Faux Filo

No, it's not my Personal, Black Original and it's not a Filofax.

No, it's not leather but it is a ring binder with space for 4 cards and a large back pocket.

Yes, it has 2 zips. So what's in the other side?

I'm not letting on yet. Here's what I have in the binder side.

And now to the other zipped side which contains a purse (wallet) with space for coins, more cards and notes.

Loads of room for losing items!

There's more! On the outside are two large pockets, one for a mobile ...

and one large one for - who knows? Keys perhaps. I'm keeping my spray in there at the moment as I need it when I'm out and about.

The make is Westfalia and I can't find any reference to it on the web apart from camper vans and the name of an historical region of Germany.

It matters not as this little binder purse is doing sterling duty as my out and about wallet.

Happy planning

Don't Do it

I put a To Do page in between my WO2P and on it I wrote To Dos that did not have to be done on a certain day. I even slitted the holes so that the list could be moved from week to week until the tasks were done. I've lasted 3 weeks like this but have now decided that splitting up my week with another page is not conducive to productive flow as I cannot see the whole week at one glance. It was very disconcerting as I had to keep turning the To Do page back and forth in order to see the rest of the week or the beginning of the week.

The offending page has been taken out and is now next to my monthly page. Some ideas work, some don't. One system works for a few weeks and then doesn't when circumstances change. The beauty of ringed binders is that pages can be moved at will.

Be prepared

Advanced Planning

I have chosen my Personal Pear Original for my 2017 everyday planner. It's bright, fresh and colourful to welcome a new year.

Already it has in my Monthly dividers ...

with the WO2P that came with it. Hating waste I am going to use these pages even though I'd prefer something different.

To satisfy this desire I'm still trying to come up with 'different' simple designs for a weekly page and storing these in my Personal Black Original. So now I have ...

Very Advanced Planning ...

which may or may not be used for 2018!

Continuing my 'hate waste' habit I've recycled another ear-ring as my dingle-dangle for the Pear.

I'll get back to 2016 now as the best part of the year is yet to come.

Black and white Filofax planning

It's plain to see in black and white. Here's the black - a new to me patent black Original Filofax,

which I didn't need, of course, but which called out to me to join my other Originals. What could I do but offer it a new home. It took a while to settle in but has now found its niche as holder of experimental pages. I was really impressed with the Oddslikeme site and decided to try some 'alternative' layouts for weekly spreads and designs. Not being much of an artist I tried my hand at Zentangles which are supposedly easy to do! Not that easy with a rather thick Sharpie though. My paper was cut from a large art paper book left here when DD moved out. It's rather thick and lovely and perfect for writing and drawing. My first attempt was 'not bad' so I had another go.

Not bad again. The opposite page is a very simple layout of a monthly page. I want to keep each page simple and clean and just black and white to complement the black Filofax.

Getting rather wobbly here. The lined pages are card from my Recipe file.

Fourth attempt was 'poor' but acceptable. My Sharpie is too thick and I'm too slapdash. 

All is not lost, though, as I found a colouring book at Poundland which saves me an enormous amount to effort and offsets my 'alternative' weekly spreads.

My colouring book pages can be put into play as 'To Do' lists.

Happy Planning

FFF 9

Can't tear it off, I'll have to use the scissors. What excitement!

Careful now, no scissors - just rip and pull. Don't want to damage my new to me Filofax.

Oh yes I smell the leather. Inhale and smile. 

Neat ring protector.

We approve.

Happy Planning

Keep it simple planning - part 2

What I do need to do

1. Use my monthly dividers as a front picture at the beginning of the planner. This will utilise the dividers and also mark my monthly page.

2. Make better use of the space for each day on my WO2P. My logging of spending can take up less space and I can devise a system on the page to make a running total of spends each week. It is not beyond my wit!

3. Neaten up and make my pages look smart. I shall experiment.

4. Introduce some long term goals and start putting them into action. I'm just drifting along only doing what is necessary and not particularly challenging myself at the moment. It's time to get out of a rut. I can make an initial start with this list!

5. Tidy up my spare bed office desk.

Happy planning

Keep it simple planning - part 1

What I don't need to do

1. Write out a cleaning schedule. I've been there and done that and I now know that I've got the T-shirt because the schedule I started and refined now works for me and I hardly ever have to write routine cleaning tasks down as I know them. The initial logging of the To Dos has been a success and now it can cease.

2. Put month dividers at the beginning of each month. They are not needed and just take up space. I am currently using Filofax WO2P. There are not many pages to make up the year and so finding any particular date is easy. The Today marker marks where I am. I can put the current month near the front and I there's not much shuffling of pages to find where I want to be.

3. Log my spending on a separate sheet. I'm sure I can incorporate it on the daily sections. My logging and tracking should be done on my weekly pages so I have only one piece of paper to work with.

4. Include any pages which are not conducive to everyday planning and organising. I seem to have accumulated dividers, plastic envelopes, contact pages and spare paper. They will have to go elsewhere.

5. Write in different coloured inks as I invariably lose my pens amongst the debris on my bed working areas on my office desk.

Happy planning