Imperfect action ✷ a DIY notepad (free template) for making calls

Wonky imperfections + useful art for uncertain days. A quick how-to video and a free design you can use, share, make your own.

Simple, useful art will get us through? It’s one way through, at least.

Recently I realized I need something to help me while making calls to representatives, senators, organizations I care about in this wild world. Something that would help me…

• feel more prepared for each call (who am I calling? why? how do I pronounce their name? what’s that bill number again for this issue? etc.)

• keep me on track (i.e., not ramble) when I leave a message or talk to a staff member.

• give me a consistent-but-not-too-complicated template to follow. I find linear, detailed scripts a bit overwhelming for calls, so I wanted to make something simpler, inspired by how I parse information.

I also wanted to have something visual, creative, and hopeful to look at, because these calls and these times really bring out my fury… I am prone to getting torqued over my principles and burning out, and I’m always looking for/imagining more tools to prevent that and take better care of the work, and myself in the work.

So I doodled up a call-making notepad with my ongoing motto: IMPERFECT ACTION!

As in: I’ll always be learning how to do this work. By its nature, it’s going to be on-the-fly. An awkward mix of very important but very improvised. I will never do it “right” or have the “perfect” thing to say.

And the work is ongoing and incomplete… even if I found a way to do it perfectly today, it would still appear in a new form, a new call to action, tomorrow. That can overwhelm me. Or it can free me up to just show up, as honestly as I can. Imperfect action is all I have.

Supply list and free PDF downloads below, with a quick how-to video at the start of this post! Let me know if you like this kind of thing. I have more ideas and love any kind of feedback, including likes here or on the video… low-key feedback still means a lot. ✷

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These notepad designs are free to print and share. I’d love to know how you use them and make them your own.

• Each PDF template is a one-page, letter-sized (8.5” x 11”), black and white design.

• The template makes four smaller sheets. The final notepad ends up being 4.25” wide x 5.5” tall.

• You can adjust the thickness of your notepad. I print 13 copies of the template page, which works out to 52 sheets in the final notepad. It gives the notepad a satisfying chunkiness.

• I’m imagining the number of sheets as a kind of challenge for how many calls I make—how long does it take to get through one notepad?

You can download the template with IMPERFECT ACTION! written across the top—the motto I keep coming back to personally. The more I hold on to that, the freer I am to take whatever small, honest action comes next.

Or you can download the template with a BLANK space across the top, to write your own motto or rally cry. I love the possibility of writing a different phrase for each call… imagine a journal full of these actions, or fragmenting them together into a found poem at the end of the year, or, or, or… I’m here for whatever makes our resistance feels more real and possible and creative now.

How to Make a DIY Notepad: Supplies You’ll Need

Fancy supplies aren’t a must. This is a DIY project that I hope can be done easily at home (or with some help from the library or a friend, especially if you need a printer).

• Copy paper (8.5” x 11”), ideally about a dozen sheets

• Access to a printer, to print the free notepad design. It’s black and white, nothing fancy needed to print.

• Thin cardboard for the notepad backing — reusing a cereal box is perfect for this

• Scissors or a paper cutter to cut your copies into the smaller, notepad-sized sheets and cut your cardboard backing to size

• Two binder clips (or something to hold the notepad together while you glue the spine)

• Elmer’s glue/PVA glue

• A metal ruler helps make the cuts a little neater/easier to finish, but this is an imperfect project for imperfect times… wonky edges kind of fit the vibe.

…making these notepads is surprisingly satisfying. A great way to move your hands and MAKE something in a moment when it feels like so much is being taken away.

Sending a lot of love and solidarity, and a moment with this fantastic tulip in all its red-alert-urgency, to you…