My Every Day Carry (#EDC)

It's been a while since I shared my set-up with you, so I thought I'd give you all a quick look at what I'm using at the moment.

I need my EDC to have everything in it. There's no point me having a separate wallet and diary/notebook, because I'll forget one or other of them when I leave the house! But, I need to have something small enough that I don't wreck my back carrying it around! I'm somewhat in awe of people who merrily lug a well-stuffed A5 Filofax or planner around with them. Despite the fact I do always appear to have an enormous handbag, my EDC is pretty small.

For a long while, I'd been using my undyed extra wide pocket from Meadowgate Leather, which is slowly turning the most delicious caramel colour. But this week, I've changed out of that and into another Meadowgate Leather cover that I bought from a Facebook group.

Pocket TN from Meadowgate Leather
with extra width

Current set-up: diary, to do/notes, and Travellers Notebook

I haven't blogged on here for a while (I've been busy writing and editing my novels, as well as writing for Nero's Notes), but I did tell you about my 2019 diary a while back, so I thought, since we're now in the second quarter of 2019, I should update you on how it's going.

I'm pretty much using the same system that I've used in the past, but with a couple of tweaks. I have my main diary/planner, which lives on my desk and never goes anywhere else, I have a running list of 'stuff to do/remember' and I have my Every Day Carry that is usually in my handbag as it's predominantly a wallet.

Main Diary:

This is still the Box Clever Press one I blogged about. This has honestly been one of the best diaries I have ever used! I'm even using the month at a glance pages (and we all know how terrible I am at knowing what they're for!).

So, why is it so good?

Short-lived experiment!

Towards the start of October, I was wondering what to use as my diary set-up in 2019. It had been a choice between three TNs (standard, B6 and Field Notes size) or go back to a Filofax. You can see my thoughts about it all here.

I was itching to use my Field Notes size TN, but wasn't sure if I could make it work as wallet, planner and notebook.

Short answer... Nope. Well, not quite as I had thought I would.

I'd bought a fairly cheap diary to fit in it (the teNeues one... see here for the blog post on it), which had a vertical layout. It fitted in okay, though the TN ended up a bit of a chunky monkey with that, a wallet insert and a home-made credit card insert. The teNeues diary started in December, so I thought I would trial it, and see how it went (while I still also had my standard size, vertical layout, Midori TN diary to hand). I could have made it less chunky by removing the cover of the diary, but it wasn't really the chunkiness that made it not work, it was the fact the small diary wasn't big enough for me to plan my days and weeks in.

teNeues Cool Diary 2019 Weekly diary review

I've been umming and awwing about what to use in 2019 (see here for latest witterings) and bought myself a small diary to use in a Field Notes size Traveller's Notebook. The one I bought is a 9 x 14 cm TeNeues Cool Diary weekly diary (that is how the capital letters go in the label...). I got mine in blue, but it comes in a variety of colours.

It arrived the other day, so here's my review.

Cover:
The cover is a hard cover with nothing more than 2019 in silver on the blue on the front and the teNeues logo on the reverse. The cover is soft-touch synthetic. I'm not a huge lover of that, because I'm trying to reduce my plastic/non-recyclable purchases, but it's understated and fairly classic. That said, I'm in two minds over just removing it altogether, because it takes up thickness in the binder and the pages of the diary don't need protecting if it's in the TN cover.

What diary to use in 2019?

I know... it's barely October! And I don't normally have things planned hugely in advance, but we have just booked our summer holidays for 2019 and I'm feeling a bit twitchy that other than scribbling them down on the 'forward planner' bit I've created on the inside cover of my current diary, I have nowhere to put them down! I don't even have a wall calendar for 2019 and I'm sure magazines (like Country Living etc) have included them with the magazines by now.

Anyway, it's got me thinking about what to use for 2019. I currently have three options, though I may throw in a fourth just for shits and giggles.

