Last September I had one of those moments of Filofax Perfection. I had to fill in a form with details on how much we spend per year on everything including our mortgage, utilities, insurance (medical, car, home, life), groceries, gas/ petrol, personal items, everything. Because I had been using my Filofax to track daily expenses and monthly recurring bills, I was able to fill in the form in about five minutes. No digging through files, no sorting through papers. Everything I needed was right there in my Filofax. Ahhhhh!
Have you experienced any moments of Filofax Perfection lately?
And as always on Fridays, feel free to discuss anything Filofax or ring-binder related.
Happy Friday everyone!
I wish I were that organized! I'm still evaluating and tweaking what to track and where to keep it between the A5 and the Personal. Still have a lot of details to work out. So far what I'm tracking has been helpful as a reference but finding that fine line balance between having the info I need on hand at all times and having an over stuffed Filofax to carry around. Its a work in progress...
ReplyDeleteI'm also still tweaking my Filofax. It's so hard to get it right. I'm kind of indecisive and making my own inserts and printing them from here has been really difficult.
DeleteCheryl,
DeleteI'm with ya! A5 or Personal...I've lost count of the times I've changed from one to the other. I'm just glad Pocket is not a consideration for me! At least, as long as I stay away from the Pocket videos on YouTube...
That's funny Allee. I do have a pocket (or two, or three) and I wasn't using them. I tried to use one a few months ago but I just got too confused working with three. But about 2 weeks ago I pulled out the pocket again and am trying it as a wallet. No diary in this one, just a wallet and some note paper for shopping lists. Seems to be working out fine for the moment and it was actually smaller than my normal wallet. But I still get wrangled with the A5 and personal. I don't really want to have duplicate entries but I find the A5 works so well for a home organizer and a personal is so portable. Same dilemma as everyone I suppose. Don't wanna spend time on duplicate entries, fearful I might miss something because its in one or the other binder. Hope to figure this out some day soon!
DeleteAnd I went with the Mini for a wallet, also about 2 weeks ago! Really, it is a card holder (debit, credit, rewards), because that's all that was in my wallet anyway. If I'd stop buying Filofaxes maybe I could fill it up with money. So that one's done, now I can spend all my time moving inserts between my Personals and making sure A5 and Personal are in sync. It's a full-time job!
DeleteI actually have a question about Filofax rings. I bought a slightly used Holborn a few months ago and the rings were fine but now some are gaping and becoming misaligned. I have not been abusing it and have been very careful but I wondered about my rights in returning it to Filofax as I was not the original purchaser? Does anyone have any advice?
ReplyDeleteMorag - Filofax may offer to help, on a goodwill basis.
DeleteAny "rights" you have are with the person who sold YOU the secondhand Holborn. That is likely to be difficult as you accepted the item (it was "a few months ago"). You would need to demonstrate that the item was faulty or unfit for purpose when you purchased it. Even if you could show that (for example if the rings can now be seen to have been tampered with before being sold to you), you've been using it, without complaint, for a long time, so the seller would be justified in only offering a partial refund.
Assuming you're UK based The Office of Fair Trading produce a useful documernt explaining the Sale of Goods Act. See page 33. http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/738369/738375/OFT002_SOGA_explained.pdf
It is sad that you have to deal with the problem; hope it works out.
DeleteI am totally convinced that unless I can find the binder I want on Adspot, I just won't buy it.
@Tim thanks for your advice. I will not be going back to the original seller as the rings were fine when I bought it but my gripe is that an expensive item like Filofax should go wrong at all! In my opinion those rings should work properly for years not just 11 months. I still have my original Portland bought in 1989 and the rings are perfect. So I will contact Filofax and see what they say as, although I didn't buy it from them, someone else did and they have a duty to make sure the items they manufacture are fit for purpose, I believe.
Delete@Susan Mac I too think it's sad that there have been these issues with rings. I have a number of Filofaxes and none of them have been affected and I hope they never are,they should really stand the test of time and not just a few months.
Yesterday, while sitting at the computer, i needed to know what day of the week the 24th October this year was.
ReplyDeleteiCal was sitting there a click away, google was in the toolbar.
