This year instead of retaining all 12 months of inserts in my organiser I intend to only keep the last month and the next 6 months live in my organiser. This will reduce the amount of paper/pages I'm carrying and make smaller ring size organisers more accessible. For dates beyond 6 months I will use my fold out year planner.
What changes if any do you intend to make to your organiser?
And as it is Friday you can of course discuss anything Filofax related.
2025 was a very successful planning year for me, and I really feel that I have a very well balanced and effect system running in Personal format. It would be insane to mess with it in 2026.
ReplyDelete... and so I have set up a completely different approach in A5.
Day one of trying this out has been.... turbulent and not yet successful.
I feel for you!
DeleteMy set up is ready for the full year. Diary inserts in a pocket meeplus (I bought the purple leather 13mm rings). Daily pages, notes, trackers, ideas etc all in A5 in a red Finsbury. Started the new year yesterday, and woke up this morning to the thought “wouldn’t it be lovely to be in A6….” It’s going to be a long year!
I bought my daily pages from Crossbow Planner and I bought some monthly front leaf pages that will last beyond this year at the same time, they are beautiful, the paper is very thick and pens don’t bleed through. I will use them again.
My last planner was a Succes Mini in 2018 with week on two pages. Now I re-started with a downsize to a Rhodia 3-Ring Mini Reporter with single-sided week on one page.
ReplyDeleteHans
I’ve done something similar to Steve, six months of 2026 in my personal size organizer. However, I have the last 6 mo of 2025 as well! Clingy? This time I sprang for a Minimal Week on Two Pages refill, a first for me. Comes with a two-page year, which MIGHT serve as Steve’s foldout. It also comes with some notepaper, a preview of each month, and weekdays in five languages. Not sure what makes it minimalist. (Weekdays are in a light thin font. Is that it? Fortunately, date numbers are BOLD, and I long ago memorized my weekdays.)
ReplyDeleteMy binder (Personal Adelphi) is bulky. I’ve been rediscovering my stash of smaller handbags, so I have this added challenge, how to transfer the essentials when I switch bags. I enjoy solving problems LOL. Tempted by compact hardware: but NO, there’s too much stuff in my home, this binder’s in good nick, and I’m not convinced compact organizer would fit small bag.
First world problems I am lucky to have on this cold First Friday. Happy New Year, fellow organizers. (Tracy Quan)
Hi Tracy
DeleteI discovered today that by reducing down to a rolling 6 months, I can fit all of my pages easily in to a 15mm ring Compact! And of course that reduces the bulk of the planner dramatically.
Having previously been in A5 (for years) adopting personal size this year is quite a change.
Over the New Year I emptied my small messenger bag (camera bag) and reviewed the contents as to what I've been carrying in that every day. I use the bag rather than my pockets. The bag is easy to just grab and I know I have everything I will need etc.
Like a hand bag the messenger bag had things in it in the depths of it that I had forgotten about and hadn't used! So it was good to empty is and reorganise things.
Lots of self satisfaction!!! If only I could remember what day of the week it was this week!!
I believe it is Saturday, LOL. Good to know I am not alone wrt bags. I have been removing the plastic card holders, carrying those in my small bag, leave the diary parts at home, and bring a tiny notebook/pencil. It is imperfect, but I love my small bags. I do have a soft envelope made of rice paper, and another made of fabric for containing the plastic units. I AM ADDICTED to the clear zipper unit....
DeleteYou might think of it as a bit of OCD or an obsession but I hate bags that are too big, so I have a variety of bags in varying sizes for different requirements. This is why choose camera bags for carrying my everyday 'stuff' including my organiser. They are soft lined and padded, with moveable dividers, you can adjust the compartments to fit things perfectly. I occasionally carry a small digital camera in the bag as well!
DeleteMen carrying shoulder bags of one sort or another is quite normal/accepted here in France so I feel at ease carrying mine when ever we go out.
Here too a lot of blokes carry a bag. I like the sound of yr camera bag. I sometimes use a bottle bag as my purse, especially in summer. Love those compartments!
DeleteDear Steven, may I interest you in trying out the Plotter inserts? :) I spent a whole day (while still in Budapest) filling up my monthly and my weekly calendars with all my 2026 and the first three months of my 2027 important dates. I took out my bulky Cloth&Paper dividers and a lot of notes I made last year, and now my Lockwood Zip is refreshed and fabulous. I was even able to include a pouch I was gifted to me by a dear friend of ours. My pages alight perfectly in my rings, the right way and I have 15 months in my calendars. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind offer.
DeleteI'm also currently using my Personal Lockwood Zip. I love how it fits in to my bag, very secure. But it stays open on my desk.
My own inserts are working well (2 days per page).
Look forward to catching up with you and hearing about your trip on Signal in a couple of weeks time.