1. Keep going with my standard-size Traveller's Notebook
2. Move to my B6 Traveller's Notebook
3. Move to a Field Notes size TN
4. Go back to using a Filofax

B6 Traveller's Notebook

If you've read my blog much recently, you'll know that I've become a recent convert to the B5 size, having a) converted an old Filofax Deskfax to a B5 Traveller's Notebook and b) found that B5 is a great size for book planning notebooks (see my reviews of a Zhi Jin notebook here, a B5 Leuchtturm dot matrix book here, and a set of Rosaliny Green World B5 notebooks here).

Before my conversion to B5, I had already been exploring B6 as a size. Now, don't get me wrong, I do love my Traveller's Notebooks (original size), but sometimes they are a bit big. This is probably because they are wallet, diary and notebook, all in one, but sometimes I think I want something a bit smaller.

Way back in January (!), I decided to dip my toe in the B6 water and bought (secondhand) a B6 TN via a Facebook group. I don't know why I haven't blogged about it before now... perhaps because I'm not using it yet.

Zhi Jin B5 notebook - review

Having renovated a battered old Deskfax into a beautiful B5 Traveller's Notebook, to use for writing, I was in search of some slightly thicker B5 notebooks. I have some slim ones (60-80 pages - Penco and Stalogy for example) but I'm getting to the stage with the new novel, where I'm going to need a chunkier book to hold more notes.

B5 isn't the easiest size to buy in the UK, which is largely wedded to the A-sizes (A4, A5, A6 etc) but I love B5 as a notebook size (and B6 as a smaller notebook size, to be honest). Leuchtturm do a B5 dot matrix book (and I've just snaffled a couple of those from Bureau Direct. They were reduced as they were discontinuing stocking them, so I don't know how long they will available). There is a Moleskine notebook which is approximately the right size, but hell hasn't frozen over yet, so I won't be buying it.

On Amazon, there are a couple of B5 books that I've been looking at, but this Zhi Jin one caught my eye as it had colourful covers and a rainbow edge.

I bought the blue cover and it's a fabulous, vibrant blue - Mediterranean sea colour on a sunny day. But what's it actually like as a notebook?

Battered Deskfax to B5 Travelers Notebook

I love the B paper sizes - from B6 which is just a brilliant TN size (bigger than A6, but not quite so big as A5) and B5 which is the perfect size for notebooks (again, bigger than A5, but not so big as A4).

I have a number of B5 books that I use for writing notebooks. I usually have smallish (60-80 page) ones as general ideas/initial notes on stories with one for each idea, and wanted to have a way of keeping them together. To buy a B5 Travellers Notebook would be expensive, but...

... an old Filofax Deskfax is exactly the right size! I spotted a pretty battered Richmond Deskfax on eBay, put in the minimum bid and waited to see... and I won it!

I actually have a Richmond Deskfax, given to me by my wonderful friend Gerard, which does indeed make a great notebook size. But I wanted one to remove the rings from and then punch holes in it, so the lovely, perfect condition one from Gerard was altogether far too nice to be treated like this!

This is what the one from eBay looked like, before I started on it...
[click on any picture to enlarge]

Front cover

Back cover (apologies it's a bit blurred)

I got my hubby to drill out the rivets holding in the ring mechanism (as he isn't likely to drill through an artery in the process, whereas I am), then he carefully cut the lining, removed the backing plate and glued the edge of the leather back down over the slit with superglue. You can barely see the cuts!

So this is what the inside looked like after the removal of the rings...

Interior, no rings!

The rings removed, the cover still looked battered and pretty horrible. But black shoe polish works wonders! I know some purists out there will be grinding their teeth at the thought, but I wanted a nice looking notebook and don't care.

So, here we go, rings removed and the leather cleaned up with a leather wipe and then covered in black shoe polish...

Rings removed and cleaned up, all that was left was to punch the holes in it and thread the elastics.

Three tips for you:
1. Use a leather punch. You need to get through the leather cover, a card inner and the lining fabric. I used a 1.5mm punch, bought pretty cheaply from eBay. Remember to protect the surface you have the Filofax on before walloping the punch with a hammer. I had a chopping board underneath.

2. Use a bit of masking tape/washi tape to mark up where the holes need to go as it's easier to write on that than on the leather.

Washi tape on the leather ready to mark up
where the holes need to be punched

3. Use a wool needle to help thread the elastics through the holes - it's a lot easier than trying to poke the elastic through the holes, especially from the inside.

