Elastic bands are great for keeping notebooks closed in a cluttered pocket or purse. In fact, it never occurred to me that there might be other ways to use them until I saw a friend use his Roadbook band as a bookmark. In hindsight, it’s a simple idea: loop the band around the unused portion of your notebook so you can flip straight to it when you open.
I’m not a total convert (the notebook above, for example, has little tear off corners that work just as well), but there are definitely times when, working at home and juggling multiple notebooks, I’ve put the idea to use.
What do you do with your band?
7 Comments
Laurie
When my notebook is closed, I like to tuck papers into the elastic band for easy reference without opening my book. I like to do this with directions, lists, notes or whatever I need to have easy access to while I’m out and about.
Sam Adamson
What a great idea! *facepalm* Why didn’t I think to do that? BTW, do you mind me asking what sort is the notebook pictured above? I only ask because I really like the Roadbook, but find it a little on the small side for me to use comfortably on the move. If there are ever plans to produce it as an A5 sized notebook I doubt I would ever use anything else.
Leah Hoffmann
No problem at all, Sam! This is a blank Exacompta Forum that Karen sent me a couple years ago. It’s a little smaller than A5, if I’m not mistaken (12cm x 17cm).
Halden
It never occured to me to use it for anything other than a latch. I guess because the notebooks I use also have the ribbon.
Wilson Hines
That top picture is how I use my band. I thought that was what it was for and somebody corrected me and said it was to keep the calendar closed. But, they liked what I was doing so much they stopped doing it the “right way.” LOL
B Irwin
When closed, it holds Post It notes on the front while I slide the notebook into my bag. When open, I turn it inside out, break the notebook spine, and use the elastic to hold the notebook open while I transcribe what I’ve written. Sometimes I have to supplement with a bullnose clip.
macuaig
Well…I also use the elastic band for a bookmark, but I say the whole notebook world is upside-down! The first thing I do with a new elastic-banded notebook is…flip it over.
For me, the band is for getting USED pages out of the way, wrapped together under the “front” cover. This secures my existing notes for privacy and convenience, and opens immediately to as many blank pages as I may need to rifle through while taking notes. If I need to reference old notes, that’s when I pull a few pages from under the band. I don’t need to conceal blank pages from anybody, especially me, and I don’t like bumping into the band when I write.
But this also means I have little use for the ribbon bookmark, unless it’s to come back to some old page I’ve already got banded.
The only trouble is that I haven’t seen a decent banded book that conceals the elastic attachment points. Everytime I look at my notebook, there are the ragged nubs on my “front” cover. No, no I tell you, it’s the whole world gone mad.
So how about that? Somebody make me a Habana with a tidy cover on -both- sides, please? (And white pages??)
Thanks for the post, Leah!