Reader Under The Spotlight - Graham

Today I would like to introduce you to Graham.
I'm Graham Rhind, currently living and working in Bad Bentheim, Germany, close to the Dutch border. I specialise in creating and disseminating specialist knowledge about international data, and I can stun a room into a coma within seconds by talking about it. So I won't. Describe me as a consultant, linguist, author, speaker, CEO, teaboy or chief-cook-and-bottle-washer - they all apply. http://www.grcdi.nl/author.htm

1. When did you buy your first organiser and what was it?

I think it was in the early eighties when we had to hide our Filofaxes away for fear of accusations of being a Yuppie. It was a Filofax, personal size and black …. I moved to using a PalmPilot in the nineties, but as smartphones became more complicated I found that I could be much faster and more efficient, at least for my diary, using pen and paper. These days I can make and note appointments and be gone whilst the next person is still trying to find the right app on their phones. And the looks on the faces of people as I uncap my fountain pen to note the appointment in my Filofax is just priceless …

2. Out of the organisers you own which is your current favourite (Style and Size)?

It’s a brown Filofax Cuban personal, because it has a zip and two pen loops.

3. How many Filofax or other brands of organisers do you own?

Currently being used (to any extent) are:

• An orange A4 Filofax Metropol, zipped
• A black A4 Filofax Domino
• A black A5 Filofax Metropol, zipped
• A red A5 Staples ARC-system
• A black A5 Filofax Flex
• A brown personal Filofax Cuban, zipped
• A yellow compact personal Filofax Finsbury
• A yellow compact personal Filofax Calipso
• A yellow mini Filofax Finsbury

Currently awaiting re-deployment or an honourable retirement:

• A grey A5 Filofax Graphic
• A black personal Graphic Zip
• A black personal Metropol Zip
• A yellow A6 X47 Mind-Papers folder

That seems an awful lot, and there are bound to be a couple I missed :-o

4. What do you use your organisers for?

I use the A4 Metropol to take to any clients as a "clean slate" for recording any information for a new project. The A4 Domino contains codes, lists and references that I need to refer to in my work on a daily basis. The Cuban is my diary, the Calipso contains a printout backup copy of my digital address book, the Flex looks after current papers that are awaiting responses from others and the Staples ARC is a rough notebook. The mini Finchley is the only one I take with me everywhere and is used for notes and lists, and the compact Finsbury and A5 Metropol hold some papers that I don't have another place for at the moment, and await their turn as I get fed up with one folder and move on to the next :-)

5. How many sections do you have in your organiser and what is each section used for?

Mostly none. I find that I prefer to see everything at once in one big overview rather than paging between sections for information - that's an important reason why I use a week per page instead of a day per page layout for my diary. In my case it really is out of sight, out of mind. So I prefer one organiser per job rather than one organiser for every job. My desk is a cornucopia of organisers, and with each one open at the required place I get all I need to be organised in one glance.

6. If you could design your own Filofax what would it feature?

It's a fact of life that pens and papers belong together, so I find it hugely irritating that most organisers are designed with only paper in mind, and any pen features, such as loops, are added as an afterthought and are often badly designed and in the wrong place. I like disc systems (is it really lazy of me not to like to be opening and closing rings all the time?) and if somebody could design a disc system where it's as easy to write on one side of the page as the other, and where pen and paper are given equal billing, it would be a sure fire winner. And it should be available in yellow J

7. What's your favourite Filofax tip or hack?

I design and print my own diary inserts in a layout that suits me, on better quality paper than shop-bought inserts. It does require a bit of technical knowledge, but it increases an organiser's usability many fold, in my opinion.

8. Have you ever attended a Philofaxy meet-up? if not do you intend to one day?

No, and unlikely as I never seem to get even a single day off and I don't live near to any of the common meet-up locations.

9. What was the last movie you watched?

I'm not a big film watcher - I usually think I have better things to do. I think it was "Florence Foster Jenkins".

10. What was the last book you read?

Norman Mailer's "The Executioner's Song".

Thank you Graham.

As you know we are always looking for new people to appear in our 'Reader Under Spotlight feature, you don't have to be 'well known' or a long term user to be considered to appear in this 'spot'.So please contact Steve philofaxy at gmail dot com today. 

Thank you.