As I mentioned in my last FFAF, I recently moved up from Personal size into my A5 Boston Filofax. Along with the spacious page size, I have discovered the joy of printing my own planner pages. This has just about solved my planner switching-around problem. When I used bound planners, if I discovered my planner wasn't working for me I had to switch to a completely different book. Now when I want to try a new weekly format (which is just about every other week) I just run off a couple of weeks' worth from my printer directly to A5 paper, punch it and pop it into my binder. Hurray!
And as if that weren't exciting enough, another benefit I've discovered is that the history of my pages is all in my binder. No more shuffling through books to see what I did last month or the month before. I can still have my whole years' worth of pages in one binder, even with lots of different weekly formats.
Have you discovered anything especially joyous about using your Filofax lately?
And as always on Fridays, feel free to ask/ discuss anything ring-binder related!
Hi Laurie
ReplyDeleteI'm closing in on an A5 solution myself, and I agree 100% with your comments about the joy of the page size, and the ease of printing inserts. If I can put up with the quality, Ryman A5 paper at £3/200 sheets is a bot cheaper than buying FF refills! If I feel teh need, I can buy 100 sheets of really good quality Conqueror A5 high white wove for £5 locally. Result!
As ever, however, the problem is one of portability, but as I now have a bag for all occasions (briefcase, work rucsac, messenger bag, that's becoming less of an issue than it used to be.
Best of all in either format, however, remains the joy of opening my diary and waiting while gadget-users try to deploy theirs. Only this morning I was at a meeting and observed someone actually unable to arrange a meeting (which could have resulted in a business sale), purely because they couldn't deploy their digital diary, and ending up having to promise to email the other party (who was waiting with their paper diary) later. Utter madness.
David - I love your comment about the digital/analog comparison. I've been seeing the same thing as I've pulled out my planner. Folks look at me like "oh, isn't that quaint?" and yet I'm already taking notes and making appointments while they're trying to get their app to load. :) Analog for the win!
DeleteHi Lois
DeleteI think there is a perception in this world that 'new' is always better than 'old'. A good few years back a US University carried out a study where they took a people group (Inuit) who had experience of television but not radio, took their televisions away and gave them radios instead. The subjects of the experiment thought it was great that they could now listen while doing other things, while not having to look at a screen. I think the same thing is happening with digital technology. Digital is great for some things, but not for everything it is applied to, and that includes diary management, task management and (especially) planning. As you say, Digital 0, Analog 1
I just purchased and received an A5 Original. I hadn't quite understood what all the hullabaloo was about them before. I had a Finsbury and wasn't really in "love" with it. But I love this Original. :) I'm also enjoying the ease of slipping things in without having to adapt for personal size - just fold the paper in half, punch and voila!
ReplyDeleteI agree that the A5 size inserts are easier to print off, I get my A4 paper cut to A5 in staples. It is so much easier to use an ff than an electronic diary sooo much quicker. I do mix paper with electronic and use Microsoft outlook to schedule meetings a tear in advance. I use an original and maldens in A5
ReplyDelete---a tear in advance, I love that, somehow it fits some of the less desirable things we have to do. Might be a good slogan for a funeral director!!!
DeletePS love all your comments!
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy a moment with one of my students last year when we were arranging a meeting and I pulled over my A5 Mulberry and was flicking through it to find a date and he gave me a bit of an 'ah...bless' kind of look as if it was the quaintest thing he'd ever seen. I then gave him a very patient smirk as he took three times as long to find a free time. He did have the grace to look abashed!
ReplyDeleteI like my month format and Wo3P insert that I designed for my Franklin pocket binder. The week begins on either the left or right page unlike most other week layouts. My week pages are right after the month format. I saw a calendar online that had a notes page between the month and weeks. I would not want to turn that extra page to see my week. It has been over a year since I bought my last insert, most paper products, notebooks, and binders. I have really noticed what features I do not prefer like the smaller space on the weekend. On my insert the space for the three days on one page is smaller but there was no way to avoid it. There are two days on the other two pages. As far as a computer version I am not sure when I will complete one. It was a chore drawing the layout but I am glad that I finished it.
ReplyDelete