Insert choices

My original plan for 2013 was to use these Barnes and Noble inserts:

Then I received the Kate Spade inserts for 2013 along with the wine Holborn I purchased:

Now I’m not certain which one to use. Kate Spade has a monthly planner and gorgeous two-page pretty picture type things before the months. BN has monthly “events pages”. I also set up the BN with color coding, while the Kate Spade I kept black and white. At this point I’m leaning towards Kate Spade. What do you all think?

(This is assuming that a busy schedule doesn’t drive me back to my FC 2ppd or FF ppd of course.)

New personal size binder…

I acquired a new binder today. It’s personal size. It doesn’t lay perfectly flat, but it comes pretty dang close. The cover is extremely flexible and smooth. The rings have one or two tiny gaps, but they are perfectly aligned and open and close with a satisfying snap. The inserts are a nice, thick paper.

I’m talking about a $9.99 vinyl planner from Barnes and Noble.

It’s really quite sad that this planner has better rings than my Finchley.

I actually bought this planner for the calendar pages – it’s a weekly layout, and it’s pretty. The more staid planner pages available in a refill pack in a separate part of the store were too staid and the structure didn’t fit what I liked very well. Plus, my new planner came with stickers, a notepad, and a bookmark, too. It’s fun and girly, it’s true…We’ll see how the layout works for me.

Sadly, these don’t appear to be available online currently – except through resellers charging premium prices. Ugh.

I’ll post pictures in another entry later on, as it’s late and I don’t feel like doing all the uploading right now…

My Filofax set-up, fall 2012

 

 

I’ve kept the same set-up since August or so, when school started. I work part-time, take a full load of grad school classes, and I am married with a toddler. Before too long I was clinging to my Filofax like a life raft. I was afraid to tweak my set-up or change calendar pages in case I lost information along the way! I have to say, though, that this set-up did work well. I rarely missed anything. I did change up how I kept track of school assignments, but I will be doing an All-Stars post on that later on.

 

This is my personal brown Holborn. It has been serving me well since August, when I bought it. I’ve grown to like it more and more as time goes on. The pockets arrangement is just wonderful, and I like brown.

 

 

As you can see, however, it’s suffered some scratches.

I have it completely stuffed. It wasn’t like this originally, but as time went on I added more and more pages with notes. (I’ve also put in another full month of 2 pages per day, and it fits!) You can see how much the Franklin Covey pages stick out. It didn’t bother me much originally, but lately it’s been bugging me. I think I may have to switch to another brand, since I don’t like the thought of switching binders – the Franklin Covey offerings just aren’t as good.

 

Side view.

 

At some point I started using my Filofax as a wallet. I spend a lot of time at coffee shops, and realized that I didn’t need to carry around my wallet when all I needed was an ID and credit card. Now I carry my auto insurance card, health insurance card, credit card, ID, student ID card, and card-sized diploma in the slots. The pocket beneath them has coupons and my sticky flags. US standard size papers that I need get folded in fourths and put in one pocket, and cash lives in the other pocket (where the purple paper is poking out). I have a clear flyleaf, and then my Filofax and Philofaxy cards.

This is my clear plastic envelope which makes up my real front page. That’s me and my husband when we were dating. :)

 

The backside. A note from my best friend, and a quote from an excellent book.

 

These are my tabs. The dividers are regular Filofax ones with the tabs cut off; the tabs are Martha Stewart ones by Avery. MLS is the degree I’m going for.

 

I decorated the dividers with stickers from Half Price. The post-its remind me what’s in each section. This is my “God” divider, which basically means it has anything to do with faith/church.

 

My MLS divider. I am a graduate student, studying library science. I will be doing an All Stars post about this section later on.

 

My “Me” section.

 

My pledge to stick with one set of calendar pages. I’m considering breaking it though…*innocent face*

 

Family divider. Currently it’s got a Day-Timer Hot List post-it on the other side with my list of gifts to get…I’ve only got 3 people left!

 

This section is sorely neglected…

 

This section is somewhat of a “miscellaneous” section, but most of it is important miscellaneous information – such as “important phone numbers” in case my phone goes dead or is unavailable and someone needs to get a hold of people close to me.

 

It also holds my Filofax brainstorm page, which has been neglected for several months. Turns out that being busy constantly takes away the need to do anything related to Filofax tweaking.

 

Here’s an example of a daily page. The daily tracker box is where I put my husband’s schedule. The notes page is an “inbox”.

