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31 July 2014

Reboot Your Filofax

Is it time to reboot your Filofax? No I am not going to go all technical on you.

I have been meaning to do this with my personal size organiser ever since Alison and I got back from the UK over a month ago.

So what does this involve? OK give yourself an hour or so to sit down at your desk or table.

Remove all the pages from your personal organiser. Separate the pages in to the different sections you already have.


Now go through each section and decide on the contents as follows:
  • Keep: Pages you continue to need every day that isn't available elsewhere; 
  • Archive: Pages that can now be archived; 
  • Transfer: Pages that contain information you want to say transfer to your home organiser and that you don't need to carry with you all the time. 
  • Update: Pages that you need to update, refresh. 
In my case I was able to archive the first 6 months of the year diary pages. I discovered I had two year planners! I also transferred out my UK maps which I don't need here in France. I'm also considering dropping the need to carry a full set of names and addresses with me all the time, I would prefer to have that information at home and may be a smaller number of pages with just names and phone numbers on them.

The end result is that I've slimmed down the number of pages sufficiently to be able to try out using a Compact size organiser, including the De-Villiers that I received/swapped from Anita and Amanda.


I also think that having less pages will be more effective in the long term. Having more relevant information to hand will definitely mean that 'less is more' and I will spend less time looking for a particular page with information on it!

I realise over time the number of pages will gradually increase again, but at least with this system of maintenance I will be able to rationalise things easier in future.

How many months or weeks of diary inserts do you carry at any one time?

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7 comments:

  1. Maria Spinola31 July, 2014 01:44

    Like your idea’s. I just did the same. I like to carry the whole year, but I do not use the Europe maps. So out they went. I like having my addresses with me, but do not like all those ABC-tabs. So I used the address file on this page and typed all the addresses on those pages, made the font slightly smaller and fitted everything on 4 pages back to back. And I am still cleaning up my Gillio.

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    1. AJRockne06 March, 2021 18:56

      I love that idea. I have been meaning to include a page of "in case my phone dies" emergency contacts. Now, I'm going to print them on A5 pre-punched paper and add them to my planner. Thank you!

      Delete
  2. Amanda Fleet31 July, 2014 04:22

    Hee hee, I did the EXACT same thing to move into my de Villiers!! Hope you enjoy using yours. I'm still LOVING the red one!

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  3. Creamy Wibbibs31 July, 2014 10:37

    My Franklin Covey is so overstuffed I can't carry more than a month of diary pages at a time. Out of control.

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  4. Unknown31 July, 2014 10:46

    I just downsized from an overstuffed Personal FF to a Pocket Fauxdori. Major changes, but so far I am loving it. Of course, it has only been 4 days!

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    1. Unknown31 July, 2014 10:48

      I am doing WO1P with Notes and carrying 1 month.

      Delete
  5. Nan03 August, 2014 08:50

    When I switched from carrying ALL my contact information around all the time, I was shocked at how few I actually needed. Also, using the Slimline A-Z tabs, where you can write directly on the tab divider, makes a huge difference. I started out by going through all my Address pages and just copying out the names and phone numbers of close friends, family, doctors, a couple of important repairmen, and favorite take-out restaurants (really important!! haha). It turns out there are fewer than 10 numbers that I use frequently.

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