Ask Lisa: What To Do With All My Random Sticky Notes

Welcome to this series called “Ask Lisa” where I answer common questions I get asked a lot. 

Today’s question comes from a high school Spanish teacher but I’ve had business owners ask this question as well. Keep reading, to see how it can apply to your situation.

The Question:

“I’m going through my home office and I have so many sticky notes. They all say different things. Some are from school, like this one that says, “Have questions prepped for each unit.” That’s something I want to do in the future. I have another one with things I would love to add to my class. There’s a sticky note with notes from a professional development session.

What do I do with these? Where should I compile this list in a place where I’ll see it and get reminded? Instead of having a stack of sticky notes, where should it be? I will say I’m more of a paper person, but even then, I don’t know. If I put it in my calendar for three months from now, it’ll get lost, or I’ll get to three months and still have it on my to-do list. So, where do I write all these down so they’re not just on a stack of sticky notes?”

Lisa’s Thoughts

Make a Digital Version

I love having a digital version of things like this for accessibility reasons. If it’s digital you can access it whether you’re at home, school, or working in a library or coffee shop. 

For your digital version, choose a tool you already know, love, and use. You can keep it really simple and create a running Google Doc with a table of contents (just use headers for the section titles and have Google Docs insert a table of contents).

Love Airtable? Use that! Excel master? Awesome, build it there with a tab for each category. 

The key here is to choose a tool you already know and use so that it’s not One More Thing you have to figure out.

When I was a Spanish teacher, I had a folder in my Google Drive called “Good Ideas from Other Teachers”. It’s where I put all the amazing resources I wanted to try someday or knew were great but wasn’t sure how or when I’d use them.

Periodically (and when I was struggling for ideas), I’d open the folder and scroll through it for inspiration.

As a business owner, I have a folder called “Learn” where I store notes and handouts from webinars and courses as well as good ideas and things I’d like to learn more about as my business grows.

As long as you know where it is, you can always take a look at it when you need some inspo or have some extra energy to try something new.

A Paper Version

I too love paper and having something tangible to flip through. I would use a three-ring binder. 

Three-ring binders are great because they are more durable that just a folder and they can hold more. You can also use page protectors to hold small bits of papers or example items like foldables for your classroom.

I’d take your sticky notes and tape them on to a regular-sized sheet of paper (bonus points for cute washi tape) then slide that paper into a sheet protector. This way you don’t have to recopy the sticky notes (unless you want to) and they don’t fall off/get lost or get bent up.

You can also create sections in a binder. I used to three-hole punch tabbed manila folders and write section titles on their tabs. I’d put a few layers of washi tape over the tab if it already had writing on it and relabel with a sharpie.

Labeling the spine of the binder is also key because then you can slide it on a bookshelf out of the way and easily see what it is.

Keep the binder wherever you’ll reference it most, either home or school. 

Because it’s more durable than a folder, you don’t have to worry about papers falling out or it getting destroyed by being tossed in a bag and moved a lot.

I hope these ideas help!

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