 

And here’s a month. I can’t take a picture of a past month because there’s too much personal info! I do color-code my months – birthdays in light green, work in orange, deadlines in red, schoolwork in blue. I outline the actual day boxes with a colored pencil matching the pages, because I have trouble distinguishing between notes space and day boxes otherwise. I also write down my husband’s work shifts once they happen, and put how many hours I work in the notes space after each week.

 

More Filofax musings at the end of my calendar pages. I have a transparent flyleaf at the end to protect my pages. It helps the binder close better – though, the leather covering the zipper helps as well.

 

Stickers from Sandra on the other side of the flyleaf! I have some post-its and stickers from Sandra in that envelope. I rarely use these pockets, however.

 

The backside. You can see the wear.

 

As you can see, the rings are rather full…

 

Open to today. I have the current month and the next month in here.

 

And my today marker…

 

I never pay attention to these stickers. That’s a bad thing.

So, that’s my fall Filofax. I’m grateful that it’s served me well. Now that I’m on break, however, I’m starting to think about tweaking again. The daily pages are wonderful…and they are Franklin Covey, so they stick out. Also, they take up a LOT of space. I also end up forwarding tasks a lot, too.

I’m considering testing a GTD/week on 2 pages set-up while school is out. I don’t need the 2 pages per day right now, and I don’t think the to-do list is serving me well when I have no real deadlines (though it worked fairly well when I was in school, I think…I’m going to go back and analyze that). But I don’t have enough room in my Filofax for context to-do lists AND 2 months of 2ppd. I’ve also noticed that I need lines, and times are helpful. The cotton cream week on 2 pages from Filofax is beautiful, but it isn’t structured enough for me to be able to use it well. My mother’s Christmas present is the DayTimer Coastlines week on 2 pages, and I’m contemplating getting it or something similar. We’ll see! If I decide to keep the 2 pages per day, I might try DayRunner pages – very similar format, but Filofax sized instead of Franklin Covey sized.

 

 

 

An open letter to Helena Bloomer of Slam PR

This letter was written by David Popely and is being posted simultaneously on several blogs. As I am not fashionable, I like to do much more than just write notes, and I appreciate items being the quality they should be instead of being subpar, I am joining those who are posting it. As an American, I have to put in some effort to purchase Filofax products, and I have gladly done so – but if the current trend continues, it is highly likely that any large purchases I make will be from other American planner companies, especially since I already use calendar inserts from elsewhere.

Dear Ms Bloomer

This letter is a response to the interview recently conducted with you by FeaturesExec Media Bulletin, and is being posted simultaneously (more or less) on a number of blogging sites in the UK, the US and beyond.

What binds us together as bloggers is that we are all members of an international community and website devoted to all things Filofax, and are all passionate about personal organisation, and the Filofax brand in particular. We have read, as a community, and with increasing disbelief, your comments concerning the Filofax brand, and this is our response.

We note from your comments that, as a result of a ‘usage and attitudes study’ you have conducted, you have been led to the conclusion that the distinguishing features of Filofax users are that we ‘like to write notes’, and that we are ‘very interested in fashion/stylish accessories’. We can assure you this is not the case in either respect, and that we find being pigeon-holed in this way to be demeaning and insulting in a way you most probably cannot understand. We are a community whose passions are for good organisation and a flexible, functional system to underpin that organisation. Some of us, perhaps a minority, have considerations of fashion, but all of us care that our systems of personal organisation assist us in the lives we live and the tasks we undertake.

In short, if all we wanted to do was to ‘write notes’, it is highly unlikely we would invest in relatively expensive binders, refills and systems such as your client provides. We wonder just who you have asked to participate in your ‘usage and attitudes study’. Whoever they are, we can assure you they are unrepresentative of your client’s core customer base, many of whom have been loyal customers for over twenty years and now feel ignored by your client.

We want to suggest to you that the direction you are taking your client in is ultimately going to prove fundamentally damaging to their business. The fashion ‘business’ is notoriously fickle and fast-changing, and you seem to have convinced your client that ignoring and alienating their loyal core customer base will bring dividends in terms of a new, fashion-conscious, high-spending corpus. We want to suggest to you, and by extension to Filofax themselves, that when the fashion ‘carousel moves on, your client will be left neither their newly promised client base, nor the client base you have led them to abandon.  Do you really think this is smart business advice?

