April 24, 2020 at 06:00AM I cannot even remember a life before screens. Can you? In today’s world, we’re not just on one screen at a time but often multitasking on multiple screens. Or should I say, multi-screening? One minute, you’re on your laptop while watching TV, the next furiously catching up on group texts and an occasional Instagram-scroll “break.” What do our poor eyes even look at anymore that’s not a screen? We spend nearly half of our waking hours (42%) on screens (almost seven hours a day), according to a survey done by contact lens manufacturer Cooper Vision. For the past few years, I’ve been operating on the lowest light on my Macbook and iPhone, in addition to dark mode on all devices and night mode (orange light) starting at 8 p.m. I am talking about two to three bars on the brightness scale. For any normal person, that is basically pitch black (just ask any of my co-workers when I’m trying to show them something on my screen), but for me, it was a relief for my sensitive eyes to no longer be constantly staring at a brightly lit screen. With blue light–blocking lenses emerging as a trend in recent years, I embarked on a journey to test out a pair. Do these really work? Do they relieve you from any eye strain? Find out below. Let’s start off with facts and basics. Any screen such as laptops, cell phones, TVs, and tablets emit blue light via white light. (The sun releases white light at the highest degree.)
Tag: WFH
If You’re Suffering From “Tech Neck,” These Firming Products Will Help
April 23, 2020 at 06:30AM We’re not sure about you, but working from home is really starting to take its toll on our bodies. As grateful as we are to have the luxury of being able to continue to work from the comfort of our homes, there’s no doubt that the physical aspect of it can have its drawbacks. Where daily commutes, coffee runs and lunch breaks once kept us moving and active, office chairs, desk setups and large computer screens helped support our posture and remove the risks of aches and pains. Fast-forward to today and the majority of us are hunched over laptops, slumped on the sofa or cramped on a chair under some sort of makeshift desk. And it would seem that these working-from-home office environments are already starting to have a negative impact. From backaches to neck pain, people far and wide are starting to complain of the ways that their bodies are reacting to the change in their workspace. A common issue that we have seen crop up time and time again is that of “tech neck”—the feeling of pressure/tension in the neck and back and the appearance of lines, jowls and creases in the skin as a result of constantly looking down at technology, often at a 45-degree angle. If you can relate to this issue or want to get one step ahead, here’s all there is to know and a roundup of the very best neck-firming products around. The recently coined term “tech neck” refers
Self-Isolation Diary: A Day in the Life of Designer Dorian Rahimzadeh
April 21, 2020 at 02:00PM As people around the country enter their sixth week of self-isolation, FASHION is reaching out to some of our favourite Canadians to get a peek into how they’re living their lives in lockdown (remember: #StayHomeSaveLives). Each week, keep an eye out for new self-isolation diaries from actors, designers, athletes and artists who are riding this uncertain time out with us. Dorian Rahimzadeh, founder and creative director, Dorian Who I am lucky enough to have my little studio where I am able to keep busy, work alone and self-isolate. Recently, I have started making upcycled masks with the leftover fabric I’ve been saving in my studio. At the beginning of March, I was working on a new collection and filling orders with the help of my interns. But since the outbreak, like every other business, I’ve had to send my team home to self-isolate. So, I was forced to once again start doing everything on my own. Though it’s a lot of work, I’m quite comfortable working by myself. I enjoy spending time alone but this situation has made me re-think so many aspects of my day-to-day life and has helped me learn to better balance life and work. This ‘pause’ has allowed me to reconsider so many things and shown me how to better appreciate and take in small moments. For me, the hardest part is not being able to see and hug my loved ones, or do normal outdoor activities but I am doing
6 online games you can play virtually with your friends near and far
