The transition from A5 Filofax to Personal Size Filofax

As a long term user of an A5 Filofax (this is my 20th year in fact) I have contemplated changing back to Personal size several times in the last few years, having started in Personal size back in late 1986 (yes nearly 40 years ago!) 

I've also been using the same Enhanced Time Management A5 insert since late 2011, so why change you might ask. 

As well as a large collection of A5 organisers (about 24) I have a similar number of Personal size organisers, plus a small number of Compact and Slimline size. 

In addition over the years I've collected an abundance of Personal size inserts of one sort or another. (A shoe box full, the universal measurement of spare inserts!) What was stopping me from making the change?

A5 has worked so well for me over the years, but may be the smaller size could be made to work just as well. 

First of all I looked for commercial inserts that might fit the bill, but for one reason or another I didn't find any that would fit my own requirements. 

I set to work on creating an insert of my own, a miniature version of my A5 Enhanced Time Management insert. However, in Personal size when I tried it out for a couple of weeks I don't think it would have worked for me, the restricted space on each day was going to be an issue, unless I could tame my hand writing and that has been a problem for the last 60+ years!!! 

Daily inserts would also be great, but that is a lot of paper to carry around, a compromise would have to be met by restricting to say only having 4 months of inserts in the organiser at any one time and make use of a monthly insert or year planner for more long term planning. 

Seeing your week ahead with dailies results in lots of page turning. Then I hit on the idea of two days per page. Would that work? 

I grabbed our existing files for that format and on screen I could see it certainly had a lot of potential. 

I started with file 2.3.2 on our 'Future Diary Inserts' Page. 

I did a couple of tweaks to the file to include 'Tasks' on each day and printed off a couple of weeks of inserts, cut them to size and populated the days with appointments and tasks I had recently had in my A5 inserts. 

I considered printing on to Personal size paper, this would have saved a lot of cutting and punching, except when I tried it, the printer mangled up each sheet that went through it. Back to the drawing board!

In the end I had to print on to A4 paper (two Personal sheets per A4 sheet) and then cut them out. With 108 sheets to cut to size I got quite good at cutting the pages to size by eye. However, it did take several hours to do. 

If I use Personal size on a long term basis I will certainly consider investing in a heavy duty paper cutter. One that can do 50+ sheets at once and make accurate and square cuts. It would save me a lot of time. 

In addition to the diary inserts I also gathered together all of my Personal size inserts in boxes and in organisers and sorted through them. Reusing some that I already had from a while ago. 

In some cases I had to recreate inserts I've been using in A5, but in Personal size to give me the same flexibility as the A5. 

At the moment with the inserts printed on Clairefontaine 80gsm paper it all fits into a Filofax (or similar) with 30mm rings. But with a little bit of thinning down the extra sheets I think I can get my 'fill' to fit in a standard 23mm Filofax, this will give me more choice from within my 'collection' 

Here is a video I did earlier this week describing the inserts and the change over. 

 

I'm quite looking forward to using Personal size again. I already have some appointments cropping up in 2026 to write in and no doubt more as we progress through 2025. 

I also like the certainty of having the files to create these files in future years and not have to worry about multiple languages or QR codes or them being discontinued etc.

Have you decided yet what you will be using in 2026?