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| A5 Kendal Filofax, large Moleskine notebook |
Over the years I have done various permutations of bullet journaling with mixed results. In December I decided to go all in and do the actual Bullet Journal Method in a bound notebook, until I fill the notebook. The notebook is now almost full, and here is what I have learned.
In all of my previous experiences with Bullet Journaling, I've been frustrated with pages mixed in together: daily logs interspersed with lists, notes, trackers, weekly and monthly reviews. Even with indexing, it's difficult for me to find things buried in the pages. That has always been my bullet journaling downfall, and it almost was this time too.
But I pushed through, and with color coding at the tops of my pages, I managed to create ways to find what I was looking for more easily.
But another issue remained: it's still inconvenient to sift through my notebook pages to compare my weekly and monthly reviews and see my progress over time. A notebook only lasts me 3-4 months, so to compare month to month and see my progress over the course of a year I'd be flipping through pages in multiple notebooks.
I've found writing weekly and monthly reviews to be one of the most useful aspects of bullet journaling. I like writing my weekly and monthly reviews in my notebook, because I find a two-page spread allows me to expand my thoughts better than pages on rings. So I will continue to do that in my next notebook. But my Filofax has saved the day with a long-term solution.
I photocopy my weekly and monthly review pages and put them into my Filofax in tabbed monthly sections, so I can easily compare over the months how I've progressed, if any issues are recurring, and any other developments over time.
I also put any lists, reference information, and anything else I want to keep longer than the duration or outside the scope of my notebook into my Filofax for long-term reference.
This is working pretty well for me: my notebook is where I work, and my Filofax is my reference.
Have you ever tried using a notebook along with a ring binder? How did you use them together?
As always on Fridays, feel free to ask and/ or discuss anything ring binder organiser related!
Changes to my work life has given me a problem with my A5 filofaxes I use for work. Too thick!!! I need a thinner, A5 binder. Any recommendations?
ReplyDeleteIf not a good ring binder option then I might have to go for a discbound or another option completely. Perhaps a TN clone in A5 or even standard with inserts? This is all annoying since this January I got a day to two pages business insert from FF that is working for me.
Just to explain the cause for this new search, I commute by train and Brompton. After years of heavy rucksack carrying of laptop and other kit I bought a bag to go on the bike. It can take my kit but isn't great so I have to downsize. The weight is not an issue for me but bulk is. I need a thinner planner to fit in without becoming too bulky. This is about comfort when commuting and on the bike. So any binder ideas is needed. I am UK based so Plotter USA is out for me I think.
Filowiki allows you to search by ring & binder size. Admittedly, filowiki went dormant a couple of years ago, but for A5 binders, it has the following models for 20mm: Adelphi, Luxe & Pennybridge Zip. For 25mm, it has 15 models.
Deletehttps://filowiki.robert-mayr.com/index.php?title=Category:Feature_ringsize#20mm
Kevin
No A5 binders with 11mm rings other than plotter I guess. I think that is the thing I might need to get the thickness down. I think I might have to look elswehere, say TN clone in A5 or FF notebook.
DeleteHeritage A5 compact would work
ReplyDeleteThe Heritage A5 when first launched had 15mm rings and excellent quality. I would have loved it to be 11mm but, when Filofax changed manufacturer, as well as slightly lower quality, the binders were enlarged to 20mm and so lost the appeal of being slim.
DeleteIf I could get a Plotter I might think of that. Anyone know how the heritage compares to the plotters? I think plotter is at 11mm ring diameter but Heritage is 20mm so I suspect it is still a bit thick.
ReplyDeleteBTW I have compared my actual binder thickness with the Filofax website dimensions and the area is about right but the thickness was more IRL. IIRC one of my binders (personal Holborn IIRC) has 38mm thick but it measures nearer 45mm at the rings.
Yes I am looking at every mm reduction possible.
Got that in my UL backpacking days when I went into the minutia of specs when choosing lighter kit. I am a numbers guy I reckon. It gets to marginal gains with dropping kit weight and that has leaked into my stationery it seems.
Hi Laurie,
ReplyDeleteFor my BuJo, I'm using the A5 size 'Bullet Journal' by Bullet Journal, (nice GFeller natural kp leather cover) as it has a lot of nice timesaving features in it, as compared to other journals (as I used to use).
In addition, I'm using a very nice William Hannah discbound A5 leather note book with various WH inserts in it.
I find this combo to work very well now for work.
After trying different approaches in using a BuJo, I've come to the conclusion that for me, keeping it very simple works the best and takes very little time/effort to setup and use.
The BuJo by BuJo, has some pre-printed headings on some of the initial pages. Makes setup easy. Starts with Key page, then Intentions page, then several Index pages, then Future Log pages. After that I use a a few pages for Habit Trackers (3 months/page horizontal on page),
After that I setup one month at a time (just before start of the month), as follows:
- Monthly Calendar on 2 pages, Monthly Log on one page with Tasks list on facing page, then Daily Log pages, then Weekly Log page.
I stopped putting Collections in my BuJo, as it gets them spread across multiple notebooks and thus harder to find and access info, unless you have a good master index somewhere.
I use my WH notebook for meeting notes, contacts, reference materials, etc. but not Collections in the BuJo meaning.
For Collections on various topics, I use other bound notebooks (mostly Leuchtturm 1917 dot grid, some Taroko Design dot grid). This allows me to keep like topics together in one notebook.
It's taken some years of experimenting to get to this place where I feel quite content with my setup and don't feel the need to change it.
Hope this helps.
Best,
Mark