當我們在上星期五召集員工每週升級時，我們的編輯們磨礪了我們的縱橫填字技巧，終於得到了眼線，減少了標簽混亂，併為我們的寵物買衣服。

在今年的最後一週，我們收穫了提前度假旅行的好處，擺脫了那些在Instagram上發了太多帖子的朋友，在我們的浴室裡增加了揚聲器，以及從嚴重的流感病例中恢復過來。

你這周做了什麼升級？請在評論中告訴我們。

Do your holiday travel before the holidays

This holiday season, I went to visit my family in Mississippi early in December, and stayed home for Christmas. Not only did I get to skip the insane headache of traveling to a very **all town in Mississippi the week of the holiday season, but the time spent with my family felt much more chill. Plus I got to decorate the huge tree at my Grandmother’s house, which is my favorite part of Christmas in Mississippi anyway. Then on “actual Christmas” I just stayed home and ate and drank champagne in bed while watching Gremlins.

claire lower, food & beverage editor

Unfollow Instagram oversharers

One of the very best things I did for myself this year was unfollowing people on Instagram. Twitter and Facebook and built-in ways of minimizing your exposure to oversharers and frenemies, but Instagram is lagging woefully behind on this front—causing a moral dilemma in people like me who don’t want to burn bridges but also don’t want to feel a **all fire inside every time someone posts their 10th gram of the day. A few months ago I got fed up, severed a few ties, and it’s been better than I ever could have imagined. In all likelihood, they’ll never notice, and I’ve been able to hold on to another **all sliver of my sanity.

caitlin schneider, social editor

Add lighting to your closet space

I have a decent amount of closet space in my apartment, but none of the closets have lighting, which makes it a little tough to see things that are on the edges or on high shelves, and easy to forget about clothing I already own. To combat the problem, I just bought a few of these touch lights from Amazon, which brighten things up and make it much easier to find what I’m looking for in a hurry.

virginia k. **ith, managing editor

Revel in the drama of laser pointers

I did some cat-sitting over Christmas, and my favorite part was turning off all the lights to flash a laser pointer all over the apartment. The cats love chasing that dot so much that as soon as they finish eating, they try to paw the laser pointer out of its storage spot and toward me.

nick douglas, staff writer

Take a group vacation with other families

This week, our group of friends stayed in a house together up in the mountains—all 19 of us, including nine children under the age of five. Was it chaotic? Completely. But we vowed to do it again every year. It’s a good way to live—taking turns cooking meals in bulk, having real ***** conversati*** while listening to a stampede of tiny feet in the room upstairs, and not turning on the television even once (we couldn’t get it to work, but still). Parents need more of this in everyday life. The village. Why do we keep trying to do it alone?

michelle woo, parenting editor

Get bathroom-specific speakers

I got an Echo Dot for my bathroom. Yes, this is silly, and I asked for it as a gift because I couldn’t bear the thought of spending “real” money on such a frivolity. But I love it. When I’m doing my evening skincare and tooth brushing, I ask Alexa to put on some dreamy soothing music. (Still looking for the perfect morning wake-up playlist, suggesti*** welcome.) Instead of giving it any shelf space, I hang my Dot off a wall outlet with this plug-in mount.

beth skwarecki, health editor

Nurse yourself back from travel-induced illness

Dayquil. It’s the shit I need.

Patrick allan, staff writer

Get yourself organized ahead of the new year

Like many other people, I started getting my act together for 2018. This meant reading through my journals from the past year to reflect on what did and didn’t change, writing down my goals for the new year, and organizing my apartment. I also finally found a great planner (from Ink + Volt) for the new year that has a lot of organizational components to it, similar to a bullet journal, that I really like, and I made my to-do list for the first few weeks of the year.

alicia adamczyk, staff writer

Get a headlamp in your life

This Christmas I was given the most incredible present ever, one I’ve been using daily since I unwrapped it: a beanie hat with a built-in headlamp. The series of LEDs is sewn into the hat, wired to a **all coin cell battery pack, which might look a little dorkier than I can fathom, but it’s use as a guiding light during evening walks with my dog have already made it an indispensable tool. It’s bright as heck, incredibly comfortable, and is in my favorite color: black. Get one.

patrick austin, staff writer