Sunday 9 February 2014

Ah, here we go again... Pocket? Personal?

I know. I’ve been here before. I hum and haw about this for a while, decide ‘yes, I can make it work in a pocket’ then I move over, lock, stock and barrel. And then about a month later I move back into a personal.

I’ve done the scoping exercises. I know exactly what I need in a planner. It’s exactly what a personal sized Baroque looks like. End of.

Except... Except... Except...

I have a drawer full of pocket filofaxes (and a Mulberry or two) looking doe-eyed and appealing. And small.

Oh, and there’s the rub.

There is no getting away from the fact that my Baroque feels huge sometimes. It’s not just a planner, it’s a wallet too so needs to have space for cards and money and receipts and vouchers and all that guff. And since I seem utterly incapable of working out that a monthly sheet would save having to have an entire year of week-to-view diary in the binder weighing it down and taking up ring-space, I have an entire year of week-to-view diary in there, weighing it down and taking up ring space.

I would LOVE to move into the pretty little red Portland (15mm rings... 4mm too small). But to do so would probably mean carrying a wallet as well as the filofax and that then defeats the point of carrying something small... There would also be the very strong probability that I would leave either filofax or wallet behind when leaving the house and then find I needed them.

I have made a pocket work for me before – I’ve had months in both an Aston and in a pocket Baroque (well, months if you combine the time in each of them) but it always feels a bit of a struggle in comparison with using the personal. If I could somehow convert that bit of my brain that struggles with being able to use a monthly planer I could probably drastically reduce the pages carried in it and really work the weekly reviews (take out the past week of week-to-view and replace with one more so there is constantly a month’s worth in there, plus the monthly planners). It’s always how to carry the cards that gets to me though. I carry bank and credit cards, but then there are all those other cards that no, I don’t use on a weekly or possibly even monthly basis, but if I don’t have them with me I will either lose them completely or find I need them and don’t have them with me. So I carry all of them and that takes up ring space since the card carriers for the pocket size only have 4 slots and are arranged in a way to make the binder really bulky since the cards overlap so much.

Does anyone use a pocket-size as both a well-functioning wallet and a well-functioning planner? Do you also blog? If so, please, please link to a blog-post showing how you get it to work? If you don’t blog – fancy doing a guest post on here to show how you make it all work? If you do blog, would you fancy doing a guest-post on here...?

 [569... still counting]

7 comments:

  1. Oh dear, what is it about us? Guess who has been trying to fit everything into a pocket slimline this past week? *sigh* At the moment I've been using a separate wallet, a little leather one I bought cheap in TKMaxx that has loads of pockets in a tiny compass in gorgeous soft black leather. But like you I prefer a wallet and filo in one, and I've been pondering this same issue. I just scored a pocket holborn off ebay that looks like it could be a perfect wallet combo. But I've also got a couple of other options. My handbag has three card pockets, so I can keep some less-used cards in that. I have some stick-on plastic card pockets which I'm thinking of sticking on each side of a flyleaf or two to add a couple of card pockets without as much bulk. Or maybe even just put the less-used cards in a personal size card holder and keep it loose in your bag? I really hope you get some guest posts on this. I'd offer to write one, but I doubt my rambling indecisions would prove either interesting or helpful to anyone!

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    1. @Shadow Wolf
      You could write me a blog post! I'd love you to!
      I think I may (may...) manage to shift into a pocket being my planner/wallet combo once I leave work as then I would mostly work out of an A5 that stayed on my desk and wouldn't need much in my carry-around version. In all honesty, I could do that now but I know that I will then get annoyed at myself for wasting good writing and editing time on faffing about! And then I wouldn't be using my glorious Baroques of course...
      We never change do we???

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  2. No we don't :/ For me it was the backache that motivated the latest change! I'm amazed how much a pocket binder will hold - youtube has some amazing examples! Even the slimline pocket is amazing me actually. But I have to say that future planning pages have to take a major hit. I chose to move my wallet to a separate item because I found I wasn't daring to carry my binder around at home in case I forgot to take it when I went shopping. This was annoying enough to my productivity, but when I started also using my planner as my writer's notebook I found I never had it when I needed it, and also that I was nervous taking it out to write ideas in case someone grabbed it and stole my money. However, I make no promises it will stay that way, you understand :D The Holborn looks like it would make a great wallet option - it's slim but so lovely and soft and looks nicely stuffable. If I settle down in something for more than a week at a time, I'd love to write you a post :) But I imagine the siren-song of the baroques, which of course will be wonderfully melodious - how could it be otherwise given the name - will be audible here on the south-coast!

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    1. The siren-songs would be deafening, wouldn't they! Hmmm... I am *trying* to stay in one size of binder for a whole year (yes, you can all start laughing like mad things now...) but since it's only February and the siren songs are starting, I'm not holding out much hope!

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  3. I can't. I went out and bought an excellent wallet and just live with the fact that they need to be separate.

    http://giftieetcetera.blogspot.com

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  4. I use 2 pockets. One my brown Kendal for cards, 2 bus passes, loyalty and library cards, mobile phone top up cards,coffee shop cards, 2 credit cards, business cards.. ..not many... including my local take away phone nos,cash and lottery ticket. My second pocket... crimson Malden, holds satellite diary, address book, stamps and address labels, and notepaper. xx

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    1. Would that not be easier to combine into one personal? I would be dreadful at remembering to grab one of the two pockets but not the other!

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