Free For All Tuesday No 9

The answer is Filofax... now what was the question?  As usual let us have your questions.

By the time this is published I should be back home in France. This was posted ahead of my trip just incase I forgot/got delayed!

Being put on the spot....

Earlier this week I was really put on the spot with a face to face question about Filofax. A good friend of mine had seen the photos from our London Philofaxy meet up and she showed me her Family Organiser that she uses, I forget the name of the brand, but it was a bound planner that slipped in to a zipped case. She uses it for all her appointments and for organising her children, but she wanted to 'return to Filofax'

'Is there a Filofax equivalent of this?' she asked....  I was a little taken by surprise at first... but then I remember ah... you want to look at the  A5 Family Lifestyle Pack it has a week on two pages format diary that allows for the organisation of several family members and also comes with whole host of extra inserts for things like babysitting contacts, sports and clubs, household, schools, party planning, pets and more. Looks ideal don't you think? I think she was taken a bit by surprise when she saw it on the Filofax site.

So then we thought what organiser? So we did a quick search on her PC on Amazon for Filofax A5 Zipped and there was a good selection at reasonable prices. I left her choosing styles and colours and making sure she ordered the right lifestyle pack from Filofax.... using the links via Philofaxy of course!!!

Another satisfied customer and another Philofaxy reader hopefully!!!

The Perfect Filofax?

Is there such a thing as the perfect Filofax? One that meets your requirements and desires 100%.

When Alison and I go looking at houses for people, we very rarely find the 100% house compared to the spec given to us by our clients. We often get close, but never 100%. But then thinking about the houses we have owned in UK and France none of those were/are 100% there's always something you wished was different.

In discussion with people last Saturday at the meet up we were all comparing our likes and dislikes in the current offerings. And LouLouDorset has also done a great post on 'Is there a Yummy Mummy Filofax' LouLou lists some of the current offerings and her pros and cons for each model she has included.  But none of them have no cons.

We all have our own preferences for colour, layout, pockets or no pockets, id slot or no id slot, smooth finish or not. Leather or non-leather. Will it lay flat or not? Location of the pen loop and it's size. The list is never ending and then there's the price... ok we won't mention that because that clouds the issue even further!

Even I have great difficulty deciding on a favourite or an organiser that meets all of my needs, likes or dislikes. I almost wish that Filofax did a customising service like Timbuk2 and Rickshaw Bags do. But then there might be too much choice? 

What would your perfect Filofax look like, what features would you include in it?

Web Finds

Some more posts for you to have a read of:

• Fabulous Filofax - Anita Lim
• Filofax Love Part 1 - SocraTeas
• Raspberry - Life A La Steph
• Special Project for the Filo - Life Well Planned 
• Pilot Frixion Pens - Sharon 
• Slimming down my A5 Balmoral Filofax - Cats Corner
• Why I always use my Filofax - Haukfischer - In French

Some time management posts too:

• Create more time in your life - Modern Mom
• How to create a to-do list that gets tasks accomplished - Unclutter
• How to Declutter Your Life and Reduce Stress - Stepcase Lifehack
• 11 Tips for Dealing with Email Overload - Gigaom

Enjoy.....

Date For Your Diary - Sunday 10 April 2011

We are going to run another conference roundtable voice chat using Skype.

I'm sure we are gradually getting to know each other's voices, but I will make a point of going 'around the table' to get everyone to introduce themselves this time.

So...When, Where, What, Who and How?

When? - Sunday 10 April from 12am (US East Coast time), 5pm London time, 6 pm Paris time 11pm Jakarta etc.

Where? - an on-line chat using Skype.

What do I need? - just a micro-phone and a free Skype account.

Who - All of you... connect up with Philofaxy and we will attempt to get as many of us linked in to the audio conference as possible.

How -

1. Connect to Philofaxy by firstly searching for Philofaxy in Skype, I will then add you as a contact.
2. Then  'Start Chat',  I will then add you in to the chat room. 
3. Then if you request it, I can add you to the audio conference as well. But if you just want to chat via keyboard that's fine. That way it's slightly less hectic for me! 

Come and join in the fun, even if you only pop in to say hello...

As with previous round-tables there will also be a parallel text chat room going at the same time as the voice conference.

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

Hope to be chatting with you next Sunday, if I can work out how to drive the new version of Skype!