 

The Richmond is a great layout for a TN - there's a set of 8 card slots on the left, with what was a floppy disk holder (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!) at the bottom, but which could be used for stickers/Post-Its etc. Behind that is a full-height slip pocket. Behind that is a zipped pocket and behind that is another full height slip pocket.

The right hand side (inside back cover) has a full height slip pocket and a slot so you could put a notebook in it if it had the backing attached along the top edge, rather than the side.

There are two pen loops and it fastens with a clasp (so no need for an elastic round the middle).

Perfect B5 TN ! Here it is, loaded up with some notebooks, ready to go. I do admit, you might need a large handbag/briefcase to carry it around, but I want it mostly for train journeys (and have a huge bag...). All in all, I'm really pleased. For less than £14, I have a B5 TN that has all the features I want.

A Penco book on the left and a Stalogy 016 on the right

Not perfect, but less 'lived in' looking that at the start!

What do people think?

Planner Peace

I've realised that the reason I've hardly been posting on here (apart from being ludicrously busy all the time, naturally) is that I'm not angsting or fretting over my planner. When I used a Filofax, either the size was all wrong, or the inserts were. I flipped back and forth from A5 to personal to pocket and back.

I've been using a Travellers' Notebook system for yonks now! I blogged about being in a TN way back in 2015. Then, I'd been in my Stamford Notebook Company red TN for six months (and thought that was a record!). I blogged about it here. Since I moved into the red TN, my system hasn't changed at all, though the actual TN being used has.

What I'm using at the moment:

What I'm using in 2018... part 1

Hello all! Remember me?? I'm the blogger who used to post a LOT more regularly about stationery...

Where have I been?

Publishing another book for a start... "Lies That Poison" came out in September and I was super-busy getting that ready... then The Wrong Kind of Clouds got re-published as "The Call" this week and I was super-busy with that too!

But, back to stationery... I've just about got sorted with what I'm using next year! This post will be about what I'm using as my planner in 2018.

New Traveller's Notebook from Meadowgate Leather

new TN!! Undyed leather

I already had a Traveller's Notebook by Meadowgate Leather - my everyday carry (EDC). It has extra card slots, my diary, a notebook and a wallet insert and is just glorious! I blogged about it here. Now I have two!

As many of you know, as well as my EDC, I also use a small notebook for everyday planning/bullet-journalling (of a fashion) that's just under A6 size. I use Clairefontaine notebooks, which are the same size as Field Notes (but made of nice paper and there are lots of pages in them). I use a page per day and down the left-hand side of the page, I have timed slots and on the right, I jot down tasks I'd like to get done and any notes that crop up in the day. The timed slots are used for appointments and for time-boxing. I also have a Word. notebook with lists of people to write to, emails to send and general stuff that doesn't need doing on a specific day. Until now, these books have sat naked on my desk. In all honesty, they probably didn't need any protection as they just sat on my desk, but, you know me and stationery... why should I not buy things, when they're lovely and I could just buy them?

I've been tempted by undyed leather for a while. My good friend Stuart (writing buddy, and he of Pocket Notebooks) had an undyed A6 TN from Meadowgate Leather last year and it's steadily been turning a gorgeous caramel colour. So, I finally got round to getting my own undyed Field Notes size (plus good overhang) cover from Meadowgate, with red elastics. This is the listing here.

Ordering from Meadowgate Leather is easy-peasy and there are so many ways to tailor your order - colour of stitching (if you have a TN that has stitching), colour of elastics, pen-loop/no pen-loop, position of pen-loop, size of pen-loop, amount of overhang, name tag... LOTS of options. I went for: undyed leather, Field Notes size, medium pen-loop stitched facing outwards and 3/4 up the back cover, red elastics, bigger overhang than standard and... I asked if Mike (the owner) had any especially scarred or interesting leather and if so, could he use it on my TN.

The TN arrived very swiftly and is beyond gorgeous. It was nigh on impossible to photograph and get an accurate representation of the colour, given that it's Scotland and 5 inches of rain fell the day I was trying to take pictures. The pictures with flash are too pale and those without are too dark... click on any to enlarge.

