Philofaxy: November 2018

30 November 2018

Free For All Friday No. 524 by Laurie

Lately I've been watching my budget closely, to be able to afford all the upcoming holiday expenses. It got me thinking about how my Filofax helps me save and manage my money.

I'm still using my budgeting pages (as I described in this post) to see upcoming expenses throughout the year. I also have a reference page with my standard monthly expenses like mortgage, utilities, etc.

One way my Filofax helps me save money is I no longer waste money buying planners that end up not working for me. I seriously cannot count the number of times over the years when I ordered a planner online, then when it arrived I discovered it did not have the features I needed or it just did not work for me in some way.

Now if I want to experiment with new planner pages, I just mock some up and print them out to try before I buy. Or even better, I pay nothing for planner pages by either making my own or using the Philofaxy free printable inserts.

How does your Filofax help you save/ manage your money?

And as always on Fridays, feel free to ask and/ or discuss anything ring binder organizer related!

29 November 2018

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Plannerverse - Episode 82

Productivity 201

There are lots of articles and ideas about how to be more 'productive', but they don't all work for everyone. Finding the right method that works for you can be almost a life's work.

In this episode Karine and Steve discuss various methods and ideas included in a Lifehacker article by Alan Henry

If you have ideas for future episodes, please send them to steve at philofaxy dot com

Show Notes (timings approximate)
00:00 - Introductions.
01:45 - Build Your Own Productivity Style by Remixing the Best - Alan Henry (Lifehacker).
02:15 - Productivity for all of your life.
03:00 - Sleep.
05:00 - Noise cancelling headphones.
07:00 - Pomodoro technique.
09:00 - Take breaks.
10:30 - Single tasking vs Multi-tasking.
14:00 - Minimise distractions.
15:00 - Make productivity your lifestyle.
16:00 - What time of the day are you most focused.
18:00 - Priority or priorities?
19:00 - Apps or pen and paper?
22:00 - Planning your downtime.
24:00 - Work life balance.
27:00 - Time machine!

Episode 82 - Productivity 201

A direct download is also available here: Episode82.mp3

Show notes: A5 docx pdf Personal docx pdf

NB: A5 is in A4 format so it can be scaled to suit A5 or A6 size. Personal is for printing direct on Personal size paper.

Presenters - Karine Tovmassian and Steve Morton
Editing and production - Steve Morton

Our Websites:
Karine: Plannerology, ThroatPunchResumes.com, Karine Tovmassian (IG)
Steve: Philofaxy, Travellers Notebook Times, Mr Philofaxy (IG)

Naturally we would love to hear your feedback on the podcast. If you use iTunes please gives us your rating or reviews of the podcast.

If you want a quick link to all the podcasts remember: http://philofaxy.com/podcast/

Remember if you have liked this podcast, don't forget to like it, share it and subscribe to the podcast.

Previous Episodes:

2018

81 - Planner Sizes - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
80 - Do you have too many planners? - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
79 - Improving Your Planning Productivity - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
78 - Ten reasons why you have stopped planning - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
77 - Letting Your Planner Take The Strain - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
76 - The Franken Flex - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
75 - Decluttering - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
74 - Engagement - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
73 - Reflection and Review - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
72 - Organisation - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
71 - Clarification - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
70 - Capture - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
69 - How to do nothing - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
68 - Changes - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
67 - Tones versus Pulses - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf

2017

66 - Planning and Execution - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
65 - The Power of Habit - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
64 - Planning for the end of the year - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
63 - Planning For Unexpected Life Events - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
62 - Staying in two sizes of planner - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
61 - Staying in one size of planner. - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
60 - Functional Planning - Macro and Micro Planning - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
59 - PlannerCon Europe - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
58 - Speeding up by slowing down - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
57 - To Do Lists and Diary Pages - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
56 - Hints and Tips on making planner videos - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
55 - Keeping up to date - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
54 - Interview with Jennifer Powell at PlannerCon - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
53 - Conferences and Meet Ups - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
52 - The Magic of Contextualising Your Life - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
51 - Guest Interview - Rose Orchard - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
50 - Organising your significant other - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
49 - Creating the ultimate planner - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
48 - Getting past New Years resolutions - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
47 - How to understand being a planner newbie - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
46 - Buying and Selling 101 - A5 docx pdf Personal docx pdf
45 - A5 or A6 - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
44 - End of Year - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf

