#Five cool tools that will help you work from home and boost efficiency

You think your workday is over. Then you walk by your monitor and see your Slack aglow with those ill-fated red bubbles. After what you think is 10 minutes spent reading them, you realize it’s actually four hours later and that “Little Fires Everywhere” marathon will have to wait. Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

“Most of us have spent our careers training ourselves to be productive when at work, and to unwind when we’re at home,” says Paul Greene, a psychologist at the Manhattan Center for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. “Our home became a conditioned cue for us to relax. Now we’re being asked to use our homes for work and relaxing, and that mixed message can hamper our productivity.”

The good news is that with some discipline and a few helpful tools, you can overcome these difficulties.

Inbox When Ready (free)

They say that life is what happens while you’re checking e-mails. I was lamentably in that camp until I downloaded this free Chrome browser extension for Gmail.

The Inbox When Ready app primarily works by hiding your inbox, so you can search for messages and write new e-mails without getting distracted. It also lets you create a daily budget for how much time you want to spend in your inbox, and how many times you want to check e-mail per day. (If you go over, there’s the option to implement draconian measures like adding a five-minute delay before your inbox is displayed.)

Users can also schedule a lockout to designate times when you can’t access your inbox. Inspired by BJ Fogg, who founded the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University, the tool is based on the Fogg Behavior Model and is designed to help you stay focused while dealing with e-mail.

Alleged to help you reclaim at least an hour of your life every week, the free version stamps your e-mails with “I’m using Inbox When Ready to protect my focus” below your signature. For overachievers, there’s also an enhanced version that costs $4 per month and includes additional features like turning off category tab notifications, the capability to disable the signature message and more.

Bulbrite Solana LED smart light bulb ($13.99)

Pre-pandemic, the transition from your office building to your home was an obvious signifier that the workday was over. Now, the lines are more blurred than ever.

These affordable, color-changing LED bulbs help create a visual cue to step away from the computer by switching to warm lighting when the clock strikes 6 p.m. (or whatever time you designate in the app). You can also set the mood for various time blocks during your day when you need to amp up your focus by using the customized settings for cool lighting.

Wired headset

Sometimes it pays to go old school. Take it from Amy Bryant, a strategic sales and marketing partner at Geriatric Healthcare Consultants, who has been working remotely for more than 15 years.

“Many people like the idea of a wireless headset to walk around while working, but the physical act of bringing work into other areas of your home truly does blur lines, making it difficult to ‘turn off’ at the end of the day,” she says.

By using a corded headset, she can “truly compartmentalize and keep work from migrating into my home life by keeping me anchored to a designated workspace. So, my husband, as well as my kids, know that when the headset is on, whether I’m talking or not, I’m at work and not to interrupt unless there’s an emergency.”

Simple Habit (free version, or $7.49 per month, $299 for lifetime access)

It may seem counterintuitive, but carving out time each day to meditate will actually make you feel like you have more time in your day. There are many apps to choose from, but Simple Habit offers a slew of “at work” programming whether you want to improve your focus or feel happier during the 9-to-5 grind.

The app also boasts the inimitable counsel of mindfulness coach Cory Muscara, a Long Islander and instructor of positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, who has spent time living as a monk. In his nearly 200 recordings on the app, he proves adept at soothing the tension of even the most frazzled New Yorker, sans corniness.

Cubii Pro ($349)

There’s a reason virtually every expert you talk to, from doctor to therapist, productivity pros to HR specialists, will tell you that exercise is key to optimizing work-life balance. What they won’t tell you is that you can make like Zeus by working and torching calories simultaneously.

This smart elliptical fits under your desk and the app lets you track strides, time elapsed and more. (It also syncs with the Fitbit, Apple HealthKit and Apple Watch.)

Another thing they won’t tell you — you’ll find yourself with an extra hour at the end of the workday since you already logged your cardio. That’s a twofer we could all use.

That “Little Fires Everywhere” marathon won’t have to wait, after all.