Front cover - reasonably accurate colour

Back cover (more on the marks soon)

Interior - I'll explain the R in a moment!

You remember that I'd asked for scarred/interesting leather? It just happened that Mike had had some leather arrive with a big branding mark on it. Perfect timing! I don't especially like the fact that any animal gets branded, if I'm honest, but it didn't get branded on my behalf. Anyway, that's what the R in a circle is - it's much more prominent on the interior, but if you look closely at the picture of the back of the TN, you can see it.

Mike's undyed leather comes with no treatment at all - no wax or protection. I decided that I would put some leather cream on it as protection as it might not get a lot of oils from my hands given that it mostly sits on my desk. Naturally, any treatment will cause some colour changes to the leather. All of the above pictures were taken before treatment. The next was taken with just the RHS (front) cover with leather cream on:

This is with all of the cover (minus the pen loop) treated (cream on, not yet buffed):

And this is after the cream has been buffed:

It's been on my desk for 2 days and I left it out yesterday, closed. Here's a picture of the front cover now...

front cover 2 days later

Can you see the faint paler horizontal line? That's where the elastic was fastened. I suspect this TN is going to turn an even more fabulous colour with time!

So, what's in it? Currently, only two of the elastics are used - one with my Clairefontaine day book, one with the Mist Word. notebook. If I'm honest, the interior elastic feels a bit too big/tight for small notebooks and I may swap it out for 1mm elastic instead. I'll see.

Anyway, just as I was the first time I ordered from Meadowgate Leather, I am absolutely thrilled with the product. Mike is a treasure to deal with and his products are incredibly well made. If you can't see quite what you're after on the site, just send him a message and ask. That's what I did with my first TN, to get card slots in the back and the front. He will do his best to make you just what you're after. His prices are very reasonable and the craftsmanship is superb. Go on... go and check him out!

New Traveller's Notebook Cover

I know. I possibly don't really need another one, but... I finished my next book and wanted to reward myself. Good enough reason, right? And because the next book is about to go off to publishers, I 'needed' a cover to hold the books I'll use to track how the submissions go. You all understand.

I'd been hankering after another one from Meadowgate Leather - see this post to see which one. Unfortunately, the owner is unwell at the moment and his Etsy shop is closed. I will no doubt order the one I want once he's back to full health and the shop is taking orders again.

In the interim, I saw one in the Etsy shop Inspired Journal. I can't see the exact same one there now, but this one is very close.
These are the pictures from the Etsy listing of the one I bought:

Anyway, it arrived recently and it's beautiful! It has no pockets or anything - just a leather cover with a leather lining (i.e. two pieces of leather stitched together). It's a sand colour - more yellow/orange than the picture above (gorgeous) and has a red and white elastic closure and the same for holding the booklets (the same as is shown above). There are four elastics inside. The elastic for holding the booklets is too thick for the job and I will swap it out for some narrower red or black elastic. The size is almost A5 - it's designed to hold Moleskine cahiers, but they're horrible, so I'll either make my own booklets for it from some paper and card cut down to size, or I'll trim up some A5 booklets. I tried two A5 slim notebooks in it and they weren't too bad, so I may stick with them.

Anyway, here are pictures of mine (click to enlarge):

Exterior:

Gorgeous colour!

Interior:

The 3mm thick elastics are too thick

With booklets in (probably not the final booklets - these are my diary and notebook from my everyday TN):

It really is a beautiful cover. It's on the floppier side, so if you prefer a firm cover it possibly isn't for you, but the workmanship is wonderful. The seller was very helpful and shipping was reasonable and didn't take too long (just under two weeks from Indonesia to Scotland).

My Planning System (2017) -Part 3: Putting it all together

Over the last few posts, I've told you what paper-based items I'm using for planning 2017 and given you a bit more detail about each of them. I realise it was a huge amount of information and probably seemed impossible to follow. So, here is a walk-through of what I do each quarter, month, week, day. Some of you might feel that doing something daily, weekly and monthly is over-kill. Quite a bit of me wonders if it isn't too much at times too, but, this is the system that has (mostly) kept me on track for the last 5 years and maybe some of you will find it helps you too. If it doesn't, no problem! Every one's unique.

