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29 December 2022

Guest post series - 'Filohax' No.3 - Paul

Thanks again to Paul for this third instalment of his guest post series. 
You can find all the 'Filohax' posts here.

 

Why modern technology doesn't satisfy

Julie Ann raised an interesting point recently about how electronic devices and systems don't 'satisfy' some of us in the way that physical planners do. This got me thinking about why this might be. Drawing only from my own experiences of using Filofaxes in my early career, then becoming an early adopter of PDAs, then Apple Mac based organisational systems - and now relatively recently returning to Filofax - I feel like I have a good perspective on the subject. 

We are all both psychological AND physical beings, and however much we might think that we are more 'advanced' now, we have the same biology now as our hunter gatherer forbears did. To survive they also had to 'conceptualise' throughout the day, but turned that into hand to eye coordination moving through physical territories.

What I have realised is that my Filofax is 'my territory', and just like back then, I have such a thorough knowledge of the 'territory' that I can go into it (navigate to a section) manage a crop with tools (write up an idea or notes with a tool - a pen!), or harvest out of the territory what I need (retrieve information). For me the Filofax represents a massively scaled down territory and the physical act of opening and turning pages / dividers / writing feels natural, as interacting with the real territory did all those hundreds of generations ago. 

That's not to say that newer technologies can't play a part, of course a physical planner can't send or receive emails, take calls or post to social media - but together they are an improvement over either one used on its own. I suppose REAL progress lies in staying grounded in an increasingly virtual world…

 

My Cavendish and my newly rediscovered Slimline Finsbury collating my Moleskine sketchbook collection


9 comments:

  1. I live this picture of filofaxes and moleskines 😀

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    1. Mary thanks, I've used Moleskine sketchbooks for 20 years and have just created a 'best of' collection colour copied into my Filofax (I may share one day)

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  2. I like my pens, I like the " paper". Nothing can replace the pleasure of writing.

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  3. An increasingly important benefit of Filofaxes is they can't be hacked, they're not watching and listening to you, and nor can they harvest sensitive data without your knowledge and send it direct to marketers, or hostile foreign states (and actually, some of us who have never so much as got a parking ticket in our lives still don't want our *own* govts to have their noses in our data, either). From that point of view a Filofax is not only your territory, it's actually your castle.

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    1. Ideal for introverts like me!

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    2. @Sloop: Wonderfully put 🙂👍

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  4. Some great comments already. I have dusted off my Filofax for 2023 and it’s great to get back to planning my weeks on paper.

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    1. Me too, I'm more engaged with the content if Im writing it

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  5. Happy Year's ending and have a wonderful New Year! I have ordered today (late decision making) my daily filofax inserts in addition to the usual M2P for 2023 (good that Filofax Germany also offers the english version, that is otherwise not available in Germany). For the weekly spread I still use another Planner, similar to the A5 Moleskin calendar. This way I can migrate appointments from the month to my week without jumping from one page to the other in my FF compact (which is my EDC) and from the weekly spread I can easily prepare my day, again without page flipping. That much said, my Bullet Journal is now freed to house everything else, such as finances, ideas, projects, journalling. Albeit using electronic devices for communication, shopping, etc, I remain a pen & paper lover otherwise ❤️

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