You've guessed it, I reached for my Filofax. This is a bit of a Milestone Moment, it's one thing looking up stuff when I'm out and about, but if I'm now consulting the Filofax instead of clicking an icon, I think I have been properly assimilated into the Collective, as Seven would say.
Resistance is Futile............................ :)
DeleteI've dallying between numerous new and vintage binders for ages, but I got my hands on a Personal Sandhurst and it truly is perfection. Colour, internal layout, everything. Goodbye binder envy - hello happiness!
ReplyDeleteI have a Sandhurst slimline in caramel colour, which I use for travel. Its beautiful. It keeps the basic info I need for work, plus a sheet of my travel details for the current trip. I also have the notepad tucked in the back flap, using a simple hack to make it into a swingpad. Sometimes I go straight from the arrival airport to a client and I use the slimline to take notes, using the customised Notepad.
DeleteDoes anyone out there use a deskfax? And if so, is it a useful size? What are the pros and cons? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI think Alan Marshall has one like wise Gemma Seymour does too. Both are on the Filofax FB group. Size wise it's a bit of an odd ball these days,
DeleteFrom a printing inserts point of view if you are going for that size go for an A4 instead, Deskfax is 176 x 250mm, which is a bit of a fiddle to use, A4 is simple and straight forward, punches are as cheap as chips too!
Steve
I realise it would be total pain in the *** to print stuff for it, but I wondered if people made use of the three sets of rings - with diary on 6 of them and a daily list on the other three or something like that. I assume there is some point to the 9 rings? Or was it just always completely bonkers?
Delete:-)
Yes you could use a combination of Personal and M2 pages in a Deskfax, two personals but they would be sharing the middle set of rings so not very practical.
DeleteOr how about A5 with two sets of Mini pages... http://philofaxy.blogspot.com/2011/09/a5-and-mini.html
Steve
Hi Amanda,
DeleteI have some DeskFax binders, and can tell you all about them :) The paper size is B5, which is fairly standard in Japan, but completely non-standard here. The inserts are essentially the same as the A5 range, just scaled up to fit. It's easy to have A4 paper cut down to the right size, although getting it hole-punched could be tricky unless you also have the nine-hole punch, which of course I do.
Im just back from a business trip. I travel abroad at least twice a week. I print the boarding pass on A5, punch it and put it in my Personal filofax, in the day of travel. I write the 6-digit airline code, flight nr, arrival and departure time plus the eTicket number in the diary page of the page per day. I also write in the hotel reservation code and their phone number in the diary, just after the arrival time. This helps when I need to see my plans, and helps when Im in places with no internet (which is often). It also helps enormously when I get back and do expenses. I use Ray Blake's personal expenses envelope (thanks, Ray!), which I've amended so I can add specific info on there (like trip dates, eTicket number, etc). I also have a whole printed page with all my airline frequent flyer codes, hotel loyalty cards and other travel details. It means I don't have to carry about 20 plastic cards, and when I arrive at the hotel, I find my loyalty card number, give it to them and they add it to my account. Im sure you COULD do all this electronically but I can locate my info much faster than I could with the iPhone.
ReplyDeleteThe filofax is simply brilliant for travel. So convenient to have somewhere to park all the various travel info and documents.
DeleteI'm looking for a Filofax-compatible A5 day per page diary that is not boring and plain like the standard Filofax ones. I've previously tried using the Dodo Pad, but the format just did not work for me - I was gutted when I had to take it out of my Filofax as I loved the design and it was, in general, just what I was looking for. But with all the information I have to jot down for uni, the grid system just didn't work and I went back to the day per page from Filofax. I've previously tried decorating my diary, put promptly gave up as I'm not an arty person and found decorating the pages quite difficult. Laurie had already pointed me towards the inserts available from Lime Tree Fruits, but I was just wondering if there was anyone else out there in the Philofaxy community that knew of any other inserts that are fun, bright and inspiring? I'd really love to have some new inserts for when uni restarts in September, so any pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteLife Is Crafted has some really wonderful A5 inserts - www.lifeiscrafted.com. They are creative and very functional, from what I've seen.
DeleteI was going to recommend the Life is Crafted inserts too :) They have the academic year ones out now :)
DeleteThanks for the pointers! I've had a look at the Life Is Crafted inserts and they're really pretty, but unfortunately my student budget doesn't really stretch that far :( Are there any other inserts that are relatively similar that you know of?
