Filofax Neal Street Flash Sale

News from Filofax Neal Street in London. 

Small Leather Accessories (except Malden), certain styles of Folders, selected Bags are reduced.

Also, for today & Saturday Mini Pens plus Finchley, Deco & Amazona organisers are reduced by 50% off.


Folks sorry we went the wrong week! Or order by phone

Free For All Friday No. 150

It's the end of the month! Can you believe tomorrow is October already?

For those of you who do Monthly Reviews, it's time to do those now. Look back over the past month and think about what worked well, what you need to carry over to next month, and what might no longer be relevant and can be eliminated from your to-do list.

This month I have used my Filofax to keep diligent records of expenditures. This weekend I will total up everything by category to see how much I have spent in September on groceries, entertainment, clothes and shoes, etc. I'm bracing myself for the result!

Do you do Monthly Reviews, Monthly Expense totals, or other monthly things in your Filofax (such as monthly maintenance lists, work reviews, etc.)?

As always on Fridays, feel free to discuss anything Filofax-related!

Philofaxy Meet Up - First Impressions - Imy - All Stars Guest Post

The delightful Imy has done a post about her first ever Philofaxy Meet-Up

The lovely Steve (or Filofax King as I call him) has let me write this guest post for my first impressions of a Philofaxy Meet up, as it was my first time. I WAS A PHILOFAXY MEET UP VIRGIN!

So before I went I was very nervous but so excited, the whole way I was trying to think about what the meeting was going to be like, how everyone would find me, as I’m a quiet shy person (online I am very loud bubbly and proud, but not in real life).

First of all I had to find everyone at the station, I forgot there was 3 WH Smiths at Paddington, and we were all waiting at a different one, it took some time to find each other. I think better organisation next time!

I was so nervous about meeting the girls, I knew what Diane looked like properly as we had been on Skype with each other so I felt a little less nervous about meeting her but Tali and CP I was more nervous, and first impressions where how beautiful all 3 of them where!

I had all these mad ideas of the meet up not really knowing what to expect on the tube journey!

We finally got to Café 2, It was bazaar just to see all my twitter friends there in person with FILOFAXES!!!

People were surprised at my quietness as expected, but I was just so amazed that all these Filofax people were in one place.

The walk was so lovely as I got to chat to more people as I walked along, I got to chat lots to CP which was great as I really wanted to chat to her! I expected the walk to be a lot shorter!

I really feel as if I have made good friends! The sort you dream of!

The shop was not as expected, it looked so cute and small I loved the shop and Dee. I got a hug off Dee!!! I felt very privileged!

If anyone is shy and is thinking of going to a meet up you have too!!!!!!!!!

I am going to the next one in November, which I’m just as excited about I get too meet a lot of new people!!

I think the only thing that would make the meeting better is, for the time to stop so you get to chat to everyone for 4 hours each! But that’s obviously impossible, and also to have a few thousand pounds with you (I wanted to buy all the Filfoaxes)!

Steve’s advice of taking a list is very important! Listen to it!

Thank you Imy

Future Meet Ups

With two meet ups in two weeks, New York and London, there has been added interest from other parts of the world to hold similar events.

For those people that have not attended a Philofaxy Meet Up, the first thing to say is 'it is not just about Filofax Organisers' Sure a lot of the discussion is about those and how you use them, but naturally the topic of conversation can drift in to other areas.

So where else.... Erin has emailed us and said:

I live in Central California, about 2 hours from San Francisco. I'd have to research to see if there is a Filofax shop there, but I know that Spencer's in Carmel, CA has a lovely selection of Filofaxes. And, it's in a wonderful shopping center where we could have lunch.

If you are on the West Coast of the States and you are interested in attending such a meet up then in the first instance please contact philofaxy at gmail dot com and put 'West Coast Meet Up' in the subject of the email.

Also Kathleen is also interested in organising a meet up near Michigan. I know there have been a couple of meet up's in the adjacent state, but I realise it's a big country!

If you are in Michigan and you are interested in attending such a meet up then in the first instance please contact philofaxy at gmail dot com and put 'Michigan Meet Up' in the subject of the email.

