After observing the hearthlings for awhile longer I realized that all the orders to harvest plants or chop down a tree meant that they would walk way out there, chop it down, leave it on the ground and then walk back. They just need to pick up a few things and carry them before they come back and it would be a lot more helpful in the early game.
I know it was mentioned before but,
Some changes to behaviour when carrying items
edit ah this was marked as planned. my bad, looking forward to it being added soon hopefully 