Preparation

Preparation for a new year involves, obviously a change of planner. My choice for 2018 was going to be my black personal Original but I decided on my black, personal Piazza instead, the reason being that I wanted to keep the Original in pristine condition. I'm not buying any more Filofaxes (!!!!!) so the ones I have have to last. I'm using the battered about ones first and also I like the Piazzas as they feel soft and smooth.

Not decorations for me as my everyday planner is purely functional. The only pattern I've got at the moment is the patterns on my dividers, which are postcards. If I'm feeling at a loose end I can colour these. Mind you that looks like a lot of hard work so maybe I'll leave them as they are.

First section is the To Dos and I'm using up my Filofax papers for this even though the lines are a bit far apart. I'll just ignore them, I think.

Section 2 has the years at a glance - 2017, 2018 and 2019. I've ringed some important dates already.

After these pages come the monthly pages - one side in listed view and the other for monthly plans.

After the next divider ...

I have the weekly pages. I've decided on WO1P for this year as I don't have many appointments and my To Dos only need to be day specific here.

Behind the next divider ...

... are some more colouring or jotting papers which may or may not come in handy. I'll wait and see. These papers are from a colouring in book which I thought would go with the black and white theme.

I've a few daily pages for if I have a busy day or want to write a bit more.

That's it for now. No doubt I'll tweak as I go along as I did last year. I've streamlined a few things and this planner should work well from me. I've decided to move into this planner now starting with November as I only want to use one planner rather than have two on the go, plus I get to flip through brand new pages - just like starting a new exercise book when I was at school.

Let's hope I can control my very untidy handwriting. 

Happy planning!

Every day planner

I'm using my lime Piazza personal as my every day planner. It isn't too precious so I can use it freely without worrying about scratches or scuffs.

It stays at home as I have no need to take it out and about.

I don't fasten my planners so the strap doesn't get worn. No decoration for me when the planner is opened. These stickies are hardly ever used.

First up is the year, the months of which are marked off with round stickies used from last year. May already - nearly half way through the year. It's gone very quickly.

My monthly pages look like this. Just a simple 2 page spread. On the left I put appointments, meetings and important occasions. On the right I make note of additional happenings. These monthly pages are the only ones which will be archived for posterity.

A master To Do list resides in different places - it's here with the monthly pages at the moment. It's one of my catch places and things get ticked off once completed. Sometimes I'll write 'big list' on my weekly pages and refer back to this page so that I keep getting things done.

The weekly pages house day specific tasks and are also a home to money spent at the moment. In the notes section at the top I'll put some more tasks that really should be done that week but haven't yet found a home. I may also put reminders there.

My Today marker just marks the page for me.

At the back I have one contacts sheet which holds some numbers that I use regularly.

That's it - plain and simple to run a plain and simple life.

No decoration just stuff that whizzes me efficiently through the day.

Happy planning.

All change - again

Having a collection of Filofaxes means that not all are used at the same time and occasionally contents get swapped around according to season, favourite size/colour or whim. Today was a day of all change. The A to Z dividers (Don't we all have a lot of those?) came out of the new to me black Piazza and went into the burgundy Cross, which originally housed records of TV series that had been viewed. I thought that I'd record series plus episodes in alphabetical order e.g. Elementary under the E section and so on. I then took the black and white week on one pages out of my black Original and put them in the black Piazza but then changed my mind. My online game information which resided in my purple Original then went into the lilac Piazza. The purple Original is now sitting with my other Originals back on the shelf because I want to keep these as un-battered as possible. The ochre pocket Malden which housed my brain dump went the same way and was retired to the shelf. Even though I find the Maldens wonderful work horses I thought I would give it a rest for a while.

I had another change of mind and the contents of the red Piazza which housed Christmas were transferred to the burgundy Cross, (They were there originally.) so the TV record pages are now in the red Piazza. Are you still keeping up? :{

And what happened to the scrap paper from my lilac Piazza? Why, that went into the black Piazza which I am now using as my Brain Dump. Phew!

Now I have 4 Piazzas in use - the lilac, the black, the lime and the red. Spot the Piazza that has not had its contents changed.

Happy planning.

Fiercely Functional Filofax Setup for 2017

No fancy stickers here, no fancy writing - I've finally found that I'm fiercely functional with my everyday planning. This year I initially chose the Pear Filofax Original for my everyday planner but, not wanting to spoil its newness I settled for my Lime Piazza instead. It's been used before, feels good and is a fresh green colour to start the New Year.