If you live in Germany and you are interested in attending such a meet up then in the first instance please contact philofaxy at gmail dot com and put 'Germany Meet Up' in the subject of the email.

I will pass on the emails to the respective organisers.

If you are interested in organising a meet up in your own area, it doesn't have to be a large group, 2-3 people even is often enough to get things started. Take a look at our Hints and Tips document, it's all fairly common sense really, but you might pick up a tip about some thing you might have over looked.

Diary Inserts for 2012 - Part 6 - Filofax Mini

This time we take a look at the Filofax Mini size. Part 3 covered Filofax own brand A4 and A5 inserts. Part 4 covered Filofax own brand Personal inserts and Part 5 Filofax own brand Pocket size.

Before you dive in to selecting a diary insert for your Mini Filofax, you need to remember that the ring size for the current range of organisers is only 13mm, this might limit choice of diary insert, depending on what other pages you have in your organiser.

So after that note of caution, let us take a look at what is available from Filofax in the Mini size.

Week on Two Pages: Like the Pocket range of inserts the Mini inserts follow a similar pattern with equal space for each day in the week.

This style of insert is also available in cotton cream (multi language) and in pink.

France has one with appointments:

Or the Swedish version which is just lined:

Week Per Page: Again like Pocket this style comes in Week Per Page and also Week Per Page with a facing Notes page:

Day Per Page: Day per page is available in cotton cream, but beware that Filofax warn that you might only be able to squeeze 6 months of this format in to the Mini rings.

Month On Two Pages: These are available in Month on Two page format.

Year planners are also available in horizontal and vertical formats in the same layouts as other sizes.

In the next part of this series we will be looking at printing your own diary inserts. 

Date For Your Diary - Sunday 2nd October

New York	London	Paris	Jakarta

We are going to run another conference round-table voice chat using Skype.

I'm sure we are gradually getting to know each other's voices, but I will make a point of going 'around the table' to get everyone to introduce themselves this time.

So...When, Where, What, Who and How?

When? - Sunday 2nd October from 10am (US East Coast time), 3pm London time, 4 pm Paris time 9pm Jakarta etc.  See the clocks at the top of this post to see roughly what time you should be on line.

Where? - an on-line chat using Skype.

What do I need? - just a micro-phone and some head phones(in ear phones work fine) and a free Skype account. Using headphones reduces 'echo' on the call.

Who - All of you... connect up with Philofaxy and we will attempt to get as many of us linked in to the audio conference as possible.

How -

1. Connect to Philofaxy by firstly searching for Philofaxy in Skype, I will then add you as a contact.
2. Then  'Start Chat',  I will then add you in to the chat room. 
3. Then if you request it, I can add you to the audio conference as well. But if you just want to chat via keyboard that's fine. That way it's slightly less hectic for me! 

Come and join in the fun, even if you only pop in to say hello...

As with previous round-tables there will also be a parallel text chat room going at the same time as the voice conference.

If you need any assistance setting up Skype, please pop a comment in this post and I will try and help you get one line. Skype is free for computer to computer calls....

Here is my post on how to improve your Skype audio with headphones or a headset.

Hope to be chatting with you on Sunday 2nd October.

Free For All Tuesday No 34

Well I'm back home in France still recovering from a hectic but excellent weekend.

But as always you can of course ask any Filofax related questions you might have.

Review of Filofax Compact Regency - Guest Post Zoe

As part of the Philofaxy All Stars Tour, Zoe offered to do a guest post about her latest purchase......

Last Saturday at the NYC Philofaxy Meet-up, we were all surprised to see some of the new catalog selections in the store, despite having been told they would not arrive in the US until later in the Fall season.

We saw the Enigma, the Luxe and the Flex, but to be sure, the belle of the ball was the Compact Regency. Sam Flax had it in both black and brown (as pictured in that dreamy promo shot on the Filofax USA website…drool!)

