Experienced User - Paige

Thank you Paige for sharing how she uses her organiser. 

My name is Paige Zinn and I am 46 years old. I live in Chapel Hill, NC, and I run a healthcare marketing firm.  I have a husband and two children. My daughter, Parker, is 13 years old. My son, Orlando, is 11 years old.

I love calligraphy; I collect fountain pens; and I enjoy spending my time organizing and planning my house and my life.

Thank you for allowing me to answer your questions. I am a recent fan of Philofaxy and always look forward to my email alerting me of a new post.

1. When did you start using an organiser?

I purchased my first Filofax in 1989 at a local retailer here in Chapel Hill. They were the only place that offered Filofax, and they had a beautiful display of planners and inserts. I purchased the Filofax in anticipation of a semester long trip to Europe my junior year in College. I loved that I could keep all my important documents in one beautiful leather planner.

2. How has your use of an organiser changed over the years?

I have definitely gone through cycles. I used a personal sized planner for work/school obligations during college and the first few years of working. However, once I had children, I increased the size of my planners. I started with the Daytimer desk version and wire bound calendar and diaries. That worked for a while, but I thought the calendars were a bit dull looking, and there was no ability to customize my inserts. And the desk size was too large to carry around.

I then went to an A4 size a few years later and have collected 9 or so Filofax planners in that size, as well as a few other brands. It worked for many years, but now I am at a point in my life where I want something smaller. I recently purchased a Filofax personal size in The Original. I have included a few photos of how I use it.  I am actually using some of the inserts from my first Filofax in this new one (the calendar bookmark & the business card holders). I think the quality of the inserts from 1989 are much better than the current offerings. I’ve also placed an order for the raspberry Finsbury in the personal size. I love the color and the feel of the leather.

3. Which diary format works best for you and why?

As I mentioned above, the personal size is my preferred choice right now. I love that I can throw it in my purse and not have to worry about it.

4. What other information do you keep and maintain in your organiser.

As one of my photo shows, I love that I can plan projects in my planner. Currently, I have two projects: Thanksgiving dinner (we are hosting) and my Christmas shopping list. And I live by the calendar. I use the one day per page layout. I used to use the day on two pages format, but that is unnecessary and a waste of space.

5. Do you use a 'system' of organisation, and how does it work in your Filofax?

Yes, all of my appointments go in the hour by hour calendar. The other side of the page is used for my work and personal todos. I put my work todos on the top of the page, and my personal todos go on the bottom of the page.

For longer term projects, I use the “projects” section of my Filofax. Currently, my two projects are my Thanksgiving todos (we are hosting 20+ people) and my Christmas shopping list.

For personal notes, I use the “notes” section of my Filofax. Currently, this includes things I don’t want to forget/books I want to read/etc.

I also keep all pertinent business cards (things I access regularly) in my Filofax.

6. What routines and structures do you use?

I’m not entirely sure what you mean by this question, but my Filofax stays open throughout my day. I
look at it regularly to stay on track and make sure I attend to the priorities of the day. Once a task is complete, I mark through it. I love it when a day has all the tasks marked through. I also use a highlighter to note when a call has been made, but not returned.

7. Do you use one binder or several, and if several, how do you use them?

I only use one planner at a time. I use it for all aspects of my life - my husband’s appts, my appts (personal and work-related), my children’s appts, as well as family obligations. If I used more than one planner, I’m afraid I would lose track of things. I like to see everything in one place.

Thank you Paige.

If you would like to take part in this series please email steve@philofaxy.com and mark your email 'Experienced Filofax User'

Larger pages in your A6 organiser

I think I might have said this before, but I will repeat myself anyway! From an early age maps have always fascinated me. I think I could read a map better than I could read a book. I could spend hours looking at maps, trying to picture the place from just the map symbols that I had learnt at school.

These days of course we just go in to Google Maps or Google Street View and we can see exactly what somewhere looks like! Cheating I know, but I use these mapping tools regularly too.

Although I'm a big fan of mobile internet connected devices, I still like to have a printed map or a tube map of places I'm visiting. Ask anyone who has been anywhere with me and they will confirm I have a very good sense of direction without a map or GPS! Just a sixth sense I suppose.

Now going to A6 size as I've done recently, naturally I wanted some maps in my organiser. So why not create the inserts myself.

They could be A6 in size, no complication there, just print them and pop them in. But we can also do A5 pages and fit them in to an A6, here is how.

Print your map or insert (what ever it is) on A5 size paper, just make sure the left hand margin is about 1.2 cm to allow for the holes to be punched. Then fold the page in half, then take the top part of the folded paper and fold it back to the right hand edge. This forms what I call a 'Z fold' or 'S fold' depending which side you view it from.

I've done this with quite a few pages, also in A5 organisers where you want an A4 page in your A5. It works just the same.

