Web Finds - Saturday 31 May 2025

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.

Here are some Philofaxy posts you might have missed this week:

1. Web Finds - Saturday 24 May 2025
2. Silent Sunday
3. Gillio A5 Compagna - Toscana Liscia
4. Free For All Tuesday - No. 747 
5. Video Web Finds - Wednesday 28 May 2025
6. Guide to Changing Organiser Sizes
7. Free for All Friday No. 864 by Nan

Here are the latest Filofax and other brand blog posts from around the Internet. Don't forget to leave a comment on the posts you enjoyed reading, all bloggers enjoy getting comments.

1. The Franklin Five: June 2025 - FranklinPlanner Talk
2. NEW: Toscana Liscia - Blog | Gillio
3. Is my pocket Malden fake? - Filofax
4. To a meet-up and beyond! - Pam Alison Knits
5. A Review of Habit 4 (pg. 265-271) - FranklinPlanner Talk
6. Link Love: In My Strawberry Era - The Well-Appointed Desk
7. Web Finds – 28 May 2025 - Travellers Notebook Times
8. Your blog post could appear here. Please let us know if you have a blog that features ring bound organisers.

• Please leave a comment on any of the blogs you enjoyed reading and mention that you saw their post mentioned on Philofaxy. Thank you
• We monitor over 400 blogs and sites, your Filofax/Organiser blog posts could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list. 
• We can not guarantee people will read your posts, but we know there is a higher chance of people reading your posts and returning to read other posts if you make them interesting with pictures and good hints and tips. 
• Your Filofax/Organiser posts could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list. 
• Consider joining our Facebook group - Filofax for Philofaxy fans
• Follow Philofaxy on Reddit
• Follow Philofaxy on Threads
• Follow Philofaxy on BlueSky

Enjoy

       

Free for All Friday No. 864 by Nan

Do you shop till you drop?

More to the point, do you use your organizer for shopping? For example, I have a tab in my Personal-size for shopping lists, organized by store or shop. I never leave the house without it; otherwise, I'm sure to forget something. 

When I place an online order, I made a note of it on the current day. That serves as a reminder of when I can expect to receive it (or if I've received it). 

Here's the most important one of all: When I'm buying something that I may need to return, I note the latest return date on my monthly calendar. On my daily pages, I note a few days in advance of the return deadline. Those dates are so easy to miss!

As always on Friday, feel free to discuss anything related to ring-bound organizers! 

Guide to Changing Organiser Sizes

How many times have you seen an advert on Facebook or elsewhere with text that includes:

Just received this today, not really my size, staying with the size I'm currently using...

Sometimes it might be an expensive Gillio or Custom Van der Spek organiser. I'm sure these items sell for about the same price the person paid for it. There is a better way of finding out if a particular size is for you or not?

This year with peoples life patterns and work patterns being so radically changed, I'm sure there are a lot of people considering a size change for their organiser as we approach 2026. 

Only today I was contacted by a reader on Facebook, they told me they were going to be changing from a Day on Two pages in Personal Size to a Day on One page in A5 size. 

They had sensibly printed off some Philofaxy inserts of their choice ✅, a great start I thought. Their next question was what to hold them in. 

I offered to take some photos of a selection of different A5's. 

I grabbed a few of different sizes and popped upstairs with them and took a couple of photos to share. 

The ring sizes vary from 35mm to 25mm with the Malden in the middle at 30mm. The thickness varies and the width varies by a small amount accordingly. 

Overall though there isn't a vast difference between them. What will be different is the overall weight of the organiser and paper inserts. Adding an additional 10mm of A5 paper, if you are going from 25 to 35mm rings is quite a leap in the weight. 

This also needs to be taken in to account if you are going to be carrying your organiser a lot. Not just will it fit in to my bag/backpack, but how much heavier will it be compared to you are currently carrying. 

You can print off the pages you are likely to be using or just get a stack of blank paper equal to the pages you will have plus say 10% and then get the kitchen scales out and compare the weight compared to what you are using now. Too heavy?

Seeing the differences in sizes is certainly going to help with the choice of what organiser to get, but don't forget the weight difference. 

Also consider how the organiser is made, do the covers contain any stiffener or not? If you only intend to use the organiser at a desk or similar flat surface then it will not be an issue, but if you might occasionally need to write in it whilst holding it in one hand, then a very floppy leather will not be the best choice. 

Naturally the internal layout, colour, texture etc will all be part of your decisions when it comes to making that final choice, but there are other things to consider first. 

1. Print off some inserts and try the size on just that size of paper only. 
2. Copy a typical week of appointments and tasks in to your intended diary insert, is there enough space?
3. Work out how many pages you will need to be carrying in your organiser, add a small allowance. 
4. From the above work out the size of rings you will need. Using blank paper or similar take the thickness of the stack of pages and add 5-6 mm to find out the internal diameter of the rings you will need
5. What will the overall size/weight be? Will this be ok to carry? 
6. Choose the design/colour you like
7. Seek out photo examples of the above, ask users for their opinions of that make/model. 
8. Ask ask ask.... 
9. Then buy the organiser of your choice! Enjoy....