2016

43 - Digital Planning vs Analogue Planning - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
42 - Planning vs Organising - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
41 - Short and Long Term Planning - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
40 - Good and Bad Planner Habits - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
39 - Tackling Planner Size Change - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
38 - Self-Improvement or Personal Development - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
37 - What is productivity anyway - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
36 - The Planner Community - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
35 - Wellness Planner - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
34 - Listeners Question - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
33 - Pens and other writing instruments - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
32 - Proper storage, care and shipping of planners, rings etc - A5 docx pdf Personal docx pdf
31 - Guest Interview - Louise Umeki - Plannercon 2017 - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
30 - Form Following Function - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
29 - Seasonal To Do Lists - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
28 - Making and keeping annual goals - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
27 - Organising the family - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
26 - Guest interview - Theresa Hall - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
25 - Guest interview - Ray Blake - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
24 - Defining the important things from the urgent things - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
23 - Guest interview with Rita Sedani - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
22 - Printing your own inserts - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
21 - How to derail your planning system by over thinking - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
20 - Digital devices/services and your analogue planner - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
19 - What To Keep In Your 'Others' Tab - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
18 - Zombie Apocalypse Preparation - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
17 - Managing Finances In Your Planner - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
16 - Planning for those of us who actually can't live without planning, with guest co-host Carie Harling - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
15 - Automation Nirvana - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
14 - Work Life Balance and Your Planner - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
13 - GTD Productivity And Using Your Paper Planner - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
12 - Job Seeking and Keeping - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
11 - Planner Fail - A5 docx pdf Personal docx pdf
10 - Planner Hacks - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
9 - Planner Planning - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
8 - Choosing Inserts - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
7 - How do you carry your planner - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
6 - Planners on the go - A5 docx pdf  Personal docx pdf
5 - Why would you pay more than the price of a Filofax? - A5 docx pdf Personal docx pdf
4 - Using Your Planner To Create Permanent Habit Changes - A5 docx pdf Personal docx pdf
3 - Getting on with two or more planners - A5 docx pdf Personal docx pdf
2 - Where to start your planning journey and why - A5 docx pdf Personal docx pdf
1 - What size and why.... - A5 docx pdf Personal docx pdf

28 November 2018

Web Finds - 28 November 2018

So I hope you have had a good weekend.

So now it is time to enjoy a great collection of blog posts and videos from around the internet.

Here are a selection of the latest Filofax videos for your enjoyment.

For tips on how to improve your videos, please see this post. Also this video too Webfinds
Your Filofax/Organiser Videos could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list.

You might also be interested in Planner Spread Love on Facebook.

Enjoy

27 November 2018

Free For All Tuesday - No. 408

So what questions or discussion points have you got for us today?

It doesn't matter if you are a beginner or a more experienced user of organisers, we want to hear your thoughts, questions, opinions etc.

Make today the one day you post a comment or a question.

It is Tuesday after all so fire away.

26 November 2018

Charity Auction for Chimwemwe

Thank you to Jane for this thoughtful post

As we quickly approach the holidays, it's fantastic when we can find a binder that's been on our Christmas wish list and simultaneously get to support underprivileged youth.

Jane and Brock, from Texas, are hosting 3 binder auctions where 100% of the binder purchase will go to Chimwemwe, a group dedicated to providing children a home, education, and career training in Malawi.

You can learn more about them here:

This auction is open to anyone in the USA, and listed are 3 vintage binders: an unstructured black Franklin Quest, and two Winchesters.