My Planning System (2017) - Part 2: Weeks to Days

In this post, I outlined what I would be using in 2017 for planning. These are:

• A book outlining Goals to Projects to Next Actions
• A monthly planner
• My TN with a week + notes diary and a notebook in it
• An A6 Clairefontaine notebook for day planning

In the last post, I gave a bit more detail on the first two elements of my planning system. Today, I'll outline how the last these parts fit together.

My system is essentially the same as it was in this post, but with different paper-based products to achieve the same results! (Incidentally, that post is my most popular post by a country mile!! At the time of writing, it had well over 45 000 hits!).

At close of play yesterday, I had outlined how I got from Goals and Projects to Next Actions and a Plan for the Month. How does this then relate to the other two parts: the TN and the A6 Clairefontaine?

What will I be using in 2017?

I've pretty much settled into a system now and so I'm all set up, ready to go for 2017. In this post, I'll tell you about the components of the system; in the next post, I'll show you how it all fits together.

The System:
One carry-around. This is my Meadowgate TN and it contains a week + notes diary, a monthly insert and a notebook
An A6 daily planner
A separate notebook with Goals to Projects to Next Actions.
An A5 day per page diary to write up my day in

I want this TN!

It's another Traveller's Notebook cover by Mike at Meadowgate Leather. The one I want is an Oakleaf Traveller's Journal (click here to see it on Etsy), which has no interior pockets or anything, but is made of two layers of leather: the exterior is the same thick leather that's used on the other Traveller's Notebooks in their range; the lining is a soft pig-skin and the two are hand-stitched with saddle-stitch around the outside.

Exterior of the Oakleaf TN
Image from Meadowgate Leather, with permission

Interior of the Oakleaf TN
Image from Meadowgate Leather, with permission

As with all the other TNs by Meadowgate Leather, there are lots of options to choose from. I'm fairly sure I will be ordering an A5 in undyed leather, with a pen-loop (facing inwards), elastic colour in navy, ultra-max overhang, no name-tag, with the maker's stamp on the reverse, and the stitching in either beige or a light brown.

Hang on, some of you might be thinking, "Haven't you got a few TNs already?? Why do you need another?"

Well, any of you thinking that, can go away!

I just want one. That's more than enough of a reason isn't it??

Why in undyed? There are fabulous colours available on the listing. In all honesty, I could happily have several, across the colour range, but I'm especially wanting undyed. One of my good friends, Stuart (see his website here) got a TN from Meadowgate Leather in undyed and the colour change in it has been fantastic. He's promised me pictures to share with you to show the change of colour over time. At the moment is is a similar colour to golden syrup! The other example of how undyed leather changes with time is on Janet Carr's excellent blog where she showed how the leather changed over time in a Filofax-style binder (see here for one of the posts on how the leather changed). I'm wanting to have this TN as a writing notebook (hence the A5 size) and I want to see how the colour will change over the years.

I suspect I will be ordering it soon! Keep you all posted!

Review: Traveller's Journal from Meadowgate Leather

New Traveller's Journal. I love it!!

[Longish post. Go get a cuppa and come back!]

I've been in my red Traveller's Journal from The Stamford Notebook Company for well over a year now! Those of you who've followed the blog for longer than that (bless you - don't you have a life?) will know that for me, that's pretty amazing! I blogged about my current set-up in it, here.

I've always preferred to have both my diary/planner and my money/cards all in one place. It's easier for me to grab just the one thing as I head out the door and it's easier for my husband to know everything is in the one place. Apart from just wanting to buy new stationery (tum te tum te tum), I had been looking for a new TJ with card slots in the cover rather than having them in the plastic insert (which has always held the cards really loosely). I found a fabulous seller on Etsy - Mike Baldock who runs Meadowgate Leather - who sells the most gorgeous leather goods. His website is at www.meadowgateleather.com and his Etsy shop is at www.etsy.com/uk/shop/meadowgateleather.

There are several versions of Traveller's Journals on the site, with different features.
OAK: This is closest to a Midori TN - essentially the leather cover. No slip pockets; no card slots. The default is to have 4 elastics and a spine-mounted elastic closure and no pen loop though there are a variety of options and add-ons available. An example of the Oak version can be found here.