Are you considering changing sizes next year? I am.... shock!! 

I've been considering changing back to personal size for a number of years, I've just never got around to printing off some inserts. May be it will happen this time. You will be the first to know if I do swap from A5 to Personal!

Video Web Finds - Wednesday 28 May 2025

I hope you have had a good weekend.

Now it is time to enjoy a great collection of videos from around the internet.

Here are a selection of the latest Filofax videos for your enjoyment.

1. Unboxing Cloth&Paper de Mayo 2025 - Planes y Diarios
2. The Brilliance of the DAILY NOTE - Carl Pullein
3. Filofax Portland EDC update - Flatability
4. Meet the Slimpad Bridle – London - MeePlus
5. Plan With Me | Filofax Malden & Mini 5 Rings - Christa David
6. Catch up with my Mini 5 Planner - plannercoven
7. Pocket Planner Haul | Van Der Spek Pocket Planner | Pocket Planner Unboxing - Nicole
8. Plan with me, chatty planning, Pocket Planner, Van Der Spek Junior - Plan with Fran
9. Planning my content for the month in my a5 VDS planner - MyLifeReBranded
10. This week's releases & restocks (week of May 26, 2025) - Gillio Firenze
11. Quel bonheur, ce Mulberry, quel bonheur ! - SPRINTPAPER by Emmashell1 - FRENCH - Emmashell1
12. How I Recap the Week and Set Goals & Tasks for the Next | Real Time Plan With Me - Buy Sell Plan Inc.
13. Using multiple A5 planners in my role as HR Manager Cloth & Paper/Moterm/Filofax/My Roadmap - MyLifeReBranded
14. Is this the best Filofax ever made? (shorter version) - Flatability 
15. June 2025 Unboxing | My Second 8Lotus Deluxe Subscription Box! - Seasons by Somer “SxS”
16. These Should Be Your Real Priorities Each Day - Carl Pullein
17. Plan With Me || Franklin Classic Celeste Binder || May 26th - June 1, 2025 || Last week of May! - Sandra Dahl
18. A look at my multiple (15) luxury planner collection and how I use them all! - MyLifeReBranded
19. May 2025 Planner Refresh and Week 21 Weekly Reset - Antonisha Plans
20. Friday planner flip/ personal rings/ Gillio Amica Gold - Beverly Plans
21. my pocket planner is back! ✳︎ flip through of my wallet and EDC - Sleepynotesclub
22. Planification de distractions dans mes semaines - dollycreating
23. My Day Off and decorating tomorrow in my filofax - Susan Pepper
24. Обновки мая (раритеты): Santana и Filofax - Астросплетница
25. Finance + BrainDump B6 Stalogy+ EDC Filofax ChicSparrow Planners:Journals update - JediUp777
26. techo time 04 ✷ setting up for the week | Hobonichi, Filofax & Take a Note (chatty, no music) - ella nym
27. Prepping My Planner For June | Moving from Personal to A5 Size Filofax Planners - Mariane Cresp
28. how i use my pocket filofax as a hobby planner - flip-through - xoxo Lorae
29. Nouvelle Couverture Filofax || Format Personnel Bleu Holburn || Cadeau D'anniversaire De Mes En... - Coffee and plannerz
30. Plan With Me! | Personal Filofax Malden | May 26 - June 1 - Mariane Cresp
31. Moterm’s new elite personal wide planner with Franklin Covey compact inserts - Planner fun and inspiration with Melissa
32. The Productive Way to Achieve Success (At Anything) - Carl Pullein
33. Mini Filofax Finsbury / Wallet Setup - MellyRDplans
34. Your YouTube video could appear here. If you have a YT channel that features Filofax organisers or similar, please let us know. (steve at philofaxy dot com) Alternatively ensure your video contains 'Filofax' or 'Rings' in the title or description. 

• Please leave a comment on any of the videos you enjoyed and mention you saw a link on Philofaxy. 
• For tips on how to improve your videos, please see this post.  Also this video too Webfinds 
• Your Filofax/Organiser Videos could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list. 
• Consider joining our Facebook group - Filofax for Philofaxy fans
• Follow Philofaxy on Reddit
• Follow Philofaxy on Threads
• Follow Philofaxy on BlueSky

Enjoy

       

Free For All Tuesday - No. 747

What questions or discussion points have you got for us today?

It doesn't matter if you are a beginner or a more experienced user of organisers, we want to hear your thoughts, questions, opinions etc.

We are here to answer your questions.

Make today the one day you post a comment or post a question. If you are commenting as 'Anonymous', please include your name in the text of your comment. 

It is Tuesday after all, so fire away with any questions and comments.

If you are commenting below, please include your first name at the end of the comment. Thank you. 

