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I was told I am in need of an intervention because I could not contain my excitement over this:

It's a notebook. Single-subject, college-ruled, perforated for easy tearing out when necessary, with a pocket in the front and a moveable divider with a pocket. There are post-it tabs for creating tabs in notes and my favorite part of all...... In front of the paper is 6 blank month calendars with large enough squares to write assignments. Oh, yes, this is my Mecca of notebooks. It is exactly how I organize myself, only Staples realized this is the way I organize myself, so they put it all in one perfect place and sealed it up with a very durable covering. I am the ecstatic. And it was less than $6 at Staples.

And then! Oh, yes, and THEN!

I bought a binder. Not just any binder, but the binder to rule all binders. I bought tabs numbered 1-24, and I bought a 5-pack of blank tabs. I also have some sheet protectors laying around. Numbers 13-24 will be for years 2013-2024, and numbers 1-12 will be for months. I'll keep copies of any certifications with expiration dates organized by when they expire. During the current year, I'll have the month tabs so I can stay on top of things as each month gets here. For the unlabeled tabs, I'll have clinical and work experience listed by hand, with a few details (like instructors, dates, institutions, etc), awards and recognitions, resumes and application letters, diplomas/degrees, and relevant correspondence to my career/education.

I am embracing my dorkdom quite proudly today. :lol2: I thought I'd share in case anyone else might enjoy these types of organizational tools for themselves!

Thank you!!! I believe you have started a trend! I'll be trekking to my local os store asap. ;)

I am beside myself right now as I have found others that share in my passion for school supplies! LOL! I love Staples, Office depot and sometimes even Costco has some great deals on packages of ink cartridges. :cheers:

Specializes in Tele.

LOL being a dork can be awesome. I LOVE that notebook so I guess I'm right there with you! I'll have to keep my eye out for it!

Isn't everyone's favorite part of a new semester school supply shopping???

I. Love. It.

I can't wait to go get a new Justin Bieber lunchbox!!

Holy crap!

You shouldn't do that to people.

I almost choked to death on a Hershey Kiss!

Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

I love to buy pens and highlighters and sticky notes, even if I never use them.

School supplies are awesome! And yes, if I'm in an Office Depot or OfficeMax (we don't have Staples in my town), I can be there for HOURS looking at all the file organizers, stamps, pens, pencils, folders, planners, index cards, etc. It's like seeing the puppies at the animal shelter... I want them ALL!!!!!

When I was in the Navy, my job was to shop. When we reached our fiscal year end, we had thousands of dollars that I was forced to spend on office supplies/eqiupment. I had heart palpitations. Post its, highlighters pens folder OMG. When I got out the Navy... so much of that stuff came with me. That was four years ago and we STILL have stuff! My strange addiction! I spend do much money now building my mini office!

My near perfect "pocket-sized" binder just arrived today and I think I'm in love. It's a 6-ring "mini-ish" binder that holds 3.75" x 6.75" paper and is just 1/2" thick. It's small enough to slide into my (large) scrubs pocket and is going to be used to hold all of my "quick notes" that I want to drag around with me at clinicals. I'm nervous that it might be a TINY bit too tall for comfortable squatting/bending over, but we'll see...

It's set-up so that there's a (tabbed) page for each letter of the alphabet (like a mini-phone book so I can "file" the facts/references under the correct letter for easier finding later) and I can add more pages to each letter as needed. Flipping through a standard mini-memo book was making me crazy trying to find the page where I wrote this or that note about a particular lab value, policy, contact number or whatever. I had heard a mini-address book could help help organize my notes, but I wanted the flexibility of being able to move/add/remove pages as needed. I tried out using some index cards on a clip-ring, and while it worked OK, I think I'm going to like this mini-binder better. I like that I'll have a place to stick all those useful notes that I'm constantly jotting onto post-its until I have time to transfer them into a more organized mini-reference resource for me.

I've got a 6-ring hole punch too so I don't have to keep buying refills and since I have a papercutter, I can even type up info, print, cut to size & hole punch to add to the mini-binder. If it turns out to be too big, I guess I'll just have to go back to my index-cards on a ring, but I sure hope it works out as great as I've envisioned. (If not, it's another excuse to stop in at my local big box office supply store, LOL.)