You say in your interview that you consider your brief with Filofax to ‘make (your client) fashionable again’. We would suggest to you that your client’s products, if they were ever ‘fashionable’ at all, were so because they fulfilled a function and a need which was perceived to be important to their customers. We now have growing evidence of a lowering of standards of manufacture in Filofax binders, of poor paper quality in refills, and of a lack of willingness to listen to your customers’ opinions. Several of our members, on voicing opinions similar to these, have been invited by Filofax (or whoever runs their Twitter feed) to communicate those opinions directly to your client. This has been done, and no further comment or reaction from your client has been forthcoming. We would like to know whether this is really the kind of public relations you wish for your clients? Or are you merely concerned with putting fashionable, well-heeled ‘bottoms on seats’ at London, New York and other Fashion Weeks with the aid of free give-aways of ranges of binders priced beyond the reach of the average core Filofax user and similarly poorly manufactured? We would suggest that your ‘fashion focused press office’ would be better employed communicating with the loyal, core customer base of your client, the majority of whom, it now seems, are on the point of abandoning your client’s brand in favour of providers who will listen.

We write as concerned individuals and not as representatives of the community to which we belong. However, it is worth noting that many of us have a very high annual spend on Filofax and related products, and we suggest that Filofax is in danger of sacrificing this loyal customer spend in exchange for something far less reliable in the long term.

In conclusion, we have every confidence that these opinions will be ignored as ‘unfashionable’ by your ‘attitude studies’ and ‘fashion focused’ executives. However, we care enough about the Filofax brand to communicate these opinions plainly to you, and to hope that Filofax will one day return to the business in which it flourished for over seventy years, of providing highly functional, attractive but reasonably priced, personal organisation systems to those who need them, which is an increasing number of people in the societies in which we live.

Turning a bookmark into a today marker

Not too long ago I had an epiphany – a bookmark would work very well as a Today ruler…it’s stiff, it’s roughly the right width and size, and it’s already decorated! I tested the theory with the bookmark that came with my Moleskine book journal, and found that it was just the right size. My Half Price bookmarks, however, were not. So when I was at Barnes and Noble one day, I decided to check out their bookmarks. They had the right size, and so I decided to make to-do markers out of them – and document the process for others to copy if they so choose. :) These are all for the Personal size.

Here are the bookmarks that I chose. You can see that they are almost exactly the height of the Today marker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I placed the Today marker on top of the bookmark and made sure they were aligned. Then I took a pen and colored in the hole space. (I took this picture before actually doing it – when I did it, I flipped them around so that I was marking on the back of the bookmark.)

 

 

 

 

After doing that, I got this. I then used a single hole punch to do the holes. After that, I took scissors and cut carefully just on either side of the black line to create the slots.

 

Voila! A customized today marker without a lot of trouble! :)

On diary (calendar) formats

In the past month, I have used three different diary formats. The first was with my short-lived Moleskine experiment - a week on one page with notes, in a very large size. The diary layout itself worked fairly well, but I was having problems with the bound planner and so switched back to my Filofax. At this point I was lacking diary inserts, as I’d traded my personal size diary for my mother’s Franklin Covey Classic (similar to A5) inserts. So I needed some new ones if I wanted to use the Filofax as a planner again.

The second diary format I used was very kindly mailed all the way from France by Steve of Philofaxy. It is the Filofax cotton cream week on two pages, with the days all the same size and a notes space above Monday. I honestly love this layout – it works quite well. My problem with it is that it’s very compact, and I just don’t think I can squeeze everything I want or need to note in a day-specific way into this diary.

Today, the third diary format arrived – Franklin Covey 2 pages per day (in the Serenity pattern). I ordered these because I am starting grad school in just over a week, and several people recommended the 2ppd, saying that I would need the room. (Thanks Laurie, Rori, and Zoe! and anyone else I’m forgetting!) I’ve used the page per day layout before with success. This diary also comes with a month on 2 pages, which is absolutely essential for use with daily pages.

I just finished getting all my appointments, etc. written over. The daily sheets are still quite bare, as most of my to-dos are still on the context sheets and grad school hasn’t yet started, but I expect they will fill up rapidly. I do feel like there’s a lot more room to breathe, which is nice. The pages are sectioned: appointments, to-dos, a “daily tracker,” and notes. I’m going to use the daily tracker for my husband’s schedule, and I think this will work VERY well. In the past I’ve taken the top line of the appointments, or just the “margin” of a day space on a weekly page, and neither of those have worked too well. The daily tracker box gives me room to note details if I like, and it means his schedule is not taking up space where my schedule needs to be! The notes page will be used as an inbox-type thing as well as having the extra information I will need for assignments.

So, there you have it. I am planning on forcing myself to stick with this format. My problem is that I sometimes try and fix what isn’t broken! Ack! I really must learn not to do that.

First impressions of the Holborn

1) Man, it’s hot outside. Poor leather having to deal with that heat.

2) Ooh soft and smooth.

3) Woo, no gaps in the rings!!!