DeleteSteve, is it true?!!! You won the Filofax photo challenge??!!!!! Congratulations! Loved your picture!
ReplyDeleteYes we won... 270 votes! And Tracy was one of the runners up too so double celebration.
DeleteI'm just in discussion with the organisers of the competition about the prizes etc But look out for announcements soon...
The picture was taken in our garden if you hadn't guessed!
Thank you...
Congrats to you and to Tracy! From the sneak peak that we got in the picture, that garden looks AMAZING! Hmmmm....next Philofaxy meet-up??? Poolside at Steve's place in belle France! ;-) just a thought!
DeleteCongrats Steve and Tracy!!!
DeleteGreat news, Steve. A testament to all the hard work you put in to the website. The "How to print" post was excellent, and must have taken ages. Congratulations.
DeleteThanks Paul, yes the How to Print has sort of existed in different parts in different posts and on different pages for a while. But I thought it was time to bring that information together in one place with other hints added as well of course.
DeleteI hope it leads to more people being able to print out their own inserts and creating their own too.
Congratulations to Steve and Tracy!!
DeleteCongrats! And yes, that how to print post has been bookmarked! When I get some free time I am going through that with a fine tooth comb. I'm one of those who has difficulty printing inserts to line up so I appreciate that post very much!
DeleteI had kind of a funny things happen with my FC. Our friend, Matt, had registered to vote but something went wrong and they said he couldn't vote. He told me that if he couldn't remember what day he went to register it would solve the problem. I said: "Oh, that was the day we went to look at houses. I remember you telling us about it." Then I looked through my planner and found the date. Problem solved.
ReplyDeleteAfter using Moleskine planners since 2006 I am now tempted by the flexibility of Filofax. The thing that concerns me the most is the size, most Filofaxes I've seen seem quite bulky. Which binder do you think is the sleekest option available? The Original seems interesting, though I am wondering about getting a Domino (cheaper) first to test and see if I like the Filofax system.
ReplyDeleteGetting a Domino first is a great idea! They are great starter-binders :) I saw the personal Original in Staples today and actually it's really wide at the spine because of the way the leather sits! What size are you looking for? Personal is the most common size- it's a good portable size :)
DeleteI have been leaning towards the Personal, though I do worry that it's a little small, especially since I am used to the large Moleskine planners (plus my handwriting is quite large!). I am not someone with *a lot* of daily appointments to keep track of, so I am trying to decide how important portability is. I may get an A5 to keep at my desk at home instead, and carry a smaller notebook in my purse for notes on the go (I keep track of appointments on my iphone as well).
DeleteDo you know of any other models I could look at that are not too bulky/puffy? :)
If you're after a Personal size FF, slimline and compact have smaller rings so aren't so bulky. The slimline don't have fasteners wheras the compacts do. The Doodle compact is at the cheaper end and has a vertical elastic band to keep it closed.
DeleteI really wish there was a Filofax/Moleskine-hybrid out there. Those delicious creamy Moleskine pages and design combined with the flexibility of the Filofax system - that would be planner perfection. :)
ReplyDeleteThere is a hybrid of sorts :) The Flex binders which come in A5, slimline and pocket sizes. Slots for diary, notepad, year planner, contact and jotter inserts. No rings so sleeker and lighter than a ringed FF but more flexible than a mole. No closers but with pen loop. You can also get a separate pen loop which slots in too.
DeleteFF UK has slimline ones on sale right now (£13.30). I'm thinking of getting one for work. :) (Black, grey & magenta: purple is listed under Slimline instead of Flex on the UK site)
... and Large Moles fit into any of the A5 Flex pockets.
DeleteDidn't know that Tim, thank you :)
DeleteI second the flex. I use a volant or cahier in the left side, and my week on one page notebook/diary on the right side. I absolutely love it, you can see my set-up here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO_vrA70vVU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
DeleteThank you to Steve Morton for starting the philofaxy blog. Thank you to Nellie for posting how to print on Personal Sized Paper. I was able to following your instructions (convert centimeters to inches) and print on the paper neatly. Thank you. :)
ReplyDelete