Zip-lock bags for the Holborn

I use my filofax as both wallet and organiser and so I need to carry my cards, coins, paper cash and vouchers as well as the organiser pages. Filofax seem determined to put pockets in stupid places in their filofaxes, meaning I have in the past used a purse-hack made from an unused freebie, but it doesn't really fit in the personal size.

Original purse-hack in the mini-Baroque

In the mini-Baroque, the zipped pocket is behind the card slots (and unusable for coins); in the Aston, the zipped pocket collides with any pen in the pen-holder and is largely unusable for coins; in the Holborn, the zipped pocket is inside another pocket and also clashes with the pen-holder. Only in the personal-size Baroques was the zipped pocket usable for coins.
Come on Filofax! Use a designer who USES A FILOFAX IN REAL LIFE??

Anyway, as I need to carry coins and vouchers with me, I have resorted to two zip-lock bags in my Holborn:

Two zip-lock bags I'm using

On the left is a zip-lock bag designed for the filofax (but not made by Filofax). I have also got a Filofax brand one, but the zip is on the top rather than on the edge and it makes the thickness ridiculous. I got this one from City Organiser (but I don't see them on their site at the moment).

On the right is an adaptation of one of the pack of small zip-lock bags I used in the pocket (see here for details). The plastic they are made from is very stretchy and doesn't go through a hole-punch well at all. To punch the holes in it, I had to:

1. put paper inside the bag
2. wrap the bag in a folded sheet of paper

before punching the holes (using a Rapesco punch. Don't even attempt this with the rubbish that Filofax laughingly calls a hole-punch - the bag with its wrappings wouldn't even go in the punch and the punch wouldn't cope with the thickness even if it did... Making a decent punch needs to be added to the list of things that Filofax should get its act together over, along with decent paper and all items being available via all websites!)

The washi tape is to make the holes a little stronger and to make it pretty.

The larger zip-lock pocket is made of a thicker plastic than the Filofax brand version and I like the fact I can see the coins (and therefore know if I have enough change to pay for something or if I should just go for a note).

Does anyone else use zip-lock bags in their filofax? If so, what do you use them for?

Moving into the Holborn

Warning - picture heavy post!!

Well, after buying a personal Holborn ages ago, and then drooling over him for what seems like months, I have finally made the switch from pocket Miss Aston into Mr Holborn.

In many ways, I am sad to move out of Miss Aston as she is a lovely filofax and very neat in a handbag. But, my summers always have fewer appointments and more to-do and space to write in was beginning to be an issue.

Mr Holborn’s attractions were his pocketses (oodles of them) and the layout. I also like the very dark brown colour (especially as I made all the contrast stitching match the leather with some Brasher boot cream – the cream stitching bugged me!).

My layout has settled down over the last year, but is still different in this personal size in comparison with the set-up I had in either the Baroques or the Cavendish, but the tweaks are quite small.

Here’s a walk-through of the whole binder.

Front cover, with blended stitching…

Inside cover:

There are 6 card slots  and a larger pocket with a curved edge underneath. I am using 5 of the slots, but I removed my credit/bank cards so as not to have to faff about redacting the details on them!

Behind the card slots there are two full-height pockets – one facing outwards and one facing inwards. I have paper money slipped into the outward facing one and nothing (at the moment) in the inward facing one.

Outward facing pocket (before Brasher treatment

 

Inward facing (also before Brasher treatment)

Sections:

Throughout the filofax I use home-made dividers with the same image printed on the reverse as on the front. I blogged about making them here.

1. Notes

Behind this divider is some blank paper. I have sifted through to find some unwritten on paper for the same reason I took my cards out! You’ll see old diary sheets being used as scrap paper (but turned upside down so I’m not confused!).

2. Projects

The start of the ‘meat’ of the filofax, this has:

a) a mind-map diagram (colour-coded) of the main areas of my life with their associated goals.

b) a sheet with written on it:

            Is it my DREAM?