4) Hm. The rings seem to almost be *bent* where they close, kind of like my Franklin Covey classic’s, but a tad bit moreso. But still, no gaps yay!

5) Man, this is FLOPPY!

6) This is not the same type of ring mechanism as my Finchley – this one has things (I presume it’s the attachments) on the metal.

7) Ooh fun stuff that came inside the Holborn

8) ooh lots of pockets!

9) …I need to go to work soon and my kid does not appreciate how awesome Filofaxes are.

I’ve defected: my Moleskine weekly planner

Well, I’ve defected. My Personal Finchley Filofax (as well as my Franklin Covey classic binder) are languishing in drawers. What happened? Well…the Finchley was a bit small. The Franklin Covey was great, but I couldn’t carry it anywhere – and when I did carry it, I didn’t want to pull it out. So it wasn’t getting used well. I ended up buying an extra-large Moleskine weekly planner, and I’ve been using it for the past three weeks.

Sadly, this post has only one picture. I know, it’s blasphemy – but there has been too much going on which involves my family, or friends, and it’s all on my planner pages…and I’m too lazy to blur out *that* much stuff. Sorry! *looks sheepish* I do, however, have this picture which explains how I use the weekly pages. The green highlighting is the most recent stuff and what’s remained consistent over the past couple weeks. I’ve turned the bottom part of the righthand notes page into a space for weekend to-dos, as the weekend days have less space. (Also, please note that the color is off in this picture – the pages are much whiter than they appear.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are also two sets of monthly calendars – year at a glance for July-Dec 2012, 2013, and 2014, as well as vertical monthly calendars (line a day) for July 2012-Dec. 2013. I’m using the spaces between months in the year-at-a-glance part to record important monthly notes, like people graduating or when the pest guys come. The vertical monthly calendars I’m using to record our income and any super important events. I also put my bill-tracking sticky flags on the vertical monthly pages. There are also some notes pages at the back, which I’m using for important lists, including gift ideas, a wish list, and a Someday list.

I’ve also taken up color-coding, which means I’m carrying around a bag of pens everywhere..but that’s okay! I use purple for personal things, dark green for anything to do with family, blue for grad school, orange for work, brown for faith-related things, red for can’t-miss important stuff, and black for everything else – which usually means housework and errands! Both appointments and to-dos are color coded throughout the planner, and notes sometimes are as well. I’ve also got stickers from the lovely Sandra which will brighten the pages right up!!

So far, this is working great for me. I love the weekly view, and how light and portable it is, and how it’s a bound book. I do wish there was more notes space. I tried taking a pocket Moleskine cahier to work the other day, though, and it worked wonderfully as an inbox, so that might be the solution. However, all of this is subject to change depending on what my planning needs are once I start grad school!

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment with questions, comments, vilification for being too lazy to take more photos…but please don’t be too mean. ;)

A day in my life, through the eyes of my planner

(I actually decided to do this post because I was so excited that I got my entire to-do list finished for once. Hopefully I can turn this into a trend!!)

Anyway. Here’s what my day looks like:

I use Franklin Covey’s page per day Serenity insert. Note the full page for Sunday.

On the left, we have the task list. I put time estimates in the “priority” box. The only task I moved today was one which is incredibly time-consuming thanks to a decent sized dining area with a grouted tile floor. I despise that floor, actually. I also still need to get cash from my husband, but I can easily do that later. Everything else is done! YES!

On the right are appointments. I use the top line to record my husband’s work schedule – today, for example, he starts work at 5pm. We usually go to church on Sunday mornings, but my daughter was ill so that didn’t happen. Instead I decided to go to Barnes and Noble and study for the GRE, where I once again reminded myself that I have forgotten pretty much all the algebra I ever knew and I will probably fail. Unless, of course, I use my awesome planning skills to create a plan to relearn all the algebra I ever knew in the span of 4 weeks. So I bought a prep book, and I still need to create the plan.

Not many notes, as usual – there isn’t much space. Most random notes go in my “inbox” in the front of my Filofax. Sometimes I will put a quick reminder of what I did that day in order to transfer it to my five year journal later. Yes, my memory is that bad.

This is a pretty good representation of what my pages look like. I’m contemplating laying all my April pages out on the floor and taking one massive picture. Or two, to get both sides. Hehehe…haven’t decided whether I will or not.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse of my life!

Filofax “styles” – time and task management

There are many ways of handling tasks and keeping track of appointments, but they seem to boil down to two basic methods. The first is compartmentalized and topical – appointments go in one place, tasks go in another (often divided into contexts), notes in another, and any other needed things go into topical sections. To-dos are only scheduled if they are time-sensitive – otherwise, you should work off of the various lists as you see fit. Getting Things Done is the most well-known incarnation of this method.

