Question Template: Describe Your Work Habits & Productivity Tools

Every week the Lifehacker website posts interviews with noteworthy people who share insights into their work life. They share their secrets to being productive, as well as information about the tools and software they use. For kicks, I decided to answer the questions myself. You can read my answers here, or even better, click here to read about people who are actually, you know, interesting. Even better than that, answer the questions yourself (listed below) and post them for the world to see!

Location:
Current Gig:
One word that best describes how you work:
Current mobile device:
Current computer:

What app/software/tools can't you live without? Why?

What's your workspace setup like?

What's your best time-saving shortcut/life hack?

What's your favorite to-do list manager?

Besides your phone and computer, what gadget can't you live without and why?

What everyday thing are you better at than everyone else?

What do you listen to while you work?

What are you currently reading?

Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert?

What's your sleep routine like?

Fill in the blank: I'd love to see _____________ answer these same questions.

What's the best advice you've ever received?

Is there anything else you'd like to add that might be interesting to readers?

How Does Timberwalkers Get His Work Done? [another question no one asked, finally answered]

Every week the Lifehacker website posts interviews with noteworthy people who share insights into their work life. They share their secrets to being productive, as well as information about the tools and software they use. For kicks, I decided to answer the questions myself. You can read my answers below, or even better, click here to read about people who are actually, you know, interesting. Even better than that, click here for a list of the questions and post your own answers!

Location: Henderson, NC
Current Gig: Ag Extension Agent by day. On nights and weekends I raise pine trees, cut/haul/split firewood, take pictures, write random blog posts, and edit vacation videos.
One word that best describes how you work: Anxiously
Current mobile device: iPod Touch, Generation 5
Current computer: On my desk at home I have a base model Lenovo laptop running Windows 8. For personal travel I have a circa 2005 Toshiba laptop running Ubuntu. At work I have a 12" MacBook Pro, which I love, but frankly I'd be happier if it ran Windows.

What app/software/tools can't you live without? Why?
I'm firmly entrenched in the Google-verse. I use the calendar, productivity software (Drive), blogging platform, maps, and Gmail. I like how they are interconnected/integrated. Also GIMP and Paint.Net, which are free but powerful image editing apps for the desktop.

What's your workspace setup like?

Home workstation

At home I have laptop set up on a stand on my uncle's old writing desk. It's connected to a 15" monitor, giving me two screens. Keyboard is Logitech K120, basic but quite nice. Mouse is wireless, a Logitech M310. My Creative Inspire T10 speakers are quite adequate for filling the living room and kitchen with tunes, and JVC Flats headphones are handy when a certain special someone is watching TV (i.e. ALL THE TIME). At work I plug my MacBook into a second monitor, an Apple "Chiclet" style keyboard and wireless Logitech mouse.

What's your best time-saving shortcut/life hack?
Using Google Calendar to organize and keep up with my schedule, since I can access it from any computer, tablet, etc. I can also "share" it with co-workers so they can keep up with where I am.


What's your favorite to-do list manager?
For personal chores and tasks I use Evernote, which, like Google Calendar, I can view from any computer or device. For work I use this very cool notebook with "re-positionable" pages.

Besides your phone and computer, what gadget can't you live without and why?
My tablet (a 1st generation Kindle Fire). Also my chainsaw. And while I could technically live without it, I absolutely adore my Seiko 5 self-winding watch. When the zombie apocalypse comes and you can't charge your phone, I'll be the guy everyone comes to for the exact time.

What everyday thing are you better at than everyone else?
Felling trees. I've dropped scores of trees and am finally starting to figure out how to sometimes make them more or less fall where I want them to. It's extremely satisfying when it actually happens.

What do you listen to while you work?
Silence. Or the sound of a chainsaw muffled by ear plugs.

My Toshiba Satellite
& Seiko 5

What are you currently reading?
I have trouble finding books I can stick with, but read lots of articles about current events and technology. I also enjoy reading many of the long essays written by bloggers in the Gawker Media domain (e.g. Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Jalopnik, etc.).

Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert?
Introvert, but I can fake extrovert when needed, and actually find it enjoyable for short bursts.

What's your sleep routine like?
Asleep on the couch by 9:30, in bed by 10 or 11, up by 5 or 5:30.

Fill in the blank: I'd love to see _____________ answer these same questions.
Anyone who reads this. Also, Neil Young or Norah Jones.

What's the best advice you've ever received?
This isn't so much advice, but this is what comes to mind. My Dad showed me by example that you can fix and build things yourself. Following that example has encouraged me to tackle many profoundly satisfying projects (building a shed, end table, countertop, etc.) and saved me thousands of dollars in repair costs. My Mom somehow nurtured my sense of exploration, which has led to many hundreds of exciting adventures, from exploring the woods in the neighborhood, to visiting foreign lands.

