13 August 2010

Free For All Friday No. 91

Welcome to Friday the 13th!  Normally this is a lucky day for me, despite the superstition. I was born on a Friday the 13th, which I consider to be pretty lucky, being born and all.  So I tend to have a fondness for the day.

This Friday the 13th is particularly lucky for me, because today my family and I are fulfilling our dream of moving to Scotland! In fact, as you read this, we are on a plane somewhere between Albania and Scotland. We are very excited!!

Here we are nearly at mid-August, and the summer is starting to wind down for most of us (in the northern hemisphere of course!).

It's not too early to start planning your autumn!  Any upcoming plans?

And as always on Fridays, the floor is yours for anything Filofax-related.

Happy Friday the 13th everybody!

Laurie

19 comments:

  1. Hi Laurie,
    Hope your move all goes ok today, we are all looking forward to hearing from you on 'the other side' of your move!!!

    I was nearly born on Friday 13th, but in fact I was born on March 12th, which also happened to be my late Fathers birthday... what a birthday present I turned out to be!

    I'm not so much as planning autumn but still enjoying summer in France. But I'm starting to think about what diary inserts to buy and more importantly from where!

    My thought of the day, which I've just tweeted... 'You can grip a Filofax as tightly as you like, it won't stop working... unlike the iPhone 4'

    Have a good weekend everyone.

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  2. Good luck with the move Laurie
    Pilgrim

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  3. All the best for you and your family. Scotland is a great country.

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  4. Welcome to bonnie Scotland, you will love it here, despite the weather.

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  5. Hello all.

    I'm a new filofax user (only got one last week for the first time - a personal size brown kendal), having come to the gradual realisation that paper really does work best for me (and being a computer science/robotics academic researcher, that's quite an admission!).

    Of the inserts provided when I bought it, I'm only using the 'diary', 'notes' and 'projects' (for to-do lists) sections, but may be persuaded to expand that as time goes on!

    I've been looking through the blog, and I've some really interesting stuff. Just two questions for discussion if I may: (1) are there any other inserts/functions that anybody thinks would be particularly useful for me; and (2) what have people generally got as the very first page in their filofax - just the first page of the diary (what I've got at the moment, but it's not very interesting), their personal information page, or perhaps a personalised cover page?

    Thanks all - and I hope your move goes well Laurie

    Paul

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  6. Good Luck Laurie!
    Your ability to have had the chance to move around this planet is fasinating!
    Some of us (especially me) would have loved to have had that kind of chance.
    Hope you settle in nicely and everything goes smoothly.

    P.S. My A5 Finchley will be here Monday!!

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  7. Happy Birthday Laurie and Congrats on your move : )

    With summer winding down I find myself not yet planning for fall, but rather using my Filo to put together a going away party for my BF who is deploying, and for noting down lots of events we are getting invited to.

    And like Steve said...no matter how hard you grip it (or where) it always keeps right on working : )

    Enjoy your b-day & your new home in Scotland!!!

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  8. We're all happy for you, Laurie. Scotland is a wonderful country! Happy travels today and have fun setting everything up in your new home.

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  9. Hi Paul
    Welcome to the wonderful world of Philofaxy!

    You asked about the front section... I have mine as follows:

    Notes In: A mixture of lined, blanks and a to-do list on separate sheets. This acts as my inbox to be filed later
    Calendar comes next;
    ToDo; I use a lot of lists all the time!!
    Projects; Notes and todo's drawings etc
    Notes: Sort of a filing area for misc notes and ideas
    Reference: My place to keep information I need to look up, maps, instruction sheets, connection diagrams etc. I'm a retired radio engineer!
    and finally my A-Z for contacts. I keep a blank lined sheet in the front of this section for adding new contacts on the fly.

    Been using this set up for about 5 years now, it gets minor tweaks but it works for me....

    Regards
    Steve

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  10. @Paul: While I do use some of the pre-printed forms, I've been using them less and less as time goes on.

    For just about anything I need to record, I first reach for a lined or grid page. I'd be perfectly happy to switch over to grid paper only.

    As for the front, first page... I dont know, I'd have to look. I keep all the active pages towards the middle of the binder and the stuff that doesn't change much at the begining and end.

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  11. Happy birthday, Laurie, and congratulations on your long-anticipated move! That's interesting about the date of your birthday, and yours, too, Steve. Mine's April Fool's Day!

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  12. How do you keep random notes and thoughts in your ff? For example, I may hear a person's name on the news that I want to learn more about, so I jot that down. The bibliography of a book that I am reading might list more books to read, so I write them down to take to to library to get. Someone might mention a new filofax that I want to check out, so I make a note.
    With my memory not what it used to be (ha!), I find I have bits of paper everywhere.
    Does anyone have a good strategy they can share?

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  13. Hi Ally
    I'm glad I'm not the only one!!

    I use To Do lists for gathering info like this may be 2 sheets so four pages in total. I fill these up over about 2-3 weeks I guess with thoughts and things to do, buy, search for etc. I have one specifically labelled Google, another Amazon, A tasks to do, and a misc one.

    Steve

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  14. Hi Paul, my very first page is the page with my Filofax registration number, that way if it is lost, it can be traced back to me, the next page behind that is my personal information page.

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  15. Thanks Steve! My problem, I suppose, is related to the infamous GTD "capture" manoever. I don't always have the FF at hand to write my notes, i.e. I am watching TV in the kitchen when I see something to write down and the FF is stowed in my bag located in another room!

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  16. Laurie, I hope everything is going well with the big move!

    With summer coming to a close and autumn around the corner, my Filo is as active as ever. Autumn is my favorite time of the year and often one of the busiest - there's (American) football to watch, apples to pick, pumpkins to carve, etc. And then there's my friend's wedding this year, for which I am the maid of honor - so I've been very busy with that, making lots of lists. And after all of that is done, the holidays are not far behind...

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  17. Thanks for your responses Steve, JJ and shepcraig! And I use my notes in a similar manner to Ally, which results in a disorganised mess most of the time, but at least with my FF I can reorder it :-)

    @JJ - the grid paper is an interesting idea. I've been using lined note paper and the to-do lists for most of my daily research notes and plans, but the grid/squared paper would be useful too.

    @shepcraig - good plan - I'm afraid to say I've stolen your idea... after this I've put a plastic pocket for all those bits and bobs.

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  18. Thought of the day... why is it I find more 'useful' photos on Flickr for discovering the details of different Filofax organisers than you can on the Filofax website... sigh..

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  19. Laurie,
    good luck on your move and I hope you enjoy living in Scotland.
    @ Alli, I have the same issue with writing random notes all over the place, same things, a new book title, a movie, a quote, a recipe name, etc. I have started to simplify my Filofax by using the second tab for these random notes and then I can always take them from there. I try to keep my FF close, or at least my bag.

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