The second method is mostly chronological, with appointments, tasks, and notes all attached to dates. You schedule your to-dos in order to make sure you have the time to get them done. You keep your notes on the daily pages and refer back to them later. Project lists could be kept on monthly pages. Julie Morgenstern is an advocate of this way of doing things, and her book Time Management from the Inside Out explains it well.

Both methods claim that they will change your life and help you get things done, even though they are opposites – and both have worked for hundreds of people. Having read books on both methods, I can see why. It really boils down to what works for you. Some have found huge success with GTD methods, while others have tried them and found GTD doesn’t work for them. Others find that scheduling everything works for them.

Personally, I tried GTD and found that I needed a daily to-do list. Now I’m firmly in the schedule-everything camp, and while I still move tasks more often than I like, I’m finding it works pretty well for me. I still have a separate notes/”inbox” section instead of using daily pages, though, as my page-per-day insert doesn’t have enough room for me to use the inbox as my only notes area!

There are plenty of lovely inserts that one could use in setting up a Filofax for these methods. Personally, if I were going to have a GTD set-up, I would use Filofax WO2P or WPP in cotton cream, with Filofax to-do lists and notepaper to make up the rest. My current chronological set-up uses FC PPD. I’m still pondering switching to 2PPD for the extra notes space, but as it is the PPD layout is great for my tasks and appointments.

What method do you use? Have you tried the other? Feel free to leave links to blog posts, as well – I love reading blog posts about such things! :)

Anniversary, Filofax store, and shopping!

To celebrate our 5 year anniversary of being a couple, my husband and I decided to go to the Galleria (Dallas), as he hadn’t been there in years. It just so happens that a store which stocks Filofaxes was located in that mall… :)

The store was Paradise Pen. I discovered that $1500 pens exist. They had a shelf of Filofaxes as well as a display with various inserts. The Filofaxes were prominently Apexes, Classics, and Finsburys, along with Flex covers and inserts. There was a compact Classic and a compact Finsbury (…I think that’s the right word – the personal size ones with smaller rings). There were one or two minis, and I think two or three A5s – the rest were personal. There was a pocket green Chameleon and a pocket Hampstead which were both very nice. I was surprised how floppy the Chameleon was. I seriously considered buying the Hampstead, which had all sorts of interesting pockets, but I don’t use a pocket and can’t imagine fitting into one again so I didn’t. They also had some refillable journals by Oberon Design, some Rhodia notebooks, and a few other notebooks and things.

We didn’t stay at the Galleria very long – the stores were too upscale. So we went to North Park instead. There we found two particularly exciting stores. Paper Source had all sorts of interesting journals and books, not to mention stationery and just plain paper. I could have spent way too much money in there, but the only thing I purchased was a “Quotable Kid” journal. My daughter doesn’t talk yet, but now I’m prepared! ;)

Fossil was the other store. I’ve been in there before, but this time I actually found something I wanted to buy – a really cute wallet! I spent $60 on it, which is the most I’ve ever spent on a wallet, but I think it’ll last a while. It’s technically my birthday present from my husband. :) I love the interior layout – I think it’ll work really well for me.

It’s lighter than that in person – the funky lighting made it look darker.

Of course we did other things too, but they don’t really relate to anything I usually blog about, so yeah. ;) Hope you enjoyed reading!

Trying a Moleskine

I bought a Moleskine lined notebook today. I decided the beautiful leather journal was too heavy to carry around, so I would use it for my 1000 Gifts list. I have the Moleskine book journal and adore it, and I’ve used Moleskine planners before, but I’ve never used a Moleskine notebook. So far I’m enjoying it, and the ghosting isn’t bothering me too much. If I like them I may switch to them for carry-around journals.

I also bought some colored Pilot Precise V5 pens today. I love the black ones, and the colored ones are just as wonderful. It’s great having a purple pen again with which to journal. I’ve been on a purple kick – I have multiple articles of purple clothing, a purple purse, a purple Filofax, and a purple Bible in which I’ve been using a purple .005 Pigma Micron.

Journaling is calming, and centering. It helps me feel like the world isn’t quite completely crazy. It’s been a hard week.

How I journal

I’ve journaled off and on for years, to think things through. I have something like 15 old journals – one day I’ll take a picture of all of them! Last year I started journaling to remember what I did on which days, as well. So, this is my “system.” I have three journals, all from Barnes and Noble. Two are for me and one is about my daughter.

