The Filofax of Summer

Feels like summer is trying to make one last big stand around here. Temps were in the high 80s yesterday and will be again today. The weekend is supposed to be cooler, and I can't wait.

I'm catching up with the Planner Addicts Photo-a-Day Challenge!

Day 9 - Favorite essentials

My favorite essentials would have to be my Frixion pens. I don't like writing in pencil in my planner because it smears so easily, but regular pens can't be erased. Enter the Frixion. Perfection!

Day 10 - Lists

This is the to do list for this week. It may not look like much right now, but by the end of the week it will be filled. Some weeks I have to add another list stamp.

Day 11 - Sections

In order: month, week, next year, home, to do, family, one for each of my boys, me, health. I use top tabs for the main sections and the side tabs break down the sections.

And since it's so nasty and hot and humid and plain disgusting outside, I'm using today to stay in as much as possible and get some work done. See you later this week!

You're So Filofax (Photo Challenge and Weeks 36 and 37)

Hey everyone! I'm back with days six, seven, and eight of Toni's Planner Addict challenge and a weekly update.

First up, the challenge. I've been having a blast with this and sharing my photos in Toni's Facebook group. So many wonderful, like-minded people, and a truly positive bunch.

Day 6 - On the Go

My personal Malden and my bag in my car.

Day 7 - Workspace

I use my writing office for my planner space, too. This is an alcove at the front of our house, off the living room. We call it the sunroom because it's eastern facing and gets a ton of beautiful morning sun. There are floor to ceiling bookshelves on the right and left and a comfy chair and ottoman to the left of where I'm standing for this picture.

Day 8 - Sticky

I'd been talking on the phone with a close friend of mine who had several bits of interesting news. I took notes while we talked and the post-its ended up in my planner.

 

And that catches me up with the photo-a-day challenge!

Here's the end of week 36... it ended up being comfortably busy.

The week on two pages with notes format is working out so well for me. I love having space for each day to journal a little, just the basics of the day and some reminders, and the notes page for the to do stamp. I have a lot to do during the week, but usually nothing is set in stone for a particular day. It's really ideal for me to keep one giant running to do list for the week that my husband and I can both refer to and check off as we can finish something. There are a few things we always do on the weekends (my son cleans out his hamster's cage on Saturdays, bedding gets changed on weekends, school uniforms must be washed on weekends), so I simply write those in the bottom right corner of the to do section.

And here's the upcoming week...

We're headed into the fall term for our sprogs, so we will be crazy busy. Elder Sprog plays soccer, with games every week and he's on his school's FLL Robotics team, which has a ton of practices up until the regional competition in December. If they do well enough, they'll go on to the national competition in January, which means more practices. Younger Sprog isn't quite so involved yet, so for now it's really just running one of them around.

I have a writing deadline in October and a novel release at the beginning of November, so I'm going to be busy writing, too.

Wish me luck and have a great week!

Just Like a Filofax

Another blogger, Toni from A Bowl Full of Lemons, is having a photo-a-day challenge for planner addicts.

How could I not?! I decided to use my personal binder, the A5 purple Malden because it's the most interesting. My work binder doesn't change as much and I don't decorate quite as much.

I'm playing catch-up for the last few days, but after today I'll (try) to post my picture here each day. Fun stuff! 

 Day 1 - The Cover

You guys have seen this one before, but this is the first thing I see when I open my personal binder.

Day 2 - In Your Bag

I'm actually not fond of carrying huge purses, so I have this kind of medium sized one. I carry my personal-sized Malden as a wallet, a Filofax Flex, a small essentials bag, some lip gloss, and a tiny bottle of liquid Stevia. There are a few unmentionables in the zipper pocket.

Day 3 - Fountain of Pens

Obnoxiously enough, this is only a portion of what I own.

Day 4 - Current Day

This day, September 4, happened to be wide open for me to work. And I did. But not before I was photobombed by my dog.

Day 5 - Wishy Washi

And this is today. My washi tape for decorating pretty much everything. Except the dog. He doesn't dig that.

So there are the first five days of my photo-a-day challenge! If you're also taking part, please leave a comment and link to your blog. I'd love to see!

Smells like Filofax

So I guess I had my weeks a tad off last week... today marks the end of week 35 and tomorrow is the beginning of week 36 in my week-on-two-pages-with-notes.

That's what I get at the end of the summer. It's like a sprog stupor or something. I had a fairly busy week, for all that my kids went back to school. Lots of finishing up last minute things, cleaning up from them being here all day and reorganizing everything for them to get the year started on a good note. I spent time finishing up around our family room desk area and helping my younger son with his desk (although he does his homework in the kitchen where I can prod him), plus trying to get my own work back on track.

Here's the end of this week:

Weekdays on the left, notes on the right behind the clear divider. I use a checklist stamp (but not the Muji one that is so popular... I'm such a rebel!) on the notes page. It's covered here by a card on which I write our weekly menu on one side and the grocery list on the back. The red bit peeking out underneath is an apple-shaped post-it on which I've written my kids' bus numbers and times.

And what next week looks like for me so far:

I did actually go back and stamp another purple checklist on here. Having only two was wishful thinking on my part. Hey, a girl can dream.

I will move my clear "week" tab into place tonight.

