09 January 2012

New poll: how many weeks of diary pages do you keep in your Filofax?

Please vote in the new poll at the left!

Seems to me that most people keep only a few weeks or months of diary pages in their Filofax, and rotate out used pages regularly. Especially people who use daily pages need to keep their binder at a reasonable thickness and can't keep too many weeks in there, especially if they have a lot of other pages and tabs.

Whenever I use a Filofax as my diary/ planner, I like to have as many months in as possible, usually 4-6 months past and at least 6 months future. One of the things I've always liked about using a Filofax as a planner is this ability to constantly see back and forward no matter what time of the year it is.

So what about you? Do you keep only the immediate future diary pages in your Filofax? Or like me do you like to have many months' worth of planning pages in at once?

Please vote to tell us how many weeks of your main diary pages (weekly or daily) you like to have in your Filofax at a time!

27 comments:

  1. I keep all 52 weeks in my Filofax. Apart from work information, I need to keep track of the Fundraising ventures, past, present and future so that i know what dates are available at any time for future events over and above regular events. Apart from that I just like to have the full year in my Filofax anyway.

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  2. Thanks John! Do you keep the entire current year and replace it in its entirety once per year, or do you rotate out past months and replace with upcoming months as the year goes on?

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  3. In my new system, I have 52 weeks of WO2P, and 1 week of DO2P at once, although when term starts I might have to put in a whole month's DO2P :)

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  4. In my pocket filofax, I keep the whole of the current year maudie made wo2p interleaved with lined pages for to do's and reminders

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  5. In my Pocket, I use about three months of WO2P plus about 4 weeks of DPP, as well as a year planner and various other inserts.

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  6. At the moment in my personal Metropol I keep 52 weeks of WO2P.

    But I'm thinking about moving up into an A5 and using Day per page, instead of using the day planner inserts.

    I thought I'd get day per page and have a couple months of them in the filofax, as well as MO2P at the begining of each month in the day per page section, and use the month separators. And just swap in the day per pages every month or so.

    Anyone use a similar method to this? Does it work?

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  7. 12 months. At this time of the year, I have 12 months of pages, having just disposed of 2011. I'll have 12 months in there until about November, when I'll add the first 6 months of next year and remove the first six months of this year. Next January, I'll add the rest of 2013 and remove the rest of 2012.

    So although I always have 12 months in the binder, there are times when as many as ten of those are in the past!

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  8. I just looked and I have a Wo2P up to july but theres no reason I can't have the whole year in an A5 Malden so I'm going to put it in now.

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  9. A5, WO2P (Week On 2 Pages) - Last week, this week and next week. That's it for me!

    But I don't use the diary pages for appointments. Instead, I write down everything that happens during the day as it happens (GTD style!) and cross entries off as completed or transferred. By the end of this week - at the latest -everything from last week should have been dealt with or transferred to a project, so then last week can get filed and a new next week added.

    Each Monday morning, I also print off an A5 week on one page from Outlook, which has all my scheduled appointments on. These also sync onto my iPhone (boo, hiss, I hear!)

    All other events go onto the A5 Year Planner which opens out and I find is the best way to see what's coming up in the weeks and months ahead, without constant page turning.

    It works for me anyway!

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  10. I use a Week per page as a regular diary, a Month on 2 pages for tracking daily work output, and a horizontal year planner for a quick overview of my upcoming travels and deadlines. I take the Week pages out after use, because the main events will be marked on the Year planner anyway, and that way I get more and more room for notes as the year goes on. Works for me!

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  11. I have a whole year. Sometime between June and September I'll need the beginning of 2013 and will be forced to archive some of this year. I remember being at a meeting in June one year and needing a calendar of September the following year and thinking how wrong that was.

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  12. Or may be a 4 year planner for those dates well in advance... or Print Your Own even....

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  13. @Scoot,

    I have have 'voted' more than 12 months, because I usually change may diary in late Spetember / early October. I remove the diary before and refill with the complete new year. So I usually have 15 months of my diary in my Filofax - and they are Filofax refills. I like the possibility of checking back into the past, as well as planning ahead.

