Bosses around the country are bracing for the inevitable plummet in productivity from all employees that are interested in shifting brackets, office pools and their hometown team competing in this year’s NCAA national championship tournament. According to this annual survey conducted by staffing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., 50 million Americans are expected to participate in March Madness pools this year and $1.2 billion will be spent on lost productivity hours during the first week of the tournament.

If you are part of that 50 million and you’ve got a boss that’s keeping an extra close eye on you over the next couple weeks, there are a number of ways to feed your March Madness addiction without tipping off the higher ups to your insatiable thirst for checking score updates every 30 seconds.

Mobile + Privacy Filter + Wireless Audio for the win

If not obvious already, streaming video or checking on your brackets using your work PC can be risky business. In addition, any company that tracks your online usage will be able to see what sites you are visiting. You would be much better off isolating all your March Madness needs to a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet. Of course, that’s assuming you have a stable, anonymous Wi-Fi connection to use or you have a heck of a data plan that can handle a bit of video streaming.

If you don’t have a tablet yet, you are fairly safe going with any recent iOS, Android or Windows tablet. The NCAA has released an app for all of these tablets (iOS, Android, Windows Phone) and you can stream games directly to them. Even the Kindle Fire HD line of tablets has access to the NCAA app for live streaming, despite the platform’s reputation to slowly add third party applications. Be aware that streaming non-CBS games will require authentication with your premium cable or satellite TV provider.

In order to keep prying eyes off your mobile device, 3M makes a screen protector for tablets, smartphones and laptops that’s specifically designed to protect your privacy. Basically, it restricts the field of vision for anyone that’s looking at the device from a different angle than you. For example, you can keep a March Madness video stream open on your tablet and everyone that passes by your desk will just see a black screen, basically as if the tablet was turned off.

Check Amazon Price on 3M Privacy Filter

But what about the audio? If you have already invested in a Bluetooth headset for calls, consider popping that onto your ear and streaming the audio from the video stream over Bluetooth. If anything, you will look like you could be talking a call and your office mates will leave you alone. Assuming you are allowed to listen to music in the office, you could also use a pair of regular wireless headphones. If you use a wired pair, the cord is something of an obvious tell when it’s connected directly to your tablet or smartphone.

Check Amazon for Deals on Bluetooth Headsets

Of course, if your office is limiting bandwidth in order curtail video streaming, it’s time to switch to audio. Westwood One is audio streaming coverage of all games on their site and you can also find those streams on the TuneIn Radio app for iOS, Android and Windows phones. Also, if you pay for premium radio, SiriusXM is streaming all the games as well as ESPN Radio coverage / commentary during the tournament.

If You Must Use Your PC, You Can Never Be Too Careful

For all the people stuck with their work PC, here’s a collection of other privacy tools that will help you hide your incurable need to watch your bracket slowly devolve into a mess of terrible choices. Seriously, why didn’t you just listen to Nate Silver this year?!

Rearview Monitor Mirror

Ideal for spotting anyone sneaking up behind your cubicle, this concave mirror allows you to spot anyone spying on your work. So, if you need to Alt+Tab away from your brackets, this early warning system will help. Oh and what does the acronym stand for? “Chimp Has Invincible Monkey Powers”

Check Amazon for the Monitor Mirror

The Big Red Panic Button

While the NCAA has include a “Boss Button” of sorts within the NCAA Web application, this is a physical version of that concept that allows you to customize the action that happens on your computer over the USB connection. Want to launch a spreadsheet? No problem. Want to fire up your Web browser with the company site? Easy.

Check Amazon for Big Red Panic Button

Pro Level: Build Your Own Laser Tripwire that Tweets Photos

Do you have a bit more technical knowledge than the average cubicle drone? Check out this detailed guide at Instructables to learn how to build your own laser tripwire system that both tweets and triggers webcam photos. Setup this little device discretely near your cubicle and receive a tweet alert each time someone breaks the field. Sneaky, Sneaky.

Stuck in the office? Here’s how to sneak in your March Madness fix

Spring is just around the corner, which means March will be your last chance to grab the last of the great winter clothes deals that you’ve been seeing the last couple of months. At Ben’s Bargains, we’ve seen a huge volume of apparel deals in January and February and some have been genuinely noteworthy with Columbia Sportswear taking 50% off select jackets.

