24 June 2022

Free For All Friday No 711 by Laurie

For the first time in a very long time, I am using my A5 Filofax for all planning.

For many years I used a separate bound weekly planner, so I could have a larger page size in a relatively portable book. Over the past two years when I was at home pretty much all the time, I was free to use a large bound weekly planner, along with my A5 Filofax for monthly and future planning, goals tracking, work planning, and reference. I also used a separate notebook for overspill on busy days, notes, lists, and other jottings.

While I was at home, I didn't mind having a pile of books on my table, each with a different purpose. But last month things started opening back up again, very quickly, and suddenly my system broke down when I needed to use it outside the house. I needed a portable system again.

So I moved everything into my A5 Filofax. I have tried multiple times in the past to use an A5 as my weekly planner, only to have it fail because A5 isn't a big enough page size for everything I need to write every day. I tried using weekly pages plus daily pages, which didn't work either because I was planning in too many places at once.

Now I am using my weekly pages along with undated dot grid pages. I plan on the weeklies, then each day I write my tasks for the day on the undated notes page. This helps me focus on what I need to do today, and gives me unlimited space for any notes that come up during the day.

My current system has several elements of Jotje's system in this popular guest post she did awhile back. I have tabbed sections for monthly pages, weekly pages, daily pages, lists (where I keep my categorized task lists), notes (where I can jot quick notes then move them to where they need to be later), personal, work, family, and reference. 

Now I am enjoying having all my planning in one (relatively) portable book, with just one book to reach for throughout the day. 

Has your planning system changed recently?

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

5 comments:

  1. Glad to hear that you're enjoying having everything back in A5 , Laurie.

    I haven't changed my system yet, but am about to try a couple of different set ups to help me clear a backlog, as everything has gotten a bit out of date during a very busy period.

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    1. Thanks Anita! Good luck trying out your new setups!

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  2. Well done and hope you can keep it working! For about 25 years (since I became self-employed) I’ve operated in different sizes at the same time. Typically A5 on my desk and Pocket Slim for when out and about. This has been fine except, when key information is in the organiser that I haven’t got with me!

    I’ve been thinking of trying to just have one organiser at a time. A5 is great but too big to carry everywhere. Pocket is handy but too small for project work. Personal is in the middle, but I really don’t want to change sizes again, even though I would have plenty of Personal size paper and organisers to choose from!

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    1. Tim it's not an exaggeration to say the A5 Heritage Filofax changed my life. For so many years I struggled between A5 page size and Personal portability. It is truly slimline, especially with the leather flyleaf removed. Even when I have an A5 at home and the Heritage for only the pages I need while out of the house, being able to use just one page size and move pages among binders freely has been an absolute game changer. Steve reviewed the A5 Heritage here if interested: https://philofaxy.blogspot.com/2016/09/filofax-heritage-a5-compact-review.html

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    2. I’ve used the Heritage A5 (and I have a Personal) since it first came out. I think it was your enthusiasm and Steve’s review that tempted me!

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