If you’re ready to climate the worldwide pandemic with out common bouts of anxiety, I salute you. My pendulum swings again and forth between “We’ll get via this” and “We’re all doomed” — typically a number of occasions per day. That is why I am more and more looking out for useful (and low-cost) coping instruments, be they free video games to preserve my thoughts off issues or free books that train me how to preserve stress in verify.

Immediately I’ve bought three such books, adopted by a sci-fi novella sequence that seems like perfect escapism (if you can get previous the title). This is the self-help choice:

• How Not To Fear: The Outstanding Reality of How a Small Change Can Help You Stress Much less and Get pleasure from Life Extra, by Paul McGee. Free for Kindle, free for Android (through Google Play). Checklist worth: $22.
• Declutter Your Life: How Outer Order Leads to Inside Calm, by Gill Hasson. Free for Kindle, free for Android (through Google Play). Checklist worth: $18.
• Overcoming Anxiety: Reassuring Methods to Break Free from Stress and Fear and Lead a Calmer Life, by Gill Hasson. Free for Kindle, free for Android (through Google Play). Checklist worth: $18.

You’ll, in fact, want an Amazon or Google account to get the respective variations of those books, which may be learn on any suitable gadgets.

One other wonderful means to give your mind a stress-break: Escape into fiction. Writer Tor’s eBook of the Month Membership is completely free, and this month’s giveaway is fairly candy. It is the primary 4 novellas in Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries sequence. However it’s structured slightly in another way: You may get one e-book a day, beginning at this time.

The aim, in fact, is to get you hooked so you’ll purchase the primary full-length novel within the sequence, which comes out in a pair weeks. For now, nonetheless, take pleasure in these extremely rated freebies, which might usually value you $4-$11 every.

By the best way, they’re supplied DRM-free in your alternative of ePub or Mobi format, the latter ready to be side-loaded into Kindles and Kindle apps.

Glad studying!

Apple AirPods: $122

The going price for Apple’s second-gen AirPods has lengthy been $139, with occasional dips to $135. That is higher than the $159 listing worth, actually, however nonetheless expensive. This is the very best deal I’ve seen but: For a restricted time, and whereas provides final, Electronics Basket (through eBay) has the Apple AirPods 2nd-generation with Charging Case for $121.99.

If I am being sincere, I genuinely like AirPods. They’re snug (in my ears, at the very least), they sound wonderful and they’re nice for cellphone calls. Then again, they do not provide any sort of noise-canceling options, they are not sweatproof and the value continues to be ridiculous.

However, properly, $122 is so significantly better than $159. If you’ve been biding your time in hopes of a good low cost, right here you go.

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AirPods 2nd-generation: Not likely 2.0, however undoubtedly…

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Sonos Playbar: $449

I will wager you’re spending much more time in entrance of the TV lately, which can have you considering severely about including a soundbar. The Sonos Playbar is a prime decide, however, yeesh, the $699 price ticket.

Much less yeesh: For a restricted time, and whereas provides final, WorldWideStereo through eBay has the manufacturer-refurbished Sonos Playbar for $449, the bottom worth I can recall seeing.

As a result of that is factory-certified, it features a retail field with all equipment and comes with a full one-year guarantee. In different phrases: It is fairly actually good as new.

At this worth, it is solely $50 above the common worth of the Sonos Beam, which provides extra superior voice-command options however nowhere close to as a lot bass.

Anyway, $449 continues to be very expensive for a soundbar, however a $250 financial savings is nothing to sneeze at.

Learn extra: The most effective soundbar of 2020

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