In a binder, I have a checklist of 12 habits I want to maintain. The habits are printed on the left side of a sheet of paper. To the right of each habit is a series of boxes labeled one to thirty (or 28 or 29 or 31, as a month may require) so I can keep a daily/monthly record of how I’m doing.
(If these things were truly habits, I wouldn’t need a chart to track them, I would simply do them out of habit. But I digress.)
I also have a bound 5×8 inch blank book in which I keep a running to-do list. When something comes to mind, it’s jotted into the book. When something is accomplished, I make an X in front of it and write the date after it. (This replaced a method of writing a daily dated list, which required a constant moving of undone things forward, rewriting them time and again until finally they were completed.)
I kept jumping back and forth between binder and notebook, notebook and binder, checking off a habit or X-ing an accomplished to-do. Why not, I asked myself, simplify the process and put the to-do list in the binder? Because I like the bound book so much. Well, then, why not go the other direction and move the habits list from the binder into the book? Okay, but how?
Maybe I could print my habits chart on a Post-it note. That way I could stick it in the front of my bound book and do away with the binder. When a month’s worth of habits had been tracked, I could painlessly remove the Post-it and stick a new one in its place. Great idea, but how does one print on a Post-it note?
There are 6×8 inch Post-its. And people managed to stick one on a sheet of printer paper, run it through a printer, then remove the printed Post-it. Fine. But I didn’t want to purchase pads of large sticky notes when all I really need are 12 sheets a year.
So I turned a regular sheet of paper into a Post-it by using a light-duty glue stick. Scotch, for example, makes one. You rub it across, near the top edge, as you would a regular glue stick, let it sit for about 90 seconds to dry, and voila, press it where you want. It will hold in place, but be removable.
My habits list now resides in my bound to-do book. When a month is over, I remove the list, store it in the binder, and temporarily glue a new month’s list in its place.
Light-duty glue sticks are the cat’s meow for all sorts of uses. Got a paper or picture you want to hang temporarily without marring a wall or having to scrape tape off a window? You could use that blue bubblegum-looking tacky stuff. Or you could use a light-duty glue stick. Make sure it says repositionable on it and that you follow the instructions for use.
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