Philofaxy: July 2025

21 July 2025

Filofax Word Search - Gmax

Find 21 model names of Filofax Organisers in the grid below.

You can go horizontally, vertically and diagonally to find the names of the different models.

Answers will be published here on Philofaxy soon.

20 July 2025

19 July 2025

Web Finds - Saturday 19 July 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:

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.

Declutter Your Decisions - FranklinPlanner Talk
Is there a FIlofax as compact as Meeplus? - Filofax
Episode #318: AI in your GTD Practice - Getting Things Done
Mulberry size help - Filofax
Is the Amazon Basics Stationery Range any good? - All About Planners
Real Ostrich release & restock - Blog | Gillio
Disappointed with new finsbury leather - Filofax
Overcoming Adversity: The Power of Personal Mission with David Anderson - FranklinPlanner Talk
Once your Filofax is filled, what do you do? - Filofax
Why You Can’t Stick With Planning—And How to Finally Fix It - Strange & Charmed
Episode #319: The Language of GTD - Getting Things Done
Link Love: Highlights from Portland - The Well-Appointed Desk
Web Finds – 16 July 2025 - Travellers Notebook Times
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

18 July 2025

Free For All Friday - No. 871 by Anita

When I purchased my first Filofax back in 2009, I didn't know much about binders. I had come across Philofaxy, but didn't start to really read much until some time later. After a bit of looking around, I managed to find a cherry personal Classic for the great price of around £40 and starting to use it. Sadly after about 10 months of gentle use, I returned it to Filofax as it started to have the bubbling/cracking on the spine that some of the Classics seem to have. It was actually a blessing in disguise as Filofax agreed to replace it with a crimson Malden instead, which I realised was a model I much preferred. If I was buying my first Filofax now, I'm pretty sure that I'd get either a Kensington or a Winchester.

Would you still purchase the same first binder if you were just starting out now?

And as always on Fridays, please feel free to discuss anything organiser related. I hope that you have a great weekend.

17 July 2025

Guest Post - Going to Personal from A5 - Zsu - Part 2

Continuing this excellent by Zsu, you can catch up with part 1 here.

Back to Personal

It was not an easy decision, but a decision had to be made: I could no longer carry my planner, no matter how much I loved it. I had doubts about the smaller size, and I wasn’t sure I could do it again. And so I went back to my old Personal Size inserts, to remember from my own handwriting, how I could fit my days in that size. I leafed through the old pages and old notes to gather courage. Thankfully, I also had the help and guidance of my friends at the Philofaxy group, who helped me decide on the best planner. I wanted something in leather so it would last and grow old gracefully, and something zipped, so I could make sure I would not chunk it up beyond reason. (Hey, you can dream, right?)

The size shock this time wasn’t so bad, because I did had all those old inserts to remind me what was it like then. I did a lot of the moving of data through resizing and printing inserts and information on smaller formats, and then gave myself the chance to work with the known inserts, the ones that came in the planner, to reacquaint myself with the size. The old inserts gave me a guide to find my footing, and I enjoyed being able to use smaller bags as well. And my old crone back was really happy with the new size!

It helped that I went back to erasable pens, but also that I went with thinner-line pens, (from 0.7 mm to 0.5 mm and 0.38 mm), but also switched from M nib fountainpens to F and EF nib ones. This simple change helped me shrink my handwriting and still write “readably” – for my standard.

Once I was set, I noted some of the “problem areas” I was finding in the new size, like the lack of space for notes in my weeklies. I went to social media to investigate possible inserts and printed out several mockups to try out, tweaking them each time until I found the one that suited me better. And I must admit, it wasn’t the one I was expecting. It was by trying out and experimenting on printed out test inserts that I found the one that worked for me in Personal size: the Plotter weekly.

This is my third year back in Personal size, and it feels like I have been in it forever. Admittedly, I’m not one to change planners constantly, and once I’m in a size, I want to stay in it forever. It gives me a sense of certainly to know where to find things in a page, how to fit the planner in a bag and what I have where. Life has many surprises and uncertain things, and I don’t need my planner to be also a source of unexpected.

Closing Thoughts

Changing sizes, or even picking a size, is a personal decision. Maybe some of us are more flexible to move from one size to another, and can fit our plans in different types of inserts and sections. Some of us find it more difficult. The way to find out, however, is to try it out. But you don’t need to spend upwards of $100 or 100 € or £100 to see if a smaller size would work for you. Instead, look for old inserts, or a sample pack or just print out a couple of pages in the size you want to try out, punch them for the rings and give it a couple of weeks. Copy in them your busiest weeks, look at them, see how you feel with the size, try different pens and writing tools, and if it feels like something you can do, that it can work for you, splurge on the planner, and give it a try for real.

And if it doesn’t work for you, well, you gave it a try.