Is there anything else you'd like to add that might be interesting to readers?
One of the things that has shaped my life is the realization that big projects are comprised of hundreds or thousands of tiny steps over a long period of time. That has given me the confidence to tackle things that I probably had no business tackling.

The Steps to Building a Tiny Fortune

Kate and I have managed to accumulate a small fortune, and by "small" I mean tiny, miniscule. These are the things we've done to get there.

• I have packed my lunch for well over 20 years. Kate has packed hers for nearly 15.
• About 15 years ago we realized that if we saved a little each month, in less time than you think it can add up to a decent little sum.
• About 15 ago years we started keeping an emergency fund for unexpected expenses (see above).
• We never had kids. That helped a lot with the two items directly above.
• We buy used cars and put a lot of miles on them.
• I've learned how to negotiate a reasonably good price when buying cars (thanks Dad!).
• I sell our old cars on Craigslist, rather than trading them in.
• We've either paid cash or made significant down payments on land, homes, and cars, and have never been "upside down" (loan balance > asset value).
• We've never borrowed money except for land, homes and cars. Well, there was an awfully nice tractor that I REALLY needed.
• We recognize that where you bank makes a difference. Doing so can save beaucoup bucks on fees, interest rates and penalties. Clark Howard recommends a small community bank or credit union. You might find a credit union here: www.ncua.gov
• We've managed to get good interest rates on car loans and mortgages.
• Almost every electronic device we own (e.g. computers, tablets, cameras, etc.) was purchased either used or refurb, and they are kept for a long time. They are a notch or two below "top of the line".

Home workstation: refurb base model
Lenovo laptop, used monitor.

• We haven't paid credit card interest in many years, and use reward cards to get a little money back.
• Neither of us spends much money on clothes or jewelry. This is probably the most surprising fact in this list, since we are widely admired as trendsetters in the fashion realm.
• We have non-contract cell phone plans. She has a flip phone, I have a "feature" phone.
• All our homes have been smallish. We lived in a single-wide trailer for 7 years (and loved it!).
• We almost never eat out or go to movies or shows.
• I comparison shop and deal hunt obsessively.
• We both have good jobs with decent salaries and good benefits. 
• We both went back to school later in life to enhance our job skills.
• Our furniture is either homemade, hand-me-down, a Craigslist purchase, or inexpensive "assemble yourself".

A table I made. And a cat.

• It's not that I know how to fix a lot of things, but I'm not afraid to try and can often figure it out. I change the oil in both our cars [this, in my opinion, is a basic skill that everyone should have].
• Instead of zipper seal bags, I use fold top sandwich bags and clip them with a close pin. This saves me about 50 cents per month. In ten years, that's $240 dollars!!!
• For many years we have bought mostly generic brands at the grocery store.
• We have a highly refined system for grocery shopping.
• We don't buy expensive gifts for each other.
• I always shop from a list.
• I recently called the satellite TV company when they yet again raised our rates, informed them I was ready to switch to the OTHER satellite company (and I was) and they matched the price, saving us $700 over the next two years.
• We've never been to Europe, Hawaii, or on a cruise. We did buy a second home on wheels, but it's 14 years old and we paid cash.
• We get cheap haircuts and neither of us spends much time at the spa.
• Both of our parents have generously helped us out from time to time.
• Over 20 year ago I read Your Money or Your Life and it profoundly changed my thinking about money and consumption. Later I read The Millionaire Next Door and The Automatic Millionaire (note that it's rather unlikely that we will ever be millionaires, but the lessons were useful). I have listened to literally hundreds of hours of podcasts of the Clark Howard Show.
• Things we've never bought: silk sheets, expensive art, appliances by Cuisinart, audio equipment by Bose.
• About 15 years ago we began making automatic deposits into retirement accounts (I think I started at $10/month), and have gradually increased the monthly contributions over the years.
• We never had kids.
• We've never had to pay for childcare, piano lessons, summer camp, pediatricians, 529 funds, or car insurance for someone under 18. We have paid for some high end dog food and a fancy vet, but I'm pretty sure we came out ahead on that deal (looking at it from a strictly financial standpoint).

My tractor. Splurge? Or necessity?
Admit it, you want one, too.

Ultimately I believe it's possible for someone to make significant changes in their financial situation by making many small decisions over a period of a decade or two. Of course, income level may place significant constraints on the degree of that change. That said, I don't believe it's bad to splurge on things that provide great joy, be it silk sheets, Caribbean cruises or top of the line electronics. Certainly both of us make occasional splurges (but let me tell you, that tractor is SWEET!).

