How to Use a 1-Subject Notebook for Two Classes

Whether you're cheap, lazy, or just full of generic pre-adolescent rage, I'm sure you'd love to be able to use a one-subject notebook for two classes, without any messy bookmarks or having to find the pages every time. I know I would. There may be no such thing as a free lunch... but there definitely is such a thing as a free notebook. And I'm about to show you how to get one.

You may be saying, "I'm a simple guy, Tim. Can you really teach me how to turn a 1-subject notebook into a 2-subject notebook?" Sure I can. I'm a simple guy, too.

Hey, textbooks cost enough. So, enough talk. Let me show you a simple, repeatable trick that will save you 50% when it comes to buying the rest of your school supplies time and time again. (This will also make you very popular at parties.)

1. Acquire a 1-subject notebook. (From now on, we'll refer to this as a 2-subject notebook.)

2. On the front cover of your notebook, write your name and the name of the subject you'll be using the notebook for, just like you always do.

Now, here's the secret you've been waiting for!

3. Flip your notebook over. (If you've just had an "Aha!" moment, you are not alone.)

4. On the other front cover of your notebook, write your name and the name of the second subject you'll be using the notebook for!

5. Take a quick break to bask in your own glory. After all, you have just created something from nothing.

6. Go out into the world, use your new 2-subject notebook with pride, and reap the rewards of your (well, my) genius.

This astonishingly simple secret will only work for you as long as you aren't too neurotic about the organization of your notes to be bothered by the fact that the notebook you have created from nothing is technically upside-down. (The "big space" - that's a technical term - at the top of each page is now at the bottom of that page.) But, let's be honest, if you were that neurotic, would you be sitting in front of your computer reading articles about how to clone notebooks? Probably not. But if you are, don't fret: you can simply go on using your first notebook as you normally would. Just don't go writing in the second half, because that's another notebook entirely.