DIY A7 micro notepad -------------------- What’s a better way to start over with pen and paper than the good old DIY? Especially when everything you need to do this is a blank sheet of A4 (or similar in size) printer paper and scissors. 1. Start by folding the sheet in half (so that the shorter sides connect), then again in half and once again in half. Make nice creases at each step. Then unfold it and you should be left with 8 evenly-sized rectangles. 2. Fold the sheet in half just once and then make the first cut: from the folding edge across the middle up to the central point of the large rectangle (where your creases intersect). Be sure you’re cutting from the folding edge, not from the open edge, and don’t cut past the center. Unfold the sheet and you should see a nice horizontal hole in the middle of the sheet that spans two central sections. 3. Cut across one of the vertical creases from the sheet center to the top or the bottom (I usually choose the top). Make sure you don’t cut or tear anything else by accident. You should be left with two central flaps on the top/bottom side of the sheet. 4. Orient the sheet so that the flaps you just made are facing top. Start folding the paper along the already existing vertical and horizontal creases from the right flap: over, under, over, under and so on. Wrap the last flap in the opposite direction so that it makes a complete “book cover”. 5. Rotate the resulting fold so that any open sheet edges are facing down. That’s it, your 10-page notepad is ready! Bonuses: 1. Two of such booklets can be (kinda) naturally interlocked with each other by tucking the second one’s first leaf into the pocket of the first leaf of the first one. This extends the capacity to the whopping 16 pages inside the combined booklet and 18 pages in total! You can interlock more than two booklets but it's not that practical and prone to falling apart. 2. In case of a single-sheet notepad, you can reuse the six remaining pages by unfolding the sheet, turning it over and folding the same way. The last four pages in this case will be pages 9, 10, 7 and 8 (in that very order) from the initial layout. Pros: 1. Very compact (A7-sized if you make it from an A4) 2. Easy to make (only two cuts required, no staples or glue, just a single piece of paper) 3. Easy and safe to dispose of along with all the information on it (just burn it, again, it’s a single piece of paper) 4. Equally easy to store anywhere if you need it (including, but not limited to, front or back inner pockets of larger size notebooks) 5. Uses the sheet space more efficiently than the (zine-like) 8-page and 16-page folds 6. Ideal for weekly planning, cheat sheets or random thoughts --- Luxferre ---