On the Proper Use of Post-Its | Hacker News Reader

On the Proper Use of Post-Its

tylercipriani.com

98 pointszccm36 comments

I immediately thought about intro of this talk: 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.

Interesting. 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.

Article missed to mention that the glue is assumed to be along the top edge in both cases.

Why 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.

The 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.

Yes, 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.

I 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

In 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.

Thank you for this clarification - this is what I was missing too.

same, thanks!

Don’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.

Thank you for clearly and concisely conveying what the author was unable to do in an entire blog post that includes diagrams.

The green and red post-its have the same orientation, the adhesive is on the top for both. So when you peel the green one off, you're peeling the adhesive right-to-left across it, whereas when you peel the red one off, you're peeling it from bottom to top almost all at once.

You can’t really tell in the photo, but I believe that in the “correct” picture on the left, the adhesive is on the bottom near the thumb, or the side opposite to that.

If the adhesive edge was an axis, the article is saying to peel along that axis, whereas more typically folks peel perpendicular to the adhesive axis, causing the post-it to curl up and out from wherever it is placed.

I love how this one comment thread and its replies highlights the importance of being a good visual communicator. One bad image, one bunch of confusion.

The 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

That'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.

Also: companies print their logos in the wrong orientation, e.g.: 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.

An agile coach (Jeff at 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.

I 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.

Peel with the adhesive on the side, then rotate 90 degrees to write with the adhesive on the top?

Generally 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.

I'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.

"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.

...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.

Post-it® was created by 3M, adhesive is what they do.

The properties of the adhesive are what separates one from a piece of paper.

Post-Its sure does a bad job at making this evident by packaging them vertically.

They'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.

Public 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.

> "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.

The 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.

Keep the adhesive at the top, peel from the side. The adhesive then directly counters any potential side-curl.

Doing it this way the writer suggests will jam my scanner feed.

I have to use them the "wrong" way so sheets will feed through.

We also discovered on our Kanban board that sticking them sideways means they don't fall off the board so easily.

I never have this problem with the post-its on the Miro board

Meh. I’m a rebel and will do it my way.

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