Gillio A5 Compagna - Toscana Liscia

Gillio have today announced the released of a new Toscana Liscia leather. This leather has a very smooth surface to it. It is a very fine grain top quality leather. 

The leather hide goes through an extensive process to make the finished product a satin finish and very supple leather. 

I was fortunate to be sent an early pre-production sample in Gold and as an A5 Compagna. As you will all know I'm a long term user of the A5 size. I recently revisited my navy blue Gillio A5 Compagna, the design of this new organiser is no different to the established design.  

As a comparison here is a photograph of the navy blue in Epoca leather. The 'pebbles' in that leather are very obvious compared to the smooth finish of the Toscana Liscia leather. 

The interior layout is unchanged. 

The outside back cover continues from the front with no seams just luxury buttery leather. 

I am using my Lamy Logo Pen/Pencil in the single pen loop. 

Thank you to Gillio Firenze in Belgium for supplying the sample for me to examine and review.

Further information: 

Gillio - IIC bvba
Breedveld 2 unit 7
1651 LOT (Beersel)
Belgium

+32 (0)2 380 63 19

Email: helpdesk@gillio.be

Website: https://www.gillio.be
Facebook page: Gillio Firenze
Facebook group: Gillio Firenze

Instagram: @GillioFirenze 

Today's Post

Today's post has been delayed to tie in with a product release announcement. All will be revealed after 2pm CEST.... 

Silent Sunday

 

Journal pages - thank you to Daniel

Web Finds - Saturday 24 May 2025

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.

Here are some Philofaxy posts you might have missed this week:

1. Web Finds - Saturday 17 May 2025
2. Silent Sunday - 'Filohax' Vintage on vintage No. 8
3. Returning home after the meet-up
4. Free For All Tuesday - No. 746
5. Video Web Finds - Wednesday 21 May 2025
6. Find: Lefax organiser 
7. Free For All Friday No 863 by Laurie

Here are the latest Filofax and other brand blog posts from around the Internet. Don't forget to leave a comment on the posts you enjoyed reading, all bloggers enjoy getting comments.

1. Episode #310: Slice of GTD Life with Jung - Getting Things Done
2. Should I get a Filofax?? - Filofax
3. How Small Daily Wins Lead to Big Success - FranklinPlanner Talk
4. 7 Years with My Filofax Malden - Filofax
5. Episode #311: Explore the Best Use of Your Calendar - Getting Things Done
6. Not a name brand notebook but advice still greatly appreciated! - Filofax
7. The Curse of the Eternally Urgent - Getting Things Done
8. Norfolk A5 ring size - Filofax
9. Epoca & Toscana restocks and releases 19 May 2025 - Blog | Gillio
10. Replacing rings - Filofax
11. Link Love: 8 Years & A Mountain of Ink! - The Well-Appointed Desk
12. Web Finds – 21 May 2025 - Travellers Notebook Times
13. Your blog post could appear here. Please let us know if you have a blog that features ring bound organisers.

• Please leave a comment on any of the blogs you enjoyed reading and mention that you saw their post mentioned on Philofaxy. Thank you
• We monitor over 400 blogs and sites, your Filofax/Organiser blog posts could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list. 
• We can not guarantee people will read your posts, but we know there is a higher chance of people reading your posts and returning to read other posts if you make them interesting with pictures and good hints and tips. 
• Your Filofax/Organiser posts could appear in this list, just contact philofaxy at gmail dot com to be added to our monitoring list. 
• Consider joining our Facebook group - Filofax for Philofaxy fans
• Follow Philofaxy on Reddit
• Follow Philofaxy on Threads
• Follow Philofaxy on BlueSky

Enjoy

       

Free For All Friday No 863 by Laurie

A5 Finsbury Filofax in Coral, 2020

I have a theory that whatever system we use when we start our planning/ personal productivity creates an imprint in our mind, and after that foundational experience we tend to work around that framework. See what you think:

My first real planner experience was with a Filofax style ring binder. I used monthly calendar pages, weekly pages, and had tabbed sections for notes on different topics. Since then, I have used many (many many) different planners, book bound and ring bound, as well as different notebook systems. Whenever I'm using a non-binder system, I always have the nagging feeling that it would work better in a Filofax. I think it's because that's what I started with, so that's how my brain works. 

Similarly, my first real weekly planning was done in a weekly planner with the days as vertical columns, timed to the half hour, with a space at the top of each day for that day's priority. Now, decades later and having tried many other layouts, my brain still can't function with any other weekly layout.

And, I don't want to call anyone out ;D but I've noticed over the years that people who started their planning by using the Franklin Planner system (which has a particular structure and is an entire system) forever after tend to gravitate back to some version of it, or similar.

Much of the planning and personal productivity content online and in new books these days seems to be geared toward people who started their planning in the digital/ apps space. I'm curious what challenges or benefits people experience who have only used digital before, then switch either entirely or partly to paper planning systems.

What has been your experience? Did you start with paper or digital planning? And do you think that initial experience shaped how you use your planning system now?

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