What questions or discussion points have you got for us today?
It is time to enjoy a few blog posts from around the internet, grab a drink and make yourself comfortable for our weekly round-up.
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As mentioned previously, I have returned to my GTD based setup for 2023 and will write another post once I've settled in a bit more. As part of this, I am also using these criteria (context, time available, resources and priorities) to help me choose what to next work on. As I solely work from home, context isn't as important as all I need is a computer and internet connection, but most of what I now do is balanced between my resources and priorities. For example, I need to file tax returns by a particular deadline, but my completely flexible hours mean that I can schedule this based on my current energy levels. Once I've finished my busiest quarter, I can then work less hours to recover. Whilst I do use Google calendar, I find that planning in my Kensington or notebook is the best way to ensure that I meet deadlines, but in the most sustainable way for me based on my current resources whilst I'm still recovering from burnout.
Are you using your Filofax to help you work and/or meet your commitments in a more sustainable way?
And as always on Fridays, please feel free to discuss anything organiser related. I hope that you have a great weekend.
I'm frequently asked how I use my A5 organiser. A picture saves 1000 words! It approximates to something like this:
I write out my notes in no particular order I just want to get them on paper whilst away from any distractions.
From this list I add any new appointments to my Apple calendar to keep others informed of my movements!
I also transfer the appointments and tasks from the 'Brain Dump' list to my A5 organiser. I put the tasks in the appropriate day if they have a deadline attached to them.
I copy any future reminders from Apple Reminders in to the Tasks part of my A5 organiser. This makes my organiser the centre of all activities and then I don't have to look in there and in various apps for what I should be doing, it's all in one place. I'm using the Enhanced Time Management Philofaxy insert shown in the picture.
I journal most days about what I actually did each day, not too detailed, but enough detail to recall what I was doing, what I was reading or watching etc.
I journal in a Quo Vadis Daily 21 bound planner, as shown in the picture above. The Daily 21 has very good paper which takes fountain pen perfectly and I archive each of these books at the end of the year.
At the end of the week I review the week and carry forward any missed or unfinished tasks.
During the week I will of course write in anything that pops up as needing to be done that week or in coming weeks, I don't wait until the Monday, my memory isn't that good these days.
I realise my method and work flow might not work for everyone, thankfully it is working for me!
I hope you have had a good weekend.|
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What questions or discussion points have you got for us today?For a few years now I have been an advocate of the thought that 'You have one life, therefore you should only have one planner'
For several years I used an A5 at my desk and carried around a Filofax Personal size, occasionally an A6 or Pocket size depending on the phase I was going through. Whatever the size though, there was duplication. A diary insert in the A5 and another in what ever I was carrying around at the time. In general it worked, but occasionally there was a hiccup when something didn't get written in to either planner.
This practice ended with the review of the compact Filofax Heritage that opened up new possibilities for me. I was able to carry the A5 size where ever I intending to go, leaving behind some of the A5 sections at home in another larger ring A5. Just keeping the essentials in a compact A5. This has been working well for me now for more than 5 years, possibly longer.
That said, I'm about to break my own rule again! Travel, or more precisely air travel, something I've not done in recent years. I prefer to travel in Europe by train when I can.
Budget airlines and some of the main carriers these days are quite restrictive on their baggage limits. I have a couple of trips coming up in the next few months, one a very quick two night stay in UK the other a couple of weeks in two European countries for a holiday we intended to take in 2020... and we all know why that didn't happen!
In essence I'm looking to cut down my baggage to just a carry on bag for the short UK visit and a small light bag and case for the longer trip. I'm looking at everything I need for each trip. My 'packing list' has expanded over the years, it was therefore time to examine everything on the list and ask the question: 'Did you use this during the last 2-3 trips?' if not then it gets dropped.
Naturally my organiser has come under examination. Yes I do use it whilst I'm away, life continues! But do I need something as big as an A5?
I've been getting on well with my Pocket Kensington. Mainly as a notebook with a year planner. I decided to expand on its planning capability by adding a Month on Two Page diary insert and add in up coming appointments to it for the next few months to see how workable/useful it was.
