’s finally happening. The robot revolution has begun. And they’re starting with our floors. Making them all clean and spotless, so we feel inferior at our own vacuuming ability, perhaps we even slip on their shininess. And oh, how they’ll laugh. Resistance is futile, you might as well embrace it, and start gifting them to all your friends.