I have two five year diaries – these are called “One Line a Day” and “Mom’s One Line A Day.” The only difference is that the moms one is pink. I found them at Barnes and Noble and got very excited. There are others available as well, but I do like these. They are small, with dates on the top of each page and five spaces to record things. In mine, I record what I did that day – places I went, any big events, etc. In my daughter’s, I record anything super cute that she did, along with where she went and with who. I back-filled my daughter’s from records I’d kept elsewhere, so I’m starting to get to the point where I see what happened a year ago. I love having that. I also love knowing the minutia of my days! Before, I could *never* remember what day I’d done what thing. Now I can just look in the journal if I want to. The limited space makes me keep it short.

 

I also have a journal for me. This particular one is leather, and quite heavy, so I don’t often carry it around even though I want to. It’s got beautiful blank pages, and the paper is quite thick. It’s also got quite a few pages – I’m perhaps a third of the way through the book, and I’ve reached page 90 or so. I like to use colored pens as it livens things up. I also practice my cursive. ;) I write about all sorts of things in here – my Filofax occasionally, events, feelings… I process better when I write or talk about things, and writing saves my poor husband, plus I don’t forget what I’m figuring out! Sometimes I’ll use prompts from a wonderful book called Creative Journal Writing. I also write prayers and things connected to Bible study in here at times, and I’ve even put in sermon notes. Basically, anything that I need to process or record that I might want to keep for a while goes in here instead of in the Filofax.

I don’t like to journal in my Filofax because I think anything looseleaf is, by nature, impermanent. That works great for my planner pages, but not so much for journaling. I have toyed with the idea of getting 2ppd and using the notes page as a combined inbox/mini journaler, but I can’t imagine ever using a Filofax for all my journaling!! It just wouldn’t work for me.

My latest – and hopefully final – Filofax set-up for 2012

Well, after all too many tweaks, I’ve settled on something that I really do enjoy. The inserts may still change in future years, but the core works really well for me! I’m using two Filofaxes, and I’ll explain that pretty thoroughly.

The first thing I see when I open my main Filofax is pretty doo-dads, which change occasionally. So far, the family photo is a constant. Then I have my handmade info sheet on pretty scrapbook paper, with my name, number, and emergency contacts. On the back of that are some important numbers that I don’t have memorized, but might need in an emergency – such as the mechanic, my work, and my best friend’s number. Then comes the Filofax “if you find me” page.

The Filofax post-it note accessory is my first divider, thanks to that nifty tab at the top. I use the flags to bookmark things in books that I may want to take note of or quotes I may want to put in my book journal. The big post-its get used occasionally. Behind the accessory is some notepaper – cheap Mead paper for general notes and nicer Filofax paper for notes that I may want to keep, such as notes I’m taking on books. This is my inbox. Once I’ve processed the general notes, they are crossed out, and once the paper is full of crossed out sections, it goes in the trash. Notes I want to keep go in my second binder.

My next section is “Do”. This has my time map (from a Philofaxy template), gift list, projects list, context lists (computer, house, sans baby), my list of things I need to talk about with my husband, an “agendas” list for things I need to talk about with everyone else, to buy list, work notes, work to-dos, cleaning record, fix/improve, waiting for, and “possibly, one day.” All of these involve some sort of action. I used FF to-do paper and various notepaper for this section.

The next section is “Dream”. This is my Me section, with mostly lists of stuff I want to do or watch.

Next is my calendar section. I’m using Franklin Covey Serenity day per page inserts with the tabbed monthlies. The inserts themselves are quite pretty, and look WONDERFUL in the Finchley.

I LOVE the monthlies! They are great for future planning. FC pages also have a monthly to-do space which has come in very handy. I have a years’ worth of 2 pages per month in here. They are tabbed through December, and then they are the “future planning” calendars. Once I order next years’ inserts I’ll replace the “future planning” ones with proper tabbed ones. The only thing I don’t like about the monthlies is that the days spaces aren’t especially well delineated, but I fixed that with some strategic highlighting. I keep track of bills using stickies on the monthly squares which get moved to the next month once they’ve been paid. I’ve been doing this for several months and it works well for me.