March 18, 2020 at 05:00PM by CWC It’s a safe bet that you’re missing at least two things during social distancing: your friends and fun. While it’s so important that we stay indoors in order to slow the spread of COVID-19, self-isolation can be, uh, isolating. But since we’re all in this together, there is a way to liven up your downtime by playing online games with friends. Here’s the thing, it’s important to not combat our loneliness and stay connected during this time, and we can best do that by making the internet our bitch. There are lots of platforms that allows for co-op gaming, and there’s more than one video platform to make more offline-games communal. Remember in college when it was either Skype or Oovoo. A simpler time, really. One without mandated curfews. Anyway, I decided to give you a variety of things that you can try out. Whether that’s a very simple board game you can do with your iPhone, a role-playing game you can get into on your laptop, or even just an accessible way to do some pantomime via video conference, you have options. Just get creative with FaceTime or Zoom or whatever while you’re playing. Whether you have friends trapped inside across the street or across the country, it’ll be like the whole gang is trapped right there with you. You know, in a joyful way. Here are six quick gaming options that can rally your community when you have the self-isolation blues. 1. Scrabble Let’s kick
Working from home? Here’s what productivity experts say you should do to stay on task
March 11, 2020 at 09:00PM by CWC Spoiler alert: not everybody has the luxury of a home office. Not everybody even has the luxury of a desk. And while working from home certainly has its perks (working with my dog? Yes, please), it can be a challenge without a defined workspace. Temptations like Netflix loom and distracting roommates linger, which can result in productivity and motivational challenges. Not to mention, there’s just a different that comes with working in an office. “When you commute to your office and sit at your desk all day, see people, and then commute home, you feel like you’ve ‘done’ something,” says Laura Vanderkam, author of several time management and productivity books, including Off the Clock and Juliet’s School of Possibilities. “When you work from home, you don’t have that. So you judge the day solely on what you’ve done. If that’s not much, well, that doesn’t feel so good.” The good news is there are plenty of tips to “hack” your way into a productive work from home day. Whether it’s setting a clear schedule or taking a mid-day shower (talk about a WFH perk), these work from home tips from productivity experts that can help maximize your remote work routine. These are the work from home tips that actually make a difference in your productivity 1. Schedule out your day Whether it’s using Google calendar or writing your to-do list down before you get to work, setting a clear schedule for your work
Stretch, strengthen, and stabilize tight shoulders with IYT stretches
March 10, 2020 at 10:00PM by CWC Your shoulders are often the unintended victims of a long day at the office. Hovering over your laptop for hours on end can cause a serious slump in your posture, which leads to all sorts of problems—not the least of which is discomfort. “Our bodies are in a forward head position and our shoulders are hunched over, which causes our back muscles to get weak and stretched out while our front muscles get very tight and strong,” says Phaeleau Cunneen, PT, a New York City physical therapist. Because of this, it’s important to do back-targeting exercises to help balance out your strength. Enter the IYT stretch series, which targets your middle and lower trapezius and infraspinatus—aka the muscles around your shoulders—to help strengthen and stabilize them. This, in effect, will help un-scrunch your body from all the hours spent hovered over your computer. And the best part? You can pretty much do it anywhere. How to do the IYT stretch series for your shoulders Lying flat on your stomach on top either a ball, a bench, or—yup—your bed, position your body so that your head is slightly dangling off to the side. You can do the exercise either with or without weights, depending on the strength of your shoulders. Then, cycle through each movement until your arms or shoulders start to feel fatigued, at which point you’ll move on to the next. To get the most out of the series, focus on lifting
I stuck to a 9:30 p.m. bedtime on vacation—here’s the Ayurvedic reason I’m continuing the habit at home
February 17, 2020 at 04:00PM by CWC Even before I arrived at the Rosewood Mayakoba resort in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, I knew I would be in for some excellent sleep. That’s because I was visiting to check out the property’s eight new wellness suites, which are packed with snooze-enhancing amenities such as circadian-rhythm-optimized lighting, soothing aromatherapy showers, and bedside essential oils blended by a local shaman. Just as I suspected, on the last night of my four-day trip, I ended up sleeping more deeply than I have in many months, but that accomplishment might be thanks to another reason entirely: I decided to go to sleep at 9:30 p.m. I did so at the advice of Daniel Seymour, Rosewood Mayakoba’s resident Ayurvedic practitioner. Seymour told me during a consultation that turning in between 9:30 and 10 p.m. is a simple hack that can result in higher-quality sleep, working in accordance with the Ayurvedic body clock. See, according to Ayurvedic wisdom, every person is made up of three energy signatures, or doshas. In super-simple terms, vata is airy and intellectual, pitta is fiery and action-oriented, and kapha is earthy and grounded. Most people have a dominant dosha that affects their physical and mental state in the long-term, but different doshas are also believed to be more active within us at different times of day, which dictates the Ayurvedic body clock. Kapha time is from 6 to 10 (a.m. and p.m.); pitta time is from 10 to 2 (a.m. and p.m.);