It is certainly a winner in terms of compact and light weight. When I'm travelling I like to be able to jot down things as I think of them. Also have a written record of booking numbers etc. The Pocket Kensington will be more than ample for these tasks.
I was also considering using a Compact Personal size Filofax as an alternative. However, I will see how well I get on with the Pocket over the next week or two before trying that out.
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| Journal pages in gold personal Saffiano, thank you to Daniel B for providing the photo |
It is time to enjoy a few blog posts from around the internet, grab a drink and make yourself comfortable for our weekly round-up.|
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In the last 10 years or so I’ve been involved in a few of the sales groups on Facebook as well as looking after our own Adspot page here on Philofaxy.
Through that experience I have seen a lot of things that have led to issues with sales. To make sure these issues don’t reoccur we have had to revise our guidelines and rules, these are to protect both parties, the seller and the buyer.
If you are selling on Facebook or any other site make sure you follow the rules of sale on which ever site/group. On Facebook we have tried to make the rules similar on each of the planner sales groups, but there might be some minor differences.
Always take plenty of photographs of the item, showing all sides of the planner, front back and inside and out. Include a name and date tag somewhere in your photos, this proves you own the item you are selling and when the photos were taken.
Remove all paperwork from the pockets and move the name/date tag to different parts of the planner so that you might repeat some photos with it in different positions.
Make sure the photos you submit are the correct way around, you don’t want potential buyers (and the admins) getting neck ache looking at your photos.
In the description of the article include details such as smell, is your house a smoking house as leather absorbs cigarette smoke very easily and it is impossible to remove. Likewise if any perfume has been sprayed on the item or pets have been near the item. Note it all in your advert.
Try to include details like you have owned it from new. If you have the original sales invoice include that in the sale, this can be a requirement if there is a warranty from the original supplier.
Be careful about using phrases like ‘Brand New’ ‘Never used’ especially if your photos show otherwise.
Point out any known defects in the leather or the rings, any pen marks etc.
As a seller if you have someone interested in your item check out the buyer as much as possible. Before they have paid you ask them for their name and address. Check out that address, make sure it actually exists, that it isn’t a forwarding service or similar. These can be problematic if the item is damaged in transit between the destination address you were given and the real address of the buyer.
Remember PayPal tends to side with the buyer not the seller in any disputes and so you can lose not only the item you have posted but also your money.
Always over pack the item with plenty of padding around the organiser, remove any inserts from the rings, use a strong box not just a paper/plastic wrapping. Yes it might cost a little more, but you should reflect the true cost of postage and packing in your price of the item.
Take photos of the item as it is packed, and send them to the buyer so they can see how to get in to the package when it arrives! People must curse me when they receive one from me, I was trained by the UK Foreign Office…. don’t you know!!!!
When paying via PayPal always pay via Goods and Services. Yes the seller will have to pay a small fee, but you gain protection should the item fail to arrive or is damaged on arrival or not as described. You lose all of that protection if you pay by ‘Friends and Family’ It is important that the seller pays the fees, they can’t ask the buyer to pay the fees on top of the item price as it is against the PayPal terms and conditions to do that.
Timely communications help both the buyer and seller. Don’t advertise something if you are about to go away on holiday and you don’t have the item with you! Delays in replying lead to suspicions that the buyer has been scammed. Keep your communications simple, remember the other party might not speak/read your language.
The overall success of your sales is dependent on many factors. Get it right and your item will sell quicker than you imagined, you will not be stressed out by the experience and you will get a great item for the money or the money if you are selling to spend on another item.
Good luck.
I hope you have had a good weekend.|
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What questions or discussion points have you got for us today?
Which Filofax organisers are fitted with Krause style rings? Ones that can removed and replaced?
This question came up recently. I'm not aware of a listing of which models have Krause style rings. Therefore I think we should create one.
I will add a further qualification to the question though, whilst some of the recent models such as the Classic Croc have non-riveted ring mechanisms they instead use the PXR style mechanism which are very securely mounted on the backing plate. This makes them difficult to remove and also to replace them because finding replacements is not easy, unless you know different.
To create this list we need your help. Please comment below with the name of the model and the approximate year and include if the ring mechanism is riveted in or it has a plain top cover which would suggest a Krause style mechanism is used.
