A question for you today.... What sort of reaction do you generally get from people when they see you using a Filofax organiser? Is it surprise or do they ask why are you using it, or what?
But as it's a Friday you are of course free to discuss anything Filofax (or ring bound planner) related.
For UK readers, I received a code for 20% of all organisers until 24 Nicember. Use the following code for the online checkout:
ReplyDelete20XMAS
Ends 24th November, just to be clear!
DeleteSteve
Thanks Steve. Never easy, commenting with the iPhone!
Delete20% from which shop please?
Deletenatalie, it is for filofax.co.uk
DeleteIf you are a Nectar card holder and go through their e-shops you can earn Nectar points too!
DeleteI think the main reaction I get is surprise, followed by questions like, "Why don't you use a smart phone??" However, quite a few people do sound a bit more interested once I talk about it a bit more. And one of my friends is now considering one after popping into City Organiser with me earlier this year!
ReplyDeleteFunny question. I just told my colleague about the Filofax community and she look at me with amazement. Is there a Filofax community? Are you insane??? Or just a nerd?? Same reaction I got from my boyfriend, together with a head shaking of amazement and disbelief!
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh. Most of people I know use an IPhone for their planning. I don’t have an IPhone (and not going to buy one). When I talk about my Emma (Personal Malden), they are very interested, but then, go one with their electronic gadgets. Most of them think that paper is too much work and no good overview. I think that with paper you have a better overview of things and also the battery never dies!
But I have a question for you guys: I am definitely a paper lover. I love my Emma and soon Emma is going to get company from Catharina (a Finsbury Antique Rose). I want to use Catharina as a diary and want to integrate my Moleskin diary to her. The integration is not going to be: cutting open the Moleskin and punching it. I want to maybe use the back pocket and slight the Moleskin back cover in it. Does anyone uses bought the Filofax and the Moleskin this way?? I have been looking on the internet, but could not find anything like I want to do.
Suus you can see how Nancy uses a Moleskine Cahier notebook in the back of her personal Filofax as a daily planner in her guest post on my blog here:
Deletehttp://www.plannerisms.com/2011/02/nancys-filofax-moleskine-cahier.html
Thanks Laurie. I was looking for something like that. So it is possible. Yessss!
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ReplyDeleteWhen I get my Malden out and then my Windows phone people look a bit bewildered - why would I need both? But I love pen and paper and use the phone for alarms and reminders (Filofaxes don't beep) and the Malden for notes, lists, forward planning etc. Best of both worlds!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, does anyone know where I can get a Compact / Zipped Malden Pocket, preferably in purple? Did they just appear and then disappear again? I think it would make the perfect travelling companion.
You can get the Filofax Malden Compact Zipped on: www.filofax.de. This is the German site
DeleteI don't usually get any reaction at all. I consider it a straight forward business decision to use a Filofax - after all, it will never run out of battery, will never delete/duplicate/corrupt my data, and access is quicker and easier than any smartphone I've ever encountered.
DeleteI do not believe anyone can use a smartphone 'for planning' - the screen size and lack of ability to toggle between screens would ensure this - I believe that when people say they are 'planning' on a smartphone, what they really are doing is to *record* their commitments after they have committed to them, rather than taking an overview. Trying to get an overview on a smartphone, using multiple diary perspectives and referring to multiple task lists, would be a tall order, would it not? We need to distinguish between planning and merely recording here.
I did, however, get told by the young man in Waterstones a couple of Sundays ago that he had never seen anything as organised (in terms of plastic cards) as my Filofax setup. No rummaging through pockets for me! :)I must go back and ask him if he's got a Filofax yet........
Thanks, Suus! I'll have a look now!
DeleteDavid, same here. Not a lot of response ecxept them wondering why I don't use electronic planning.
DeleteAnother negative to using the iPhone or any other phone is that it doesn't stay on. I need my list on the counter and visible at all times. An iPhone just doesn't work that way. And I'm constantly writing things down - it's much easier to just grab a pen and paper rather than turning on the phone and using the keyboard. Nothing beats paper for me.
That being said, I do have some folks around me who see my paper planner and think I'm a nerd. I can live with that. I feel pretty organized and I know I have to have the paper planner to do it. I've played around with electronic planning - just to see if it's better - and for me, it isn't.
I don't see a lot of people with paper planners, though. Most use their iPhone or iPad.
....all of which makes me wonder just how much planning, in the traditional sense, is going on.....if any. Given that real, proactive planning with a system for doing it (whichever system may be chosen) is virtually if not absolutely impossible using electronica. Good news for those of us who reject the idea that new is always better (or even faster). It's not easy to differentiate any more....
