The scenario I am about to describe happens to everyone. The scenario happens to some people more than others, but it happens to everyone. The scenario is the “I forgot” scenerio where something was important, needed to get done by the end of the day, and did not get completed.
Some people encounter the scenario too many times. I used to encounter the scenario frequently as well. The goal of writing 4 blog posts in 1 day turned into a day where no blog posts were written simply because I forgot about the goal. Other goals took its place and I used my time doing different things.
That problem stopped happening once I decided to use more sticky notes. I have all of my sticky notes next to my computer. While I am typing, I quickly look over the sticky notes to remind me of everything that I need to do for the day. Sometimes I use 3 sticky notes in 1 day. Other times, I use 10 sticky notes in 1 day. The amount of sticky notes I use primarily depend on how many things I need to do before the end of the day.
Although I did not start doing this in the New Year, I am going to start saving all of the sticky notes. At the end of 2014, I am going to look at all of the sticky notes that I wrote for the first half of January, and all of the 11 months of the year. Then, I’ll lay them all out on a table to see all of the goals I gave myself to accomplish in the year. We will all be able to figure out if all of the sticky notes will take up the entire table or if I need a second table to put my sticky notes on.
Sticky notes allow me to remember what needs to be done so I have less “I forgot” scenarios. After I write something on a sticky note, the only thing left to do is implement. Sticky notes have become a big part of my success, and when you use sticky notes, they will become a part of your success as well.
Hi, Marc: I would have loved to hear why you think sticky notes are better than a simple “To Do” list, where you check one thing off after it’s completed.
Great question Christina. In my opinion, sticky notes take up less space. In addition, I don’t like to put checkmarks. I prefer crossing things out as I accomplish them. Then once I have a sticky note with enough cross outs, I write on a new sticky note and exclude the things that I crossed out. That way, my workload looks smaller on paper.
If you have more ideas per day, when you can implement in a day, the pile of things to do becomes endless. There need to be rules to skip things.
Of course, to say “what you have forgotten wasn’t worth to be done” might be too simple.
However, how can you concentrate to work on a 4h task, with always having a board of posts in front of you, telling you what else have to be done also.
Doesn’t this cause some level of frustration, if you know the board will never be empty ?
I remember, in your age, I was also optimistic like: what I don’t do this year – I do next year.
But by time I realize, there are always new things coming up, faster than you are able to solve the old ones.
I prefer spiral bound note books, the notes don’t get lost, they need less space, and you can remove a single page very fast without destroying the book.
I guess there is a sticky notes app for the smartphone meanwhile, to become mobile 😉
Have sticky notes an advantage over things like Evernote ?
I do not use sticky note or notebook apps, but I use physical sticky notes and notebooks. Sticky notes are just there to serve as reminders of your goals. I do not write down goals on my sticky notes that would take a long period of time. I only write the goals on sticky notes that can be implemented in a day and then write on a piece of paper all of the goals I need to accomplish for the week.
A cool thing you can do with the sticky notes is to put them all in envelops with the name of the month. At the end of the year, I will be able to look back at all of the sticky notes I wrote and recall what I was thinking when I wrote those sticky notes. Sticky notes encourage productivity and force people to put in more time to get the goal accomplished.
Marc, you are insane, like sickly… Awesomely… INSANE! And I love it. This whole sticky note concept is great, and I am the one who gets all excited about a few sticky notes for my goals, then gets too many and I literally stop seeing them. What would you do?
Hello Asenath,
Thank you for the kind words. They mean a lot to me.
Have a limit of 5 sticky notes at a time. Overwhelming yourself and underwhelming yourself with sticky notes will not allow you to get the best results. You need to have meet in the middle in order to get the best results with sticky notes. In addition, when you are writing sticky notes, be sure to write sticky notes that won’t stay on your desk for long periods of time.
Great advice!! Thanks!
Marc, I had to cut back on my use of post-its because I started to leave so many around it looked like a windstorm had hit my desk. While I still like to make notes of things I need to remember I’ve come to realize I can’t write everything down that way. Probably I just need to figure out how to organize them better.
The best thing to do is try to get something done as soon as you write it down. That way, it won’t look like a windstorm hit your desk.