Without stopping to think

Answer this week's questions without stopping to think — in five seconds or less.

Which of these handheld tools seems to fit you best: a pen, a screwdriver, or a stopwatch?

This week's theme is In Five Seconds or Less.

The written word

How has new technology affected your reading habits? With so much information available online, are you reading fewer books, newspapers, and magazines than you did a few years ago?

Tools of the trade

What is one tool on hand at your workplace that you enjoy having a chance to use?

Do you generally have the right tools at your job for the things that you're asked to do, or do you sometimes have to improvise and struggle with tool that don't quite fit the task?

This week's theme is your workplace.

@

How many different e-mail addresses do you use to receive e-mail?

Do you have separate e-mail addresses for work, home, online shopping, and that book club you belong to? Or do you use the same inbox for everything?

Making it your own

Do you personalize your machines? Machines can be adapted to suit your personal workstyle, customized to handle the specific tasks that you do most often, and decorated to express your personality.

Think of your own machines and devices. What is one that you personalized in some interesting way?

This week's theme is you and machines.

Gadget sacrifice

Thinking about all of those machines that you use every day, which one would it be hardest to live without? How would your life change if you could never use it again?

This week's theme is you and machines.

Your faithful assistant

If you had to pick one out of all the machines that you use, which one is your specialty, your area of mastery? When a job needs to be done with this machine, people are likely to defer to you or at least to ask your advice. Which machine reveals its subtle secrets to you and reliably does your bidding?

This week's theme is you and machines.

A thing about machines

How is your relationship with machines? Do you resent every gadget you're forced to deal with? Do you revel in every new toy? Do you just...coexist with them?

This week's theme is you and machines.

You and machines

Anyone reading this post is intimately connected with machines — anything powered by something other than muscle. (According to one thesaurus, synonyms for "machine" include: apparatus, appliance, device, contraption, contrivance, mechanism, engine, gadget, tool.) Machines take up a tremendous amount of space in our lives, whether you work as a programmer, a mechanic for NASA, or a baker. We really know how dependent we are on machines when we lose access to them, as in a power outage.

What are 5 machines you used today? What are 5 machines you use every day?

This week's theme is you and machines.