You’ll have to wait another half a year before you see a rush of good apparel deals (see Back to School season).

Also, with Easter falling on a late date this year (April 20th), retailers will have more time to extend spring sales and push Easter candy, cards and flowers earlier on consumers.  What else is in store in March? Let’s take a look:

Next Gen is Here and Getting Cheaper

In late February, Microsoft announced that it will be releasing the Xbox One bundled with the hotly anticipated Titanfall game for $500 on March 11th. (It’s even less if you pre-order with a special Microsoft Store 5% off code by texting MSHS to 29502 on your phone.) There are two ways to look at this news: you’re getting a great game for free or Microsoft has basically knocked 50 bucks off the price of the standard console, which is exactly what they did in the U.K.

Either way, anyone who waited it out can now get a decent deal on the Xbox One, while the early adopters will cringe at such a rapid price drop a mere three months after launch.

On the PlayStation 4 front, members of PlayStation Plus will get the new Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition for PS4 as a free download on March 5th. PS3 owners will get the excellent Tomb Raider reboot for free. Not shabby.

Home Improvement

With the harsh winter weather dampening revenue and damaging homes, big box retailers Home Depot and Lowe’s are widely expected to aggressively push sales this spring.  Towards the end of the month, you’ll see “Black Friday in Spring” sales at Home Depot roll out on multiple weekends and in different geographic regions. Region-specific pricing is not uncommon for the home improvement category.

According to Businessweek, grills, patio furniture and cordless mowers will be getting the doorbuster treatment, so watch for the weekly sales flyers.

March Madness

Although not as big a push as the Super Bowl HDTV sales, college basketball’s annual frenzy of playoff games inspires another round of discounts on big-screen TVs. In fact, in terms of ad revenue, March Madness makes more money now than the Super Bowl and the NFL playoffs. Retailers will be eager to take advantage of this audience as well as the tax refunds that start trickling in around this time.

The first round of the NCAA Tournament starts on March 18th, so expect to see some deals on last year’s and this year’s models in the lead-up. Last year, Amazon held a March Madness TV and electronics sale with discounts ranging from 20% to 50% off.

The next few weeks will see the highest volume of TV discounts that you’ll be seeing until the fall, as summer is traditionally a slow time for TV sales.

The Next Big Thing

The next installment of the mega-popular Samsung Galaxy S series smartphones arrives next month when the Galaxy S5 makes its debut on April 11th. You should see heavier discounts and sales on existing Galaxy S4 unlocked and subsidized phones in the weeks before the newest phone’s launch.

The Galaxy S5 will be packed with new features like water-resistant shell, personal fitness tracker and a fingerprint scanner like the one used by its chief rival, the Apple iPhone 5s. The question now is, how will the iPhone 6 respond when it’s released later in the fall?

Other high-profile smartphones like the Sony Xperia Z2 and the LG G2 mini will be arriving in North America in March, and the LG G Pro 2 and Desire 816 will kick off in April. The flood of brand-new phones will be good news for consumers who like to wait to get hot deals on the outgoing old generation products.

Spring Break

Because Spring Break is such an in-demand time of year to travel, it can be rough finding travel deals. The key is to find the cheapest dates or days of the week. If at all possible, avoid the two weeks after March 16th because those are the most popular dates and the most expensive airfares.

Also, the general rule of thumb for saving money on airfares is to to book your plane ticket at least 15 days before traveling. Lastly, try to do Monday to Monday or Tuesday to Tuesday roundtrip fares which are much cheaper on average (up to 20%).

Purchasing tickets in the late afternoon on Tuesdays has long been considered the best time of the week to find sales from the major airlines, but it’s not a hard and fast rule. Some people consider the weekend a good time to book cheap airfares.

Don’t Forget Deal Alerts

If you want to make sure you don’t miss any upcoming March deals on Ben’s Bargains, don’t forget to set up deal alerts (registration required). You’ll receive an instant email and get the first chance to jump on a great deal before it disappears. And the best deals are gone fast!

You’re also welcome to send us tips or suggestions. Good luck!

– Mike Flacy contributed to this report.

Waste Not, Want Not: Best Deals to Buy in March