These flags are useful for a variety of marking tasks, such as indicating important passages or places you want to copy. The flags apply easily and remove easily, just like regular Post-It Notes. I have left these flags on for a long period of time, perhaps as long as a year, and have seen no effect on the paper marked.

There are two difficulties with these flags. First, there are only four colors and if you need to do something like a term paper or other similar research where you need more than four categories, you have to add a designator to your flags. I have made a cross reference and indicated A on blue = Topic #1, B on yellow = Topic #2, C on red indicates Topic #3, etc. The other difficulty is that there is little room to write on these flags, so they are more useful for indicating than writing. I have also used regular Post-It notes as flags when I need to make a note about a particular passage.

These flags are also useful if you want to mark other things, such as unread books on the shelf, the location of various types of recipes, or to remind yourself that there is an item to be taken care of (such as flagging a tool that needs returned to the garage toolbox). You are limited only by your imagination.

I have one set of these flags available because even though I use them only occasionally they are very handy to have when I do need them. 3M also makes a variety of other flags and though I would probably use them from time to time, I have found that these flags and regular Post-It notes handle most of my routine needs.