The Poor Man's Day-Timer

I suppose if you're a member of parliament, or a mayor, or a corporate executive or a real estate agent, you need a Day-Timer to keep track of all your appointments and contacts and deals-in-the-works and what-have-you. But I lead a simple life; politics and business and commerce are not for me. I can get by with a dirt-cheap, home-made, shirt-pocket notebook. Here's a method for turning one sheet of office paper and three staples into a neat little 16-page notebook for keeping track of all the pressing chores and obligations in your life.

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Take a single sheet of letter-size paper. Fold it in half. Fold it in half again. Fold in half again. Do the folds as precisely as you possibly can, and press the creases as sharply as you possibly can.

Now, with a regular office stapler, install three staples along the thing's 'spine'. Sight the stapler's staple-emergence position relative to the 'spine' as carefully as you can to get a good result.

Now, take a small utility knife with a sharp new blade in it, and slice the three folds that are preventing it from behaving like a booklet. Here's how it all looks at the point where you're about to slice the folds:

You'll end up with a smooth little 16-page notebook for jotting down all your chores, as you can see in the final photograph.

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