You can view the listings here:

Please see the listings on Ebay for the full details and more pictures of each organiser.

You can of course donate to Chimwemwe here if you aren't interested in bidding on the items above, every £ $ € helps them out.

Thank you for your support of this beautiful organization!

Again thank you to Jane and Brock, good luck with your bidding on these great organisers.

Date for your diary - Sunday 2nd December 2018

We are going to run another conference round-table voice/video chat using Skype.

When? - Sunday 2 December at the following times:

Los Angeles 8:00 am,
Denver 9:00 am,
Dallas 10:00 am,
New York 11:00 am,
London 4:00 pm,
Paris 5:00 pm etc.

Do not worry if you aren't available at the start of the session as it lasts 2-3 hours so pop up when you are available and say hello.

Where? - an on-line chat using Skype. with voice and video (if you wish)

What do I need? - just a micro-phone and some head phones(in ear phones work fine) and a free Skype account. Using headphones or earphone reduces 'echo' on the call. Video is optional, but a few of us will be on video as well.

Who - All of you... connect up with Philofaxy and we will attempt to get as many of us linked in to the audio conference as possible. Come and listen if you don't want to chat. What do we talk about? Filofax stuff... but anything else as well. It's like long lost friends meeting up for coffee and a catch up.. but don't worry if you have never joined in before... you are an old friend too!

If you have any questions you want to ask then please let us know in the group or before we start.

How -

Connect to Philofaxy by firstly searching for Philofaxy in Skype, I will then add you as a contact.
Then 'Send Contact Request', I will then add you in to the chat room.
Then if you request it, I can add you to the audio conference as well. But if you just want to chat via keyboard that's fine. That way it's slightly less hectic for me!

Come and join in the fun, even if you only pop in to say hello... but don't be afraid to join in the discussion.

As with previous round-tables there will also be a parallel text chat room going at the same time as the voice conference, so you can listen to the voice chat and type if you wish, just mute your microphone in Skype

If you need any assistance setting up Skype, please pop a comment in this post and I will try and help you get one line. Skype is free for computer to computer calls....

Here is my post on how to improve your Skype audio with headphones or a headset.

Hope to be chatting with you on Sunday 2 December 2018.

25 November 2018

Silent Sunday

Gillio B6 Appunto Notebook and Van der Spek Custom A5 Manager organiser.

My 'weapons' of choice at the moment. My Van der Spek A5 (as usual!) and a B6 Notebook.

Read more about the Gillio B6 Appunto here.
Read more about the VdS Custom A5 Manager here.

24 November 2018

Web Finds - 24 November 2018

So I hope you have had a good week

So now it is time to enjoy a few blog posts from around the internet, so grab a drink and make yourself comfortable for our weekly round-up.

Here are some Philofaxy posts you might have missed this week:

So here are the latest Filofax and other brand blog posts from around the Internet. Don't forget to leave a comment on the posts you enjoyed reading, all bloggers enjoy getting comments.

We monitor over 400 blogs and sites, your Filofax/Organiser blog posts could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list.
We can not guarantee people will read your posts, but we know there is a higher chance of people reading your posts and returning to read other posts if you make them interesting with pictures and good hints and tips. Do not forget to give your posts a title...
Your Filofax/Organiser posts could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list.
For some general tips on Filofax Blogging, please see this post
Consider joining our Facebook group - Filofax for Philofaxy fans

And have you tried reading one of my Flipboard magazines yet? It works great on a tablet or smart phone, but you can view them on a desktop machine as well. Be sure to Follow the ones you like and you will get notifications when I update them.

View my Flipboard Magazine. View my Flipboard Magazine. View my Flipboard Magazine. View my Flipboard Magazine.
View my Flipboard Magazine. View my Flipboard Magazine. View my Flipboard Magazine. View my Flipboard Magazine.
Enjoy

23 November 2018

Free For All Friday No. 523 by Steve

Have you got your inserts for next year yet? OK don't panic if you haven't.