Nor is it to suggest that personal circumstances or crises can't blow it all to hell, in spite of one's best efforts. I hope there's not a hint of judgment here. There are also many times I regret the "not having kids" thing, and I am deeply envious of the joy and love they bring to those of you who chose differently. My goal is just to say that we've made a modest accomplishment, and these are some of the things we did to get there, but I realize that a lot of it is due to the luck of circumstances [June 2021 update: It's also clear to me now how the unearned privileges of being white have benefited us profoundly].

But in any case, here's a pair of cheap earbuds that sound decent: http://www.cnet.com/products/panasonic-ergo-fit/

You're welcome!

Burning Wood

For most of you, if you are feeling a little chilly you walk to an LCD panel on the wall and press the "up" arrow a few times. We have that option too, and choose it often enough, but we also have another; build a fire.

Several times a week we choose the latter, burning wood we harvest from our own land.

It's messy, dragging firewood into the house and ashes out. It's also time-consuming. From the time I notice a chill to the time the temperature begins to rise, a good half hour has passed. The cutting, hauling, stacking and splitting takes a minute or two as well. Although I've never tabulated, I suspect I spend four or five hours a week through the winter dealing with fires and firewood.

I have delusions of frugality, and love the concept of a free source of heat. And besides a bit of gas for the chainsaw, the wood we harvest is completely free. Just a little diesel in the tractor. Well, there was the hydraulic wood splitter I bought, and the basket for the back of the tractor to haul wood out of the forest. A few miscellaneous tools. And I'll need a new chainsaw soon, got my eye on a nice Husqvarna. So yes, basically a free source of heat.

You might wonder if it's worth it, and I sometimes wonder as well when those of you with gas logs can just turn a knob. And in fact I completely missed the terms "Vent Free Fireplace" written on the house plans. Fortunately, the contractor asked us early on about where to place the LP tank, and realized we would need a chimney instead. [You do just turn a knob, right? Because there is a nice spot behind the house for an LP tank.]

We have four racks of firewood (about a cord altogether). Each winter as we empty a rack, I cut down enough wood to fill it back up for the NEXT winter. I'm fairly confident with a chainsaw and I've gotten pretty good at felling trees (where "pretty good" means most of the time the tree falls where it wants and usually gets hung up on the way down).

I split it as we burn it, about a wagonload at a time, and yes, by "wagonload" I'm referring to the Radio Flyer variety. That lasts us about a week.

Most winter evenings we have a fire after work, and usually can warm the main living area to 71 degrees or a little higher. The furnace doesn't kick in until well after we've gone to bed. A space heater in the bedroom gets that room warm for bedtime.

These tasks add a rhythm to our days and months and year.

Or we could just go to that LCD panel on the wall and hit the up arrow a few times.

But burning wood connects us a little more solidly to the forest that surrounds us. It keeps us in tune with the world outside. It warms the home in a way that a heat pump never could.

Mostly, though, we do it for the dogs.

Random Car Memories

A Boy Scout camping trip to Kerr Lake, me and Dad sleeping in the reclining seats of the car because the tent got flooded, a blue 1974 Austin Marina which sounds cool and exotic and British, and while it was actually British, it was a P.O.S. that would not go over 45 mph and the EGR warning light stayed on all the time, and I don't think we ever did figure out what EGR meant.

Me and Mom running around the car to switch seats at a stop sign with a couple cars behind us, because I was just learning how to drive and it was a 1977 Chevy Nova with a three-speed manual and the stop sign was at the top of a hill (the one at Albemarle and Hobbs) and I was scared I was going to roll back into the car behind me.

My first car, a 1977 Datsun B210 Honeybee, which is just as cool as it sounds, and which was bright yellow (of course!) and which got handed down to my older sister (how does that work?) and which I later found out she drove on the beach in Florida, but Mom and Dad didn't know she was in Florida, and then it broke down on the beach and I think I need to talk to Sis to find out the rest of the story.

Mom looking cute next to my Honda.

My second car, a 1978 Honda Civic hatchback, which actually is probably my favorite car I've ever owned, and although it was pretty sluggish off the line, could corner like a demon and could handle snowy roads like nobody's business, and even if you drove off into a snow drift, as long as you had a couple of big guys riding with you, you could pretty much lift it out of the snow drift back onto the road if, for example, you were in Boone visiting friends and doing stupid shit.

My best friend's 1976 Trans Am with a big bird on the hood and a 455 under, absolutely the coolest car ever made.

