Pocket Fitness

For a few weeks now, I've been using a Pocket Filofax as a diet and fitness journal. For the curious, here's how I use it:

1) Week-per-2-page diary. Each day, I log exercise done (with heart rate), cups of water drunk, weight/body fat (on the days I weigh), and so on. The illustration here is a template page I made, to keep things clear by writing the same information in the same place on the page each time. The pages are cramped, so I did some planning before I started writing in ink all over them.

2) Eating journal. On yellow paper, one side of one leaf per day. I write down the day's plan the night before, and then...er...edit the next day based on what I actually ate.

3) Notes pages. Blue and pink paper for various kinds of notes and quotes from the program I'm using, The Beck Diet Solution.

Free for All Friday No. 14

The Franklin Covey system I posted about earlier this week has a special plastic page bookmark. Instead of being a single panel of plastic, it's two-layered. It lets you slip in a paper bookmark on which you list weekly goals. It helps keep the important things in front of your eyes whether you use a daily or weekly diary format.

I find during busy times of my life, I can forget the most important things first. Is anyone using a Franklin Covey bookmark (I believe it's called a Weekly Compass), or a similar idea of your own invention?

—Inky

Franklin Covey Compact Size

For a while, I went down to the Compact Size, which has the same page height and 6-ring layout as Filofax's Personal size, but a greater page width. It's an interesting size, proportioned more like an A5 sheet, but more portable. If the Personal's narrow page makes you feel cramped, you might like Franklin's Compact better. Franklin's also comes in bigger ring sizes than Filofax offers, which lets you carry many more pages!

Of course, these factors also make the Compact less portable than the Personal. I can toss the Personal into almost any bag I own, and not feel it's cumbersome. Carrying a Compact, although it's smaller than an A5, still feels like carrying a "big book" to me. Closed, it measures 6.25" (16 cm) wide, 7.5" (19 cm) tall, and it has 1.25" (inside diameter) rings.

I think I spent less time with the Compact than any other model or size because of this worst-of-both-worlds feeling it gave me. But I did—and still do—love this binder. Nice forest green leather (green's a hard color to find), and it feels and smells great.

You can't see it in the picture, but it has the Franklin Quest imprint—from before the acquisition of Stephen Covey's productivity training business.

Free for All Friday No. 13

Oh, my! Take a look at the conversation we've got going on the previous post! Click if you've always wanted to know how to convert a single pen loop into 2 pens loops with a single snip!

Do you remember Filofax refills on onion skin paper?

What previous planners do you wax sentimental about?

—Inky

My Former Franklin Covey Life

We've been talking about our Franklin Covey experiences lately, so I decided to dig up my old FC planners. I have three: two Classic (7-ring, half-letter size; similar in size to A5) and one Compact (same ring configuration as Filofax Personal, but with wider pages).

My first Classic Franklin Covey planner is still my favorite, and the only one of the three I'm going to save in the long run. It's all leather, and I bought it because of its small "footprint." Instead of being larger than the pages, the planner's zipper hugs them. It's barely bigger than the pages themselves, and also has a slim ring size. It's more suited to a weekly than a daily page format.

I'll take pictures of it soon, but today I'm starting with the last planner I was using before, in 2000, I switched full-time to a Palm Pilot. Actually, the full transition took about a year. When I finally abandoned this beautiful fabric and leather planner with its one-and-a-half-inch rings, it weighed three pounds and contained all of the notes I needed for my 4 part-time/freelance jobs and one volunteer job, as well as all my personal stuff: home repair and car records, Christmas card lists, wish lists, and so on. I even found a list of all NFL teams and their towns, and a list of poker hands in winning order. Hey, you never know when you're going to need that stuff!

Imagine going from carrying 3 pounds of leather and paper wherever I went to a Palm Pilot! But I did it.

I found this planner in the basement in virtually the same condition it was in when I stopped using it. It's like a snapshot of my life, frozen in time. I'm fascinated by the number and variety of pages FranklinCovey supplied, including about 20 pages of instructions on using the planner itself! I'll scan some of these forms one of these days, since it's hard to take clear photographs of them. There are a bunch of pictures on Flickr of some of the forms and how I used them.

FranklinCovey still makes a lot of forms, but not nearly as many as they used to. They sell software for printing out the additional forms yourself.