Lately a couple of blogs have revived (by linking to) a 2-year-old blog post on Lifehacker.com on the subject of notetaking.
So forgive me for jumping on the bandwagon here, but I'd like to call your attention as Philofaxers to the bottom half of the Lifehacker post, which has a list of links to printable note-taking forms, including Dr. Walter Pauk's Cornell note-taking method.
Filofaxes come filled with a year's diary and various forms, and the company still sells some refill forms, though not nearly as many as in the pre-PC era. Furthermore, these forms and even Filofax's lined and plain notepaper can be expensive. Since it is the PC era, and desktop printers are readily available, we can print our own forms, even notepaper.
Here's another classic blog entry, from PigPog, showing how it costs less to use plain A5 paper in a Filofax rather than large Moleskines.
I haven't printed my own forms or notepaper yet, but I'm getting close. (All I've done so far is print information typed into word processing docs on my computer onto Filofax paper.) I'm running low on lined white A5 notepaper, and rather than buying more, I'm thinking about buying a ream of A5 paper and printing my own guidelines, so the Lifehacker blog entry is of particular interest to me.
By the way, I really like Dr. Pauk's How to Study in College. It's actually more of a manual for life than a study guide. I've met Dr. Pauk. He wrote books for my parents' educational publishing company (but not about the note taking method; that was already copyrighted by Houghton Mifflin). He and his wife came to stay with our family one summer. TMI alert: They slept in my bed.
I've been successfully creating my own pages for my A5 filofax for a couple of years now. I tend to print them on to A4 using booklet mode on my printer and then cut the page in two and punch the two pages.
ReplyDeleteIf you do them in multiples of four it works out very cheap.
I similarly print out my calendar and contacts from within Outlook 2003 on to A4 in booklet mode giving me A5 pages.
I realise that obtaining European size paper in the US isn't so easy as it is over here, but it might still work out cheaper in the long run
The other issue might be formatting a US printer to print true to size on A4 paper. Has anyone figured out how to do this? I have easy access to A4 paper where I am, and would love to print for my A5 Filofax. But my printer and computer are American. I know it's easy to change the side margins of the page, but what about the length?
ReplyDeleteNever mind, I just looked around on my Microsoft word and saw I could choose various sizes of paper, including A4, A3, legal, etc. Huh. Never even looked for that before. I'll have to try printing on A4 and cutting it down to A5 sometime!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of European sizes of paper, is there some size that is between A5 and A4 size?
I've also started creating my own task pages, and printing my contact pages out of outlook straight to A5 paper in my desktop laser printer. It works a treat and means I can customise the layout to exactly what I want. I haven't tried doing calendar pages, though, and for those I'm happy to keep using Filofax's Business Day to a Page layout.
ReplyDeleteWorldwide, the only size I can think of between A5 and A4 is B5, which is wider than A5 ...
Stupid question, I know-- but is there any site for downloading forms for the personal size?
ReplyDeleteWow, you are ALL after my own heart! I had no idea there were others out there with the same passion for planners as I do - the same desire to switch yet only to find upon doing so, that the yearning for the same-old same-old planner is THE ONLY WAY!
ReplyDeleteI was a Franklin Covey person until two years ago when my book was taken from my car (along with my ExaCompta diary!). Well it was August and do you know how hard it is to find the same year at that time of year? Everything was switched over!!! So as I made do with an old planner and some "fill in the date" pages (oh how i do HATE them!!!) I made up my mind to FINALLY get THE book that I have ALWAYS craved - a REAL filofax. So I was ranting about this to a friend of mine who had recently gone paperless and she said: I have one - it's orange - would you like it? LIKE IT??? LIKE IT??? Heck YES!!! One of my favorite colors and the alternative color to the intended Pink (or brown, or - if I could EVER manage it - black embossed alligator!!) I was eyeing online.
That was the start of a beautiful and devout relationship. it got me through my pregnancy and all the gestational diabetic numbers and all the food listings, etc. When the baby was born, we decided I could stay home with him! Well, that's ok but stunts my free-wheeling purchasing abilities since our budget got reallly tight...
SO...This past February, my husband got a new job, paying much more. My first MANDATE was that, as a gift for being such a wonderful wife, I was going to get a new Filofax of my VERY own... and which one did I get? I found a Black Leather Embossed Alligator (personal size) online for half of what it would have cost me here in the store (at GoldSpot).
Anyway, I have never been happier. I can't get enough of it and don't even bother looking at others anymore. I only look forward to researching and getting new pages this winter. YAY!!!
Thanks for reading. I love you guys. sorry if that was too long!
@Neowagnerite--DIY Planner has lots of forms, many in personal. This is a link to the DIY Planner template directory, filtered to the Other page size. There are a variety of pages there, so you'll have to look for the Personal size templates.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
--GG
@neowagnerite: yes, there are also Personal sized pages on the DIY site.
ReplyDeleteI have created a few forms based on the GTD tweaking the DIY basic template (e.g. Next Actions, Waiting For, etc...) Let me know if you are interested in the PDF, I'll be glad to share.
I recently purchased a new software program on the Filofax website that lets me print anything on my PC to fit my Filo.
ReplyDelete