ACORN: This is a cover which has a slip pocket at the back but otherwise is the same as the Oak range and again, has many add-ons and options to choose from. An example of the Acorn range can be seen here.

SNOWBELL. This is the one I have! The standard version has card slots in the front cover and a slip-pocket behind. The back cover has a vertical slip pocket. An example of the Snowbell range can be seen here.

Mike told me that he is about to bring out another TJ called WILLOW which will be similar to the Oak range but made out of slightly suppler leather. It may have the option of stitching around the edge as everyone seems to ask for that. It's not up on the site yet so I don't have a link to share.

All of the TJs he makes can be made in a range of nine (yes... nine) sizes and a wide selection of colours of leather, thread, elastics etc. To be honest, if you don't see a size you want, contact him and ask. He is more than happy to take custom orders (and he is a lovely chap to deal with!).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I contacted him and asked him if he could make a TJ for me where both the front and back covers had the card slot layouts. If so, how much extra would it be? He got back to me almost immediately and said there would be no problem doing that and that for the size I wanted (cahier - just shy of A5), it would be just under a fiver extra.

There are lots of options you can choose for the TJ: leather colour, stitching colour, elastics colour, pen-loop in the back or not, logo in the back cover or not, a leather name tag on the closing elastic, whether you want the card slots horizontal or vertical... I ordered the cahier size with extra over-hang, in Java brown with dark brown stitching and brown elastics. I had the pen-loop and the logo included but didn't want a name tag. I was away on holiday and not able to sign for delivery until I got back so I asked Mike to hang on to it until I was back, which he very kindly did.

So, what's it like???

GORGEOUS! Absolutely wonderful!

It arrived well packed and wrapped in tissue paper, with Mike's business card:

I managed to hold off unwrapping it, long enough to take a picture!

The smell of the leather was divine! Even before I tore the paper off. All of his leathers are vegetable tanned and all of the stitching is done by hand. There are some lovely pictures and more information about the process on his website: www.meadowgateleather.com (opens in a new window, so you won't lose me).

Inside was the Traveller's Journal. The colour was lighter than I expected but I'm sure it will darken down. If I was trying to match to the colour chart on the Etsy page, I would have thought it was saddle tan rather than Java. (Mike has since said to me that he thinks he should have a 'summer' and 'winter' set of colour charts as the dyes colour the leather differently in the different conditions!)

Front cover

Back cover

Inside, the reverse of the cover is undyed and a delicate cream/buff colour. The card slots are dyed to match the cover and the pen-loop is the same as the cover colour:

Interior

The covers come with four internal elastics as standard and Mike included some spare elastic with the cover. Both the booklet elastics and the closing elastic are 2mm. I might trim off some of the excess around the closing elastic but it's not in the way at the moment. He deliberately leaves it longer in case the new owner needs to loosen the elastic off.

Close-up of the left cover

Close-up of the right cover

Close-up of the logo (taken with flash so colour not quite accurate)

Apologies for the colour in the photographs - it wasn't the best light in Scotland for taking pictures!

Anyway, I moved in almost immediately! The set-up is exactly the same as in my post here, but here are some pictures of it all in situ.

Loaded up but not too fat!

Bank cards on left; money in pockets insert on first elastic

2nd elastic with diary (in hateful Moleskine)

Another hateful Moleskine as a notes section

One spare elastic; other cards in the back cover
Pen is a Signo erasable rollerball

So that's it. I can honestly say that the Traveller's Journal has the finest workmanship and is absolutely wonderful. Mike was a pleasure to deal with - very quick and helpful responses to all my queries - and the price was excellent (under £60, including p+p with 1st class recorded delivery). If you're after a new Traveller's Journal (or, just want to buy another one...) go and check him out.

Current set-up in my Traveller's Journal

Traveller's Journal from
The Stamford Notebook Company

I've not really given you all an update about how the diary/bullet journalling system is going. Largely because I've not really made many tweaks and it's all still working well! In essence, there are three parts to the system: (1) a notebook with long-term planning and Goals to Next Actions; (2) a Traveller's Journal as my carry around with money, diary and space for notes; (3) an A6 notebook for daily planning/bullet journalling.