Specializes in Cardiac intermediate care.
My near perfect "pocket-sized" binder just arrived today and I think I'm in love. It's a 6-ring "mini-ish" binder that holds 3.75" x 6.75" paper and is just 1/2" thick. It's small enough to slide into my (large) scrubs pocket and is going to be used to hold all of my "quick notes" that I want to drag around with me at clinicals. I'm nervous that it might be a TINY bit too tall for comfortable squatting/bending over, but we'll see...

It's set-up so that there's a (tabbed) page for each letter of the alphabet (like a mini-phone book so I can "file" the facts/references under the correct letter for easier finding later) and I can add more pages to each letter as needed. Flipping through a standard mini-memo book was making me crazy trying to find the page where I wrote this or that note about a particular lab value, policy, contact number or whatever. I had heard a mini-address book could help help organize my notes, but I wanted the flexibility of being able to move/add/remove pages as needed. I tried out using some index cards on a clip-ring, and while it worked OK, I think I'm going to like this mini-binder better. I like that I'll have a place to stick all those useful notes that I'm constantly jotting onto post-its until I have time to transfer them into a more organized mini-reference resource for me.

I've got a 6-ring hole punch too so I don't have to keep buying refills and since I have a papercutter, I can even type up info, print, cut to size & hole punch to add to the mini-binder. If it turns out to be too big, I guess I'll just have to go back to my index-cards on a ring, but I sure hope it works out as great as I've envisioned. (If not, it's another excuse to stop in at my local big box office supply store, LOL.)

Can you post a link to the mini binder you bought? Sounds like a great portable way to organize information.

Can you post a link to the mini binder you bought? Sounds like a great portable way to organize information.

I haven't actually used it yet during patient care and I'm pretty sure it won't fit in the pocket of all of my scrub tops, but it does fit in several of them, so I'm still not sure that it's going to work as well as I'm picturing, but I sure hope so!

The OUTSIDE dimensions (which were not posted on most sites that had this type of binder) are 4 5/8" wide x 7" tall x 1" thick. The listing actually says that it's 1/2" thick, but that just isn't true. The ones that I was seeing in the store we mostly 1.5" thick and seemed just a tad too big to fit in a pocket, but maybe other people will have better luck finding the thinner ones at their store.

This one says it's only 0.6" thick (in the product details) and it's free shipping if you have Amazon prime (I swear, this one was NOT here when I ordered or I wouldn't have payed a crazy shipping rate on the one that I did get... ah well, the trouble with using different search terms when you're looking!) - Amazon.com: Mead Loose-Leaf 6-Ring Memo Book, 1/2", 80, 6 3/4 x 3 3/4, Assorted: Office Products

I ordered this one that said 1/2" in the main description but when I measured it to post here, it was actually 1" thick and it still fits in my pocket - Amazon.com: BOOK,MEMO,6/RG,6.75X3.75: Camera & Photo

In pulling up the listing for the one described above, I noticed that there's a 3" x 5" paper option that *might* be even more pocket friendly if the binder is proportionally smaller. Amazon.com: Mead 46030 3" x 5" Vinyl Loose-Leaf Memo Book, 40 Sheets, Assorted: Home Improvement

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They also offer A to Z dividers that are sized to fit these binders, but since they have a fairly limited sheet capacity, I didn't want to waste 26 pages on dividers. Instead, I used the thicker (vellum?) post-it TABS (not flags, not paper notes) to label one sheet of paper per letter of the alphabet. Only time will tell if that was a mistake and I should have gotten the cardstock, pre-labeled tabs. (But since I had the post-it tabs already, maybe I made up for the expensive shipping I paid, LOL.)

Specializes in Forensic Psych.

Holy crap!

You shouldn't do that to people.

I almost choked to death on a Hershey Kiss!

Sorry, but this is serious business

I'm a little miffed that we didn't get a supply list at orientation. I'm just sort of assuming I need to buy, like....a stethoscope. Woulda been nice to hear it from the powers that be, though. And ER didn't get any syllabi for our upcoming classes, so I'm kind of lost as far as awesome folders and notebooks. Boo.

I'm a little miffed that we didn't get a supply list at orientation. I'm just sort of assuming I need to buy, like....a stethoscope. Woulda been nice to hear it from the powers that be, though.

Weird! We had a supply list at least a month before orientation, but they told us not to buy anything off it until after orientation. That was SO hard for me!

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:rotfl: LMAO!

I can't wait to go school supply shopping. And, nursing shoe shopping, my watch, stethoscope, scissors...everything! To me its the best part of starting a new semester. And, this time it will be exceptionally special to me. I love Office Depot and Staples. :loveya:

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