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Unless you’ve been acting out a real-life Rip Van Winkle scenario for the past four decades, you don’t need anyone to tell you what a Post-it® Note is. In fact, you’re probably already imagining the 3-inch squares with adhesive backing in the traditional bright yellow. Of course, these office supply staples come in gorgeous color varieties and themed color collections with exotic place names – my personal favorite is Marseille, though Bali and Helsinki are soothing, and Miami is so…but I digress.

You can find these original sticky note essentials in sizes ranging from teeny 1 7/8-inch squares to 18 inches by 12 inches (and even as full-sized easel pads), with standard paper or recycled, in regular blocks or tissue-style pop-ups, lined and unlined, square, rectangular, or amusingly shaped. Post-it® even shakes up the adhesive styles – you can get them with regular adhesive, Super-Sticky®, and Full-Stick notes with the whole reverse side able to attach wherever and to whatever.

But never one to rest on its laurels, parent company 3M has decided to take things to extremes.

Post-it® Extreme Notes

You’ve used your favorite stickies for everything from writing down phone numbers to writing To Do lists, from “labeling” paper piles and folders to mapping seating arrangements for weddings. The absolute basic Post-it® Note can handle almost everything you throw at it. But it’s that “almost” that Post-it® has taken as a challenge. I can almost hear the engineers and marketing guys in a room together to ponder what might be possible.

“What if we soaked them?”

[Maybe they should have studied Paper Doll Writes Between the Raindrops: Waterproof Notebooks for research ideas?]

“What if we froze them?

“What if we tried to stick them to bumpy walls? Heck, what if we tried to stick them to brick?!”

I’m surprised nobody suggested deep-frying them!

Nonetheless, they’ve taken up the gauntlet and produced the sticky notes for the tough gal-and-guy crowd that lives to the extremes.

Post-it® Extreme Notes are made with ultra-strong Dura-Hold™ Paper and Adhesive, giving them some very interesting properties. They’re “writable,” in the company’s words, meaning the special paper doesn’t interfere with the basic purpose – communicating (to yourself or others) – while making what we sometimes consider a white collar product to be pickup-truck tough.

The Extreme Notes:

• Are durable
• Are water-resistant
• Stick to textured surfaces (like brick, rusty metal, uneven wood, construction materials, etc.)
• Stick in both hot and cold environments (meaning they stand up to steam and ice)
• Can be used both inside and outside (from restaurant freezers and steamy kitchens to cars and walls in windy, rainy, gloppy weather)
• Are designed for tough conditions
• Remove cleanly, leaving no residue – just like the traditional notes

See them in action:

The Post-it® Extreme Notes are (at least for now) available only in the traditional 3″ x 3″ size, 45 sheets per pad. Although they’re made in four colors: orange, green, yellow, and mint, the 3-pad pack (about $5/pack) and 32-pad box varieties come only in the orange/green/yellow assortment or all-green or all-orange. You can also get 12-pad boxes in all-green or all-orange. If you want the mint, you’ll have to buy the Extreme Note 12-pack assortment ($20/pack), as the mint just isn’t available on its own. You can find them at Amazon, Office Depot, Staples, Walmart, Target, and online office supply stores.

What’s are the downsides to these tough guys? Nothing too terrible:

• They are not recommended for use on paper.

So, use all of your other pretty sticky notes for those jobs.

• You can’t stick them directly to wet surfaces.

So, if your neighbor’s windshield is covered in frost, don’t write a note complaining that he didn’t shovel the walk and stick it on his frozen, crystalized truck. Instead, apply them to dry surfaces and they’ll keep holding when it gets wet. (In a steamy area? Just wipe the area dry and then stick the note on; even if it’s humid, you’ll get it on there quickly enough.)

• The colors are…not pretty.

I’m sorry, but the orange and green, to my eyes, are downright ugly. The yellow is pretty standard, so there’s nothing to complain about there. The mint, their prettiest color, can only be purchased as one-quarter of a 12-pack assortment! It’s likely that 3M considers this a feature, not a bug – perhaps people in tough environments are conditioned to want to buy tough, un-pretty colors. But I’m betting that there are plenty of lumberjacks and electricians who’d be delighted (even if they wouldn’t use that phrasing) to have some brighter, more uplifting colors.

I have to admit, Paper Doll doesn’t do much in the extreme. No construction zones, no frozen tundra. But I did come up with an idea that might work for me. Sometimes, when I’m about to do a television appearance or speaking engagement, I’m having trouble remembering everything I want to say. But if I can write key phrases on Post-it® Extreme Notes and stick them on the far wall of my shower (completely opposite the showerhead), I can rehearse while I lather, rinse, and repeat.

How might you see yourself using these Post-it® Extreme Notes? Please share in the comments.