To get us started here are some popular models:
It is time to enjoy a few blog posts from around the internet, grab a drink and make yourself comfortable for our weekly round-up.|
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How do you organize projects?
Do you do everything on your daily diary pages? Or do you use divider tabs to store individual project or topic notes? Or do keep project materials outside of your organizer entirely?
There are so many options! Currently, I have tabs devoted to the major areas of my life, and each project in that area gets its own page(s).
And as always on Fridays, feel free to ask or discuss anything related to ring-bound organizers!
There has been a few posts on Facebook recently about the Quality Control codes on the clasps and inside of zip Filofax organisers. These are a three letter code, which as far as we know indicate the year, month and location of manufacture of each item.
Last year I provided this post to update people: Decoding Quality Control Letters.
However following on from that post I think we need to clarify how we reached our original conclusions about the codes.
For that we need to go back just over 10 years to 2012. Back then Filofax were using an external third party company called Slam PR to handle their public relations and press contracts. A Slam PR representative had made a statement about Filofax users that was not appreciated by the Philofaxy readers and multiple bloggers at the time.
You can read about that here. The original article is not longer available but it can be found using the Web Archive linked here. You will also see that this resulted in an Open Letter to Slam PR by a lot of bloggers, Web Finds - 18 September 2012 is full of links to each blog, not all of them still work. The original letter by David is here again recovered using the Web Archive.
That flurry of posts did get a reaction from Filofax! I got a phone call from the Head of Marketing at Filofax UK. The phone call was about an hour in length and it was like two long lost friends catching up. At last we had made a connection with someone in the company that understood the passion of the Philofaxy community.
I was invited to a meeting with people from Filofax to discuss our concerns as well as other issues that had been building up.
Notes of that meeting are here. Filofax/Philofaxy Meeting - 26 November 2012 - Meeting Notes
As a sidebar to that meeting I got talking to Julia, the Product Development Manager for Filofax. I had lots of questions about curious aspects of the design of Filofax organisers over the years. It is just the sort of person I am!! Julia found it quite amusing that I was asking her all these questions.
One of my questions was 'Are the three letters on the clasps some form of QC code that dates the organiser?' to which she responded "Yes but you will never work it out"... 'Challenge accepted' !!!
Once I was back in France, I then posted about the outcomes of the meeting and in one of the Facebook groups I posted about the QC letters, we then started to gather together codes from as many organisers as possible to look to see if we could establish the pattern. We were about like the Bletchley Park Code Breakers! If you have enough raw data you can crack any fixed code!
For the next 3-4 years after that meeting we had a very good and close working relationship. I met up with the marketing team at Burgess Hill on a few occasions. They lent me their catalogue archive and that formed the basis of our catalogues page here on Philofaxy, although we have doubled it in size since then.
Sadly things came to a bit of an abrupt halt after the company was taken over by a US company in 2013 and by 2015 they had made a lot of their staff in the marketing department redundant.
Julia has since left the company in March 2020, therefore a lot of our links back in to the company are no longer there.
As many of you have realised the original codes would have only been valid for 26 years, short compared to the life cycle of a lot of organisers. We believe Z would have been 2016. What has happened since then?
Given that it was no longer secret i.e. we were confident that we had worked out the code. Filofax could have either:
| A | 1991 | A | January |
| B | 1992 | B | February |
| C | 1993 | C | March |
| D | 1994 | D | April |
| E | 1995 | E | May |
| F | 1996 | F | June |
| G | 1997 | G | July |
| H | 1998 | H | August |
| I | 1999 | I | September |
| J | 2000 | J | October |
| K | 2001 | K | November |
| L | 2002 | L | December |
| M | 2003 | ||
| N | 2004 | ||
| O | 2005 | ||
| P | 2006 | ||
| Q | 2007 | ||
| R | 2008 | ||
| S | 2009 | ||
| T | 2010 | ||
| U | 2011 | ||
| V | 2012 | ||
| W | 2013 | ||
| X | 2014 | ||
| Y | 2015 | ||
| Z | 2016 |
I hope you have had a good weekend.|
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