12 December 2010

Other uses for your Filofax


We all know and have commented about the complication of using more than one Filofax organiser for keeping our life in check. I think most people would agree that keeping your appointments and tasks in sync in more than two organisers/planners becomes a difficult almost self-defeating task.

So what other uses do you put your Filofax Organisers to apart from your main ones used for diary and contacts.

I use my Slimline as my photography notebook for noting down information about pictures I take when touring around towns and villages here in France. I like this particular organiser in this particular role because it is so slim it fits in to my already crowded camera bag without too much trouble. I keep it in an external pocket in the lid of the bag so it is always to hand. It is the black item in the bottom right hand corner of the photo! I previously used it as my wallet/Filofax until I swapped over to the pocket size.

The Slimline has some personal size photo exposure sheets in it that I use to record what I record on my film camera, here is a sample page. Film cameras don't record this detail that digital cameras record with each frame you take, hence the manual record. 


Another one of our readers Sharon has just started using her A5 City Filofax organiser as her Control Journal, I had to look at the 'FlyLady' website to fully understand the purpose of this journal.

I know several of you use a Filofax to keep a track of your craft activities. Again Sharon has featured her Craftofax on her blog a few days ago.

The 'Me' Fax idea that Kanalt blogged about a couple of months ago has also caught on, a few people have mentioned setting up their own 'Me' Faxes, so my prediction was right! But the post also highlighted other 'single use organisers' With people using them for recording their pets medical treatment, feeding habits etc.

I've seen a couple of people that use a Filofax to track their goals typically 101 things in 1001 days. Karen has described her set up in a Filofax Domino.

For a lot of people their Filofax is just another tool in their armour that they use for their other interests. @aspire_to_be (Lauren) uses a Filofax as a tea journal, she is a contributor to a site that discusses tea called Steepster

Of course a lot of these ideas could be incorporated in to your main Filofax, but if the pages you use start to multiple out of control it can sometimes be easier to hold the information in a separate organiser rather than over loading your main organiser.

I'm sure I've only touched the surface of 'other uses' so if you have other uses for your Filofax and may be you have blogged about it on your own blog, add the address to the comments I'm sure we are all interested to read about it.

9 comments:

  1. Oooh I love Aspire's tea filofax idea. I want to see pictures! I think it is amazing. And I have seen Sharon's craftofax in the flesh and it is a thing of beauty.

    I have a scrapbooking Domino A5 craft-o-fax as well which I posted on here
    http://caribbeanprincessmusings.blogspot.com/2010/10/my-scrapbooking-planner-craft-o-fax.html

    and DH uses an A5 Hampstead as a notebook
    http://caribbeanprincessmusings.blogspot.com/2010/10/dhs-a5-hampstead-filofax.html

    I also have a raspberry pocket metropol which is my inspiration filofax but I havent posted on that yet! Sorry :-) hehe

    Also I now own 2 cute mini filofaxes which may act as address books/ shopping lists/ or a wallet in the future.

    You KNOW I had to get myself a mini!

    This filofax addiction HAS TO STOP!!

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  2. Some of my single-purpose Filofaxes:

    Personal filo
    Bunny (pet) filo
    Computer record filo
    Shopping research filo
    Home filo
    Health filo
    Travel filo
    Planner filo (all information, records, wish lists, and ideas for my planners!)

    This gives me a chance to choose which model goes with what based on purpose and whether they "travel" or stay at home. The fabric or delicate ones stay at home.

    Caribbean Princess, as to your last sentence, my only question would be: Why?!

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  3. Hi! It's me Aspire_To_Be (Lauren) and one day I will put up photos ... but for now, if I may borrow Petra's words, here are my "Single-Purpose Filofaxes" (they are all personal size):

    Dorset - Loose Tea Journal

    Domino red - My Studies (all about the courses I take on www.teach12.com

    Domino Pink - holding the bulk of my 2010 which I transferred from my main agenda (which now holds all 2011 leaves plus a remaining few 2010 leaves)

    Domino Grape - old (at one time must-haves) inserts like photos, notes/letters from loved ones, pictures that my kids drew me especially for my filos, etc.

    Domino Slate - ebay info

    Domino Electric Blue - address book

    plus some others that are currently unfulfilled waiting for inspiration (love this post idea!) or for me to get my act together to fill ....

    Domino navy
    Kendal
    Durham Zip (soon to be my travel filo)

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  4. Steve,
    that's exactly what I am planning with my Classic s.e.in black-red: Because it's colours remind me to the Canon colours, this will be my photo-binder.
    I'm going to divide it into sections. One section will keep some of your great photo exposure sheets.
    The other sections will keep
    - tecnical "how-to's" about my digital EOS
    - places where to go (and shot)
    - ideas for photo compositions
    - ideas for postings in my photo-blog
    - whishlist of photo related stuff
    - quotations from photo-books I read
    This binder will be my companion in my photo-backpack.

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  5. My "Me" Binder is working out very well. I have several new items to put in there - I just haven't had the time to do it, but they're patiently waiting.

    In the new year, I'm hoping to set up another Filo ( my personal brown classic) with lists of books I love and would recommend, my favorite authors, favorite movies, music and quotes. I don't know what to call it exactly - the only thing I can come up with is my Reference filo. I'll be sure to post about it once it's up and running.

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  6. Kanalt, sounds like that new filo should be called your "media" filo ;-)

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  7. Petra - Another good name for it! Thanks. =)

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  8. I have two A5 filofaxes in use at the moment. I use a Domino A5 in red, entirely for work, in a pretty standard way - diary (week to view) at the front, To Do lists and Notes and Meeting Notes in the other sections, and the A-Z addresses slowly filling with contacts (I'm a lecturer at uni btw).

    At home I use an aqua Finsbury for the other half of my life which is involved with writing, and fundraising for a charity. I must confess, I'm not really using the diary bit of it hugely, but I do use the other sections to separate out notes and so on. This filofax actually has two A-Z addresses sections in it now - one set relating to writing and the other set relating to the charity (there is method in my madness... I think?). Like others on here, I also try to colour-code the pages so that they relate to the different projects.

    I used to hate Filofaxes (sharp intake of breath all round, I imagine, but hear me out...!?) but then I realised it was because they just weren't BIG enough. I had (have...) a multitude of personal sized ones and I stuffed far too much into them and I also found that the pages were just too small for me to make decent notes on. I always thought the A4 ones were TOO big, but then... Then I discovered the A5 size ones and they are just perfect (in a Goldilocks sort of way).

    I have never quite managed to convert fully to computer-based organising and, being a paper and pen kind of girl, have been laughing my head off at the "black n red" adverts for their notebooks. Like their notebooks, I find my filofax never has a flat battery, has zero start-up time and is hardware you can rely on!

    I did try to have all my stuff in one filofax but a) I didn't like mixing work and home and b) there are just too many gorgeous filofaxes out there to limit yourself to one!

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