I’ve just started using the daily pages, but they will work well, I think. Best part is, EVERY DAY HAS A FULL PAGE!! My husband’s work schedule goes in the very top line of the schedule section, since I never do anything at 8am. I’m trying out meal planning, so meals go in the schedule section on a line about where I’ll be eating. I occasionally schedule my to-dos as the day goes on, as well. Recurring appointments (work, church) get written down – I learned in college that if I didn’t do that, I would almost miss them! I put whether a bill is due in the top right under the date, on the pretty patterned section. Birthdays and various day-specific notes go in the Daily Notes section. To-dos that I need to or want to get done on that day go in the to-do section. This is working fairly well in theory, though in practice I don’t always do those tasks. Still, I like it better than just sticking them on a context list – if they are at all time-sensitive, I need to pick a day for them!! I use big post-it notes to write down books that I check out from the library, and stick those notes on that day’s page. This allows me to easily move them if I renew the books, or I crumple them up and toss them once the books are returned. I have THREE MONTHS’ worth of daily pages in my Filofax, and I LOVE it.

The last thing in the Filofax is a piece of cardboard which came with some set of inserts – it’s used to protect the back pages.

My secondary binder is the cheapo Day-Timer. In front is a transparent flyleaf, some extra notepaper, a today ruler, and my vertical year calendar. Then comes the Financial tab, which holds our 2012 budget, my husband’s income record (he’s a waiter so this is important to guesstimate income), and some tips I’ve written down from various books. This section doesn’t get used often, but it’s important to have once a month! After that comes my A-Z index, which holds notes. I use a post-it to list what I’ve got behind a tab. For instance, the EF tab has a post-it which reads: “Filofax Stuff and other planner stuff, 2011 goal budget (Finances), Food Rules, Filing System plan, FlyLady”. (In case you were wondering, there are 5 sheets of planner-related things.) After all that comes the “Holidays and Observances” list from the Franklin Covey pages, and the rest of the Franklin Covey future planning calendars. There is a notepad in the back of this archive binder, which I’m sure I’ll use at some point.

So, there’s my awesome Filofax set-up! Sorry about the lack of pictures, I’m honestly not motivated to take pictures and blur out people’s names and such at the moment. I may put pictures up on Flickr later.

Thanks for reading!

Filofax update…

[If you read my blog for my awesome *cough* opinions on things other than planners, feel free to skip this post..heh heh. :D]

Well, the Cavendish has gone to a new home where he is being properly utilized.  I’m thrilled that the new owner is so pleased.

So I am back in my Finchley! I’ve traded inserts with another Filofax lover - she now has my Filofax 2dpp and I have her Franklin Covey Serenity DPP. I love the monthlies – can’t start using the dailies until April, but I think I will love those as well.

I bought a cheapo archive binder at OfficeMax – DayTimer with 3 months of sample pages, which was nice as I now know that DayTimer’s crazy DPP layout will never work for me. The binder was also cheaper than even a Domino Filofax, plus there was no shipping costs and no wait. I also found some boring old Personal-sized notebook paper – I didn’t know that was available!! It’s under $3 for a pack of 60 sheets, and is sold as a “memo book refill.” I’m quite excited about this, as I’m planning to use it for my notes section and save the Filofax paper for important notes. ;)

At the moment I’m pondering the best way to arrange my Filofax and archive binder together so they work well for me. My Filofax is getting full, and I don’t want to push it too far as the rings don’t close properly (and never have). I’d love more calendar pages, but then what about my notes pages?? You see my dilemma. So the archive binder will have to become more active – seeing as it’s within arm’s reach when I’m at my desk, this shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll do another post later on once I’ve figured all this out.

I have a job now and used my Filofax to take notes today – I felt very grownup and professional. ;)

One last thing – I made this video a while ago, about my Filofax set-up and my Moleskine book journal. I *love* my book journal – it’s amazing. Enjoy! (If you watch it. I rarely watch videos…so won’t be offended if you skip mine. ;D)

Inside the Cavendish

I’ve finally been able to take photos of my new Cavendish. It’s growing on me – I do love the nice large rings, and if I were going to use a Filofax as a wallet (purse, for non-Americans?) this would be the one to use! I’ve also decided to pretty him up a bit – yes, he’s definitely a “he”, but I’m a girl and I enjoy pretty dividers. I bought a “Designer Mat Pad” which happened to have 4″ x6″ pretty paper, and just cut and hole-punched. Easy peasy. :)

I’m currently trying out a new set-up and it’s working rather well so far. The only problem I can see is that I’m running the risk of forgetting about all the “Me” things, since they are no longer in the same book. So, I will need to guard against that.

I will probably end up switching between Cavendish and Finchley, honestly – it is nice having options. ;)

Contemplating a new Filofax set-up

Well, my Cavendish experiment today wasn’t very helpful, as I didn’t really use my Filofax while I was out! I guess I’ll just have to give him another go tomorrow.

