Guru, I need something to do with my hands!

AMay GaGu suggest smoking? It’s... Ah. Hold on. Guru’s bedraggled counsel is suggesting that this is poor advice, despite what that strongsmelling man with the cough said. How about a nice butterfly knife? Oh. Not that either? Johnny Sevenfingers will be most disappointed. Best, er, knuckle down to a proper answer, then.

It is in our nature to fiddle. For some, this compulsion is much stronger than it is for others; people with ADD, ADHD, D&D and the like often need something with which they can keep their hands occupied, just so they can keep their mind on a single task. Luckily there’s a growing market for what are known, it appears, as ‘fidget toys’, and these can aid concentration and focus in just about anybody.

Guru has seen many a dedicated knife-flicking ‘EDC’ enthusiast switch to a much-less aggressive but similarly satisfying spinner toy, made of several skateboard bearings put through a 3D printer. They’re currently available, in limited supply, on sites such as Etsy for about £25 – go for a three-pronged variety, since the two-legged jobs are hard to get your fingers hooked around – but expect a Chinese factory to be fired up soon and the price to go down.

Alternatively there are much cheaper twisty things (technical term) made of bike chain components and keyrings, which go for about £4, and which you could probably keep your fingers busy constructing for slightly less than that.

The real gems, though, seem to be coming from Kickstarter. Fully funded examples include the Alpha, a CNC-milled spinning top/hand spinner hybrid which will set you back a ludicrous $190 (£155), and the wildly successful why-didn’t-Guruthink-of-it-first $25 (£20.50) Fidget Cube. With buttons (some clicky, some not), a rocker switch, a little ball, a joystick, a thing to rub, spinners, rollers and a massive £4.5 million plus in funding, it’s fair to say that a lot of compulsive fingerers will be seriously happy when this one lands.