Although I have ultimately become an avid user of the Personal size, a couple other Philofaxers have made the move to the Compact and I had been experiencing some pretty hardcore planner envy. In addition, I recently performed a major overhaul of my handbag, culling it of all extraneous content that I lugged around “just in case”, so all the recent buzz about the Compact got my mind working on the possibility of lightening my Filofax as well.

So, one of the goodies that came home with me from the NYC Meet-up was the Compact Regency in black.

The stats are as follows...

Ring size: ½” (15mm)

Left side: Left facing full length slip pocket, 4 card pockets, then a right facing full length slip pocket

Right side: Left facing full length slip pocket, a note pad pocket about halfway up (3” wide), then a right facing full length slip pocket

And in case you are wondering (and I know you are) it lays flat. Cue Hallelujah Chorus...

It comes with the standard fare of inserts in Cotton Cream, which I promptly removed.

Imagine my horror when I went to pop in my Franklin Covey inserts and they were Way. Too. Wide.

As in, the tabs stuck so far out past the edge of the Regency’s cover that they would promptly be bent, broken or otherwise destroyed with any real use. Crap.

This is not the case with any of my personal Filofaxes; the FC ‘s are wider than Filofax refills, yes, however they do not stick out past the edge of the cover. So, out came the tape measure, and it seems the Personals are about 5½" from spine to outer edge. The compact Regency is roughly 4¾". In asking around, it seems all Compacts are narrower due to the smaller (1/2”) ring size.

Note the Differences shown below, which show the Compact vs a Personal Kendal:

This would have been, you know, good information to have before spending my grocery money for the month. Oh well.

Also, despite having an elastic section to the pen loop, any pen I slid in made it so it wouldn't snap shut...even the normal, non-grippy Frixions. It seems as though the pen loop is attached on the inside edge of that cool right facing slip pocket on the back cover, so it sticks up a bit more than usual to accommodate a pocket being there.

The only pen I happened to have that would allow it to snap shut is the super skinny Frixion Biz (which is beautiful & looks fantastic w/the Regency, but sadly I find it too thin to write with comfortably). The Pentel Graphgear 1000 mechanical pencil also works, so at least I have options. I swore by the Graphgear before I found Frixions.

Here is the Pentel (in the loop) and the Frixion Biz for a size comparison:

So...no favorite inserts OR favorite pens for me in the Regency. Bummer.

However, to my surprise, I found I could fit an entire year of Filofax Week on 2 Page lined inserts (w/monthly tabs...in this case a set of Dayrunner Month on 2 Pages inserts that I had bought to see what they look like but never used because I didn't care for them) AND the 6 tabbed sections I want for the new year (To Do, Reference, Quotes, Goals, New Ideas, Important Info – using DayTImer “Shadows & Light” blank tabs). As long as I don't have too many sheets behind each tab everything fits just fine (I’ll get into what goes behind the tabs another time).

Am I going to duplicate these innards when it comes time to buy my inserts for 2012? I have absolutely NO idea. You know me; I love my Franklin Covey day per page. And I can’t use those in the compact Regency. So back to the refill drawing board I go.

For now, though, I am just excited to start using this lovely new Filofax - which I suspect will be well worth the insert effort - and joining the Compact club : )

Thank you Zoe for a very detailed review of the Regency Compact, the price over here in Europe is quite high, but I'm sure there will be a few people that will fall in love with it too. 

Philofaxy Meet Up - London - September 2011 Part 2

So here are some of the other photos of our great meet up on Saturday in London.

Thomas looking as happy as ever... most probably because his bag would be several kilos lighter going home!

The entrance to Tate Modern, it used to be a coal fired power station, before it became an art gallery of rather huge proportions.

A modest stack...Steve and Sharon's contribution to 'The Line'

Look at my new bag....made by Filofax

 Dee was crowned as 'The Queen of Philofaxy

Jotje checking out the raspberry Chameleon Pocket

 CP does not like the Apex... hence the strange look... that is not a smile!!!

 

And the three European travelling attendees: Jotje, Steve and Thomas, dined out on Saturday evening at a local hotel.

Once again thank you to everyone who attended.

Also pop over and see some more photos of the meet up at Musings of a Caribbean Princess