So A5 works fine in A6. But what if you do not want to reduce your printed page down to A5 or A6, what if you want to leave it as an A4 page? Yes you can fit an A4 page in to your A6 organiser. Here is how we do that.

So again print out your page in Landscape A4 format, leaving a margin of at least 1.2 cm on the left side for the rings.

The next thing to do once you have your printed A4 sheet is to mark in pencil or erasable ink the following dimensions.

A line 148 mm from the top edge going the full width of your page, another line 105 mm from the left hand edge. We are basically setting up the limits of our A6 page. We then add another line half way between the line to create another fold line (fold 4).

So you should end up with something that looks like this. Obviously you don't need to mark the printed side, just some guide lines on the reverse side will be fine.

Now it is time to fold your page

With the page now face up, fold up the thin strip at the bottom over the full width of the page.

Then turn down the lower left hand corner so that the rings will not be impeded.

Then fold the right hand side of the page to the left folding on the 105 mm line.

Then fold it back again to the edge.

Then punch your page and it is ready to go in to your organiser.

And yes I've done this before with A3 pages in an A5 organiser, A2 in A4 should work too!

It doesn't have to be maps, any A4 page that you do not wish to reduce in size will work.

You can find out more about A6 format in this recent post.

Free For All Tuesday No. 245

Tuesdays are your chance to ask any Filofax or other ring bound organiser related questions you might have.

Even it if is not Tuesday, you can still post your questions here, just pick the most recent Tuesday post.

So fire away with your questions and together we will do our best to answer your questions or offer opinions.

However before you do... today is a special Tuesday... it's Laurie's birthday, lets wish Laurie a Happy Birthday from all our readers.

Addresses in your organiser

I realised the other day as I was working through the address pages in my personal size to transfer them in to my A6 size organiser. How many of these addresses do I really need to carry with me?

So in my address pages I have the persons name (obviously!) their mailing address, telephone number, may be their mobile number and their email address.

I have a lot of the contacts in my phone as well, and these are synced to my computer, but I still like to have them on paper as well....just in case!

I have a full address section in my A5 'stay at home' organiser, so do I really need to duplicate it all in my A6 organiser?

So during my afternoon walk today I started to think this through in a more rational fashion.

1. I suppose it helps to have a back up paper copy. But I could easily copy the existing A5 pages and store them in one of our document fire safes.
2. If I'm away from the office for more than a day how many times have I looked in the address section of my current organiser?  Answer not very often. 
3. How many of the addresses in my organiser in the last 2 years have I needed to email, phone or post a letter to? Answer not that many. 
4. What is my main means of contacting people these days? Is it still phone or letter or email? Answer, possibly none of those we are so tied in to messenger and iMessage these days a lot of the people I'm in regular contact with I don't their phone number or mailing address anyway. 

By the end of my walk I was starting to realise that the need for a full A-Z address section in my A6 organiser was not going to be needed... But what to replace it with? 

Firstly I need to decide who needs to go in to that section, look back at my phone records to see who I called, who I received calls from, and how many times. 

Slimming the number of pages down would also lighten the page load as well, giving me more space for other things. 

So I've set myself a task to capture the name and address details of people I'm in regular contact with and put them in to some sort of computer file so I can easily up date the few pages I will need to print out when ever the details change.

I have found a convenient of exporting my contact list on my Mac in to a CSV (comma separated value) format file which I can then open in Excel and then manage the contents of that file (delete the unwanted ones) and then do a simple mail merge in Word to create my new 'Essential Addresses' pages.

Reader Under The Spotlight - Hope

Today I would like to introduce you to Hope. 

Hello! I'm Hope, an American living in beautiful Izmir, Turkey. We are on the Aegean Sea on the western coast of Turkey. I am currently a stay-at-home mom to my 8 year old daughter, but was a certified public accountant in the US before I eloped with my Turkish husband, went to Turkey on our honeymoon and came back (a) pregnant and (b) in love with the country.

Several years later and many winding turns, I find myself living here, in a country that does not really have a concept of a planner or organizer. Everything must be imported, brought back from the US in my suitcase, or downloaded as a printable. I have gotten good at making lemonade out of lemons and re-purposing things when necessary. 

A planner is definitely necessary as I'm managing not just my life, my daughter's schedule (not your average 3rd grader's), but also my husband and his home in the US as he finishes his PhD. It's a three ring circus!

1. When did you buy your first organiser and what was it?

It was a simulated leather classic binder from Franklin Quest.  Black, because I didn't want Bordeaux.  It was Fall 1986 and I was a sophmore in college.  When I saw the Franklin Quest system I was in love.  I think it was my first online purchase!

2. What other brands have you used or considered using?

I've used DayTimer, Filofax, and Van der Spek.  I haven't really considered others.