There's nothing in the inside pockets so what greets me when I open up is this puss cat pic behind which is my year at a glance.

The pages in my planner are the standard Filofax ones but I've divided them up with monthly dividers which I used last year.

Straight after the divider is a monthly 2 page spread. On the left - just a list of all the dates in the month. Here I note down birthdays, anniversaries and appointments. On the right I write more personal jottings  that happened on certain days. The reason for this is that I intend to archive the monthly pages only so notable happenings need to be logged. e.g. car broke down - towed home.

A week on 2 pages follows the monthly spread where I schedule To Dos for the week in the first box and To Dos for specific days in the day boxes. Between the 2 pages for the week is a running To Do list which is easily detachable for moving on to the next week. If I have time and inclination I can pull off a job from this list.

Following the list is another 2 page spread - this time my activity tracker listing household cleaning areas, hobbies I pursue, habits I wish to log and goals I wish to achieve.

The other half of the week can be seen when this tracker is turned over. This tracker, like the Master To  Do List is easily moved from one week to the other. Behind the weekly pages is a moveable lined card which I put in to keep my scrawly writing in straight lines. It's 'nearly' working!

That's it - that's all, as the other 11 months follow exactly the same layout. This planner stays at home and is updated every evening. I used this layout last year and it worked very well. My spending is logged elsewhere. 

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 Personal Piazza

The personal Piazza was another buy from Ebay and housed my daily planning and diary for a time. The colour - citrus green brightens up the day and I chose this one to house my January, February and March pages. 

When a different colour just happened my way I thought that it was just the colour for some spring months so ...

April, May, June lilac Piazza was set up.

The red one was a given for October, November and December.

All plans went awry when I purchased my ochre Malden as I thought that would be the colour for my Autumn pages. I liked it so much that I started using it straight away as my daily planner. System number 1 went out of the window and I'm using the Filofax diary pages that came with the Malden. So now the green Piazza houses months that have gone by.

And the red Piazza houses my Christmas Planning pages.

The lilac Piazza is just resting at the moment but who knows, I may change my mind yet again.

Should I keep a look out for an Autumn coloured Piazza?

Should I just use the Malden? The system (Number 2) I've got at the moment is working for me really well.

Oh the dilemma? I'm really enjoying this Filofax journey but I have to keep selling other items on Ebay to be able to fund this adventure!

Happy Planning

A little bit of history

In February 2016, when I started this blog, I'd already collected quite a few planners.

From left to right there is:-

1. a Kindle cover (not a planner)

2. A cheap, yellow planner from China which was advertised as leather on Ebay but was actually PU leather which, when I looked it up, is man made.

PU (Poly) Synthetic Leather is a man made material that will represent the look and feel of Genuine Leather but in fact is NOT. This PU material is far less durable, considerably cheaper in cost, and may not last long if used often.

4. A brown, personal Hamilton, which I purchased from a Charity Shop. This planner has now been sold as I found it a totally different style and feel to the newer planners.

5. A personal Classic Cross Filofax, which was my second planner and first Filofax, bought at a discount price from WHS.

6. A lime, personal Piazza Filofax. I just liked the colour of this one and when it arrived from Ebay it was lovely to touch, had a wonderful colour and smelt divine.

7. A red personal Piazza Filofax - having already purchased a citrus green I decided another of this style would be in order. I felt a collection was coming on!

8. A fuchsia, A5 Original patent Filofax. The collection was definitely coming on as I fell in love with this A5, all in the name of research of course. Would the A5 offer different possibilities for planning? Could it be easier to use?

9. A black zipped planner which was the start of this planner adventure, purchased from the Charity Shop way back in 2013.

10. A black A4 Finsbury Filofax, which added another size and more possibilities for recording and planning.

Since then I have acquired more planners on my Filofax adventuring. It looks like an addiction to me.

Happy Planning

Weekly Page for planner

Welcome to my new planner addict followers.

I don't seem to be writing a lot on my daily pages which seems rather wasteful of paper. The alternative is a week on one page but I'm not about to spend fortunes on inserts. When I was in Home Bargains I found this pad of Weekly to do's and had an idea.

With a little bit of hole punching …

and folding I ended up with a Weekly Page for my planner.

I shall use one of these pages instead of my daily pages to see if I can fit everything on this extendable bit of paper. Even if I have to go back to writing on daily pages I'll still have a weekly view. For an outlay of 79p I think I've picked up a bargain.

Happy Planning!