上週五，當我們對員工的每週升級進行總結時，我們的編輯們正在完善他們的亞馬遜願望清單，簡化我們的流媒體服務，並與失眠作鬥爭，或者根據您的要求加倍減少對冷啤酒的上癮。

本週，我們不止一個人在嘗試一種新的護膚方案，而其他人則在重溫失去的創意專案，在新年的組織決議上有一個跳躍式的開始，並首先跳進節日精神的腳步。

你這周做了什麼升級？請在評論中告訴我們。

Give your skin the attention it deserves...

My upgrade is establishing a skincare routine. I started this in October but wanted to make sure I was gonna stick with it before celebrating my success. (I did my research mainly by reading /r/SkincareAddiction, so take that for what it’s worth.) I’m aiming for simple and affordable, so here’s what I settled on: In the morning I wash my face with Clean & Clear’s face wash for sensitive skin, then apply a benzoyl peroxide cream followed by a store brand version of CeraVe’s SPF 30 moisturizer. In the evening I wash my face again, then use a few drops of salicylic acid on a cotton pad, and finish off with a Neutrogena night cream that contains retinol. My skin looks better now than it did two months ago (less acne for sure) but I don’t know how much of that is from the products I use and how much is just from the fact that I’m cleansing regularly.

beth skwarecki, health editor

...even if that means shelling out a lot more money

I’ve never been one to spend a lot of money on skincare—just whatever drugstore cleanser is on sale, possibly followed by a moisturizer if I remember—but I’ve recently been making an effort to take better care of my skin, hair, teeth, etc. Deciding a new job was a reasonable excuse to splurge, I purchased the Kiehl’s Clearly Corrective Brightening & Exfoliating Daily Cleanser and the Midnight Recovery Concentrate. The cleanser **ells and feels amazing, and the concentrate has made my skin noticeably softer (at least to me) in less than a week. Definitely worth the money.

alicia adamczyk, staff writer

Free your neck from the tyranny of too-thick scarves

This is the most nothing hack and I’m still proud of it, fight me. You know how you tie a scarf by folding it in half, wrapping it around your neck, and threading the loose ends through the loop end? If you have a giant scarf that’s bunching up too much around your neck, you only slide ONE of the loose ends through the loop end.

nick douglas, staff writer

Go whole hog with holiday decorating

2017 has been a rough year, as you may have heard, and the world is burning, but there was one bright spot this week: my living room. Because it’s the holiday season, and our (humble) halls, they are decked. We festooned every flat surface with garlands and lights, then hauled in a real Fraser fir tree and decorated the shit out of it, as per our family tradition. Sure, we decorate every year, but we’ve never done it with so much grim determination. Did we drink boozy eggnog while blasting A Motown Christmas? You bet your ass we did. Now that our apartment is fully tricked out, I’ve been looking forward to getting home each night, sitting in front of the tree (with a little more eggnog), and not reading the news. Happy Holidays. I’m going to ride this out for as long as I possibly can.

alice bradley, DEPUTY editor

Organize your photos bit by bit

I take a lot of photos. Wedding shots, pet portraits, and images of various supercars I see in the city fill my hard drive as well as my Instagram page. With one of my New Year’s Resoluti*** being “get a handle on your photos,” I turned to my friend and occasional wedding photographer, Steven, for advice. “Do a little bit of deleting each day,” he said. And so for the past week I’ve spent at least 15 minutes at my computer, dog in lap, combing through my archived photos. I delete the ones I have no use for, flag the ones I love the most, and organize the rest by date or occasion. Slowly but surely I’m getting a handle on all the photos I take, and learning what separates the good ones from the bad (which, more often than not, is my finger on the lens).

patrick austin, staff writer

Re-learn your lost piano skills

I’m picking up the piano again after, oh, 25 years! This was partly inspired by my colleague Nick Douglas’ wonderful “How to Fake Playing Piano” video series. But it was mostly prompted by the fact that my daughter has been taking piano less***, but suddenly doesn’t want to practice. Instead of begging and bribing, I decided to start practicing myself. I started following a YouTube tutorial on “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana (a favorite song in our house), and while I currently suck, it’s reminding me how fun it is to make music. As for my daughter, I’m not worried about whether or not she practices at this point—she’s enjoying her less***, and I’m enjoying mine.

michelle woo, parenting editor

Help out with someone else’s Christmas list

I won’t lie, I’ve been doing an inordinate amount of spending on myself while gift shopping this holiday season. However, this year, I decided to do some giving back for once, via Operation Santa, an annual program organized by USPS. Basically, you “adopt” a letter to Santa from an individual or family in need, and through USPS, arrange to buy and send them Christmas gifts and other necessities. (Note: this pilot program is primarily in New York, but also available in California and some other regi*** throughout the U.S., so check to see if there’s an option in your area.) Planning something nice for a stranger feels 1000 times better than anything else I’ve done this holiday season, hands down.

virginia k. **ith, managing editor