- Last Friday, I found a blue post-it note on my desk.
- It said, “Due March 8,” in thin cursive, and had a smiley face beneath the words.
- It was not attached to anything, though it did have some white paper melded into the sticky strip along its back.
- Clearly, it had belonged to something at some point.
- My first thought was, “OMG, what have I forgotten?”
- Because I don’t have anything with that specific due date on my to-do list …
- My “To-Due” list.
- Anyway, after digging around on my desk, which isn’t strictly mess, but neither is it neat, I gave up and messaged the boss.
- “You around?”
- Got an immediate Teams call.
- (I love Teams, btw. If you ever need to reach me, that is by far the fastest, most efficient way to do so.)
- “Hey, ah, I found this note on my desk with a due date on it, and I have no idea what it is for.”
- That, btw, is not something you want to say to your supervisor, but … always better to own it and move forward.
- And then we went through this dance where I held the post-it in front of the camera and moved it back-and-forth until it came into focus.
- She said, “Nope, not my handwriting.”
- Which was awesome.
- I stuck it back on my desk and put it toward the back of my mind.
- “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.”
- This weekend, whilst hanging the drywall in the living room, I noticed my Blind Date with a Book laying on the coffee table and it clicked.
- That little blue post-it note had been on that book.
- I could see it clear as day in my head.
- (The white paper melded to the post-it was not part of the book, so you can rest easy there. It had been on the wrapping paper.)
- Which means it has to go in inter-office mail TODAY.
- So thank you librarians for 30 minutes of panic on a Friday afternoon, is what I’m saying.
- Mostly, I’m old-school on my to-do list.
- I have a gridded, soft-cover Moleskine notebook that I sort of Bullet Journal with.
- Bullet journaling has a symbol-based to-do system, where different dots indicate different things.
- The fault in this system, as always, is human error.
- I use the notebook in conjunction with my Outlook calendar.
- If something is not on one of those two things, it may as well not exist.
- I haven’t yet gotten into the habit of putting tasks on my calendar; it’s all meetings.
- I like writing with my hand, I guess.
- There are studies that show taking notes by hand does a better job of settling information into your memory than typing.
- I’m following Science, is what I’m saying.
- (Though those claims are still undergoing peer-review.)
- Mmmm, peer review.
- Dude.
- This is the Mondayist list ever.
- Good grief.
- May you not find any rogue post-it notes upon your desk.
Rogue Blue Notes
skepticlysm 
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