How To Use The Minimalist Microsoft Sticky Notes to Organize Your Personal & Professional Life

See how you can use Sticky Notes, the stock minimalist notes to do app in Windows 10 to organize your chores and todos in your personal life/work, as well as organize ideas, plans and more.

Sticky Notes on Windows 10

When it comes to organizing your personal and professional life nowadays there are just too many options. From to do list apps such as Todoist and Any.Do to notes apps as Evernote and Samsung Notes, all these apps are a great way to get things done.

What I found complex is the following. I get frustrated from using most of these apps daily, and after a certain period of time I stop using them. I don’t know why exactly though. I guess none of them has super-simple and intuitive desktop PC interface (I spend many hours daily working on my laptop). I often feel that even when I have to do just one extra step or tap, I get frustrated, and stop using the note/todo app after a while. Not to mention that adding tasks from my phone is just not as intuitive as doing it with a keyboard and a mouse.

The Simple, Yet Ultra Versatile Notes App

If you feel the same way, or you are looking for a simpler and more intuitive way to organize your life I recommend Microsoft Sticky Notes. This stock Microsoft app is pre-installed on most Windows 10 computers. Simple search Sticky Notes in your search bar and you can open it. Then a blank note should appear over your desktop, and you can start adding as many notes as you want.

How I Use It

- Daily to do tasks: each morning I plan my work tasks and personal chores by writing them down in one note. I have this note placed in the right bottom corner of my desktop and have a blue color for that note, so it distinguishes from the other notes. Once I finish a task, I delete it from the note. Simple as that.

- Business ideas, long-term plans: I have another note where my long-term goals and business ideas are written. I alter that note from time to time and analyze what is done in terms of progress. This note has a different color and it’s located in a different place.

- Routine replies & symbols: Another sticky note on my PC stores some important links to sites and articles, as well as automated replies, symbols and emojis I use daily for my work. If you have something that you use repetitively in your work (for example replies to potential customers about your services/work/product), or you want to save links without cluttering your browser’s bookmark field, having a specific note for that purpose is a great idea.

- Trip Planning: I have a specific note where I jot trip ideas about places. There I also include links to resorts, notes about the specific resort, flight tickets for certain dates, etc.

- Motivation + habits: I have another note where I store a few motivational quotes that are meaningful to me, as well as bad habits that I want to get rid of. Motivational quotes, and the focus of getting rid of bad habits seems to help a lot if you write them down and keep reading them daily. At least for me.

Why I Love It

Here are the reasons why I love Sticky Notes:

- it’s super simple. It opens/closes extremely fast and doesn’t slow down the PC

- you can add unlimited notes that are separate to each other.

- you can resize each note and move it around

- you can add different colors as backgrounds to further differentiate the notes.

- there is basic text editing so you can distinguish the text in the note (make letters bold, italic)

- one click on the program opens all notes over the whole desktop. One click also minimizes the notes.

- the notes are saved instantly and will stay locally on your PC until you delete them

- you can open links from the notes

So, if you are looking for a simple, lightweight and neat notes/to-do app for PC, Sticky Notes is a must-try. Hope it will help you organize your personal and professional life in a better and more intuitive way on the long-term.