Get your finances on track with our 28-day financial wellness challenge
January 01, 2020 at 10:30AM by CWC The end of the year is rough on the money front. Budgets are blown traveling to see loved ones for the holidays, buying gifts, and indulging in holiday sales shopping. All worth it? Sure. But now that it’s January, you’re paying for it (literally and figuratively). The good news is, this is the time to get back on track, and we’re here (armed with some of the best budgeting experts in the biz) to help. This four-week-long money challenge is thoughtfully constructed to set you up for financial success by taking inventory of your spending and making realistic-yet-impactful changes that will help you meet your goals. We know the idea of tackling your finances can sound overwhelming, which is why the challenge is broken down into daily “mini” tips, all of which are totally quick and manageable. You’ll first start the 28-day challenge by taking stock of all of your finances—your income, spending habits, debts, the whole nine yards—before moving into ways to optimize your spending, boost your savings, and get smarter about investing. No matter your money knowledge, there’s something that you can benefit from. The challenge kicks off on January 5; join us by signing up for our special email that will deliver all the plans to your inbox* (in the box below) and downloading the tasks onto your personal calendar. By the end of the month, you’ll not only be a lot more organized, you’ll also be more on track
Here’s what happened when I quit multitasking for a week to improve my productivity
December 20, 2019 at 06:00PM by CWC Like many (if not most) people these days, I am a practiced multitasker—it’s simply my strategy for how to be productive at an optimum level. While working, I have multiple browser tabs open at once, so I can toggle between items on my to-do list. And I take my laptop to meetings, so I can listen, participate, and work, all at the same time. I even multitask when I’m relaxing, watching Netflix while snacking and scrolling Instagram. This is how we all live, right? Otherwise, how would everything—anything, even—get done? I’ve heard rumblings before that multitasking isn’t the most efficient answer to how to be productive, but that’s always left me wondering, if not multitasking, then…what? In her forthcoming book Do Nothing (out March 10, 2020), Celeste Headlee acknowledges the societal pressure to multitask, but points to studies suggesting that not only is it ineffective, it’s actually impossible to do successfully. “As our obsession with hyperproductivity has increased, so has our belief that we are able to multitask and that it helps us get more done in less time,” she writes. “The truth is wholly the opposite in almost every circumstance, if neuroscience is to be believed. In study after study, we’ve found that we are slower at completing tasks when we switch from one activity to another than we are when we simply repeat the same activity.” “We are slower at completing tasks when we switch from one activity to another than
Our devices have made us digital hoarders, even if we claim to live minimally
December 17, 2019 at 03:00PM by CWC I currently have 14,394 unread emails in one of my inboxes, a barrage of files cluttering my laptop desktop, and hundreds of thousands of photos (including screenshots I’ll surely never need to see again) on my iPhone. If these digital files were physical documents, they’d be swallowing my home whole. And while I definitely don’t need all (or even most) of them, for some reason, I can’t bring myself to delete the extraneous files. It seems that the advent of cloud-based storage has expanded the scope of hoarding disorder beyond stockpiling just material goods. Now, we’re all just a bunch of digital hoarders, clinging to matter with no critical mass. Mayo Clinic defines hoarding disorder as “a persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions because of a perceived need to save them.” Digital hoarding is a relatively new subset of the condition—officially, at least—as it was first identified as a thing in 2015 by researchers in Amsterdam. “Patients with digital hoarding as a symptom of hoarding disorder experience a very high urge to collect and save their digital data,” says one of those researchers, psychiatrist Nienke Vulink, MD, PhD. “They feel an intense connection with their belongings—in this case, digital data—and are not able to throw things away.” Dr. Vulink says more research is needed to better understand the symptoms of digital hoarding, and how to treat them. What we know about digital hoarding Nick Neave, PhD, director of a hoarding research group at the