Open Office Writer - 99% of writing done here
OO Excel - Timelines!
Notepad - Yeah that base windows program. Perfect for notes, especially because .txt files are smaller than .doc
Paint.NET - specific text, gradients, box shapes, some color adjustments via levels, or blur tools that are overall.
Paint Tool SAI - 99% of art is done here, super nifty considering how you can customize brushes. the "vector" line tool is awesome.
I've tried a multitude of other programs (MS Word, WordPad, Notepad++, Gimp, PS, and what not) and none of them jive with my style of drawing. It speaks a lot about the UI (looking at you PS) where you have to spend forever to learn it, and isn't intuitive. I used another drawing program that was Japanese, openCanvas, that was like drawing on real paper and was nice - but it was a trial version (super limiting), and as soon as I was able to make a similar brush in SAI, I saw no need for it. If you're like me an really into how your CPU/RAM is used, look into oC. It's super light, even with big canvases.
For traditional art, I dabble around but mostly it's a specific paperstock meant for markers, colored pencils, and/or copics. For something that requires forced relaxation to color, I use crayons. (I actually hate coloring anything digitally. It doesn't get the same depth of color I want.)