Whilst looking at some of my earlier posts here, I realised that 2019 was my 10th anniversary of using a Filofax, as I purchased my first one back in 2009!
Some of my journey:
- I purchased David Allen's book Getting Things Done at the beginning of 2009 and starting searching for 'refillable leather notebook' to use for my GTD system. Unsurprisingly this search brought me to Filofax, but I'd never used one previously
- Purchased my cherry personal Classic later in 2009 - it was beautiful,
but never laid flat and then developed the known issue of
bubbles/cracking on the leather coating. Replaced with a crimson Malden
by Filofax
- I came across Philofaxy, but didn't really start reading it until maybe a year later
- Reader Under the Spotlight in 2011
- Joined as a contributor to Philofaxy in May 2012, resigned for some time (not sure of the dates) and then rejoined back in 2019
- Bought and sold many Filofaxes over the years - I have no idea how many I'd own if I didn't sell, but this has meant that I've enjoyed the variety whilst normally owning less than five (I'm a bit of a minimalist at heart).
So, what have I learnt so far?
- Personal size is what suits me best - I have also used A5 for managing projects and for work, but I love the portability of personal. If I was buying my first one now, I'd maybe go with A6, but all of my supplies are in personal and I'm used to the kinda skinny page dimension now
- I will go through some cycles of buying more, then selling and eventually settling back to owning just the one
- I'm very grateful to be a part of the wonderful Philofaxy community as it's such a source of inspiration and I've loved attending London meet ups
- What works for me personally:
- Open it up each day, unless it's a rest day
- Do a regular review
- Don't mess with my set up - I have two set ups that work well for me: 1) GTD based and 2) Simplified. However, that said... I will shortly be having a change to help me clear a backlog, so will post more about that soon
- Don't change sizes - I admit that I can feel tempted to try out a different size, but personal just works for me
- Just use it and don't try to keep it too neat.
Have you recently reached an organiser anniversary of how long you've owned or used one?
And as always on Fridays, please feel free to discuss anything organiser related. I hope that you have a great weekend.
This is LaDonna. Did Filofax make the A5 Malden in crimson?
ReplyDeleteNo Crimson was only available in Pocket and Personal. A5 didn't come out until the next colour change.
DeleteI wish Filofax would make an A5 Malden in brick red.
DeleteI first came across Filofaxes in 1985 when I got a summer job in a factory in Walsall, England that made them. My job was fastening the clips in though later moved on to some labouring around findimg & recovering good leather from a recent factory fire. I had no idea what they were used for as I'd never seen any stationery for sale anywhere. When I did find out, after I left, I managed to get a few at cost price for friends. I still have one of them though another was stolen from a car in Birmingham in 1987. I later bought a Deskfax to help get organised when I got a proper job in 1990 and have just started using it again as The Cloud has made things a little too complicated recently!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this! Sorry to hear about the one that was stolen, but glad to hear that you've decided to return to using one.
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