            Is it essential?

            Time is finite

These statements are there to remind myself to focus on the important. [see this post for more details]

c) a to-do list that contains all to-do items that are NOT associated with a goal/project (like: post birthday card etc.)

d) the goals to projects to next action pages. I’ve blogged about these before (see here) but in essence the goal might be to raise £500 for a charity; this could break down into two projects – to produce and sell calendars, and to have a book sale. These projects would then have next actions such as choose the pictures for the calendars, and book the hall for the book sale etc. The goal and the project go on the front of the sheet; the next actions for that project are listed on the reverse. I use a separate sheet for every project and all of them are colour-coded according to which area of my life it belongs to.

3. Diary

Diary section (the elephant is for both 'never forget' and for 'eating an elephant' reasons!)

June monthly list; same pictures on the reverse of a divider as the front

At the start are monthly goal sheets. These have things that I know are going to have to be done this month (e.g. car tax) and these are often written in a long time in advance. There are also things added in during the monthly review/planning session I have, when things get moved from the next actions sheets to the monthly list.

After these, I used to have sheets for each week (with the sheets for June tucked behind June’s monthly list, then July’s monthly list followed by July’s weekly lists etc). I used to transfer things from the monthly list and the general to-do list onto the weekly list. Currently I have a week of DPP sheets for planning the day tucked immediately behind the monthly list (marked with one of two Today markers). Behind these sit a whole year of week to view. These used to be the filofax lined week to view but recently I have changed to using the Philofaxy week-on-one-page-plus-tasks diary format:

Instead of putting things on a separate weekly list page, I now transfer them straight to the weekly list opposite the week on one page. In busier times, the four lines for the day’s appointments will be woefully inadequate, but at the moment, they are okay. I may get these next year (or work out how to make my own version).

Right at the back of the diary, I have a Forward Planning page where things get jotted down for next year (or beyond). Slightly randomly, after that I have my training schedule… no, I don’t know why either.

4. Lists

Lists section

Here are gathered lists of sites I want to look out for, lists of things I’m waiting on, what I’ve bought/sent for birthday presents, things I receive as presents (and if I have sent a thank you), an equivalent list for Christmas 2011 (so I don’t send the same present twice!), lists of things I have written to friends about (as I am an inveterate letter-writer, but don’t easily remember what I have said to whom or when I last wrote), some packing lists, books to look out for, things to get for house/garden…

5. Info

Info section

Does what it says in its title… ‘in case of emergency’ contact details, general bits of info, travel insurance telephone numbers and policy number, ditto for car, coded passwords, those info pages from the diary, tube map, map of GB, world map etc.

Right at the back of the information section are addresses and phone numbers. These used to be sorted behind A-Z dividers but they seemed bulky so I chopped up some Post-It index flags and wrote the letters on them.

Right at the back are three plastic things: a zip-lock bag that I have punched holes in and put coupons and vouchers in then a zipped pocket with coins in, then a card-holder with the other store cards, car insurance card, donor card etc. I will blog about making the zip-lock bag in a separate post.

Removed from the filofax because anonymising their surroundings was too tedious

Inside Back Cover:

I like the design of the back cover much less than I like the front cover. There are two full-height pockets again, one outward-facing and one inward-facing. Inside the outward-facing pocket, there is a zipped pocket, but the placement of the pen-holder makes it almost impossible to access this pocket with the pen in there. I had the same issue with the Aston and hence moved my money out to a zipped purse hack (which was originally made for the mini-Baroque! Maybe filofax need to think about making the pockets in their products better?).

Outward facing pocket with zipped pocket inside (right next to the pen-holder)

Inward facing pocket

I have stamps in the outward-facing pocket and nothing in the zipped pocket. The inward-facing full height pocket is also currently empty and my Zebra Sharbo pencil/biro combo in the VERY small pen-slot. I tried to get a slim Frixion in there but it’s too tight. The Zebra Sharbo is a tight fit! I don’t know if that’s just my Holborn or if all of them have such small pen-holders, but my Zebra Sharbo is a very narrow writing implement!

