Filofax personal Active as a Travel Planner

This robust organiser was from car boot at a very reasonable price. It needed a wipe with a cloth to take off some dirty marks and now it is a beautiful royal blue. The cover, I believe is made of Neoprene, which is a synthetic rubber.

I'm going to use this organiser as a Travel Planner.

My set up is still in its infancy but so far I have the world map under the Filofax plastic page.

Before this homemade dashboard I have punched a plastic postcard wallet to hold my passport. (Haven't tried it yet so I hope it fits!). I think I'll put another one in to hold boarding passes.

I am not a great traveller but I thought I'd keep in the world map as a handy reference. Behind this map are 2 further pull out maps of our destination area.

Some of the printed pages I downloaded from Printed Portal, a site I found while trawling through travel planner videos, blogs and sites.

I thought I'd better have a Brain Dump section for ideas that spring to mind.

Now for the sections.

Section 1 will contain information needed for the trip, emergency contacts, addresses, phone numbers and information about the country we are going to.

Section 2 ...

… houses the Itinerary pages, one per day, which will log the day's activities, meals and any notes or observations. Any extra journalling can be done on the reverse of the page.

Section 3 is the expenses section and I downloaded an expenses envelope from My Life all in One Place.

Section 4 is home to a timetable to hold any advanced scheduling,

while section 5 contains checklists - a packing checklist and ...

… a checklist of things to do before we leave.

Section 6 will be for notes and at the very end of the planner is a place for cards.

I'm not sure whether this planner will be useful to me or not but it will help me organise and plan for our holiday in a methodical way.

Now I have to find a bag to hold it to make sure I keep it on my person. I'd hate to put it down and lose it in a foreign country!

Happy Planning.

Mini Malden in Ochre

This new to me mini Malden has started its organiser life as a diet and weight tracker. I aim to lose some weight and this baby is going to help me.

The first section shows which weight range I should be in for my height. I'm only a little overweight but I aim to be in the middle of the healthy band.

After that I aim to have my own graph charting, hopefully, a downward trend in my weight. The weigh-in will be weekly. Any upturn will influence my future goals. At the moment it is eat fruit for afters, no biscuits, chocolate or any calorie laden food and no alcohol.

Next section houses any recipes that I come across on my Internet travels which will help me fulfil my goal.

In order to make the ideal meals I need a list to remind me to shop for the right ingredients.

Finally the last section houses a pull out week on which ...

I can record my meals. From this I can set myself the next week's goals and tell myself off if I fail to keep on track.

I also have in there somewhere a body measurement chart (waist, thigh, arm, hips etc) which will graphically show my changing body shape!!!!! 

Another incentive is a page promising me small treats or presents if my weight loss stays on track. My first 5 lb loss will give me permission to buy some coloured Pilot Frixion pens. It's early days yet but I aim to get there.

Happy Planning

No Washi

I don't use Washi tape as part of my day to day planning but I do use it to disguise recycled Filofax pages or as and aid to making my own pages. Find them here and here. My latest buy was £1.28 for a pack of rainbow colours from Japan.

The box was rather squashed and it wasn't easy to get out each colour so I cut a side out and then stuck the other sides together with - wait for it - Washi!

Now I have a bright an colourful carrier and the tapes don't get lost.

Happy Planning.

Bullets for a Bullet Journal - portable dashboard

I use my pocket Malden as a Bullet Journal because it is the only one of my planners that moves around with me. It's portable and convenient and one place to put all my ideas as and when they occur to me! I suppose it's my own portable dashboard.

I've been playing around with my own design of bullets for my Bullet Journal in my pocket Malden. It has squared paper pages, (there's a name for this kind of paper and I keep forgetting it), and I thought I'd try a simple way of marking my notes. 

Most of my notes are tasks that are to do and these get marked off when done - so a simple tick does the trick. Some tasks I move into my personal diary Filofax to do another day so they are 'Forwarded' there. 

I couldn't get my head round the difference between Forwarded, Migrated and Scheduled so my Scheduled mark means that I put that task on my Master To Do list which I dip into from time to time. 

Abandoned means either -

great idea but not a chance of carrying it out

or

rubbish idea, why on earth did you write it down!

Put back means - it's a possibility - stick it in a goals list somewhere and I may or may not get round to doing it. I can't decide.

From the first mark many different arrows can be drawn. I couldn't think of what I could name them.

Watch this space!

Happy Planning.

Making my own inserts for the mini and the pocket Filofax

I've just spent an hour or so making new pages for my mini Finsbury and my pocket Malden. For the mini I cut up some To Buy and Notes pages from a pad bought at B&M. Cut to size and hole punched they are in my mini. To Buy is my shopping list for the week and the Notes pages are self explanatory.

Each page is pulled out when finished with.

The pages for the pocket, which functions as a Bullet Journal, are from a pad bought from Lidl, hole punched and cut to size. I mark the holes with a pen …

… and then punch them with a normal hole punch - one hole at once.

I round the corners with a corner rounder - do these things have a name?

Rounded corners seem to look better than square corners. Not that it matters.

Now I'm going to have to clear up all the bits that have fallen into my lap.

Happy Planning.

Colours of my Filofax collection

I've just noticed that my Staples box, which contains my Filofax bits and pieces, has colours in the pattern that match the colours of my Filofaxes.

Personal Red Piazza

Personal Citrus Green Piazza

Personal Lilac Piazza

A5 Fuchsia Original

Personal Burgundy Classic Cross

Pocket Tan Classic Cross

Mini Raspberry Finsbury

Pocket Red Pennybridge

They even match the colours of the crochet blanket that I'm working on.

My Kindle Fire cover also matches
(all right - it's not a Filofax!)

My A5 Dark Aqua Original even matches the newest stripe - just.

They'll probably match my Washi tape too!

Happy Planning.

Filofax Mini Finsbury in Raspberry

I use my Filofax mini Finsbury in raspberry as a wallet and it comes with me every time I venture out with a view to buying, travelling or recording information.

As such I keep here any cards I may need plus some added extras. The first page (badge holder) holds my ICE (in case of emergency) information with contact details of nearest and dearest.

On the other side is a list of my medication and major health issues just in case I have an accident. There's a little pencil I found tucked in the page. Next up are some holders of bus time information.

The middle section houses the diary starting with a yearly calendar, closely followed by ...

a week on two pages for the daily diary. The pages that came with the new to me Finsbury were 2011 but the majority of the year corresponds to 2016. I just alter 2011 to 2016 and I have a full diary recycled.

The notes section is cut down pages from a notes pad from B&M Bargains. They are easy pull out and I can jot down anything I wish - usually a shopping list but sometimes information or contact details.

A receipts pocket is handy for putting in … receipts of course ...

and there is a spare holder for any coupons. My ring protector is a crocheted version and tones nicely with the raspberry colour.

I did have a trolley coin hanging from the attached key ring but I changed it for some tinkling bells. They tinkle so much that I think I may put the trolley coin back and take these bells off!!!

At the back is a zipped pocket where I keep a few coins. They are not easy to get out but they are handy. The pen I found in my collection of motley pens and it just fits the pen holder.

Around the wallet is a large opening which contains notes.

The mini is small enough to carry around and large enough to hold what I want to carry with me as well as being a delight to hold.

Please click on the labels below for more detailed information linked to this mini.

Happy Planning