Our Favorite Gear

MeDose 6-Alarm Vibrating Wristwatch; $140; www.epill.com

Michael Bell, Co-founder and CEO, Dealhack.com

Running a startup is never a 9-to-5 job, which means I get up hours before the rest of my family and spend my days running from one meeting to the next. To wake up in the morning and stay on schedule throughout the day, I've tried more than my share of silent alarms, but they were either so quiet that I slept right through them or so poorly designed that they'd fall off my waistband.

I'm not the type to give up so easily. Determined to find the perfect solution, I decided to try the MeDose, which is actually marketed as a device to help people remember to take their medication. But I've found that it works just as well for a busy executive. It has a strong pulse and six alarms that I can set a minute apart to make sure I wake up without disturbing my wife. I can then reset the alarms to ensure that I stay on track at the office. My one complaint is the device's cumbersome user interface. I still haven't quite figured it out, so I'm forever having to thumb through the user manual. Even so, this is one of the best productivity investments I've ever made.