So, that’s the set-up. It feels a bit like a brick in comparison to the Aston, but I need the real-estate over the summer. My Baroques are clamouring to be used, since I’ve moved up into the personal size again, but they will have to wait their turn!

Small change in my filofax, big difference

I have been muttering about “approaching planner fail” for a while, coming to the conclusion that:

a) I was being distracted by a colour clash in the diary (cream and purple not working so well)

b) I wasn’t using Miss Aston properly

c) I was being distracted by Mr Holborn

I finally decided that I would use Miss Aston until 31^st May and then switch to Mr Holborn. So, with only a week to go, am I impatient to make the switch??

Er… no.

I know, fickle female and all, but, I made one smallish change to Miss Aston and as a result, things are working again. What did I do??

I made a new diary for myself and printed it on white paper and stopped using the 2DPP I had made myself.

Okay, I realise that might not have enough detail for some of you, so here’s a compare and contrast of the Old System and the New System:

Old System:

A list of projects, broken down into ‘Next actions’.

A list of other (non-project based) to-do on a giant, largely unsorted list in front of the project sheets.

A year of monthly goals sheets

A few months of weekly goals sheets

Almost a year of WO2P

A week of 2DPP

In my weekly review, I would (along with reviewing and reflecting on the past week):

1) take out the used 2PPD sheets and file or bin them

2) add a new week’s worth of 2PPD sheets

3) transfer scheduled things from the WO2P to the 2DPP

4) add things from the next action lists/monthly goals sheets to my weekly goals sheet

Each morning I was at home (rather than at work), I would plan what I was doing in the day, moving things from the weekly list onto the 2DPP sheet into timed slots. If I thought I would have time, I would also schedule other things to clear off my giant to-do list.

Advantages of this system:

I knew what I was supposed to be doing all the time.

Lots of things got done.

Disadvantages of this system:

Miss Aston was a little plump.

I felt like my free time wasn’t really free, but planned to death.

Although I liked my home-designed 2DPP sheets and WO2P sheets, I hated the colour paper I was using. I also couldn’t work out how to orientate the 2DPP – time and tasks facing each other (making a day span two separate sheets in the filofax) or a single page covering a day (times on one side, tasks on the other). I liked to have them facing one another, but then didn’t like the fact that a day was split over different sheets of paper.

[in my personal size filofax this isn’t a problem as I use DPP not 2DPP but in the personal, that was too small]

My new system has such a small tweak, yet has moved me from being close to planner fail to now being happy with my set-up. I adapted the Advanced TM week to view for pocket size from the Philofaxy site, to halve the number of tasks and add in a Coming Up section (although the Coming Up is hand-written in the picture below, it's now been incorporated into the file!). Incidentally, my life really isn't this empty - I just chose empty weeks to photograph, so I didn't have to pixilate sensitive/private stuff!

Click on any picture to enlarge.

New diary format - amended TM from Philofaxy.

Old WO2P diary - cream-coloured paper clash!

Old 2PPD

New system:

Projects to next action sheets (as before)

To-do sheets (as before)

A year of monthly goals sheets (as before)

WO1P diary + To-do (home-made)

Scraps of paper to ‘plan’ the day

In my weekly review, I (along with reviewing and reflecting on the past week):

1) transfer scheduled things from the next action lists/monthly goals sheets to the to-do sheet facing my WO1P

Each morning I was at home (rather than at work), I would look at the list and (if I felt like I needed to) use a bit of scrap paper to plan out what/when. I guess I could use a DPP for this and not have the 2PPD issue I have. On many days, I just left my filofax open in a visible place and ticked things off as I did them.

