The boring part of collecting is the bookkeeping: writing down what you have, what you're missing, what you've got spare. And it's exactly the part that decides whether you finish the album or give up halfway.
The notebook problem
A paper list is out of date the moment you stick down two stickers. You cross things out, rewrite, make mistakes, and when a friend asks you "what are you missing?" you have to go through the album page by page.
The golden rule: log what you HAVE
Don't write down what you're missing (that list changes all the time). Log what you've stuck in; from there your missing stickers and doubles come out on their own. Every time you mark a sticker, both lists update.
See your progress in chunks
A whole album is intimidating. But "I'm half a page away from finishing a team" feels doable. Seeing your progress by page, by group and by rarity (shiny/special) keeps you hooked and tells you where to focus your effort.
Don't let it depend on a notebook
If you lose or switch phones, your collection shouldn't vanish. Having it in the cloud means you log in from any device and it's all still there.
Figuritas Online does all that bookkeeping for you: you mark what you've stuck in (you can even dictate the numbers by voice) and instantly see your missing stickers, doubles and progress by page and by rarity. Free, and for any album.