Are you one of those people with stickies all over your desk and computer screen?

I used to be. Now I'm trying a system I'm making up that uses the stickies.

I have regular ones that are 2" square or so and small ones that are supposed to be book markers or something they're about 3-4" x 1"

I use the little ones on my calendar and the big ones in my book. I bought a 'sketchbook' that you're supposed to draw in and I put the stickies inside. Each page (or pair of pages) is for a specific purpose. I have (off the top of my head): Daily, Today, Tomorrow, this week, Monday, Tuesday..., Next Week, this month, monthly, and upcoming.

It's a little intensive as I'm shuffling stickies all the time, but not really. The Monday, Tuesday... pages stay 98% the same, each sticky on those pages is something that needs to be done on that day every week. Something that needs to be done THIS Friday would go on the this week page (or the tomorrow page now), not the Friday page.

About once a week, I flip around and move stuff up from the 'long term' pages, but day-to-day I'm looking at the today page and the 'Thursday' page (or whatever day it is).

I also have pages with themes that I use to corral ideas. For example, when I have an idea for a lesson, I write it on a sticky and put it on that page. Last week, when I needed to brainstorm, I just opened to that page, looked through my stickies and was able to put together another year's content!

This is a new system and I'm still figuring out the kinks, but I really like it so far

What do you think?

It sounds like a much better use of stickies than I have.

Mine get pasted on the desk until I get around to putting the info in the right place. It makes the desk look a mess and when I run out of them this time, I am going to try not to replace them and see if I can live without them!

Let us know how it works out for you. I have a friend with a very similar set up and she really likes it.

That's an interesting set-up, I use stickies on a daily basis as a teacher but I have been looking for new system.

I like to think of stickies as our frenemies. They can be super helpful, but they become visual chaos in heartbeat.

Most people use stickies to jog their memory, but without a system they tend just become part of the landscape. Happily, it sounds like you have a good system in place. I love that you use them catalog ideas - how great!

My favorite way to use stickies is as a prioritizing tool. If I have a big week with lots of action items, I write each action on an individual sticky. Then I place my stickies on the wall within line of site of my desk. I arrange them in list format, prioritized from the top down. As things get done I remove the sticky (which is very gratifying).

But the best part is that things can rearranged in a nano second. That's really important to me. My work tends to be fluid, what was a priority yesterday may not be today so on the fly re-prioritizing is important.

An added bonus is that I can collect data or make notes related to the action item right on the sticky. This is especially helpful when you are playing phone tag.

I love that stickies come in so many shapes and sizes - it makes adapting them to your needs really easy.