Advantages of this system:

My weekly planning takes less time

I’m not transcribing things as many times

I like the paper I have my diary on

Stuff is getting done but I’m not feeling so ‘planned to death’

I can fit the whole year of WO1P + to-do in, and Miss Aston looks positively sylph-like

Disadvantages of this system:

Haven’t come across any yet… ☺

Now, I have to say, the ‘task into time slot’ method works brilliantly when I’m at work and also when I have lots of specific-timed things at home, but at the moment, days off work are fairly empty, especially now that I have stopped training for a half-marathon! Consequently, I have a list of stuff that needs doing in a week relating to projects plus other things that need doing that week. Generally, there’s no specific date these need doing (never mind a specific time) but if there is, I make a note of it.

Then on each day I’m at home, I check for appointments/specific-timed things (usually none), check what still needs doing on my weekly list and if anything else has cropped up and just do the tasks!

It’s made me realise that if/when I move back into the personal size, then the best thing for me is an enhanced TM Week per View (as per Philofaxy!). Which of course, has the added bonus of being free and easy to print at home on whatever colour paper I like!

Has anyone else found that a small tweak to their set-up has made a huge difference? What was it?

Not sure what the poll showed!

Well, thank you to everyone who voted in the “are you and inny or an outy” poll. As you can see, the results are not exactly conclusive in support of my idea that lefties would have the labels the other way!!

"Inny" & left-handed	2%
"Inny" & right-handed	68%
"Outy" & left-handed	2%
"Outy" & right-handed	22%
"Vertical" & left-handed	0%
"Vertical" & right-handed	2%

Number of votes: 35

Anyway, it was interesting to see how people have their labels!

Are you an inny or an outy?

No, I’m not talking belly-buttons, but tabs on filofaxes. The idea was sparked by a comment by Saffy on the new dividers I made for Mr Holborn (which has sadly been deleted by the author…) which said:

Wow, they look great. Interesting, when I was spending a few hours with my daughter and new label maker we both made labels for our filofaxes. I put my labels facing inwards like yours, my daughter faced her labels facing out which I immediately thought was odd. I wonder what others do? Did you plan for the labels to be facing in?

I always have my labels facing in (and so would call myself an “inny”).

I found it intriguing that others might be “outy” and then wondered if it was to do with handedness.

So, in the name of scientific research, I have a poll. Are you an inny or an outy (or indeed a vertical)? And also, which hand is dominant? If, like me, that’s a tricky one to answer – which hand do you most commonly write with?

Inny – the bottom of the letters on the tab labels are towards the inside of the filofax

Outy – the bottom of the letters on the tab labels are towards the outside of the filofax

Vertical – the tab labels are orientated vertically

Please vote in the poll?

Miss Aston gets even prettier

[Warning - picture heavy]

[click on the picture to see a larger version]

 

A zillion years ago, I bought card to make new dividers for Miss Aston. Yes, her calligraphy ones are lovely and there was absolutely nothing wrong with them, but I fancied a change.

Anyway, almost as many years ago, I asked you to vote on which card I should use. Here are the original choices and the results of the poll…

 

 

No-one liked number 15!

The poll suggests this combination for the dividers…

Apologies for the colour cast - the original pictures are more accurate

Well, if you recall, I also had a caveat in so that if the final combination didn’t look right, I would have the rights to change it (it is my filofax after all). I didn’t like the fact that there was one silver/grey card and one yellow/purple combination, and so I swapped the yellow/purple for  another silver/grey:

Number 7 was only one vote away, and I hadn't actually voted...

Having finalised the choices for the card, I made the dividers. I made each one 9.5cm x 12.5cm which is a little larger than the standard divider size but there is plenty of space in the filofax (and I make my own sheets and frankly it’s easier to make them 8.5cm wide; I get 5 sheets from an A4 page).

As usual, I hand-trimmed the tab side (hence all the curved bits being slightly wonky) and then just wrote on them with a permanent pen. Some of the card is glittery or has foil, making the writing a little less easy, but they look okay.

Here they are together:

And here they are in situ:

 

 

 

 

 What do you think?