Post-it notes are an easy-to-use and super affordable tool that can help all students to study better. Students are always looking out for better study tools and post-it notes are great for organizing ideas, brainstorming projects, putting thoughts into place for assignments and studying for exams.
Here are a few great ideas for using post-it notes as a study aid!
As a bookmark
Post-it notes, especially the smaller ones, make great bookmarks. When reading, just tear off a post-it note to mark your page. You do not have to worry that it will fall off (like how bookmarks sometimes do) and you do not have to fold down pages.
Make notes in books
If you have borrowed a book from the library, you cannot write in it. The same goes if you plan on reselling your textbooks. Writing notes in the margins can end up costing you, causing the value of the book to go down.
You can use sticky notes to remember thoughts and ideas or even things you have to take note off instead, that will not affect the book itself. When returning the book, if you borrowed it, you can just tear off the sticky notes and you have all your thoughts in one pile instead.
Remind yourself of important dates
Being a student can be overwhelming with all the due dates for various papers and upcoming tests and midterms. Using post-it notes can be a great help when it comes to remembering the important dates. You can use large sticky notes for the more important dates and smaller notes for unimportant tasks that still have to be done.
Used as flashcards
Write a note on each card – the questions on the front and the answer on the back. Then stick them to a whiteboard or any flat surface. You can then test yourself by seeing how many questions and answers you know.
Rip out those that you answered right and leave those that you need to work on. You will then know which topics or questions that you still have to spend time studying on.
Map out projects
Projects, as students, typically have numerous tasks. Let’s say you are organizing a student forum, you will need to call the speakers, get confirmation of attendance, book a venue, do some sort of advertising and more! Plus, these tasks can be fluid from one to another.
Create a flowchart for your progress. Write down each individual step on a sticky note. Create three categories – To Do, In Progress and Completed. As each step is done, you can move the post-it note from one category to the other, giving you a clearer picture of what still needs to be done.
Brainstorm ideas
To get started, get a white board and write a main topic or central idea at the centre. Then, you can write down related ideas in clusters around that main topic to get a clearer picture on what goes with it and what doesn’t.
At the start, when you write down ideas, it does not have to be interconnected or even relevant to the central idea. Just write it down anyway. As you progress, the overall picture will become clearer and you will eventually settle on a direction.
Daily to-do lists
Goes without saying, to-do lists are great but only if it is organized and customized to fit your needs. Your productivity as a student will increase greatly when you have a clear list of tasks to accomplish.
We would suggest that you print customized sticky notes with:
- 4 bullets: These are must do tasks
- Note area for less important to-dos and extra notes.
You can custom print a stack of post-it notes at Motomax Industries in whatever style that suits you.
Organize writing projects
Writing projects can be rather difficult, particularly if your ideas and thoughts are all over the place. You may have ideas but have trouble bringing them together. Here’s how you can utilize post-it notes to organize them.
To start, outline the paper you have to write with the introduction, point 1, point 2, point 3 and conclusion. Then, write any facts, quotes and supporting sources and materials on individual sticky notes. Stick each piece of the sticky notes on the relevant section of your outline. This works for longer writing projects or short ones.
Learn a new language
Sticky notes can be a handy language learning tool. If you are trying to learn French, for example, here is how you can use sticky notes to do so. Write down a French word on each individual post-it note on items in your room. Look it up words like desk and bed and then post the notes all over the room with the corresponding French term. It’s a reminder every time you use the item.
Take it further by customizing a stack of post-it notes with columns for speech, verb endings, pronouns, definitions and so on.
Wrap-Up
Post-it notes is an affordable study tool to improve your study habits. It is cost effective and when used properly, it will help you as a student to improve your memory, cognitive ability and overall performance.
