04 October 2013

Free For All Friday No. 255

Whenever people start talking about how long it is to Christmas, it gets me to thinking about what projects I'd like to complete before the end of the year. I say to myself, "Can I imagine how great I will feel when I've got that done?" Sometimes I'll pick things that will have a bigger impact on something important like my business or health, but it's also great to get rid of the little or irritating projects that have been hanging about. I find the A5 size just perfect for mind mapping and scribbling notes about where I am now, and how to get to the successful outcome I have decided on. 
Do you find that you're creating more projects in your binder this time of the year?

And as it's Friday again, please feel free to discuss anything Filofax or ringbound planner related. Have a great weekend. 

23 comments:

  1. This year I´ve tackled more projects than before. It almost feels that when you write things down, you give more power to them. I don´t know how true this is, but I´ve noticed this in my own life. To the first pages of "notes" notebook I write down things I need and want to be done. Then later on there is another notebook for home and projects. Right now my ongoing projects are both Yule and my son´s BD. We´ve discussed about it and since the both of them are fairly close to one another, we´ll do the whole Yuleshebang for the BD theme as well.
    Every year I´ll start the Yule planning at sometime around August, mapping out what needs to be done in general, what areas of planing has to take place. Then I get these ideas as we go and my goal is that by the end of November everything is done, everything has been shopped and wrapped, cupboards are full and I can just enjoy the seasonal festivities with zero-to-none stress. This year I am aiming for earlier execution since my son´s BD will need to be pulled through sometime at Nov. since our December is ripe with scheduled plans. For example yesterday I got this fabulous idea that what if I managed to find some ample gent to portray Santa on my son´s BD. That would be just the best surprise to all children. I don´t know what will come out of this idea but at least it´s now written down in the notebook. Also, talking about the things written down... during my spare ½hour after an appointment this week I managed to find two wool scarves and a pair of PJ´s for my son to give as Y-presents. There really is no reason to stress about impending festivities. They always come at the same time, every year. Few years ago I found out that if I start mapping out the entire thing early enough, if I start getting gifts to people early enough (this is why sales are created!), if I stock up the freezer and kitchen early enough I can actually avoid stress, hurry and impending bankruptcy and I´ll be able concentrate on the important things instead. Important time being playing with my son, baking with him and making candles and candy and drinking mulled wine and drowning in chocolate.

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  2. My mini Rio that I picked up for $12.75 about 2 years ago was showing his age. The inside wall of the wallet pocket was literally shredded and the snap strap was coming apart.
    I pulled out the duct tape and he's got a new lease on life. Check out my Flickr stream the first 2 pics.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/goatgirlcr
    I know some of you probably think this is a horrible idea, but maybe this can help save items from being trashed. And the good news is, if you like this, you can always re-cover it with new duct tape in another few years=)
    PM

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  3. One of the major things I'd like to do is a deep clean and declutter of the whole house before we settle in for winter and Christmas. We have been living for some time in a bit of a mess, after clearing out my partner's late parents' house at the end of 2012 - a van arrived chez us on the morning of 22nd December last year and offloaded the bits we'd chosen to hang on to, which suddenly meant that our main lounge turned into a staging area with a 3-seater sofa, two beds, a dining table, two coffee tables, a couple of TVs, and a big pile of packing boxes full of *stuff* in addition to its usual contents. I rationalised it a bit by moving the beds into another storage room upstairs, and the dining table moved to our dining room (overcrowding it into the bargain) but we ended up last Christmas with a slightly crowded lounge which still contained a neat stack of boxes hiding behind the sofa, plus a crammed storage room and a dining room doing impersonations of an obstacle course. And that's how it stayed until about a month ago, when I finally snapped and rationalised the dining room (it was making me feel claustrophobic!) and a few other bits. But it really needs sorting out...

    I am about to embark on pulling together a master job/snagging list in my main filofax - I was cutting down some A4 paper ready for punching to A5 yesterday evening - and then we'll have to see how much of it is doable. It's complicated by the fact that we need some building work completed in one upstairs bedroom, which had some water ingress due to a century-old chimney stack becoming porous and acting like a sponge, so the plasterwork on the chimney and surrounding walls, ceiling and cornice inside needs sorting out and we may not be able to get that done this year - it needs to dry out now we've had the chimney sorted out!

    Wish me luck... it's a 5 bedroom house and we both work from home, and both of us have packrat tendencies!

