Dr. Spencer Silver founder of post-it note must have left work that day in 1968 feeling very unproductive. Instead of the super strong adhesive he was supposed to create for building planes he instead ended up with a weak adhesive that could stick to surfaces and leave no residue when peeled off.
After five years of trying to convince his colleagues to use this on the surface bulletin board for temporary notices, Arthur Fry suggested putting the adhesive on a piece of paper … that way the paper could be stuck to just about any surface.
Five years of rejection and seven years of development later, the post-it note was born, and today is still one of the top five best-selling office supplies in the world.
Post-it notes have occasionally been used in some amazing artistic creations.
- Shay Hovell recreated the Mona Lisa in 2008 with 12,000 post-it notes!
- R.B. Kitaj created a charcoal and pastel painting on a post-it note that sold for 640 GBP.
- A post-it note traveled from Las Vegas to Minneapolis on the nose of a plane through 500 mph winds
- To circle the world you would need about 506,880,000 post-it notes
- A post-it note survived Hurricane Hugo on a family’s front door in 1989
- Lize Vitolina used post-it notes to create a line of evening wear including a wedding dress, hats, and a bouquet
If you haven’t guessed by now, I am also a fan! It’s great to capture, organize ideas and actions … or simply to put up reminders. It can turn surfaces from your notebooks to doors, to fridges … into walls of action or reminders.
So, the post-it note with the shopping list of milk, eggs, and butter can be placed on the fridge. The post-it note with the motivational quote ‘Believe in yourself’ can be placed on the bathroom mirror, and the action reminder ‘Schedule blog post today’ can be placed on your computer screen waiting for you when you’re ready to start your workday.
Next time you want to free up a little brain space, remember there is a post-it note for that