Dad's 1977 F150 Balloon
Chase Vehicle, a story of it's own

My parent's 1969 Plymouth Satellite station wagon, a battleship of a car, with a back seat and a "way-back" (the cargo area behind the back seat) with a chrome roof rack which you would never need because you could carry an entire living room suite inside, the car we drove on beach vacations and visits to Grandma, Rhonda and I riding in the "way-back" making sure none of the other's stuff crossed the invisible line down the middle.

My Dad's 1977 Datsun F10 two-door station wagon, which was probably HIS favorite car ever, but which several noted Auto magazines have identified as one of the ugliest cars ever (2nd to the AMC Pacer), yellow with a vinyl wood grain decal down each side, and which he let me drive to school on the first day I had my license, and man I thought I was cool! but then the pretty girl from Band wouldn't go out to lunch with me so I went by myself, isn't that sad?

Chronicle of the Hunt 2014

[Because "chronicle" sounds more impressive than "story"]

When people ask what kind of shooting stick I use, I'm always a bit embarrassed to admit it's a 20-gauge single shot. Most people hunt deer with a high-powered rifle, which gives them probably three times the range. A good friend jokes that I should get a gun that will shoot further than I can spit. But today I put another deer on the ground, my third. It was a big doe (in my eyes, anyway) and fulfills my goal of getting one deer each year. It will be enough for plenty of green bean casseroles, chili soups and home-made pizzas.

My choice was largely driven by economics and simplicity. Even new, it's a sub-$150 gun (mine was less, from a pawn shop). I've got one shot, I want it to count, and I won't pull the trigger if I'm in doubt. I also love that I can break it open, making it obviously safe, no fiddling or searching for a safety button. Perfect for a newbie like me. Yes, it's got limited range, but my hunting grounds are thickly wooded. I've also come to learn how stand placement can make a big difference. I've gotten comfortable with it; holding, aiming and firing are natural, automatic. All that being said, I am not prepared to rule out graduating to something more substantial at some point.

A Visit to Greensboro or All the News that's not on Facebook

Kate and I took an early October trip to the Greensboro area, staying at Hagan-Stone, a little gem of a park and campground near Pleasant Garden. The leaves had the lightest dusting of Autumn. Fleece jackets and fuzzy sweaters added to a feeling of pleasant melancholy.

We had come mostly to visit my Mom, Dad and sister and her family, but also for a short get-a-away and some hiking through the park.

Mom and Dad are well into their elder years, but the kind of elder years we'd all be so lucky to have, with a nice home, places to go and good friends to see. Yet there is the tension between gratefulness for what you have and grief over what's been lost.

We treasure our time together, as well as our weekly phone conversations, realizing that our allotment of minutes for chatting and visiting is not as inifinite as it once seemed. We are all aware of that, and are wise enough to relish and savor them.

Sister married a sweet man, who also became a loving and involved father. Two of their brood have fledged, and we heard news of their adventures. We let all the "dog cousins" loose in the backyard, and they romped around joyously, then we sat down to break bread and reminisce. We see them far too infrequently, Kate and I caught up in our daily "priorities" which we so often get completely wrong.

Kate and I enjoyed our strolls through Hagan-Stone Park, the old farm ponds glassy in the morning, reflecting the traces of fall. There were brief moments of magic when all felt right and time seemed to stop. We posted pictures on Facebook showing the grand time we had.

But the Facebook posts did not include details of how our hiking stride has slowed, miles covered are fewer, and sore joints more common. We left out anxiety about the fragility of aging parents. We failed to report about the stresses of our jobs, that we were so happy to escape for a brief time.

We each have our share of daily struggles. Some share those freely with friends and Facebook, others hold theirs close. Mine include frequent spells of back soreness and tightness, plus a general sense that my life somehow doesn't measure up, combined with the expectation that lightening will strike at any moment. I am probably a classic candidate for at least a glass of wine each evening, if not something a bit stronger.

We also each meet with tragedy sooner or later. Some of us bear more than others. Likely most of you have borne more than me, and I'm not sure what grace or good fortune accounts for that. It's oft been said that God won't give us more than we can bear, but I wonder if those who experience violence, starvation and torture would agree.

There's a balance, isn't there, between soaking up the pleasures of the moment and acknowledging the grief we feel over opportunity lost, injuries and injustices, both received and given.

But instead of wine, I drink up forest strolls with Kate, conversations with Mom and Dad, visits with my dear sister and her sweet family, and relaxing in the camper on a sunny fall afternoon, the stresses of the world forgotten if only for a moment.