Home sweet home Filofax

This is the last (for the moment at least) post about my filofaxes and how they are set up. I left the home one until last, mostly because it isn’t quite working for me. I think it is trying to be too many things to be honest… It has too much stuff in it, some of it in danger of getting lost and it needs a re-think. But… this is how it’s set up at the moment.

Again, I have personalised a lot of dividers throughout. Same method, same font etc as in the Book-o-fax, but some of the pictures I have snagged from other sites.

I can’t remember where I got the calligraphy animals from but I just love them. I am acutely aware that I am potentially stamping all over another culture than my own, but I look at them and I think they are beautiful. I can’t even pretend to understand any meaning behind them or any of the script, but I adore seeing them. I apologise profusely if I am offending anyone with them.

My Home red A5 Finchley

The bits of card you can see tucked into the pocket are my business cards. But since I rarely carry this thing around with me, I don't know why they are there...

Right at the front of my home FF I have this quote, which I picked up from Caribbean Princess. It’s there to remind me what’s important in life. Immediately behind it is my To Do list for home/non-work stuff (which kind of undoes the effect of the Life quote, but there we go… I said the set-up wasn’t quite right).

Beautiful quote which I found on Caribbean Princess' blog

To Do list which shatters the feeling of the quote page... :-(

Behind that is my diary. This is where I think I am doing too much with this FF. I don’t especially carry it around with me – it stays at home on my desk. My life divides very neatly into work and not-work – some days I am at work and my work FF diary keeps me right as to when and where appointments are. I don’t have many home appointments and I note birthdays and any other non-work dates/appointments etc in my work FF (because I look at it more often than the home one). In fact, I rarely look at the home diary and only use it because I had already filled it in (it’s the diary that came with the domino and which started out as my work diary. Then I bought the Finchley and the vertical diary was better than the horizontal for work). I probably won’t buy another one for the home Finchley next year.

The less-than-brilliantly-used diary section

Behind the diary is where the real ‘work’ begins. I have my writing notes in the FF – info about competitions, notes for short stories, notes for novels (as yet unpublished), blog posts, and a page of financial information relating solely to writing (income – very little, versus outlay – much more!). These are filed in sections using cheap A5 dividers from a local stationery store.

The main point of this filofax!

So good it gets a divider to itself!

Tucked behind all that are personal goals notes, lists of Christmas cards and presents, and work-things relating to the charity I helped to set up and for which I fund-raise (addresses/contact details, financial notes, general notes etc). This is a bit of a jumble and to be honest, I am tempted to start again with all the charity stuff in one of the unused personal-size FF I have (some old, non-filofax brand things from the nineties and a personal Baroque and a personal domino that came with the Gourmet Gift Box). You see, if I’m out and about for the charity, I’m not usually needing all the other stuff to do with writing, and if I’m travelling (and therefore writing en route on the train), I’m not usually needing the charity stuff. If I need a diary out and about with me, the paperblanks one that I got from Plannerisms does absolutely fine, is lighter and has space for notes at the back, if needed.

Behind the charity stuff, is a section largely of blank paper of different formats all printed at home on cream paper and all designed by me. It’s filed using the cream tabs that came with the filofax as follows: blank lined paper with a “filing note-box” in the top right-hand-corner (so that I can label what it’s for); blank blog-ideas pages; blank ideas-pages (this is available on the Philofaxy site); a set of contact pages relating to writing; a list of things to look out for (books, websites, blogs, clothes, you name it, really), then a tab with nothing behind it except a top-opening clear envelope.

In another month or so, I may well have ditched the diary in this filofax and shifted all the charity work stuff to a home of its own, but this is how it is at the moment. I really think it’s not sure what its purpose is at the moment.

Any ideas to sort it out??