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Let us now praise Post-it notes


Taking Notes
Originally uploaded by philgyford.

Phil Gyford has a neat trick, by which he adds a few large Post-it notes to the inside cover of a book he’s starting to read. Handy way to make notes on the go.

I’m also a big fan of these removable/re-placeable Avery Write-On tabs, which you can stick in the front cover of your Moleskine or similar notebook. Makes it easy to do the Jerry Brito trick—creating ad hoc sections and shifting the location of your current TODO page, etc.

In other news, Amazon should be delivering my copy of Rapid Problem Solving with Post-it Notes tomorrow. Dunno if it’ll be any good, but it does look intriguing and got good reviews.

Got a good sticky-note trick to share? Planning? Brainstorming? Contextual notes?

Mary Root's picture

Two good post-it applications from...

Two good post-it applications from people more famous than me:

I read an interview with Martin Scorsese where he said he got his best ideas at night. He would wander around his house with a pad of post-it notes. When he got an idea, he'd write it down and slap it on the wall. In the morning, he'd pull down the post-its and start writing.

My results- interesting way to brainstorm while in procrastination mode. I often tell myself I either have to write or clean the house. Post-its on the wall is a good way to get ideas down while cleaning.

Mystery novelist Jane Langton does her outlines with post-it notes - the tiny ones, mostly. She tacks a long piece of butcher paper (the kind they sell in rolls at Staples) on the wall and sticks the post-its to that. She is also an artist, so she includes little pictures of scenes and such. She likes the paper because she can move the post its around as much as she likes, and the project storyboard can be rolled up and archived or moved to another workplace. (Note: make sure sticky edge of post-it faces the direction the paper will be rolled in.)

My results - when working on a project with an outline/timeline, this is a good method. You can also draw horizontal lines on the paper for team members, completion stages, etc. and move the post-its back and forth between them.

 
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