If you’re like me, a trip to a record or book store often results in a complete brain fart; I can’t remember why I’m there, what I want, or what I potentially might have wanted. It’s farcical, and it often leads to stupid impulse buying instead of picking up what I’d really needed.

I get around this parietal deficiency by using my Amazon wish list as a parking lot for some of the books and records I want to buy (no, I don’t want you to buy me anything; I’m just showing you).

Then, evey month or so, I print out and re-stash a miniature version of the list in my notebook so I’m always up to date when I’m out of the house and happen by a store.

So try this:

1. Go to your Amazon wishlist and click the “Compact View link under “My View.”
2. Resize the width of the browser window until all the columns you find most useful are a comfortably small width (definitely less than 6 or 8 inches, optimally). If your browser lets you, you can also reduce the on-screen type size to get things even smaller.
3. Print the page
4. Grab your safety scissors, and cut out just the columns you need in order to find or request the items in a real-life store (Title and Author should do, although I also like to know what Amazon charges, just for comparison)
5. Fold up the cut-out section and stick it in the pocket of your backpack, purse, or whatever you always have with you on the road

At the right resizing in Safari, then trimmed and folded, the “Title,” “Author,” and “Price” columns fit exactly into the back folder pocket of a mini-Moleskine. Swish.

Go forth and consume intelligently.