Quo Vadis Timer 21 (A5 Filofax) inserts from Steve!

Many huge thanks to Steve for very kindly sending me his Quo Vadis Timer 21 inserts from France!!  Thank you Steve!

Steve recently upgraded to his A4 Filofax and didn't need these A5 size inserts any more, and very generously offered to send them to me. I'm currently completely in love with my new A5 Domino, and he knew I would really like this diary insert to put into it. When he offered to send the pages to me, of course I said I would be thrilled to have them but only if he was absolutely sure he wouldn't want them.  He assured me that he doesn't need them and sent them out to me right away.

There has been much speculation in the past months as to whether the Quo Vadis Timer 21 inserts might just be my perfect planner solution: the size and format I love most (same format as my Quo Vadis Trinote planner which has worked so well for me in the past) with the flexibility of my Filofax. Could this be The One??

The Timer 21 inserts fit my A5 Filofax perfectly, after Steve went to all the trouble to punch holes to fit the Filofax rings.  He did a beautiful job with the hole-punching, and the pages are perfectly centered in my Filofax. None of the holes are close to the other holes or to the page edge, so I have no worries of tearing through.

You may remember Steve's posts here on Philofaxy and guest post over on my blog Plannerisms about the Timer 21 inserts, but if you don't here they are for your reference:

Steve's post here on Philofaxy Alternative Refills for your Filofax shows the Timer 21 inserts and explains how he did the hole-punching.

Steve's guest post on Plannerisms Planners Without Frontiers has much of the same information but more info on the company and how it got started.

In Steve's Philofaxy post All change! he talks about the 3 sizes of Quo Vadis inserts that are compatible with Filofax binders (Timer 14=Pocket, Timer 17=Personal, Timer 21=A5) and the various formats they come in.

So let me show you some photos of these inserts in my A5 Domino.  First of all, I knew I loved the weekly format like I said from using my Trinote with the same weekly format. But what I didn't consider before is that these diary inserts also come complete with loads of other excellent features.

Colored areas at the edge of the page make it easy to find specific weeks:

The anno-planning pages I love for this year and next year are very handy, and saved me from having to buy the vertical pull-out Filofax calendar for next year:

There is a page showing other Quo Vadis inserts, to tempt me!

There's a chart of wine types and years, Steve can you please decipher this one for us?

There's other cool features like international dialing codes, international info, and this perpetual calendar (at the bottom of the page):

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the Quo Vadis and Filofax pages. Click on the photo for a larger, more dramatic view. The first thing I noticed is that the ultra-white, thick, super-smooth Quo Vadis paper (left) makes the Filofax paper look not so nice in comparison.  Quo Vadis is famous for their gorgeous paper which is designed for use with fountain pens.  Another thing to consider is that Quo Vadis paper is acid-free, but Filofax paper is not which could be an issue for those of us who like to archive our pages forever.

Here's the photo of the Timer 21 layout again, and I'll discuss features of it:

As I noted before, I loved using this weekly layout in my Trinote with the Notes spaces each day and the categorized list boxes at the right. I thought it would bother me that it's in French, but it doesn't at all.  Really I look more at the position of the days across the page than the name of the day anyway, and I know my days in French so it's fine.  I love the other features too like the handy reference calendars with the weeks highlighted, and moon phases on the day spaces.

In the past, despite it working so well for me, I've been not completely satisfied with the bound-book Trinote because it doesn't have monthly pages or enough notes pages.  This is solved in my Filofax.  I have the format, features and gorgeous paper of my Trinote, with the flexibility of my Filofax! This is extremely exciting!

The only question will be, is the A5 book too big and bulky? Or will the convenience of having my ideal format and all the pages I want "outweigh" the weight and bulk of the book?

I've learned the hard way in the past not to change planners while I'm preparing to move, so I'll keep using my Quo Vadis Minister planner for the rest of the week. The movers come Thursday and Friday, and our going-away party is Saturday so by next Monday all the moving preparations will be finished--which means starting a new planner is fair game! One week from today I'll officially move into my A5 Domino with Timer 21 inserts. But as we all know, preparation is required so I'll be filling in upcoming events etc.

And finally, let me just say this: I know I'm emotional right now with all the moving upheaval and all, but Steve's thoughtfulness and generosity in sending me this makes me a little bit teary!  Thank you Steve!