Stationery Quiz
Stapler
With one snap, you gather loose pages into a bundle that won't come apart.
A stapler fastens paper with a U-shaped staple. Press down, and the staple pierces the paper, hits the base underneath and bends inward. One press is enough to bind many sheets firmly into one. In Japan, staplers are commonly called “hotchkiss,” a name said to come from a product imported early on.
Taking things that are about to scatter and bringing them together on the spot — that's what a stapler does, and it fits someone who pulls scattered conversations and errands together. Anyone who presses it gets the same result, and once it's fastened, a little tug won't pull it apart.
A staple can be removed, but it leaves small holes in the paper. Because you don't hesitate once you've decided to bring things together, it helps to check “Is this everything?” before fastening — otherwise adding one more page later takes extra work.
Strengths
- You can pull scattered errands and conversations together on the spot
- Once you've brought something together, you keep it that way to the end
- You can get things done by the set procedure, with the same result every time
Where you may stumble
- You wrap things up so quickly that opinions arriving later struggle to get in
- Changing how you've decided to put things together takes you some effort
- When something comes along that doesn't fit your usual way, you're not sure where to fasten it
Sounds familiar, Stapler?
- When questions come in one by one, you answer them all in a single message
- As soon as you've finished snacking, you roll the top of the bag down and clip it shut
- You bundle the day's mail together with a rubber band before the day is out
Where you shine
When a conversation or a list of errands is starting to scatter and needs bringing together right there, one press from the Stapler does the trick.
Tips for “Stapler”
- Before you wrap things up, ask once: “Anything else?”
- If you want to add something after it's fastened, don't begrudge the effort of redoing it
- For things that don't fit your usual way of organizing, try making a separate bundle
Matches
See every match in the Stationery Quiz compatibility chart →
Ballpoint Pen — What the Ballpoint Pen writes can't be erased, so once the Stapler fastens it, there's no worry about the contents changing later. You both leave things as they are once decided, so you're perfectly in step.
Glue — Glue is another tool for bringing loose sheets together. The Stapler fastens in one go, in a set way, while Glue spreads evenly by touch — so you can split the work between what gets bundled and what gets stuck together.
Pencil — The Pencil wants to write and erase again and again, refining things into its own shape. Snap a draft together too early and it's far too soon for the Pencil, while the Stapler can never quite tell when it's allowed to fasten.
Close neighbors
These differ from this one on just 1 of the 3 axes. If one of your axes was near the middle, you may have their side too.
Which one are you? 18 everyday situations, about 3 minutes.
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