(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)
I love to-do lists. I live by them. I have them broken into hierarchies, sub-tasked, color-coded, beautiful trees of expectation and obligation. I'd be lost without them. Which happens sometimes, when they're closed away in notebooks. Out of sight, out of mind. Having a desktop memo list can help a lot if there are select tasks to remember for that day, and Midori comes to the rescue with this Stand Memo Pad.
It arrives flat, and the cardboard is scored to allow it to be easily folded into shape, with a flap that supports the back stand to keep it firmly held together. It can also be unfolded to use flat. The sheets are attached to the front with a classic tear-away design. The glue at the top is the right balance that allows the pages to tear away easily without ripping the paper, but they don't come loose randomly. The top edge also comes away clean, without any of the gluey stuff on the paper.
The pages are divided into five sections, great for a workday spread or just sub-dividing tasks. A wee pencil or teacup icon decorates the start of each line, which annoyed me at first, but drawing a line across the pencil or filling in the teacup is a great way to mark off the tasks as you complete them. There are also cute illustrations on the pages, small enough to not be too intrusive.
Being Midori, the paper is, of course, very nice. It is not as robust as the paper in their journals or notebooks, which makes sense. This is made to be scrap paper, intended to be tossed, and not meant to be used on both sides (though I have still been using the backs of the torn away sheets for additional scrap paper). Fountain pen ink did bleed through slightly when used in a wet nib, but it did not feather on the side that matters.
The memo pads come in several varieties and colors, horizontal and upright, schedule, grids, memos, etc, each with different illustrations. They all cost $5.25 at JetPens, which is an excellent deal for 60 sheets--more than enough for a year of weeks.
If I take a moment to look over my Master List of Doing Things and jot a few priority highlights onto a desktop memo like this, there is a much better chance that those things will get done. It's also a great place to add spontaneous quick tasks that arise but that don't belong on the huge master to-do list. It's a simple, inexpensive tool that boosts my productivity, and for that, I love it.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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