I've recently decided, now that I no longer frequently switch between platforms (Palm to Franklin Covey, Franklin Covey to Circa, Circa to Moleskine), that the best part of using a Filofax is being able to make necessary and helpful changes within the same platform. For example, I started 2008 using a 2-days-per-page diary. (In 2007, I had used a ruled week-per-2-pages and wanted more room and freedom.) Well, I found that the extra room didn't do much more than let my handwriting get bigger, and crowd out the pages behind my rear tabs (left). Today I switched back to week-per-2-pages (unruled), and feel good about the decision (right). It only took me about an hour to rewrite 3 months of appointments. I'm going to rewrite the to-dos from the dated pages onto...well, To Do pages, so that I can move the page ahead from week to week.
I'm going to use my To Do pages differently, and I'll have to redo my tabs, but that's for another post.
I now remember the feeling of week-per-2-page constriction, now that I don't have the extra Notes space, and the weekend days are especially compressed. I now believe that the 2-days-per-page is ideal for someone who has almost nothing in any tabs except the diary (not me), or for someone who has a 7-days-a-week schedule with lots of clients, appointments, or events to track (at this time in my life, anyway, not me either).
It's actually very easy to change formats in the middle of a year with a Filo. Just take out all the unused pages in your current diary, and add the new format from there on. No copying necessary. I've done it that way before. In this case, I decided to use the switch as an opportunity for cleanup, so I rewrote.
Hi. Last year I found a really great (in my view) diary layout for my Filofax: it's one week on one page, with a blank opposite page for notes.
ReplyDeleteI put a picture on my flickr account for you to see.
It's the most convenient and practical layout for me: on the left page, I write down information specific to particular days (like appointments to dentist and such or birthday reminders) and on the right page, I write whatever things I have to do during the week, or extra information relating to events happening that week, or thoughts, etc.
What do you think of it ?
Fabienne, for me the space left for each single day would be too compressed. I tend to have 3/4 appointments per day (plus must-do-today actions), so I need at least a week on 2 pages layout, for a Personal sized Filofax that is.
ReplyDeleteHi, you mentioned in one of your posts whether you should use an A5 instead of the personal.
ReplyDeleteWell I have an A5 and just bought a personal both are Ascots. I'm eventually going to switch to the Personal because the A5 is really hard to carry and heavy. If you just leave it somewhere on your desk which is what I've done for the last 8 years, that's fine. But now I'm getting to the point where I want to carry it with me.
In case you're wondering how I acquired an Ascot personal, I called Filofax headquarters and asked them if the archive any of their old planners. Sometimes they do and they called me back and said they found this Ascot Personal and did I want it. I said, HECK YEAH! Got it the other day and it's awesome. Though I didn't get any deal on it.
So, FYI, they may have archived some other of the planners as well.