There is one simple criteria for making this list:
If it were taken from me, would I immediately replace it with the same?
Few things in my life meet this standard. These are those that do.
You can support me by buying these certified awesome things through the affiliate links I’ve provided, at no extra cost to you. Or you can spite me by not clicking the links and buying them on your own. Whatever.
Knife Magnet
I feel an irresistible attraction to magnets. Magnets in toys (like magna-tiles). Magnets in clasps. Magnets in water bottles (like my Camelbak Chute water bottle). Magnets make every design delightful.
My favorite magnet holds our knives. We stick it on the side of our fridge. It’s clean, easy, attractive, and makes me happy every time I use it.
3M Micropore Tape
I started taping my mouth at night during my honeymoon. No better sign Kim and my marriage is going the distance, right?
At first, I used masking tape. Blisters popped up, making me look like I had herpes. Now I stick to sticking 3M tape on my face. Helps me breathe easy through my nose. Puts me down at night. A single roll lasts me nearly a year.
PS – Here’s the full story of how I trained myself to stop mouth breathing and start nose breathing.
Sodastream
Come to think of it, I kind of wish I’d never been introduced to Sodastreams.
Damn you, COVID! Kim and I spent the ten-week lockdown in South Africa at my friend’s house, which had one. That’s how we caught the Sodastream bug.
Sodastream-free life wasn’t so bad. We bought sparkling water for special occasions and otherwise drank from the tap. But now that we own a Sodastream in Vancouver and in Cape Town, we drink bubbly water multiple times a day. We wouldn’t want to live without it.
I generally believe ignorance isn’t bliss, but this case may be an exception. Consider yourself warned.
Outlier Merino T-Shirts
Outlier is easily my favorite clothing brand. Obviously, since I’m all about questioning convention to do what’s best for you, the name strikes a chord with me. But it’s the products that are the true “outlier.”
They’re extraordinarily expensive! high quality. I only wish I could afford more. Luckily, I only need two T-shirts to get by because they’re magical merino. I’ve tried shirts from less expensive (but still far from cheap) merino brands: Wool&Prince, Icebreaker, Smart Wool, Unbound. Nothing approaches Outlier.
My advice? Don’t buy Outlier shirts if you’re not mad about merino already. Get hooked first. Buy a cheap, used, or discount shirt. Experience the anti-odor, insulating, dirt-repelling magic. Once you’re a dyed-in-the-wool believer, get yourself the best of the best.
PS – My rambling about why I love merino.
PPS – I love Outlier’s shorts, too. Here’s why.
Lululemon Sport Shorts
I like to brag that there aren’t a thousand men in the world who have been wearing Lululemon shorts longer than me.
Lululemon’s first store was blocks from my high school. All the girls loved the pants, so when Lulu introduced sports shorts for men, I gave them a try. Twenty-three-ish years later, I’m still going.
I wear the shorts with a liner for exercise and liner-less versions all other times of day, including this very moment.
I love the deep front pockets, the zip hip pocket for my phone, the little one for my keys, the durability, the fit, the stretchiness, and the simple style. They’re perfect for me.
PS – I’m too lazy to do a separate write-up about them, but let it be known that I also stand firmly for (and in) the Lululemon ABC pants. They’re the only “nice” pants I own. Dressy enough to wear for my own wedding. Functional enough to wear hiking up muddy mountains in Rwanda. Comfy. All I need.
Lots of Books
The book I’ve most recommended in recent memory is A Short Stay in Hell by Steven Peck. I even bought it for a bunch of readers last year. It’s only 100 pages but hits hard.
Here’s my experience reading it. And here’s an affiliate link because I’m not giving it away to anymore strangers who read my stuff.
More book recommendations:
- Favorite books I read in 2023, 2022, 2021.
- List of books that changed my thinking.
- Non-fiction books so useful I had to write about them.
🎉 Special Offer!
Email me a topic you’re interested in reading about and I’ll happily suggest a book or two that I enjoyed.
Luxe Bidet
It didn’t take me many bidet sprays to realize how nasty, wasteful, and inefficient it is to try to clean my derrière with dry paper. The only butt I ought to be wiping is my baby son’s.
Smelly-finger-nailed doubters often ask:
But doesn’t a bidet get your butt wet?
Answer: Yes. But I don’t bother drying. It’s a just few drops of water. Gravity draws them out. My underwear absorbs them. I’m dry before I’m out the bathroom door.