    In other news, having been a resolute A5 user for the last year I've just bought a red Windsor pocket off eBay which should be with me shortly. I'm currently planning to use it as a capture device - I have an M2 intended for the same thing but it's just toooooo small and I may have to sell it soon. Hopefully the pocket will be the sweet spot - smaller than personal, but not too tiny for me to cope with! I did try using my iPhone for capture but for some reason I can't get on with electronic notes - there's just too much friction and faff, and if I'm in the car the phone will be plugged in to the hi-fi via the pocket in the centre console and thus inaccessible etc. For some reason I often think of stuff which needs doing while I'm in the car so the iPhone just ain't gonna cut it - paper is the way to go...


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  4. Hey, is anybody here familiar with the Day Timer Malibu binder? They look enticing on the website--wondering if anyone had personal experience with one.

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    1. www.carieharling.com has one and a video of it as well.

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    2. Glad you asked that question as I am dithering between that and a Malden. I have seen The video and that is what is luring me towards the DayTimer. Would love to have more views.

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  5. I have a list of items and small projects that I would like to finish soon. I am currently using a compact Filofax but I think that a separate larger binder is better suited for house tasks and projects. I use several templates that are easier to store in a larger binder. On another note, I have finally started designing my own insert, a week on two pages for the personal Filofax. I am in the early stages. I have been using the basic Wo2P with the boxes for each day (unlined and lined) for several years, but I wanted a more comprehensive layout. I imagine that it is a long process because there are so many details so consider. Also I have never printed inserts and it seems that it can be frustrating.

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  6. I'm sorting out my filofax at the moment - has anyone customised the a-z dividers and re-labelled them?

    Also I have a franklin covey laying about with no use...

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    1. I did. I wanted more dividers and that worked great.

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  7. Hi everyone! I just got my first Filofax (a personal malden in ochre) and I can't wait for 2014 so I can start using it (I'm currently using a clothbound Letts journal for 2013). I'm browsing the UK Filofax website looking for good things to have in my Filofax and I like the look of the blank index tabs in cream but they are not available in the personal size, does anyone know why this is?

    I'm also wondering how you solve things like different colours on your pages - I'm looking at the unlined wo2p in cream, but I'd really like the month on 2 pages refill as well, but it's only available in white, do you mix your colours between cream and white or do you just stick to one colour?

    I've noticed that many of you are creative and make your own inserts and calendars, but I really like the look of the Filofax ones - I just wish it would be easier to stick to one colour.

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  8. Hi all,

    I have an A5 aqua malden which I love but am not really getting enough use of at the moment. I am however about to move house and wondered if any one had any organising tips?! We don't have completion dates yet but this will definitely (hopefully, fingers crossed) be a pre Christmas move.
    Having moved in to my current flat on Christmas even with a small amount of stuff, I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the moving out five years worth of "stuff" later thought!

    A5 to the rescue?

    Thanks x

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    1. Moving tips? Is the water wet?
      I´ll just tell what I´ve done with our monstrous moves. Last time the movers shook their head and said that this move made army look disorganized.
      Every room in the new place will get a colour. Every packed box will get a preprinted A5 paper on the matching colour of the room (say, if kitchen is green- the paper will say KITCHEN in a green paper) taped on its every side. Note- during the move boxes will be stacked atop each other so the labels really need to be on taped on the sides. Under the KITCHEN I´ve always written down cutlery, kitchen towels, coffee cups etc. depending on what is on the box. Another note- every room will need to have an emergency box. This box will be opened first and it includes the first necessities you will need in the new place. For example, it can be set of eating things, soap, dishwashing detergent, whatnots of your chosen necessities. In the bedroom would be fresh set of sheets, bedding etc. The things you will need for the first day or few.
      I always have printed the floorplan to the movers and every room will be highlighted in their appointed colour. I also have planned the floorplan in regards to furniture. The movers will be noted where to carry the furniture nd to which position. Forget about piling all the boxes on randomcorners of the new place and furniture junked on random rooms. No need to make it a mess when you can have the bones ready for the unpacking. I´ve always made friends with the new place and I´ll take pictures of storage areas/closets. Before move I make plans and approximate where my things will go. On the boxes will be noted the room where they go to, what they include and where they will be carried to. If clothes go to closets, they need to be left beside them, if the clothes will go to a walk-in closet, the boxes need to be carried beside the door. You need to fit in to organize everything, make sure you have free-flowing pathways for yourself and preplan the unpacking as well.
      Clothes, linen, bedding- everything that is soft and of fabric will fit best in huge garbage sacks. Those big bags can be shoved atop of the boxes in the moving van/car. Also, use towels for padding the flatware and glassware. I usually use linen napkins (we use linen napkins every day but I understand that it´s not for everyone) and when I unpack, the napkins already will be on kitchen. But terrycloth is wonderful for crystals, vases, everything that needs the profound softening. On the bags of clothes I use strings and tape colourmatched to the colour of rooms.

