Today I remembered a line from Linda Hill’s TED talk on “How to Manage for Collective Creativity”. She mentioned “slices of genius”. It’s those short quick insights that so quickly get overlooked or lost in the chaos of the day.

For me, today started like many, heading to the Atlanta airport for a flight scheduled to leave at 11:30. In the car, Delta kindly alerted me the flight was delayed. Upon arrival at the airport I find it’s going to be 2+ hours before I’m to depart. Being a frequent Delta flyer, I make my way to the SkyTeam lounge where I set up my office.

I had the need to develop a new presentation. So out comes my Mac, but more importantly, my pad of PostIt notes. I always keep at least one pad in my bag.

Using a technique introduced to me by Garr Reynolds (author of Presentation Zen), I always start analog and then move to digital. For years, this has been a life changer for me as to how I organize and refine my presentation…long before I begin to commit anything to a presentation tool.

But there can be a problem. Analog (physical sticky notes) can be challenging for a mobile person. Shortly after I finish this post, I need to pack all this up and head for the gate.

Here is where PostIt has an answer. It’s an iPad app called “PostIt Plus”. I think it’s available for the iPhone as well, but the small form factor is difficult for me.

I simply take my iPad, launch the app and start a “new board”. This activates the camera on my iPad.

It focuses in on what it detects as sticky notes and activates the shutter.

It then captures those images and places them into the PostIt Plus application.

This results in a mobile ready, editable, moveable board from which I can further work to refine my presentation…like I’ll likely do on the flight.

There is a free version of the app that performs all the items I just mentioned. And I think in the free version you can edit the text, by replacing the image with text you type. That way you can change the notes. And you can add new ones in the app as well. But if you’re a sticky note fiend, once you get a feel for this, you’ll want to shell out the few bucks to get the full app that allows you to assign colors, etc.

Let me know if/when you use this app. I believe for road warriors, it’s a great tool.