Free for All Friday No. 37

Hi everybody!

I think I speak for everyone when I thank Steve and Laurie for their outstanding contributions to this blog so far.

I've been reading a lot about folks having a dedicated Filofax for travel, even for a particular city. If you're traveling this summer, enjoy!

New Organisers

A new range of 'Butterfly' organisers are available on the UK Filofax site:
http://www.filofax.co.uk/

I think you will agree some nice detailing on the cover.

Steve

Filofax – The Missing Manual

I know I'm being a little cheeky titling this post 'The Missing Manual' because some of you will have realised the connection to Inky... so why is the English guy who's only been here 5 minutes getting in on the act.....parody is sometimes the best complement

So was there ever a manual written for the Filofax? Or should it be included in the category of 'No Instructions Required' ? Which to me is a play on 'No Jacket Required' the album by Phil Collins.

If there was a manual what sort of detail would it go to? Surely not to this sort of level of detail?

Opening
Hold your Filofax with the closing strap on the right hand side and the gently pull on the press stud until it 'pops' open, now open your binder to reveal the pages.

Or should it contain ideas as to the order of the sections/pages? The dividers supplied with some sizes always put the diary at the front and addresses at the back. But that is the beauty of the flexibility of the organiser system in that you can put what you want were ever you want.

May be the designer of particular binder you have bought would include ideas of what he/she was intending you to keep in the pockets of the binder.

The zip pocket at the back of the binder is intended for you to keep your train ticket, letter headed paper or receipts. Please don't try to hide your iPod Touch in there.

The business card slots have been designed for cards of 85 by 43 mm

The manual writer might also have a sense of humour as bad as mine...

When you first purchase your leather Finsbury, you will find the leather is quite stiff and it will not lie flat. Do not force it, over time it will become more supple be able to stay open on your desk for longer.

On a serious note, I'm sure it would include notes on cleaning and maintaining the appearance of your Filofax.

To help maintain the leather cover we strongly recommend Filofax leather polish, the special wax formulation feeds the leather and helps to keep it supple No, do not use this leather polish on non-leather covers, instead we recommend Filofax foam cleaner.

Would there be a compatibly table of pens and pencils that will fit the pen loop of your binder, if my own experience is anything to go by, it will be a fairly short list. If you have ever tried buying pens that you like writing with, but then find they are too big for the pen loop on the binder.

No doubt there will be a technical specification section:

This binder has rings of 38mm diameter, the maximum capacity is 500 pages, this includes loose pages. Why do you think you can cram even more pages in that will fit....

A tips section would no doubt include a section on choosing your diary refill.

In reality the only instructions my new Filofax came with was about how to register it. A very simple process, once registered should you be unfortunate to lose it and the finder returns it to Filofax, it will be returned to you, and the finder will receive a gift.

It's pleasant change to not have to wade your way through half a dozen safety notices before you get to the section on 'how to install the batteries' But of course with a Filofax... no batteries are required... or included. And for a product that has been around since 1921 I don't think any instructions are really required.

So did I miss anything out? Post your own ideas in the comments section. And I'm sure Inky's advice to me will be 'Don't give up the day job yet Steve!!'

