Keeping notes...

I have a constant need, while working or otherwise using my computer, to make notes about ongoing issues (e.g., telling my editor to check cell A56 of the translated spreadsheet), as having such notes is handy to deal with items that just don't lend themselves well to memorization (in the sense that there is no pressing need to memorize them), that may nevertheless crop up at some later time as a subject of discussion.

I've tried a number of approaches. Moleskines, index cards, steno pads, and (the old standby) random scraps of paper. They all suffer from some kind of usability shortcoming, from bulkiness to being too easily scattered and lost.

During the past trip to Moscow, I picked up a half dozen 12-page "notebooks" intended for use by schoolchildren. Being only 12 pages thick, they are not bulky. The pages are quadrilled, which is a nice touch (at least for me). The notebooks are staple bound, so they pretty much lie flat (which allows me, as a nice side-effect, to "hide" the left-hand page under my mouse pad, leaving a one-page , 6-3/8" x 7-7/8" footprint in my work area. After paging through one entire notebook, I can flip it upside down and repeat the process for what used to be the left-hand pages (the old right-hand pages will now go upside down beneath my mouse pad.

Better than cards or random scraps, for sure.