The Goals to Next Actions are still in the Leuchtturm 1917 and are the same as they were in this post so I'll not say any more. It lives at home all the time as I have no need for it other than during my Sunday planning sessions.

The Traveller's Journal:
The only thing I've changed significantly in this is the diary. I've struggled with the week plus notes diary that I got from The Stamford Notebook Company since I got it to be honest. There's just something about the layout that isn't working for me. Their layout is the days horizontally on the left and lined paper on the right, with fairly wide ruling. It was a combination of the wide ruling and the horizontal days that didn't work for me and so once I got to the end of the first booklet (January to end of June), I swapped out.

Hateful Moleskine with some washi tape

I've gone back to the format I had at the end of last year - eight boxes on the LHS and eight boxes on the RHS for a week. The eight on the left are Mon-Sun plus a space for tracking (though I'm not really using it all that much). The eight boxes on the RHS are for noting tasks relating to my Life Areas, plus a space for what's coming up next week (because I'm too daft to be able to turn the page over). Weekly tasks get noted in the appropriate Life Area boxes. I usually only label up most of the Life Areas during my weekly planning session as sometimes some areas need less than a block and two areas can share and others need more and spill over!

Deliberately dull week! Save me needing to redact things.

I've yet to find anywhere that makes a layout like this, so I've drawn it out for myself. Yes, that's tedious, but at least I have what I want and it probably only took the same time as setting up a mail-merge thing, printing it, cutting it and binding it. I've used a squared Moleskine cahier. I loathe, hate and abhor Moleskine cahiers but I have some and I'm going to use them up. I have some small day of the week stamps which I've used to label up the weeks. Otherwise, dates are written in by hand.

Close-up of LHS

Close-up of RHS

In the TJ, the contents are the same as they have been for ages: money in a zipper pocket/slip pocket insert (Midori 008 insert); cards in a Midori 007 insert and then the diary. Behind the diary is another hateful Moleskine cahier (I've almost finished using them up!) for jotting notes down while out and about.
So, that's my carry-around. I have my money, cards, diary and space for notes, all in something only slightly bigger than a personal size Filofax and smaller than an A5 Filofax. However, the day spaces in the diary aren't big enough for day to day planning/working and so I also have an A6 bullet-journal.

A6 bullet-journal:

Home-made cover

Each Sunday, I plan out when I will try and do tasks from my Life Areas lists and add them (in colour-coded pen) to the days in my A6 bullet journal. However, my days frequently end up with other small things needing noting that aren't part of my Life Areas but which need to be remembered, at least for a while. These are also noted in the A6. I don't really do bullet-journalling the way the original system does with one giant list of stuff. I'm far too over-organised for my brain to deal with that! No, I have my week plus notes in my TJ (and if anything arises that is week specific, it gets added to the appropriate week immediately) and I have day to day lists in my A6 notebook. This is a slight jumble of specific tasks, other tasks that cropped up that day and random things to note/remember. The A6 is small enough that it's always on me but has enough space to be able to note everything. Frequently, both the TJ and the bullet-journal are on my desk next to me. At the end of the week, I go through the A6 book and move any information that needs keeping to its final home, tick off things that got done (these frequently are ticked as they're done), think about the stuff that's not been done and either add it to the next week's list or discard it. Neither the diary nor the A6 notebooks get kept.

Cover open

The A6 notebook that I use is a squared Clairefontaine. I had been using two pages per day, but was barely needing that amount of space so have moved to a day per page.

Um... quiet day!

There is another elastic, so that when I'm running out of notebook, I can put another one in behind. I have a zillion of these books and will probably just keep going with them, but a significant part of my brain also thinks I could just use the notebook in the Traveller's Journal! I think what has stopped me from doing so thus far is the fact I've been using up the Moleskine cahiers in there and hate writing in them! I'll get the A5 version of the Clairefontaine squared notebooks and cut them to size and use them as soon as the Moleskine is used up!

Well, that's my system. It hasn't really changed much and has been working really well for me. What do people think?