My eldest nephew is already at the university, and he loves pizza. One day I went to pick him up, and on the way home we stopped by a pizza place. He can eat a huge pizza all by himself but not me. And usually the pizzas I like, he doesn’t like. So we were at this pizza place and I wasn’t too hungry, so I asked if they had personal size pizzas. They had not, only one size (big). And then, the boy at the counter said something funny:

“Any pizza is a personal pizza, if you believe enough in yourself.”

Well, the same goes for the planners: “Any planner can be the right size of planner for you, if you believe enough in yourself”.

I did not get that pizza, not because I don’t believe enough in myself, but because I know myself. With the planners, yes, there may be a bad back, or weaker eyesight that might condition the planner size you can get, but maybe, really, you can find your way and be happy in any size you feel like trying out.

Again thank you to Zsu for her detailed description of her move to personal, it gives me confidence that my similar move next year will not fail in week 1 of 2026!

16 July 2025

Video Web Finds - Wednesday 16 July 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.

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

15 July 2025

Dates for your diary 19 & 20 July 2025

We are going to run some more 'Virtual Meet Ups'.

When? - Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 July 2025 at the following time:

Los Angeles 8:00 am,
Denver 9:00 am
Dallas 10:00 am,
New York 11:00am,
London 4:00 pm
Paris 5:00 pm etc.

Join in on both days if you wish.

Do not worry if you aren't available at the start of the session each one lasts 1-2 hours, so pop up when you are available and say hello.

Where? - an on-line chat using Signal. with voice and video (if you wish). If you aren't already in our participants list you need to contact Philofaxy before you come on line on the day of the chat. You can do this at any time. Please try to ensure that your Signal user name is the same as your actual name this will greatly assist in us being able to add you to the group.

Because of unwanted people we are no longer able to give out a join here link.

What do I need? - just a micro-phone and some head phones(in ear phones work fine) and a free Signal account. Using headphones or earphone reduces 'echo' on the call. Video is optional, but a most of us will be on video as well.

Who - Serious organiser users only. We are no longer able to allow just anyone to join these chats due to the disruption caused by fake profiles on previous chats. You also need to be known to us in some way or other before we will permit you to join the chat.

If you need any assistance setting up Signal, please pop a comment in this post and I will try and help you get one line. Signal is free for computer to computer calls....

Hope to be chatting with you on Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 July 2025.

Free For All Tuesday - No. 754

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.

14 July 2025

Guest Post - Going to Personal from A5 - Zsu Part 1

Thank you to Zsu for this excellent two part post about her transition from A5 to Personal size.

If you have stopped to read this, you probably have been there. Planner already in hand, and pondering about moving to a different size. A smaller size. Can it be done? (Sure, it can, you most likely have seen people do it all the time online, but the question is, can you make it work?) It can be tempting to try out a different size, because one size may have more options than others, or because it’s easier to find inserts or make them for some sizes than others, or even because a particular size fits easier in your life, whether you want it open on your desk, ready to catch copious amounts of notes, or you want it to easily fit in a bag so you can take it on the go and not break your back while at it. Or you simply want to try something new, challenge yourself, see your life in a different size, make use of those rings you have stashed or you see in the store.

So, can it be done? Or more importantly, what’s the shift like?

The Story

Throughout my life I have had a lot of planners. I am one of those people, who, at a given moment in time, had a Pilot PDA (PDA: Personal Digital Assistant), and always liked to write a lot. And I mean A LOT.

In my childhood, I remember seeing a movie where a man had the most amazing planner, with sections and colored tabs. A Filofax. I didn’t care much about the plot of the movie, but I knew I wanted to have a planner like that one day. For context, I live in Costa Rica, so finding a Filofax or any ring planner in here was harder than finding a magical bottle with a genie in it. I did look, but it seemed that the fabled ring planners didn’t exist in real life. Pilot PDAs did appear eventually in stores, so that tell you about how markets work.

During the pre-Filofax days I planned in different planners, with different sizes, eventually setting with those bound planners that give you a day per page with hours running down the margin, in half Letter size. I became accustomed to that size and the routine of it. Each year I went looking for the perfect planner, with the best font, lines that were not too thick nor contracting too much with the page, and once I’ve got it, I spent a couple of days copying addresses and phone numbers from one planner to the next, as well as birthdays, and yearly due-dates. The PDA was an attempt at skipping this process, but the electronic devise had its own setbacks, and didn’t fit me.

Going Personal the First Time

Eventually, thanks to the Internet, I learned that ring planners and Filofax did exist and I could order a planner online, and so I went to research. I went to research sizes and binders, and even cut out the paper sizes out of scrap paper to decide with would fit me better. This was the first time I went from Half Letter (or almost A5) to Personal size.

