Post-it® Notes go digital, and onto your desktop

The local coffee shop can be an ideal gathering place for the discussion of business ideas and endeavors. When a former co-worker and I started our respective companies, around the same time, we would get together at least once a month to commiserate and compare both success and failure.

I would normally arrive before our agreed upon time, and he was often late. It got better over time, but that was his style long before this. When we worked together, you would often find him spinning through the doorway with a cloud of dust settling behind him. He was a guy that seemed dialed-in to the redline, pushing his engine to the limits; I often wondered if he was responsible for the static electricity in the room.

Where some of us quickly gravitated to the organizational tools in software like Microsoft Office, he was the Post-it® king. They were everywhere. I have no idea how many pads he went through over the years; if there were frequent flyer miles for each one used, he would have been able to take trips around the world on his awards.

Moving forward in time and back to the beginning of this story, he hadn’t lost his style at the coffee shop; bouncing through the door – thank goodness they have limits on the travel at the doorframe – he would sit down in a whirling motion. Sure enough, sprinkled across some papers and notes, there was his ample selection of Post-it® Notes. As I would open up my traditional daily organizer, with neat index tabs and note sheets, he would begin laying down the Post-it® Notes like a dealer working the tables at a casino in Las Vegas. It was a bit like playing Jeopardy as we would compare notes and stories.

 

Recently my daughter brought her ailing laptop to me to see what I could do to bring it back to health. She is a very organized and thorough person making use of anything that would come under the heading of “Organizer”. As I worked through the machine’s hiccups, every reboot would bring a ‘bell’ sound from her Post-it® Digital Notes. I had never seen these before. She loves them, and uses them sparingly enough across the desktop so she can still enjoy her scenic wallpaper. 

I quickly thought back to my Post-it® Notes-heavy business associate and former co-worker. What would his desktop have looked like had he used the Post-it® Digital Notes? No matter. The idea of Post-it®  Digital Notes as a useful business tool has begun to set-in with me. I haven’t quite sorted it out as to how I would put them to use. You can use them in a variety of ways and “make lists and reminders, key-code them with colors and photos, sort them by category, and set alarms to remind yourself of projects and appointments.”

She is keen on Microsoft’s OneNote capability in Office 2007, too (whose user interface is too much ‘eye-candy’ for me). How about you? What digital tools and information technology do you use to better organize and manage your personal and business lifestyle?