Getting organised...

I've been hearing voices in my head

'Help me..... Help me get organised'  

At first I thought it was something in the song I was listening to...

'I want to use my Filofax' 

That got my attention.  I lifted my headphones off of my ears... it was my dear wife Alison... no I wasn't hearing voices... she really wanted to use her Filofax to 'get organised'.

OK drama aside...

"Certainly dear... how can I help?"

So Alison as you know is a busy author these days. Her first book Inceptio was published back in March 2013, book two Perfiditas followed in October 2013.

Managing the launch and the follow up of one book was busy enough, but adding in the second book almost doubles the work load... and now Alison is in the preparation phase for book three due for publication later this year... oh and when she gets time she is writing book four and ideas for others too.... Who said retirement was boring!

So what prompted this sudden urge to dust off her 1980's Filofax? Alison is part of a big writing community much like the Philofaxy community in a lot of ways. Authors exchange ideas and tips much like we exchange tips and printables for our organisers.

Alison came across this post From ‘To do’ to ‘Done’ – confessions of an organised author by Roz Morris. Now Roz used a normal bound notebook for her different sections and pages. Alison and I have adapted the idea and used a Filofax for the different pages. I've even shared some of my abundant supply of dividers/pages to restock her Filofax.

The simple pages have been designed and printed off, it is very simple so it can be used across the different sections of the organiser. I printed it on Filofax plain pre-punched personal size paper.  The lines are very thin and a light grey to only supply a minimal impact on the page so if two lines of text are used for an entry the intermediate line doesn't disrupt the text too much.

The sections at the moment are divided in to:

• Books - Sort of a catch all for each book. 
• Promotion - Blog hops, articles for magazines, radio show appearances etc
• Blog site - Tweaks and changes to the format of the site and links to Amazon etc
• Research - For book plots, locations, continuity etc
• Events - Book signings, conferences 
• Blog posts - For her own blog and guest posts on other blogs

We have used a standard set of personal size dividers and relabelled them.

Alison has managed to clear her desk area of various scrappy bits of paper and sticky notes and transferred the details in to her new pages. Win win I think!

And if you want to find out about Alison's books, do visit her website Alison Morton's Roma Nova.