Delete...also, what would I do with all my blue medium BIC biros? :) Surely the best writing implement ever invented ;)
DeleteI think you are right.
DeleteThere are various functions.
To Do tick lists.
Recording future appointments.
Planning.
An electronic organiser will easily cope with the first two, and will bleep helpfully to remind you of things (necessary if you don't use it as an overview).
But planning is a bigger process, it's about exploration, pros and cons, decision making, researching, changing direction. I don't think these things are easily done on a screen. The technology is fabulous for the research phase, but when it comes to the rest of it, paper wins, IMHO.
@ LM: There's also a pocket zipped Malden for sale on the Adspot page currently :)
DeleteMostly, people chuckle to themselves when they see I use a Filofax. I think the usual attitude is that I'm stubbornly clinging to old ways ("she's a Luddite") or I'm choosing to be quirky for aesthetic reasons ("she's retro"). Others chalk it up to eccentricity or affectation ("she's arty-farty"). Now that my partner works exclusively with tech start-ups, I get amused awe more often; these are the men and women making bleeding edge technology after all. (On the other hand, many of these start-ups like to track their projects/"sprints" on whiteboards.)
DeleteAlthough I'm devoted to pen and paper for planning, I know that people can plan electronically, too -- but not using only their small carry-around devices. My partner uses Google calendar, Excel, and Word to plan, track to-dos and deadlines, create workflows and schedules, &c. His smartphone is an extension of his computer, insofar as it enables him to get a glance at all of these different documents and apps on-the-go. Using the various programs and apps, for him, is probably similar to using various Filofax forms.
When I worked at an environmental engineering firm, the engineers and architects managed (complex and constantly-shifting) project workflows using Outlook and Excel; I tracked the thousands of documents, drawings, and samples under review using Access. Any given engineer or architect wasn't especially organized and forward-looking, but the managers and schedulers used these electronic tools well enough to, you know, prevent massive wastewater disasters in the NY metropolitan area.
So fear not the smartphone users!, they may very well be excellent planners and organizers (or rely on others that are doing the serious work at their computers).
@Anita: Yes, I have seen it and sent a message but not heard anything back so I assumed it was already sold? Maybe not, I'll see what happens. Buying a new one from Germany is a bit expensive. Thanks for pointing it out though!
DeleteHello all. I have two questions. I currently have the PennyBridge IPad case which I like but I’m disappointed with the back of the included filofax. It’s just a piece of black plastic. Does the purple Malden IPad filofax had the same black plastic back? Does anyone have both the PennyBridge/Malden and the Flex IPad cover. I know the Flex IPad cover doesn’t have a
ReplyDeleteFilofax but it appears to be a more mult-function cover. Any suggestions please?
Second question; I love my A5 size Filofaxes. Could anyone recommend a replacement A5 lined pad. I’m currently using a Pukka Pad Jotta which is micro-perforated but needs punching to fit my A5’s. The Pukka Pad is 80 gsm and fountain pen friendly and I would like something similar.
Many thanks
I use this notebook http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-International-ActiveBook-integral-N001412/dp/B000O1H2KG/
DeleteIt's not a pad, but spiral bound. It has perforations and lots of holes which fit the FF and also other systems I guess.
I got mine from the local Staples.
Hi!
DeleteI dont own any of the Filofaxes you mentioned but just this week I saw the Malden IPad Filofax in a store and had to check it out. I can confirm that the backside of the planner is a black plastic sheet of some sort. It is such a shame since I really liked the front of it, very minimalistic and stylishly plain. It was the Ochre one but I am sure the purple is made the same way.
Thank you Caroline but Oh boo hiss to Filofax. We finally get a slimline A5 and they spoil the back - sigh. I understand the need for the back to be stiff to enable it to slide into the holder but black plastic!
DeleteI had simillar question last week - I would like to purchase the iPad Filofax organiser but I can't see wich iPad it fit as I have the New one? Would anyone knows?
DeleteThey're all designed for iPad 2 and third generation (iPad 3). Definitely not iPad 1 due to thickness (13mm v 8.6mm/9.4mm in the later models). Not sure about "New iPad" (iPad 4). Should be fine as it's the same size. Just check holes for leads, buttons and camera lens.
DeleteOf course mini iPad is now out, just as Filofax are (finally) launching their 2010/2011 iPad covers!
Brilliant, thank you Cecilia. Exactly what I was looking for.
ReplyDeleteLOVE the colour of the new aqua Malden iPad sleeve. Would be fab as an organiser colour.
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting patiently for the personal aqua malden to come out!! :-)
DeleteIt's arrived!