Here I debated a lot, but in the end I decided to pick the size that would fit most of my bags. And then I did something that has helped me a lot later on: I grabbed all my previous planners and looked for the smallest I had to see how did I manage in that size. I compared the planner with the cut out page to try to imagine planning in that space. I did had a small planner, and I figured that, if I was able to use that, I would be able to use a Personal size planner, after years of Half Letters.

When my first Filofax arrived, I didn’t know what to think. The binder was bigger than I expected, and the page seemed smaller. (I did not consider the allowance for the rings). Had I made a mistake? I had ordered daily pages, but soon realized that I would not be able to fit a whole year in the rings, so I had to discard that. It was disappointing, but I was not going to give up so easy. After all, I had spent a lot of money, or what was a lot of money for me then. And so, I gave it a try.

If you wonder how do I plan, I usually have day and time specific appointments (meetings, appointments, due dates), and tasks. There are some day specific tasks, but most of my tasks are either weekly or longer projects, where I like to note whether I have finished them or not. Other than that, my planners also tend to be a collection of random notes and ideas, which makes a ring planner ideal, because then my notes are not interspersed through all the days contained in it, but can be relegated to a specific “notes” section.

In the pre-filofax days, a DPP (day per page) type of bound planner gave me plenty of space to scribble on the “free spaces” any note or reminder about a book or a movie I was recommended, or the name and details of a contact for a project I was working on. Clearly, that was no longer possible with the Personal size Wo2P (week on two pages). My notes, thus, went into the note section. But, would my days, my tasks and maybe my eventual quick notes fit into the new, reduced space?

I copied the addresses and phone numbers, and other important data in the index pages, and set up the planner. I was already consuming lots of planner content online, that gave me ideas on how to better use the paper real estate I had. I learned to divide tasks and appointments in columns and make my handwriting smaller, to fit more of it. Color coding and highlighting were my main tools to pack pages chock full of text and yet be able to separate one topic from another. I learned to develop codes, be efficient, and use the best elements of ring planners: you can have sections for anything, so your notes don’t need to go in your calendar pages. And I was even able to fit a random, quick note in the calendar as well. (Spoiler alert: once the shock was over, I continued peppering my calendar with quick notes, even when I had the Notes section. That’s why I keep the whole year in the planner: you never know when will you need that number or that name you scribbled down sometime in February.)

When my first planner met an early demise (the clasp broke), I went for my second planner, also in Personal Size. I remained in that one a couple of years, until the faux leather cover was peeling so badly my bags were dirty all the time.

That was when I moved to A5.

Enter the A5

The third time I bought a Filofax, I knew I needed to get a leather planner that would last. I thought a lot about it, did research, watched loads of videos, and finally a friend suggested a Malden, and also an A5 Malden. They had on, so I could see it “in the flesh”, and I was sold. I never liked the pictures of the Malden, but in person it was a thing of beauty. I debated on the size because I was used to the Personal size by then, but taking notes in a Personal size did feel constricting, and I ran out of paper fast. So I said, “why not?”. And I got one.

I had to give up bags and consider what would I carry in the bags that did fit my new planner, but the experience was amazing. All that space! That planner stayed with me the longest so far. It went with me from the Filofax inserts, to my own inserts, through my years of bullet journaling until I emerged on the other end of it, back into printed inserts. It went with me from the pre-pandemic days into the pandemic, from one university degree to the next, from one project to the next. The leather got scored and aged, like the face of a faithful warrior or a wise old shaman that has seen the world and stands proud on the top of the hill, facing the sun like an equal.

But I grew old(er) as well. And after the pandemic was giving up and we were properly vaccinated, I packed my old bag, and carried it on my shoulder, like I have done for so long, and realized that it had become too heavy. After being used to carry bags weighting around 8 to 12 Kg on daily basis, with my “absolute essentials” before the pandemic (yes, I had weighted it a couple of times), I had lost that strength thanks to the many days of working from home. A bag weighting 7 kg was just too much. Something had to give.

Part two will be coming soon.... Thank you to Zsu for her detailed story on her transition to Personal size from A5.

13 July 2025

Silent Sunday

Malden Pocket
Thank you to Sally Smith

12 July 2025

Web Finds - Saturday 12 July 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:

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.

Mini Filofax – can I do it? - This Bug's Life
Filofax Pocket - Filofax
Ask TGS: New Notebook Systems Informational Resource Page - The Gentleman Stationer
A Review of Habit 5 (pg. 293-305) - FranklinPlanner Talk
Physical Filofax Store in South Florida - Filofax
But it’s brown - Pam Alison Knits
Little secondhand filoFAX - Filofax
Link Love: PNW! Here we go again! - The Well-Appointed Desk
Web Finds – 9 July 2025 - Travellers Notebook Times
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

Pages

21 July 2025

20 July 2025

19 July 2025

18 July 2025

17 July 2025

16 July 2025

15 July 2025

14 July 2025

13 July 2025

12 July 2025