I am enjoying using Personal Size once again, I haven't had any major regrets yet. I like seeing my appointments and tasks against each day, rather than on the facing pages.
It goes without saying that there is no universal set up that will work for everyone. We all lead different lives and we all put different demands on our organisers on a daily basis. What suits one person will not suit someone else.If your set up is working well... leave it... don't change it just on a whim. But in the case of someone who is new to paper planning or their circumstances have changed and whilst you thought it was the perfect set up it might not be working quite as you expected.
By all means change your set up in what ever way you need to to make it work..... but a word of caution.... don't make too many changes at once.
Only change one thing at a time and give it may be two weeks before you decide if that change (what ever it was) is going to make your organiser work for you.
By making your changes one step at a time you will understand the problems better and the set up will stand the test of time unless your circumstances change of course.....
Are you happy with your current set up, even if it is the same as last year?
I stick with Personal last year, hand drawing my inserts. It worked perfectly for me. So this year of course I have abandoned the approach, invested in A5 and switched to that...
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, I have been attempting to integrate my working notes with my planning. Generally I have long term project view, weekly, and then lists of actions I need to take related to each project. Notes were in A5 notebooks which were OK but hard to rationalise and refer back to. The pages of Rhodia spiral bound A5 notepads pull out and fit perfectly in an A5 Filofax. I am using this as an approach to integrate everything into one place. It also means I can use much higher quality paper more easily and directly. The trouble is I am just not enjoying the planning aspect in the A5. I like the way that I can take in everything with a single glance when I use the Personal format. It forces me to hone down priorities because I have less space on a page. I will persevere with the A5 until the Spring, at which point I will evaluate whether to revert to last year's format and approach.
Take a look at the two days per page format in Personal size, this is the one I have adapted to my needs. It gives me a similar amount of page space as I had in my A5.
DeleteSteve, Being watching your step down from A5 to Personal with interest. I am a long term A5 user although in the last 2/3 yrs I have been using and enjoying a regular size (210x110cm) Travelers Notebook set-up which has worked very well. I have flip flopped a bit between TN and A5 over the last year and do like the greater space of A5 but the loss of portability and increase in bulk & weight has been an irritant. Also like you have mentioned I do sometimes neeed to take additional specific information with me and with TN you cannot simply add or remove pages. For 2026, after a faltering start hopping between the two, I have gone back to A5 and am now switching to vertical weekly planner rather that my normal horizontal, I also print my diary/planner onto white Tomoe River 52gsm paper which dramaticlly reduces bulk and heft when coupled with a rolling 6 month carry. I did cut the foldover leather flap off my A5 cover making it lighter and easier to handle. Your 'one change at a time' is good advice which I hav ignored in the past to my cost! I get my Tomoe River paper from the Journal shop (online UK). Don't know if available in France.
ReplyDeleteThanks Charles
DeleteI've been using Clairfontaine paper which is available at my local supermarket, it is excellent quality, but it is 80gsm, which has its disadvantages of course, but my page fill for the full 12 months does fit a normal Filofax with 23mm rings ok.
Although I have a few TN's I prefer ring-bound or disc-bound (William Hannah) formats because of the ease to swap pages around in my planner.
I use a bound planner (Quo Vadis Daily 21) as my daily journal, again Clairfontaine paper so it works perfectly with fountain pens.
If I continue with Personal size in 2027, I will invest in a good quality paper cutter to make the task of cutting the pages to size less time consuming.
Either way A5 or Personal I will be using my own design of inserts.
This is my first year using a MeePlus Personal size planner using a mixture of MeePlus and FiloFax inserts. It's replacing a Hobonichi Techo Weeks that I only partially used last year. I'm not sure why it didn't work for me but I just know it didn't. So far the MeePlus planner set up I have is working really well.
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