DeleteHad a lot of smartphones when they first came out, kept getting newer and newer ones and they were always some sort of compromise, lousy phone, lousy battery, lousy reception. Ever try to look up a number while you are on the phone? Or check your calendar? So one day after riding the subway in NYC and seeing everyone's head buried in their smartphone oblivious to the world around I decided that I was not to be one of those people. Sold my droid 3 got a old school Razr and a new filofax. Simple
ReplyDeleteI like my iPhone (a second hand 4).
DeleteBut I don't use the apps much.
I use it as a camera (fits in the back pocket of my pocket Makden) and for video.
I have a radio app.
A Pantone app (take a photo and it will match the pantones to the photo - very nifty for a textile person like me).
Calculator.
Maps.
Flashlight (incredibly handy, actually).
Timer for baking.
Mobile blogging.
Taking card payments at craft shows with Paypal and iZettle.
Check in at airports.
In short, it serves lost of functions which work well for me, but planning isn't one of them, and nor is keeping a diary/calendar.
Does anyone use customised information sheets for the front of their Filofax? If so, what information do you have on it and what designs do you use? I'm looking for some ideas :)
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that Filofax UK has 20% off everything and yet on the Filofax US site they do not. I was all set for some online Black Friday Filofax shopping. I can't believe Filofax US isn't having the same offer as this is the biggest shopping day of the year. (They do have 50% off Aston's, Chameleon's and Domino's but I prefer the 20% off everything deal). I will just wait patiently for some news about my Personal Grey Malden and save my $$ in the meantime. Happy weekend everybody!
ReplyDeleteThe Woman's Success Planner will be 30% off on Cyber Monday (11-26). Use coupon code CYBERMON12.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete30% on the planners too, not just binders?
DeleteI have an order to place...
Their facebook page said 'save 30% on your order' so I am assuming its anything you order. I've been wanting to try out the ring planner but not willing to repunch the holes to fit the A5.
DeleteLing kindly offered me an Oct-Dec planner which arrived yesterday.
DeleteIt's the spiral bound version which I think is better actually, everything is in a logical order and kept together. I have a zipped A5 FF so I don't need to keep it in rings, I will just pop it inside and zip up.
I would not go to the bother of repunching and taping and all that fuss., I think it old spil a perfectly good product.
Is there any way at all to fix the rings? My pocket Malden zip has been working great as a wallet, but the bottom rings no longer align. City Organiser has offered to refund the cost as my particular model won't be available until 2013. I love this Malden and hope someone can offer a suggestion for repair!
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I have a question regarding the A5 Flex...has anyone tried using it as a book-cover for your novel? What size books does it generally take? I toss my books into my bag and they become woefully battered very quickly (and I'm not yet convinced of a kindle obviously). Any thoughts/experiences would be much appreciated. ^_^
ReplyDeleteI've just tried and it works fine - especially without the pen holders that (because they are A5) would stop you using it for thicker books. It might look a bit unsightly with a Tolstoy novel but for a standard size book up to A5 size just tuck the rear cover of your paperback into the rear slot of the Flex. You can still use the other slots for other things.
DeleteThanks for giving this a go. Yes, I'd thought the thicker books might not look so good, but at least now I feel a bit more comfortable ordering a Flex to try it out :)
DeleteCan anyone confirm if a Kindle fits in the back pocket of an A5 Malden? Thanks in advance for any info!
ReplyDeleteYes it does... http://philofaxy.blogspot.com/2012/05/mixing-paper-and-digital-devices.html
DeleteAwesome, thanks Steve! (By the way, not for me!)
DeletePeople always want to see my filofax and touch it. My boss is obsessed with my Malden. I just switched to my regency so we'll see what she thinks of it. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd a random question to my fellow bloggers: I currently have a book blog called Coffee & Literature (coffeeandliterature.com) and was thinking of turning it into a book, writing, & filofax blog. I'm debating between that and just doing a separate blog for Filofaxes and such. What is your opinion on either? Also any ideas fir a name if I start a new blog?
Hi Kristy
DeleteYou might find my own blog post of interest:
http://steve-morton.com/2012/05/15/filofax-blogging-tips/
Be sure to let me know about your new blog if you go for a separate one.
Regards
Steve
Thanks, Steve! I'll keep you posted!
Deletesimple and to the point...your style inspires me...how can i write about Plastic cards in such impressive way...
ReplyDeleteMost of my friends were really surprised to see me use my Filoax and not depend on my Iphone and the different apps on it considering the fact that I own my own business. Then comes the question of how many filofaxes I own since everyone that knows me knows how much I love collecting all kinds of things. I am at 10 and still going strong. I can not wait to add the teal Malden to my collection.
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