10 Things I Can’t Live Without

With pictures and fun anecdotes

The impetus for this idea came a GQ YouTube series, wherein various celebs show-off the 10 things they can’t live without. I’m sorta addicted to it. It’s endlessly fascinating. Here’s Dan Levy’s:

I thought it might be fun to show some of my essential things, and maybe prompt you to share yours!

Sit-Stand desk

As a IT professional with over 20 years in the field, I have come to learn the importance of proper ergonomics. Carpal tunnel is real and it would really muck with my Xbox stick skills. So I bought a nice sit-stand desk after I started working from home full-time in January 2020. Here’s what it looked like then:

Now that I work from home, I practically live at my desk M-F for 8–10 hours. My desk has become somewhat messy. You know how it goes: you set something down because you don’t quite know where else to put it at the moment, and then it sorta blends in and you forget about it.

My desk, this morning:

Messiness aside, the absolute best thing about this desk is raising it to standing height so I can listen to music and dance around while I work on something. If I can’t dance poorly while nobody is looking, what am I even doing here?

MacBook M1 Air

The device upon which I am writing this article. It mostly sits off to the side so I can work on the dual monitors for my day job. But I usually take a couple of 10–15 minute breaks throughout the day to do some writing.

It’s the first MacBook I’ve ever owned and I will never go back to junky Windows laptops. There is something so satisfying about typing on this thing. I have no empirical evidence to back this up, but I’m positive that every word I’ve written on this is more magical than if I’d used my PC.

Great Fiction

I’m a sucker for beautiful prose. I like to have a really great novel nearby to help prime the pump before I write fiction. The Road, a constant companion, can be glimpsed in the messy desk picture.

You know a book has gotten its claws into you when you start taking it literally everywhere you go. Paul Combs turned me onto The Shadow of the Wind a couple of months ago, and I finally started it last week. It now follows me to “work” and sits on my desk, taunting me, whispering. Take a break. Just a few pages. We won’t tell.

I’ve taken to opening the book whenever I stop to eat something. I’m suddenly hungry all the time.

Sony headphones

I got these for Christmas like 4–5 years ago. When I was traveling for work, I used them in the airport to listen to podcasts. Now that I’m working at home, I throw them on to jam in the afternoon. They are especially necessary as the music I listen to isn’t always family-friendly. Do ‘parental advisory’ warnings still apply if you are the parent in the equation?

This headphones are noise canceling if you turn up the music enough. They feature heavily in the dancing I talked about earlier. It’s like Footloose, but with less hay bales and tractors.

iPhone

I would be lost without my phone, but not for the reason you think.

Sure, I spend some time on social media, and I love texting friends. But 90% of my phone time is spent writing or doing writing-adjacent activities: running FanFare; reading stories on Medium; participating in a Medium group on Facebook.

Writing comes only after my family and my day job, so being able to be productive wherever I am is a huge benefit.

Pilot G-2 pens

I told my wife last Christmas that I needed some new pens. She responded by buying a 20-pack from Costco and quite literally stuffing my stocking with pens. Pens for days.

The Pilot G-2 can’t be beat in terms of inkiness and writability.

Journal

I started actively journaling in 2019. At the time, I thought it’d be useful to capture big picture stuff and internal musings, but looking back at entries from back then, I’m mostly interested in random stuff my kids did, or what video game I was playing at the time, or something else that seemed perfectly boring to write down at the time.

When I journal now, I mostly capture the seemingly mundane stuff. What we did, what we ate, what we said. Our life, in other words.

I bought a bunch of themed Moleskines on clearance at a Barnes & Noble a few years back, something like $5 a piece. They really are great notebooks.

30 ounce Yeti tumbler

I drink a lot of water, and this baby is always near to hand. I aim to drink 3 of these a day. You might think that means I’m peeing constantly but I seem to have an enormous bladder because that’s not the case.

Most people probably buy these for coffee. I don’t drink coffee, or tea. Yeah, I know. Weird. I just drink lots of water. This baby keeps it cold. Bonus that it is in my favorite color.

Kindle Paperwhite

I am a huge fan of eBooks in general and the Kindle ecosystem specifically. I had one of the early versions of the Kindle and the reading experience was clunky. So I mostly read on my phone using the Kindle app.

Last year, I picked up a Kindle Paperwhite and a faux leather case, and I fell in love. The reading experience on the Paperwhite is sublime and so satisfying. Not the same as a physical book, but damn good.

I’m currently reading this book by Sarah Paris and it is absolutely hilarious.

Dungeons & Dragons

If you know me, this one probably isn’t surprising. If nothing else, I am a huge nerd.

I was introduced to the game back when I was 12 and it completely changed my life. I have no doubt that those early experiences — in addition to Star Wars, naturally — lead me to this writing thing.

I put my game on hiatus a couple of years ago because I wanted to spend more time writing. During COVID, one of my friends started a new online game. It was light in the dark. It was life. I didn’t realize how much the game meant to me until then. Those games quickly became the highlight of my week.

Show me yours!

I am endlessly fascinated by the lives of creatives. I’m tagging some friends hoping they’ll participate. If you want to play along — whether you are listed here or not — post a story with your 10 things and tag some friends. Please include me so I can read it! Let’s all use the same tag to make these easy to find: 10EssentialThings

What are 10 things you can’t live without?

Paul Combs, Danielle Loewen, Sarah Paris, Simon Dillon, Aimée Gramblin, Patrick Metzger, Jessie Waddell, Garrett Warren, Lindsay Rae Brown

Eric writes about pop culture here at Medium and is second-guessing his 10 essential things. If you’d like to see what else he’s working on, check out his newsletter.