Are you using your Filofax diary correctly, is there a better way?
I think you will agree with me that we read/hear a lot of comments from other users about trying to find the right dairy refill for their Filofax Organisers. We look at all the different Filofax sites and spy out other formats.
So why is this the case?
I think we are all making the same mistake, or most of us are, because I have evidence of one person using their Filofax exactly as the original designers intended it to be used.
So how many times have you read: That xyz format isn't suitable because......
- It is too small,
- Not enough space to write in what I have on some days,
- It is too big and it will fill up my organiser,
- I need to see my week/month laid out before me.
I'm sure there are other 'reasons/excuses' but those are the main ones.
So what is a diary? Is it a record of the past? or a way of planning future events? or both of these activities? Personally I like to separate out the two functions. One for past events and another for future events, but could I combine them in to one?
So I did a little on-line research, what is a diary? Well
Wikipedia has this definition:
A diary is a record (originally in handwritten format) with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period.
So that seems to suggest 'the past' rather than the future.
Why not think about your diary insert as a record of past events, and may be use some of the planner sheets for organising future events.
A diary insert imposes some restrictions on your own organisation because it is pre-dated and because the space for each days events is also limited to the format you have chosen.
However, because your Filofax is a loose-leaf planner, do you need to keep a full year in the diary section at any one time?
By archiving your diary sheets in to another Filofax organiser, then you would only need to keep say 3-4 weeks in the diary section at any one time?
If you find you can't adjust to the idea of not having the full 12 months of your diary in your Filofax, you could try recycling diary pages to the end of the year. So 'this week' is always at the front of your diary section, by the end of the year your diary will be back in the original order.
By using a dated format that say gave you enough space for a normal days worth of diary recording, then you could use undated sheets for days when you have something additional to record. Mixing dated and undated pages to cope the peaks and troughs in activity. This might mean that you could use a diary insert that uses fewer pages.
You would then not be using pages that have blank days in them or storing pages with blank spaces on them. 'Every page should be a wanted page' according to Ian Sinclair in the book
Filofax Facts
When we are planning future events, the same principle could apply, using undated planner pages, rather than using the pages in your diary to record the details on, but only on days when we have events and appointments booked. No need for a lot of blank pages for dates when nothing is booked? By using planner pages in this way you can afford the space on a page to go in to greater detail about the event/meeting you are planning or attending.
Having a year planner will help you find free days because you can indicate with a coloured mark on days that are already booked in some way or other.
The Filofax Organiser when used like this is far more flexible than say a bound planner, because you can vary how many pages you dedicate to a single day or week or month. The number of pages can expand or contract to suit your needs. Add in other sheets such as to-do lists and a contact list and you have a very versatile planning/journal system at your finger tips.
These ideas came to me after reading the
Filofax Facts book, which details the differences between dated and undated diary and planner sheets.
When the Filofax Facts book was written in the late 1980's the number of sizes of organiser where somewhat restricted compared to what sizes and ring capacities we have today. The Personal size Filofax would have been the most popular size sold back then. Even today that size has more diary and planner page options than any other size. However, if you chose to start using undated pages they are very easy to create yourself for say an A5 organiser. In whatever size you choose to use, think of the space you could liberate!
For those of you that are using your Filofax Organiser for planning the busy social lives of children then may be a diary insert is the only answer? But if it's just your own life then may be some of my ideas might improve the way you use your Filofax and potentially reduce number of pages you are currently utilising in your Filofax, for recording and organising your life.
Finally, I toyed with idea of starting this post with 'I can show you how to use a
Filofax Mini to record your next four years worth of appointment
entries'.... but then I thought you would may be start to think that I
had been on the French wine a little too much over the holidays!!!