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    2. I´ve met the movers at the old place, go through the logistics, wait for them to come through the shock after telling them how this all is going to roll, introduce them to the mountain of books (books will go to double paperbags, then snugly taped closed. The books will form boxy bags that are easily piled as bricks. Bricks with handles. This is so important when the count of ones´ books exceed three digits. If they are just random piles, they can fill up the van in themselves and also will get broken up and messy), leave one person behind me to mind the guys and spring ahead to the new place. I´ll meet them there readily (and by this time majority of the soft bag- stuff will be unpacked to their respective places already) and will supervise the actual move. They always screw it up, if left on their own devises so you have to get with the sergeant act. Then when they´ve done their thing, I pay them, shake hands and sit them down with a cup of hot coffee (they´ll need it after having dealt with one of my moves) and them let them run away screaming (if they have the energy). By this time I´ve instructed nanny or the person portraying one to deal with my son and his toys and room and the two of them will carry on as I fly like the wind to the old place, see that everything is as I want them to be, clean it through spick and span, take pictures just in case and leave the place thanking it and mopping as I go. Not a footprint will be left after I´ve taken my leave. Then I´ll knock on the now old neighbor´s doors beside ours, and say my goodbyes and wish them well. Back to the new place where furniture is set on their respective places and unpacking shall continue.
      WOOZAHH!!!

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    3. @WeirdRockStar, that reminds me a bit of a job years ago where I used to run a department in a bookshop. We had to move the whole department temporarily to a new location, while the old location was refitted. Lots of other departments had done the same, and always been utter chaos for at least a week afterward. My solution: pack the books into crates as if they were going onto shelves (i.e. keep them in order and spine up), number the crates sequentially and treat the whole thing as a linear stream of books moving from top left to bottom right of each case. Plan how many linear feet of bookshelf each section will take and decide where each section will go in the new location. Then just pick a start point, stream the books off one set of shelves and into crates in order, schlep the crates to the new location and unstream the books out of the crates in order onto the shelves. Utterly painless and no chaos...

      I just wish I'd thought to do the same when we moved house last... that was 20 years ago and I'm just getting over the stress! :)

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    4. Heya Paul, me too me too!
      I always pack them as they have been on the shelves- first in categorically alphabetized-and when unpacking I hoist them back on the shelves the very same way. Organizing books seems to be such a horrid idea to many people, especially i larger numbers but it really isn´t. Unpacking can be done in no time at all.
      A good friend of mine with huge numbers of books as well uses banana boxes in moves. Now that she´s settled in their apt. she still uses banana boxes yearly to go through every book evaluating if the book can go or if it´ll stay and if it stays it gets vacuumed and if it goes away... off to charity it´s destined.

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    5. Now that's organisation!

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  9. My fall/winter project is to find a house! We sold our house and moved out on August 30th and we're living with the kids and grandkids until we find a house. But we really want our own place ASAP. So far no luck, though.

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  10. Being an airhead is what I am. Last week I bought a personal size, 2014, Week On Two Pages, Cotton Creame, English, diary refill. It's identical to the one I bought in August. Returning it to the store where I bought it is not practical, so I'm offering it to the first person who asks for it. I'll mail it to you. I couldn't stand to see it go to waste.

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    1. If it's still available, I'd love to have them.

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    2. You are the first. Let me know how I can get it to you. My e/m is jobal76246@aol.com.

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  11. My comment is not about this subject but I gave a question.
    I just bought Malden aqua pocket size but there was no transparent envelope top opening on the back, does this happen only for me?

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    1. Hi, It should have come with one, it's listed in the contents for that model. Contact the retailer/seller and ask them to send you one. Send them a link to the page on the Filofax website that lists the contents.
      Steve

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  12. Thanks Steve, the seller told me they stopped putting one so I wanted to check if other people who buy pocket size getting one. I bought at goldspot btw.

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