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On the Proper Use of Post-Its
- musicale 4y ago> "If you peel post-its from the side, they don’t curl up." Right, they curl to the side instead. Though possibly not as much if you peel close to the adhesive.
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- mparramon 4y agoThe advanced trick is to grab the post-it stack with one hand, and with the other grab the top post-it and apply force in parallel to the stack, from top to bottom of the post-it. This way the post-it remains uncurled.
- callahad 4y agoKeep the adhesive at the top, peel from the side. The adhesive then directly counters any potential side-curl.
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- jauco 4y agoThe real trick is to not pull up, but pull in the horizontal direction opposite to the sticky bar. That way the paper doesn’t curl
- politelemon 4y agoThat's what I do, the authors seem to have missed an obvious trick. Another one is to lift the entire note along the sticky bar so the paper comes off, uncurled, still flat.
- Brajeshwar 4y agoI'm fortunate and lucky to have taught a lot of people participating in Design Sprints and other meetings where I occasionally include how to do just this -- peal-n-paste post-its the right way. Recently, my daughter asked me how my post-its are usually snug wherever I use. Taught her the usual method but reminded her to be patient and after a while, it should just be muscle memory.
- dexzod 4y agoI don't get it, you are still applying the force in the same direction. I mean if you rotate the 'wrong' picture by 90 degrees you will see that they are both the same thing
- TuringTest 4y agoIn the "Right" photo, the glue is at the top of the image. In the "Wrong" photo, it is at the top of the image too. The wrong movement detaches the glue from the center of the pad to the edge. The right one detaches it from the right side to the left side of the glue bar. Both directions are orthogonal.
- function_seven 4y agoDon’t rotate it. Sticky side is still along the top edge, but the peeling direction is parallel to the strip of glue, rather than perpendicular to it.
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- k2enemy 4y agoThank you for clearly and concisely conveying what the author was unable to do in an entire blog post that includes diagrams.
- mparramon 4y ago
- steebo 4y ago"A Post-It’s easy unstickability is its biggest feature and its downfall. When you yank a note from the bottom, it curls. That curling is just enough force to lift the note off the paper, the whiteboard, or whatever it’s stuck to." What do the properties of the adhesive have to do with this? Nothing.
- davisoneee 4y ago...the adhesive has everything to do with this. If the adhesive was stronger, the curling would not have enough force to lift it off the wall. Post-its only exist because of their weak adhesive...and it's because their adhesive is weak that curling is an issue for them. edit: by which I mean...if the adhesive was stronger, the post-its could curl and still stick to the wall. Post-its' soft adhesive lets them easily peel from each other, but also lets the minor force of a curled post-it unstick it from the wall.
- samatman 4y agoPost-it® was created by 3M, adhesive is what they do. The properties of the adhesive are what separates one from a piece of paper.
- opminion 4y agoArticle missed to mention that the glue is assumed to be along the top edge in both cases.
- k__ 4y agoWhy do so many people here think that the post-its get roated? It no additional information is given, everyone should assume the roation is the same.
- throwaway74829 4y agoThe right picture offers a minor visual cue where you can see the post-it note mildly resisting peeling at the top edge. If we look at the left picture, that cue is there, with an illusion of resistance on the left edge.
- gumby 4y agoYes, I had to go back and forth a little (the photos don't indicate this) and see the comment from the leader of the meeting, then look at the non-curl vs curl to get it.
- andrelaszlo 4y agoAn agile coach (Jeff at https://rebelalliance.se/ https://rebelalliance.se/) I worked with had very strong feelings about this and would start meetings by demonstrating the proper way to detach a Post-It. Off brand sticky notes were also verboten IIRC. I think his method was to lift the sheet just a little, then pulling down instead of up/out. That way they stay perfectly flat. Not sure if you are on HN Jeff, but if you are: Iam Lusum perdidisti.
- llimos 4y agoWe also discovered on our Kanban board that sticking them sideways means they don't fall off the board so easily.
- the-printer 4y agoPost-Its sure does a bad job at making this evident by packaging them vertically.
- function_seven 4y agoThey're still intended to be stuck with the adhesive along the top. This article is just saying that when you remove the top Post-It from the stack, that you should peel it off from the side rather than from the bottom.
- amelius 4y agoAlso: companies print their logos in the wrong orientation, e.g.: https://mobile.twitter.com/quantumsensing/status/1552998893981519872 https://mobile.twitter.com/quantumsensing/status/15529988939... The design of Post-Its is wrong. There should be a tab next to the glue-strip, so you can easily peel along the strip.
- xlii 4y agoI immediately thought about intro of this talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/terry_moore_how_to_tie_your_shoes https://www.ted.com/talks/terry_moore_how_to_tie_your_shoes We think that we do something correctly and then by accident we learn simple change that improves it. Nice share.
- RamRodification 4y agoInteresting. The fix I was taught is to simply make and hold the loop in the other hand, and then go around it the normal way. Basically just switch hands for the loop part. This seems to give the same result.
- somehnacct3757 4y agoI never have this problem with the post-its on the Miro board
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- YLYvYkHeB2NRNT 4y agoDoing it this way the writer suggests will jam my scanner feed. I have to use them the "wrong" way so sheets will feed through.
- turnsout 4y agoI work at IDEO, where I've written at least 10,000 Post-Its. Especially before COVID, we would use them all day, for weeks at a time. I guess IDEOers all use Post-Its the "wrong" way according to this article. Yet somehow we manage to stick them to boards and move them around without issue... The only problem is when new hires try to stick Post-Its to whiteboards—don't do that! If you want to peel the Post-It from the side rather than the bottom, go for it, but there is no reason to write on the Post-It sideways and stick it with the adhesive going vertically. When that happens accidentally in a brainstorm, people literally apologize.
- dctoedt 4y agoPeel with the adhesive on the side, then rotate 90 degrees to write with the adhesive on the top?
- turnsout 4y agoGenerally you write the Post-It, then peel it. So, writing with the adhesive on top, you could peel it from the side. But the article describes writing the note 90° rotated which is just odd. Edit: I was wrong—I see now the article is NOT implying that you write the note 90° rotated. But I agree with others that the photos are not communicating this well.
- effnorwood 4y ago
- gumby 4y agoPublic Service Announcement: don't put post-its in old books, valuable books, or books you plan to have for a long time. The adhesive attacks the paper.
- theflyingelvis 4y agoMeh. I’m a rebel and will do it my way.