Tip 74: Legal Pads

The tip I had here before about trying new things was really fucking stupid. I will therefore replace it with a slightly less stupid tip.

Legal pads. Ask Rob Parker if you need a second opinion that agrees with my own, but I think legal pads are among the best forms of notebook/paper. The reasons I like legal pads aren't terribly convincing or earth-shattering, but here they are anyway:

No holes- While this makes it harder to put this paper into binders (there is an extra step involved), I stopped using binders in my sophomore or junior year of high school and haven't looked back (more on this in future tip(s)?). The lack of holes performs a few functions for me. It gives me more room on the margins and makes the paper look more "complete." I like using the margin space for arrows connecting ideas while I take notes and adding additional notes to pages of notes. There are no holes to get in my way on most legal pads. The completeness thing is all about how my notes or homework or whatever look to me. This doesn't really effect usability at all, just my mental game. Speaking of my mental game...

No commitment/versatility- I have a mild case of what is known as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) maybe. So, for example, last year, I liked having separate notebooks to do my homework in for Chem and Physics. This doesn't really make sense at all. I was doing my homework in these notebooks, but I would tear it out when I was done so what's the point of having a notebook for it? I can use a legal pad and tear out the pages without (much) evidence. In a spiral bound notebook you get all those annoying paper strips left over, unless you tear off the spirals then remove via perforation. On a legal pad, you don't have to worry about any of that. This makes the legal pad a great all-purpose notebook-thing. Use it for homework, notes, whatever. It can start, sub or pinch hit and is a great team player.

A warning however: to continue this baseball analogy (which really has nothing to do with legal pads (unless I make a Barry Bonds joke here), it really game out of left field (groan))... The legal pad doesn't really have a great club-house presence. You sort of have to protect it in your bag since it doesn't have a cover or anything to fend for itself. The pages can easily get creased and the corners bent. So while it is good to have a legal pad ready to come off the bench, just know that it needs special treatment and the notebooks and binders see it happening.