Diaper Wipe Box
A great gift for any parent-to-be.
I discovered it by accident. Kim and I buy a lot of our groceries and diapers online from Walmart. A huge box of wipes was listed for a super cheap price, so I bought them. Instead of coming in ready-to-use wipe bags, we got wholesale-sized stacks. Crap. It was too late to return them, so I bought this box on Amazon.
The rest is history.
It’s so much easier to open and close with one hand. Less wasteful. Cheaper for refills. Triple win!
(*Note: There are hundreds of the same product. They all seem the same. Choose based on price and color.)
Japanese-Style Floor Bed
I sleep better on the floor than on raised, excessively soft beds. Floor beds are space-savers, too. Read about my descent into floor sleeping here. Or watch the video:
These are the tatami mats Kim and I use:
On top of those mats, I sleep on a twin mattress topper my mother-in-law gave me—something like this:
Patagonia Nano Puff Jacket
The only thing wrong with this jacket is it gets smelly. Otherwise, it’s so good that Kim bought one, too. Then she thought she could find better, tried a couple other brands, failed, and relented, returning to matching me.
It’s versatile, packs small, and is durable.
Osprey Nebula Backpack
On my travel blog, The Unconventional Route, I told the story of how I methodically narrowed in on the perfect backpack… then failed and found this one on Facebook Marketplace instead.
It’s perfect for me:
- Small enough for daily use, but also big enough for my full packing list.
- Water bottle pockets, where I often put my phone when walking around.
- Front mesh pocket for super dirty or wet stuff.
- Laptop sleeve.
- Small top slit pocket for keys, wallet, headphones, etc.
- Front pocket for various smaller things like snacks and passports.
Wise Foreign Currency Transfers
Using Wise is one of those, “I wish I’d been using this a lot earlier,” type of deals.
I make money in USD but spend CAD. Up until two years ago, I put all the USD into the stock market and covered my living expenses by selling CAD investments. That saved me on foreign exchange fees, but forced me to excessively turn over my stocks and incur capital gains taxes. The cost of the latter outweighed the former. Stupid.
Finally, I got my sh*t together and figured out Wise. It’s so much better. And it makes wiring money internationally—to landlords in South Africa, for example—so much easier.
If you make regular FX transactions, it’s worth signing up. Super simple. Use my code to get your first transfer of up to £500 for free and earn me £50:
GeneratePress and GenerateBlocks WordPress Website Builders
Listen, I’m no tech expert. All I can say is if I ever make another website, I’ll be using a GeneratePress theme and GenerateBlocks.
Is that because I bought a lifetime license for as many sites as I want? Yes, I don’t like spending money unnecessarily. It’s also because I’m familiar with it. But I would recommend GeneratePress to anyone else starting their own site, too. It’s fast, flexible, intuitive, has great support, always improving, and is used by millions of other sites, which means it’s easier to find answers online to any questions.
Website Hosting From NameHero
Hosting veers even deeper into the treacherous terrain of “Chris has no idea what he’s talking about.”
I can only speak from experience. I’ve used BlueHost, HostGator, and SiteGround in the past. They all let me (and my sites) down. NameHero hasn’t in the four years or so I’ve been a customer.
NameHero checks the three boxes I want from a host:
- Never have to think about it.
- Not pay too much.
- Immediate access to support when I accidentally do something very dumb that destroys my sites.
Roam Research
I’ve saved my favorite-est thing for last.
Roam is the software that:
- Holds my life together.
- Stores valuable information I don’t trust my brain to remember.
- Motivates me to do favors for my future self.
- Catches my time so I feel I have it under control.
- Broadens my perspective of time.
Roam isn’t fancy. The app is annoyingly slow to load. And there is no affiliate program that rewards me for referring it to you. Honestly, I don’t recommend it1. But it’s still my favorite.
- While I don’t recommend Roam, there’s nothing I recommend more strongly than starting your own system for organizing your life. Best to start with a simple notes app or a physical notebook and evolve from there. After a few years, when your system has organically evolved into a complex organism, Roam may be worth considering.
If you’re interested in kickstarting your own system, consider joining a future cohort of Pure Productivity ↩︎
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About the author
I decode what makes people different and help them build extraordinary things with it. Creator of Innate Edge. Writer of The Zag.
