Some of us stick to the same size year in year out... never changing... But I've noticed a trend of a sorts, of a cyclic pattern of size changing... People downsizing because they are tired of lugging around an A5 and they move to a Personal. Or Personal to Pocket.
And then there are folks that seem to be moving in the opposite direction for various reasons.. not enough space being the most common excuse... I've not managed to work out over what the time interval is for people to go back to the size they started with yet!!
Have your changed which size of Filofax organiser you are using on a daily basis recently? And if you have why did you change?
I started out with an A5 T/S (that was back in 1999 and it was given by my boss back then). When I started my own business in 2004 I stopped using it, cos it seemed too much hassle. I went back to ordinary ringbound diaries for a while. In 2007 I started using a Personal Size Non-Filofax (brand was actually Succes, which more commonly known in Holland). And about a year ago, I switched back to A5 and again to 2 pages/day. Reason: I was fed up with the little space that was available to me in the Personal, my workload had more than doubled, and I needed a proper system to fit everything in.
ReplyDeleteSince the A5 is staying on my desk, I'm convinced I will not downsize again (or it must be after my retirement ;-). I would love a fancier layout as the current T/S pages, but I'm very reluctant to change it, since the current one is working so well.
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ReplyDeleteI too started out with an A5 but found that, since I like to carry my Filo around with me 24/7, it was just too large & bulky to bring everywhere.
ReplyDeleteSo I moved to the Personal size with a Day per Page diary. This worked fine for years.
Recently I converted to a Week on Two Page diary format in my Personal and to my surprise found that I was fine with the smaller daily space.
Now I am thinking about going even smaller, to the Pocket size, since I don't need as much space as I thought I did, and since I now keep my work stuff separate.
I think changing sizes & formats goes with the territory of how our lives change, and have come to be at peace that I will probably never settle on one size/format for the rest of my life because my Filo needs change right along with my life.
I have always used A5, but recently decided to try personal because it is easier to carry about. I could not adapt at all, and have now gone back to A5, was an expensive experiment.
ReplyDeleteI started out with a personal from a different brand and when I moved to England, I downsized to pocket so that it would fit easily in my smaller handbags. I stayed with this format for quite a while then went back to personal. Now that I've moved to Germany and since I discovered the wonderful Domino A5 and how wonderful that size is, this is the one I'll be using from now on. So I obviously needed a bigger handbag!...
ReplyDeleteAs for inserts, I went from 1 week on 2 pages to 1 day per page back and forth several times per year, had enough and kept both in at the same time. Now that I have more time on my hands and less office work, 1 month per page is largely enough. I can use the remaining space in my A5 Domino for other things, such as maps, lists and thoughts.
I started on a slimline at the beggining of the year, but i like to have pages of inspiration, like cuttings from magazines of things i find inspiring, and useful information so i have gone to a A5 Cuban zipped, which is huge and heavy, but i love it! ive had it about a week, but i love the way how every day i can stick in things i find inspirational for make up clothes or just colour, even bits of articles which i find interesting. I just seem to pick up so much during the day i need to empty it out, it has been over used since i got it! I love it though, and i do not think i would go back as i love to have all the things i like thoughout it, but i think i need to get the metal hole punch rather than the plastic one, it just doesnt have a big enough punch!
ReplyDeleteI started 10 years ago with a Personal size Filofax (with unlined Week on 2 Pages diary) and used that very successfully for several years. Then I moved overseas and had kids, and the Personal size seemed too small. Twice (2 yrs ago and just a couple of months ago) I tried to move up to the A5 as my diary, but I travel often and the A5 was just too big to carry around everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI recently went back to the Personal size, with the WO2P. I think I've figured out that my Filo Fails of recent years were due to me trying to use the Cotton Cream week on 2 pages. The This Week box above Monday was too small for my weekly lists, and the day spaces were just not quite big enough. I think I've solved it with the larger day spaces on the WO2P, and keeping my Lists someplace else. Which is, incidentally, exactly the diary format and setup that worked so well for me for many years at the beginning of my Filofax usage, before I branched out and tweaked my systems so much! I feel like I've come full circle.
When I switched back to paper from digital about a year ago I was using a Moleskin A5-sized bound planner, with week-per-page with notes layout. Initially it was intended to be a work-only book, which it was sufficient for, but then I found more and more personal stuff creeping into it, which it wasn't sufficient for. Fast forward a few months and I moved to a Personal sized Filo. I miss the elbow room of the A5 pages but the flexibility of a ring-bound system more than makes up for it. Instead of having the Moleskine planner and multiple little notebooks to keep track of things, I just have everything in one binder. I do contemplate the A5-sized Filos, but I don't really plan to make the leap.
ReplyDeleteMy first "real" planners were from Msystem and Time/Design. I started in classic or A5 size, but moved quickly to their compact system which is about 10mm (1/2") narrower than the personal size. I always felt frustrated though as the largest rings were 5/8". I tried going back to the A5, but back then I was stuck on zipper binders and they were sssoooo huge I just couldn't do it. I finally made the switch to a Filofax Scanda personal which I've loved for 4 months. The extra width and larger rings have helped, but I'm already running into the "I want more space" issue. So two days ago I gritted my teeth and purchased a black A5 Finchley. The Finchley binder will be about 1 1/2" shorter and 1" narrower and has 23mm rings instead of 1 1/2" in my Time/Design - so I hope that will make the difference for me! (sorry for mixing up my measurements - too lazy right now to find an online converter :)
ReplyDeleteWell my first was a raspberry pocket finsbury and I adore it still now but after a few months I had to upgrade to yet again another finsbury this time aqua and a personal size and its tru it is personal size , i love it i have lots of room to get compfy with yet its not to big ever since ive been getting personal sized. Maybe just maybe ill get an a5 one day .
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one to have sampled the delights of the A4? The only reason I went for it, was that Staples had a deal on a Lyndhurst about 8 or so years ago and I sold it for a profit (as I remember more than the catalogue price too). It is rather large though... :-)
ReplyDeleteAbout 7 years ago I moved to a Lyndhurst personal. I've tried differing Winchester ring sizes & a Finsbury or two but I keep coming back to the Lyndhurst.
The diary started out as the week on two pages, vertical format, in the A4; to the day per page, week on two pages to my current configuration: week on one page with my own notepages inserted between weeks. I like this for the few appointments I have but many things to do over the week.
Every so often though, I'll try a slimline (can't make it work) or a large ring Winchester (lovely but don't need the size) or a 7/8 Winchester but can't get enough into the wallet sleeves but they feel so good in the hand...as I've said though, I return to the Personal Lyndhurst; it might take a week, it might take a year but return I do.
I started the year with a Pocket Raspberry Finsbury but needed more room....I am currently using a Chocolate Personal Finchly and love it. I was at Office Depot today thinking I might need to downsize with a calendar off the shelf...something a bit lighter and simpler..but I love having everything I need at my fingertips so I am sticking with my Filofax!
ReplyDeleteI'm being sucked in to all the recent talk about Pockets... looking in to going to a pocket myself now!!
ReplyDeleteLook out for a post soon to examine the conversion!!