Some people I'm sure will be thinking "I've not decided what format I'm going to be using next year yet"

Don't panic.... think of it this way... Just because the new year starts in a little over 5 weeks time, do you have to decide what format you will be using for all of 2019 just yet?

Why not continue with the format you are already using? A lot of people do that.

Unlike bound diaries the cost of ring bound inserts is a fraction of the cost of their bound cousins (from my own personal research that is), so if you are a little uncertain consider buying more than one type of ring bound insert for 2019 now, just in case you are going to change part of the way through the year.

If like me you print your own inserts, then don't print all 12 months now. Just do say 2 or 3 months and if you are going to continue with the same format then you can print the rest later on in the year. Or you can try out different formats easily for a couple of weeks at a time until you find the one you like best.

So concentrate on enjoying the last few weeks of the year and don't fret about 2019 just yet.

Of course it is once again Friday so of course you can discuss anything ring bound organiser related.

Enjoy the weekend.

22 November 2018

Printing B6 Size Inserts

In previous posts about B6 organisers/inserts I have mentioned 'how easy' it is to print them from our existing set of inserts for A5 or A6 size inserts, what I failed to say was that you do need to add B6 as a page size to your printer set up or to Word to make the magic happen!

Hopefully I can correct that situation with this post. The route I'm going to take is to add the page size to Word. My screen shots are from Office 2016 for Mac, which is part of the Microsoft Office365 suite. However, I suspect it is similar in the Windows versions.

So on the Mac version you access the Page Set Up screen from the 'File' menu option. And you will see your current setting as shown below.

Clicking on the up/down arrow on Paper Size you will see Manage Custom Sizes.. Click on that and up pops this box. As you can see here I have already set up a custom paper size for Filofax Personal size. To add B6 is just the same.

I click on the + sign and that adds a new option. Double click on the name and give it a name of B6. Then enter the paper size dimensions 125mm by 176mm. The 'Non-Printable Area' will be filled in automatically and the measurements are dependent on your own printer.

Once you have entered the details click OK to finish.

You are now ready to print inserts on B6 size paper.

Open the inserts file in Word and when you are ready to print you will need to 'Scale to fit' and select the page size B6 and Word will scale the file to 59% or if on your printer set up set the scale size to 59%.

On some printers you will need to add a new paper size of B6, I can't go in to detail on this because the screens will look different in each case. However, in theory it should be possible to do assuming your printer can handle paper smaller than A5 (most can) via their Manual or Envelope feed.

Remember when printing like this that you can't double side print using the automatic duplexer, so you will be doing that manually.

So you will print All Odd numbered pages first. Re-stack the paper and then then print All Even numbered pages. It is best to set the print order to Normal rather than reverse or auto. So you know the order in which the pages will be printed.

I hope that helps. Please do leave a comment below if you need more information to help solve the mysteries of printing your own B6 inserts or any other sizes for that matter!

Other posts on B6 are here.

21 November 2018

Web Finds - 21 November 2018

For tips on how to improve your videos, please see this post. Also this video too Webfinds
Your Filofax/Organiser Videos could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list.

You might also be interested in Planner Spread Love on Facebook.

Enjoy

20 November 2018

Free For All Tuesday - No. 407

19 November 2018

Filofax Catalogues and Flickr

Last week I received an email from Flickr about changes to their free accounts, you can read it in full here if you didn't receive a copy yourself.

Blogger which is the platform that Philofaxy sits on limits the maximum resolution of an image to 1600 pixels (the dots that make up the image), generally this isn't a problem, it is big enough to view on most screens and still see the detail.

For the Filofax catalogues they have been scanned in most cases to a much higher resolution, then downsized for the blog. A higher resolution version of the same images were stored on Flickr. That is until this change. I was well under the 1 TB space limit, but the 1000 images limit was going to be the issue. The catalogue images number over 1700 and about 13 Gb in total space (at max resolution).

