Personalize a Notebook
A notebook can be a great way to catch ideas as they occur to you. Personalizing a basic notebook makes it your own. It can also make it more useful, keep items at hand, and help you to keep organized (or disorganized, if you prefer). Here are some simple ways to modify your notebook.
Contents
Steps
- Put your name in or on it, along with a phone number or email address. That way, if you lose it, it has a chance of finding its way back.
- If this is a notebook for work, tape or glue a business card to the front cover, either inside or outside, as you prefer.
- Write a title, volume number and start date inside or on the notebook, especially if it's one of several similar notebooks. Make your notebooks easy to tell apart from one another. Differentiate them by color, style of writing, size, color of font and in any way it's easy for you.
- Write basic information inside the front cover or type it up, print it out, and tape or glue it in. Choose information that you want to have at hand. Possibilities include important phone numbers, account names, names and contact information of coworkers or classmates, and any information having to do with the subject of the notebook and medical abnormalities. For a class, include the name of the class, the time and room.
- Don't write your passwords, locker combinations, etc. in your notebook, nor account numbers that could compromise privacy or security if they are lost.
- Reserve the first page or pages for frequently referenced information or for a table of contents.
- Reinforce the corners and/or spine. For a basic notebook, packing tape might work perfectly well.
- Cover a Book With a Paper Folder. This will both protect the cover and obscure any ugly decorations.
- Glue a ribbon or string into the spine to act as a bookmark, or tie it on for a spiral bound book. Alternatively, use tape flags or colored paper clips to mark pages. If the pages go in order, you could also clip off a small corner of each page as you use it so that you can find your current place.
- Add a pocket. You can either add a corner pocket or a full pocket, and you can size it for scratch paper, note cards, Make Business Cards with Vista Print, or items you receive. Use ordinary paper or thin card such as a cut-up file folder. Secure it with tape or a glue stick.
- Add a pen loop. Stick tape to itself and wrap it around your favorite pen or pencil. Then, tape it into the back cover. Other possibilities are to use a short piece of elastic and stitch it to the cover or to tie a short length of string through the spiral binding or a hole in the cover.
- Add a handle or carrying strap. This can be sturdy tape or, if you're handy with needle and thread, a fabric strap. Attach it to both covers opposite the spine so that the notebook doesn't flop open or drop its contents when you carry it.
- Stick a thin stack of sticky notes and/or tape flags inside the cover. Five or ten at a time will come in handy without creating an overly lumpy writing surface.
- Decorate the notebook. Were you using the paper company's logo, anyway? Affix your own card or insignia, or get out the markers, rubber stamps, stickers, glue stick, and collage materials of your choice and start adding some color.
Tips
- Remember that you'll ultimately be writing or drawing in the notebook, so don't pile the inside covers too thick with stuff. It'll just make it hard to write.
- You don't have to do all of these things. If it suits you to scrawl your name inside the front cover and start writing or drawing, go right ahead. Choose the ideas that suit you.
- Many of these same techniques could apply to binders, too.
- Pay attention to how you use your notebook. Are there supplies or materials that need to be with you every time you attend a class or meeting? Are you keeping a journal in it? Make your notebook its own portable powerhouse.
- Take your tape for a test drive on a warm day. If the adhesive melts and leaves a trail of sticky substance while the tape slides off, choose different tape.
- Start with a notebook you like. They come in many different sizes, in all different colors, and with and without spiral bindings, built-in pockets, and section dividers.
Warnings
- Be careful not to put too much personal information in your notebook if it's private and you are afraid of viewers reading it.
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