    Kind regards, Thomas

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  14. Currently I have 3 months of WO2P interleaved with a couple of to do sheets and a lined sheet per week, 3 months of WO1P with notes, MO2P with tabs interleaved with one lined sheet per month after the most next 3 months are up, and 2 annual planners (one horizontal and one vertical). So far this seems to be working for me - if I can just remember what colours I am supposed to write in for which type of thing I should be all set...

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  15. I voted 1-3 months, as I keep 3 months of daily pages in my Malden, but I also have a full year of tabbed month on two pages and a vertical year planner.

    So, technically I suppose I keep a whole year, but only three months of dailies.

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  16. I have the whole year in monthlies, and two months of 2ppd, in my Filofax.

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  17. J you voted correctly! I know lots of people have monthly or annual calendars for future planning, but what I want to know is how many pages of actual diary (weekly or daily) people keep in at one time.

    So far I'm very surprised by the results! People keep more months than I expected!

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  18. I use the French academic year calendar in my Filofax Pocket so have up to August 5th in mine (and some blank pages after where I can write down apts for after that date)....

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  19. I use WO2P and start the year with 52 weeks. I remove the previous week each Monday do over the course of the year my filofax gets lighter.

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  20. In my personal (non-work filofax) I have a full year of MO2P, a full year of WO2P and a week of DPP. At the end of each month I will take out the WO2P sheets for that month and each week I take out the week that has just passed of DPP and put a new week's worth in. The MO2P stay in all year. I also have an advanced planning page for jotting down things in 2013 and beyond. Taking out each month as it passes means that my filofax slowly gets lighter until the new diaries are available and then it suddenly gets really heavy again! In about July I will print off another MO2P but for 2013 and pop it in.
    At work I have 15 months of WO2P (vertical) as I have a job in academia so have from September 2011 until Dec 2012 in there. In September I will take out the previous academic session's diary and file it, and put in the rest of the next calendar year's diary, assuming they've managed to come on sale by then!

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  21. After being forced by my aching back to switch back to Mini as my on-the-go Filo, I have year planners for 2012 and 2013, W/2P all 52 weeks and the current week (Thursday - Wednesday) on DPP in it (incredible what you can stuff in a Mini). In the 'big one' that stays mostly on my desk I have 6 month W2P and one month DPP......now I am trying to make this 'satellite-system' work for me.

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  22. I like to keep about 6 months of DPP diary in my Personal planner, as this covers a full semester of my studies. I also don't like to keep to many of my old entries as they serve no purpose for me, and yet I like having the 'bulk' of used pages in my filofax (nothing worse than always opening the FF to have it feel like it's almost new - hard to explain why...?) So I end up keeping about a week of DPP. As the year progresses I start to add the remaining months to keep my planner nice and chubby :)
    I've started to dislike duplication as well, so I keep a full year of MPP sheets I've printed out and just record big events in one or two words. I also have a pure colour-coded (no written entries) horizontal year planner in the front of my study notebook (I'm using a slate A5 Flex to keep my notebooks all in one place - love it - as I'm trying to reduce my note-taking)

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  23. I keep the full year in and replace it mid December with the new year.

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  24. I simply keep a MO2P to track my writing data each day. I keep the full year in there. My schedule is on google and syncs with my phone. I need to book dates over a year in advance and have the ability to constantly check my dates so that I don't double book. I simply can't keep all that in paper form effectively.

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  25. I used to keep 3 months the previous, the current, and the following month but now I keep all 12 months.

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  26. I have a full year DPP, Business Style in my A5 Domino because of my work. I have to look back sometimes, but most of all I am planning almost a year ahead. Also i have inspection reports in my Domino.

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  27. I'm still doing it like I learned in the "David Allen course" twenty years ago: my A5 planner contains daily pages for this week, last week, and next week. It also contains monthly pages for this month and next month, and yearly calendar for this year and next year. Each Friday, remove the oldest week's worth of daily pages, and insert the daily pages for the week after next. Update those daily pages per the monthly page (appointments). If the month is done, remove that page and insert the page for the month after next, and update that monthly page per the yearly calendar. The Friday update is also the time to do review and reflection.

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