The Advanced Day Planner User's Guide

The Advanced Day Planner User's Guide by Hyrum W. Smith – Published by Franklin International Institute, Inc – ISBN 0-939817-001-2 First of all, this book is not written with the Filofax in mind... so before I get your expectations up, I thought I best say that first. However, whilst the Franklin Day Planner is a rival to Filofax, a lot of the principles and ideas are transferable to the Filofax system.. so it's worth a look. The book takes the form of suggestions and ideas sent in by users to Franklin International and there are 83 different suggestions in total, all nicely explained and illustrated in the book which is over 175 pages in total. I've been working my way through the book looking for new ideas that I could use in my Filofax. As has been mentioned previously in a comment on this blog a while back, there is nothing earth shattering in the book, but there are a few good ideas. You don't really need to read it from cover to cover even, just open it when you have a few moments to kill and read one of the suggestions. Each one is complete and it doesn't require you to read all the others. Some of the suggestions refer to specific Franklin Day Planner Forms, some of these are similar to those available for Filofax but there are some that could be adapted to different Filofax sizes and may be slightly different layouts according to the size of the binder you are using. One of the nicer touches about the way the book is written is the way in which the suggestions are described. How they came about from real life situations. So it is easier to see how the problem was solved and how the form or suggestion solved the problem and may be how you might use a similar suggestion for a similar problem of your own. I picked up this book on Amazon Marketplace for less than £5 including postage, it was published back in 1987, which was about the time that planners and organisers where becoming very popular. So I suppose there was demand for such a book at the time. I'm not sure such a book these days would sell a lot of copies... this blog and other associated websites are most probably a better sources of information. So if you are interested in reading more, I'm not sure if this book will be in your local public library, or take a look at Amazon, there were plenty of copies available when I purchased mine.

Alternative Filofax Uses

Hello everybody, welcome to my first post as a Philofaxy blogger! Long time commenter, first time blogger. I’m going to be offline for a couple of weeks and wanted to be sure to post before I leave for my vacation in glorious Scotland!

Speaking of Scotland, last December before my holiday trip to the Highlands I posted about my conversion of my retired Personal Buckingham into my self-made Scotland Guidebook. You can read some details about that on the Free For All Friday for December 5, 2008, here.

To update: I spent the holidays in Scotland and also in March I took a trip to London for the first time, and am happy to report that my Filofax UK Guidebook (to include London) is great. I have tabbed sections for all the regions of Scotland as well as the cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and now London. I have maps, sections for notes, lists (places yet to see, websites about Scotland, books to read about the area and history, etc.)

One of my most useful sections is a record of trips I have taken. I write the details of my upcoming trip on the first page behind the tab: Flight details, where I am staying and how much it costs, reservation numbers, rental car details, and the current exchange rate. When I am on my trip and checking in at the desk of the airline/ rental car/ hotel, I have all of my reservation info right there, including the dates of when I paid online or over the phone, and all of my reservation numbers. This is obviously very useful while I am on the trip, but it also makes a great record for future reference. When I take another trip, I add the new info page on top of the old one, so this section contains a reverse-chronological record of every place I stayed, how much it cost, and what the exchange rate was during that trip.

In my regional tabbed sections I write places I visited, how to get there, restaurants that I would like to eat at again, things I did not do but want to do in future trips, etc. The accumulation of information in each section is very useful on subsequent trips, and a wonderful record of past trips as well.

My Filofax UK Guidebook was inspired by the Moleskine city books, which are fill-in-yourself guidebooks for various cities around the world. They have maps and tabbed sections for restaurants, accommodation, sites, etc. But the classic problem with Moles is, what do you do if a section fills up? This is where a Filo excels. The flexibility of the refillable binder, tabbed dividers, and even different colors of refill paper make classification easy. And you never have to worry about a section filling up. I think it would be fun to make a guidebook for the city where you live, to record things to do, restaurants you have enjoyed, delivery numbers, museums, or other attractions in your area. This would be especially useful for guests to borrow when they come to visit.

Using Filofaxes as DIY guidebooks makes me think of other possible uses for Filos. Another use for a Filofax which I haven’t tried myself but sounds like a good idea is as a wine journal. Again, this is where a Filo would be perfect, because you could classify your wines any way you want. There could be tabbed sections for classifications such as Red/ White/ Rose/ Sparkling, or by type such as Merlot, Cabernet, etc. or even by place such as French, Californian, Chilean etc. Then you could subdivide your tabbed sections using the different colors of paper. For example in the French section you could use a different paper color for areas like Bordeaux, Alsace, etc.

This is just an example to illustrate the ways a Filofax can be used. The combination of the refillable binder, tabbed dividers, various colors of paper, forms, accessories, and even computer software result in infinite possible uses for this system. Do you use your Filofax(es) in ways beyond the usual planner/ address book? Tell us about it!

Hope you all have a good two weeks and I will post again when I get back!