I’m contemplating a new set-up, something like this..or maybe like this. I have a set of regular labeled tabs that came with the Cavendish that I could use. Diary is self-explanatory. Notes would be for capturing anything and everything, to be processed later – I really want to get into that habit. Information would be for various lists that I want to carry with me, like my wish list. Projects would have my to-do and project lists. I might also use finances and addresses for their purposes..though addresses would be more of emergency contacts and store hours than proper addresses. The only thing about using those tabs, though, is that I wouldn’t be able to use my pretty dividers anymore…I guess I will just have to make new ones! Plus at least two of my self-made tabs are defunct now, since my Learn section has been placed primarily behind A-Z tabs and my Love (family) section now has its own binder.

If I do use the system described above, the Finchley will become a Me binder – with my Me section, which I can probably expand easily, along with my Learn section. I might figure out some other sections to add.

My A5 Domino is still just a to-do list and a lot of blank paper. I don’t have section dividers, haven’t managed to get to the store to buy material to make them, and also am not sure what sections I would like…so I’m going to build this one as I need, not create something and then test it.

Sometime soon I plan to take pictures of the Cavendish, as well. He needs a bit of training – he doesn’t quite lie flat. He may also benefit from some sort of leather care stuff, he’s a bit rough in places. I can’t quite remember what works best for that, and I’m positive I haven’t got any of it in the house, either. He’s also quite floppy, but I don’t think that will bother me too much. If we just can’t get along, I’m sure I can find him a nice new home – but I’m going to give him a good try first.

Any suggestions, ideas, etc? Tell me in the comments! :)

Oh Cavendish…

I’m caught in a bit of a ridiculous dilemma thanks to the Cavendish. I can’t decide which personal to use as my main binder! The Cavendish would be a wonderful binder, and has TWO PEN LOOPS. The only time I would want that second pen loop is when I go out. But…I’m quite attached to my Finchley.

Twice I have sat down and put sections of my main binder or my whole main binder into the Cavendish. Twice I have placed everything back in the Finchley. Twice I have shaken my head at my indecision.

So today, before leaving the house, I switched the binder contents and took advantage of the two pen loops in the Cavendish. Yes, Finchley is languishing at home….we shall see how this turns out.

New Filos and plans for them

Today I received two Filofaxes I purchased from Sandra over at Filofax Fanatic - an A5 red Domino and a personal navy Cavendish. Sandra is my enabler – of my 4 Filos, 3 have come from her!!

After seeing an A5, I’ve decided that I like the Personal size much better. The Domino is going to be a household notebook, and I think it will work well for that. I don’t think I will buy any other A5s, however. I found it interesting that this Domino had two non-elasticized pen loops, as my pocket Domino had an elastic pen loop. Perhaps they were made at different points, or maybe that’s just how they are…

I like the look of the Cavendish better than I expected. I’m not particularly fond of navy, but I don’t mind it with the Cavendish. It has large rings and two LARGE pen loops – I just tried my Bic 4-color pen in them, and it fits easily! There’s also an outside zip pocket. These features are tempting me to switch to the Cavendish as a regular Filo..but I don’t know if I can bring myself to do that – my Finchley is just too pretty! My original plans for the Cavendish were as an archive binder, but I think I’m going to expand on that. With such large rings, he can manage two purposes just fine, I’m sure!

I’ve yet to get all the details of my new Filo set-up planned out. I know that my “Love” (family/house) section will be moved into the A5, which frees up a section in my Finchley. Other than that…who knows? I’m really looking forward to testing different set-ups and seeing what works best!

Mom’s Day Out

Today, thanks to the wonderfulness of my husband, I was able to go out to Barnes and Noble – all. by. my. self. I had a sandwich, and read my Bible. I journaled while listening to music. I went shopping, at Barnes and Noble and at a nearby accessories store. I did all of this uninterrupted. It was utterly blissful.

The journal was a Christmas gift from my sister. It’s large – about normal spiral size (A4 for those outside the US). The best part of this gift, however, wasn’t the journal – it was the mix CDs my sister made for me and put in the back pocket of the journal, to be listened to while journaling. There are 5 CDs, each with a different theme. They are absolutely wonderful. Seeing as my sister knows me quite well AND is well on her way to being a music therapist, this isn’t exactly surprising.

So, I journaled. I wrote about my blessings and I wrote about motherhood – how even now, almost a year after my daughter’s birth, I still feel blindsided by it and I’m still trying to figure out how to be ME and be a mother at the same time. Actually writing all of that down felt healing. The journal itself was a bit awkward to write in because it was so large, but at the same time I loved having all of that space. Listening to the music added something to the journaling…and even brought me close to tears at one point.

So, that was my day. I think I should do this more often..it’s good for my mental health.