# Pensive Post-It Pad **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 27, 2006, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pensive-post-it-pad/350144 "2006-03-27T20:09:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pensive-post-it-pad/350144/1 "2006-03-27T20:09:30Z")
I’ve gotten into the habit of carrying a post-it pad around with me at work. These days my memory is so bad (and my attention-span even worse) that it is essential. It has become a kind of Pensive (Harry Potter). My consciousness externalized. It’s a good habit to have, because I’ve been busy as hell and without it I’d just be a zombie going from one half-started task to the next, and not actually getting much completed at all. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pensive-post-it-pad/350144/2 "2006-03-27T20:53:31Z")
Where do you put your post-its? Do you end up looking like [this guy,](http://occisor.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/posit.jpg) **Lobsang**? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pensive-post-it-pad/350144/3 "2006-03-27T21:06:50Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > These days my memory is so bad (and my attention-span even worse) that it is essential. How extensive are the notes you write; IOW, does your memory hold up for what the scribbles are supposed to mean? On the last job I worked, I inherited old papers of course, among which were tens or perhaps hundreds of Post-It notes that meant nothing to me. I felt a little bad trashing them but it’s not like all that work helped me any. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pensive-post-it-pad/350144/4 "2006-03-27T22:02:20Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > How extensive are the notes you write; IOW, does your memory hold up for what the scribbles are supposed to mean? > > On the last job I worked, I inherited old papers of course, among which were tens or perhaps hundreds of Post-It notes that meant nothing to me. I felt a little bad trashing them but it’s not like all that work helped me any. ☹ Luckily my memory does hold up for what the scribbles mean. And they really are scribbles. I write lists on the notes. I write really small. When a post-it’s list has a few items dealt with on it I will sometimes re-write the shortened list, with new tasks added, on a new post it and scrap the old one. The whole system falls apart when I put the post it pad down somewhere and forget where. There are pads everywhere. I wonder if you can get personallized pads? Please may I Purchase some Pensive Post-it Pads Pronto. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pensive-post-it-pad/350144/5 "2006-03-28T14:54:14Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > I wonder if you can get personallized pads? Heck, yes. Our printing shop at work produces all kinds of them for us. (Promise you’ll put “From the Desk of Lobsang”, and then include a Ziggy cartoon “I had it all organized and then forgot where I put it”. That never goes out of style. 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pensive-post-it-pad/350144/6 "2006-03-28T16:33:34Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Luckily my memory does hold up for what the scribbles mean. And they really are scribbles. > > I write lists on the notes. I write really small. When a post-it’s list has a few items dealt with on it I will sometimes re-write the shortened list, with new tasks added, on a new post it and scrap the old one. > > The whole system falls apart when I put the post it pad down somewhere and forget where. There are pads everywhere. > > I wonder if you can get personallized pads? > Please may I Purchase some Pensive Post-it Pads Pronto. pERHAPS. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pensive-post-it-pad/350144/7 "2006-03-28T17:01:01Z")
I thought it was spelt “Pensieve”? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pensive-post-it-pad/350144/8 "2006-03-28T17:25:02Z")
I’ve tried post-its and…well not to knock their greatness, but they still fall quite short of having a personal white board. You can get little ones that are only a bit bigger than a foot squared, though the bigger the better. Though even the mighty white board falls short from having everyone in the company attached to a bug database like Bugzilla. That is great since things come in in prioritized versions, your tasks stay until you mark them as complete, you can add further comments, send a task to yourself or someone else in the company, and you get a notification back when someone completes something that you tasked to them. Though not very many companies use bug databases as an all-purpose tool throughout the company. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pensive-post-it-pad/350144/9 "2006-03-28T17:55:14Z")
And all this time I thought the SDMB filled this function for you. You mean there’s yet more minutiae you haven’t shared with us?