I could have upgraded to a Flickr Pro account, but that would have cost a monthly fee. As I don't use Flickr for anything else I wasn't going to be held to ransom.

A lot of other users have complained about this 1000 image limit, yet Flickr claim it only impacts 3% of free account holders and I'm one of that 3%.

So last week I made an executive decision to move all of the catalogue images over to my own server in the cloud. Not a five minute task given the slowness of our internet connection here in France.

However, I got the job done, I've now deleted my Flickr account along with all the images I had on there!

The Catalogue Page here on Philofaxy has been updated with the new location of the higher resolution images, they are generally over 3000 pixels on the longest side of the image.

The new site can be found here as well:

https://philofaxy.com/filocatalogue/

The new site is still 'Work in Progress' but all of the images are now there and links in place for you to be able to find your way around.

I will be doing some follow up work to 'enhance' the information on each catalogue, which is something I couldn't easily do on Flickr.

Additionally I have 'discovered' some files that had been missed out of the catalogue index, they are now there too.

I've also discovered some files that I've not shared before either. These will appear in due course once I have recovered from the epic file upload exercise of the last 5 days!

Of course if you have any Filofax catalogues that we don't have, or your own countries version of one we have, there are variations, and we are interested in any catalogues through the years. Please get in touch with steve at philofaxy dot com

Thank you for your patience, understanding and continued support.

18 November 2018

Silent Sunday

Filofax Catalogues through the years.

17 November 2018

Web Finds - 17 November 2018

I hope you have had a good week

So now it is time to enjoy a few blog posts from around the internet, so grab a drink and make yourself comfortable for our weekly round-up.

Here are some Philofaxy posts you might have missed this week:

So here are the latest Filofax and other brand blog posts from around the Internet. Don't forget to leave a comment on the posts you enjoyed reading, all bloggers enjoy getting comments.

We monitor over 400 blogs and sites, your Filofax/Organiser blog posts could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list.
We can not guarantee people will read your posts, but we know there is a higher chance of people reading your posts and returning to read other posts if you make them interesting with pictures and good hints and tips. Do not forget to give your posts a title...
Your Filofax/Organiser posts could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list.
For some general tips on Filofax Blogging, please see this post
Consider joining our Facebook group - Filofax for Philofaxy fans

Enjoy

16 November 2018

Free for All Friday No. 422 by Nan

Do you like to color-coordinate your organizers? Do you change binders with the seasons? Do you use certain paper colors with certain binder covers?

I confess, in cold weather I start to want to to use a brown organizer, with cotton cream paper!

Of course, since it's Friday, all ring-bound organizer discussion is welcome!

15 November 2018

Reader Question - How many people use paper planners?

I got an interesting email this week from one of our readers.

How many paper planner users there are world-wide?

Do you know how usage is trending?

It is a difficult question to answer in terms of accurate numbers. Yes some of the Facebook groups are over twenty thousand in terms of membership numbers.

However, I doubt that the number of people in a Facebook group reflects an accurate idea of the number of active users of paper planners, even if you added up the number of people in all of the various planner groups and there are lot of them now!

How many users of paper planners would think to join a Facebook group about them? 1%? Higher or lower?

I've personally come across a few of my old friends who have revealed to me that they are ardent Filofax users, when I've mentioned Philofaxy, but they wouldn't necessarily join a group or be regular readers of the blog.

They might emerge once a year when they are looking for diary inserts and ask me if I know where they can get a particular insert or similar.

I then discover they are using a well worn Filofax that they bought in the late 1980's and I have to contain my excitement!

So quantifying the number of users of paper planners I don't think is easy.

Is the number of people using paper planners increasing or decreasing?

I know a lot of people are using their phones these days, they seem to be married to them almost! But I still see a lot of people with notebooks and paper planners and a pen writing things down.

What do you think?