3. Out of the organisers you own which is your current favourite (Style and Size)?

I can't move out of my standard (personal) black VDS Touch Me.  The feel, the function, the rings - it's just perfect.

4. How many Filofax or other brands of organisers do you own?

Oh geez - now let me think....

          3 Filofax Deskfaxes, black (an awesome binder that should be brought back!)

          1 Filofax Kensington, black, personal size

          1 Filofax Finsbury, raspberry, personal size

          1 Franklin Covey classic zip binder, brown leather and microfiber

          1 DayTimer Malibu classic/desk binder, plum

          1 Filofax Malden, ochre, A5

          1 VDS custom binder, Janet Leather #104, personal size

          1 VDS Touch Me, black, personal size

          1 Filofax Malden, ochre, personal size

          Total: 11  (Yikes!  I didn't realize I had so many!)

5. What is the oldest organiser in your collection?

The Franklin Covey binder.  I think I bought it in 1995.  It has 50mm (2") rings!

6. What do you use your organisers for?

• One Deskfax is my household reference binder.  
• One Deskfax is in the process of becoming my reading binder 
• The black Touch Me is my calendar/planner/list holder
• The A5 Malden is holding 2016 inserts from Inkwell Press which I will use for personal project planning (as in, me time stuff).
• The Finsbury is used for "on deck" pages awaiting placement in my Touch Me
• The personal Malden is used as my wallet at times.  I go back and forth on whether I like using a Filo as a wallet.
• The rest are in the wings.  I'm trying to decide to sell some but I just can't do it.  

7. How many sections do you have in your organiser and what is each section used for?

Household reference Deskfax:  I have sections for bills in the US, service providers in the US (like gas, electric, internet), bills in Turkey, service providers in Turkey, a section for shopping with master lists, etc., and menu planning.

          

Reading binder - books read, books on the Kindle, real books in Turkey, real books in the US, my daughter's book inventory, homeschooling books, and a section for my long neglected blog that I might revive, one day.

Calendar/Planner/Lists: no real sections except a divider with blank paper and lists.  Lots of lists.  I had an A-Z reference that just added bulk.  I took it out last month and am waiting to see what my real needs are.   My calendar is DIYFish.  I have a pull-out horizontal month and DO2P that look very much like my original Franklin Covey pages from nearly 30 years ago.  I also have yearly inserts for forward planning.

           

A5 Malden - Project planning - no sections yet, just monthly and weekly calendars.  

           

8. What was the feature about Filofax you like most?

The leathers, the colors, the pockets!

9. If you could design your own Filofax what would it feature?

Big rings - 30mm in personal size.  Big back pocket, lots of card slots, a zipped pocket, secretarial pocket

10. How do you carry your Filofax?

In my bag - no babying, no fussing.  My poor personal Malden 

11. Which Filofax in the current range do you like the most? Are you going to buy it?

I had to go look at the current range to answer this.  I have become disillusioned with Filofax, especially in the US.  If I was to buy one, though, I would buy the Original Special Edition Union Jack - personal size.  Adorable!

12. What is the most you have ever spent on a Filofax or other brand of organiser? Which model?

My custom VDS.  I don't remember how much it was in total, but the custom fees alone were breathtaking.  

13. What's your favourite Filofax tip or hack?                             

I am a big fan of taking very stiff plastic (I use card cases) and cutting it to size for dividers and dashboards.  Also makes very good page lifters.  If you use card case plastic and cut your dashboard such that you keep the two sides together, you can make a pocket to insert pretty paper or photos for a changeable dashboard.  

14. Turning to Philofaxy, what do you like the most?

The community - reading the Experienced Users and Reader Under The Spotlight.  Learning from everyone else in the discussions in the Free For All days.  Watching the AdSpot, availing myself of free inserts.  Basically - everything!

15. And what do you not like about Philofaxy?

Seriously?  What's not to like?

16. What was the last music track you downloaded or bought?

"Count on Me" by Bruno Mars.  I had to learn it for a school production last year.  (I'm also a CELTA qualified teacher of English as a foreign language and taught 1st - 8th grade last year.)

17. Have you ever attended a Philofaxy meet-up? if not do you intend to one day?

Unfortunately, no - but I continue to dream!

18. What was the last movie you watched?

Something on the airplane - Pacific Rim?

19. What was the last book you read?

Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee.  I know it's controversial, but I'm originally from the South in the US and it describes the world my parents grew up in perfectly.  I recognize Atticus Finch in my grandfather. 

Thank you Bex.

As you know we are always looking for new people to appear in our 'Reader Under Spotlight feature, you don't have to be 'well known' or a long term user to be considered to appear in this 'spot'.

So please contact Steve philofaxy at gmail dot com today. Thank you.