This Filofax (my purple A5 Malden) is strictly my home planner, and it's mostly housebound. I do take it along when I travel, but I carry a personal size Filofax as my wallet with just basic information that I might need while out and about. So this one has all my home stuff and my husband has access to it (see post below wherein I discuss the reason that I bought my first Filofax...). Each of the three binders is different, with different sections and purposes.

This is the set up for my home binder. I make all my own dividers and tabs and accessories. I use the checklist stamp (mine is probably double the size of the Muji one I've seen on other sites) and I use washi tape and stickers just for fun. I rarely use any of the decorations so that they cover writable areas, because I do use my planner for planning.

Top tabs: month, week, home, family, me.

The tabs on the top are for easy access to the bigger sections. The "month" and "week" tabs are clear so I can see both pages. Behind the "home" tab I have lists of information that comes in handy (I just added the model information for the filter I need to replace the water filter in the fridge... I can never remember that one). I also have business card holders here for companies we like to use. Just yesterday we had a locksmith in to match all the door locks in the house and I kept his card.

Side tabs: next year, to do, sections for both of my kids, and a health tab.

The side tabs open into the larger tabbed sections. The "to do" tab opens to a page in the "home" section where I have lists of things that need to be done around the house. The kids' tabs both open into the "family" section and I keep information about school and sports behind their tabs. The health tab is part of the "me" section, and includes a food diary, wellness journal, and a lists of current meds for reference.

Front page!

I keep this little decorated page in the very front. There's a picture of my husband and I, one of the boys and our dogs, and one of my cat, who died on July 3. It just makes me happy.

My younger son decorated the back of my family page. It also makes me smile. The plastic sleeve on the right is a top-open sleeve. I have a laminated list of important phone numbers taped to the front of it and a pen holder on the side for an extra pen. There's also a cervical cancer awareness sticker... I lost a good friend to cervical cancer just yesterday.

After the sleeve, I have my year planner. I use the vertical arrangement. On this, I put all the holidays, any days my husband has off work, and all days that my kids are off school. This helps when planning for vacations or when I go out of town.

After my year-at-a-glance, I have the months. This is September, which I decorated with a travel theme, since I'll be traveling. The divider is clear in the middle so I can see both pages when I open it.

Do you like it? This works really well for me.

Next time I'll show you my wallet-binder!

Have a great week!! Happy Labor Day to my US friends!

End of week 33 and going into 34

Hi everyone!

This morning my sprogs went back to school. My older son started eighth grade, and the younger is a fifth grader. They're both now the oldest classes in their respective schools (middle and junior schools), "big men on campus," or so to speak, so I anticipate a year of ego. Whee!

The last few weeks have been very busy, with trying to get the house reorganized for school and getting the sprogs ready. Each of the boys had a chore checklist for the last two weeks, and I've got to admit, they did well. I was surprised. The 13-year old took on the responsibility himself and I didn't really have to remind him to do much. The 10-year old needed a little more prodding, but that's how it goes.

Here's what my completed week 33 in my A5 Malden looked like:

I know, crazy, right?

I love to look at pictures and videos of Filofaxers who decorate like crazy. Their planners look so pretty! My planner, even at A5 size, doesn't seem to have room for me to do much decorating. I use the week on one page with notes, because we often have to do lists with mostly items that need to be done by the end of the week, not necessarily by a set time, so I find it helpful to just make a master list of the week's chores, rather than assigning them to a particular day. The page with days serves as a reminder for appointments and a casual diary.

Here's this week (week 34):

Yay for back to school!

My boys and I spent most of yesterday cleaning and reorganizing the computer area in the family room. Both boys use the desktop for homework, although the older one has more to do on the computer, so I wanted to make sure the space was ready for homework. I didn't take a before picture (I'm kind of glad I don't have to admit what it looked like before we went at it), but here's what we ended up with...

Each boys has an after-school checklist hanging on the message center to the right. Our family calendar is hanging above. Having the desk area mostly clear and ready for homework made me feel good, but they didn't seem quite so thrilled. *snicker*

In another post I will explain further about how I use my Filofax for writing, which is my job. I use an A5 Malden for my home organization, a personal Malden as a wallet, and an A5 Finsbury for work.

Have a great week!

She's Filo Dependent

 So who knew that when I bought my first Filofax I would find such an amazing online community of like-minded people?

Hi! My name is Nikki and I can't function without lists. Is there a 12-step program for that? There should be.

There should probably also be a 12-step program for people who love Filofaxes. I mean, there are worse things I could be addicted to, I guess... like maybe black tar heroin, but there's a recovery program for that, right?

Just kidding.

For the last ten or twelve years I was a heavy Levenger Circa user. I have all my old planners archived and up until last year they were all Circa. It worked for me, clearly, but I found that by keeping all my information (read THINGS THAT NEED TO BE DONE) in my personal binder, I was the only one in the house paying attention to them and I really wanted a system more accessible to everyone in my house (or so I thought).

So I went electronic. For more than a year I kept all our family information in shared notebooks in Evernote. I hated it. There's no delicious paper feel to the computer, no real personalization to be done, nothing to caress while you sob over your uber-long to-do list...

...but I digress.

And really, no one (read MY HUSBAND) was paying any more attention to the lists in Evernote than they did when I wrote it all down. Now, this isn't a cut on him, I promise, I love him more than anything and he's the best hubby on the planet, no joke. It's just he's not a list-oriented person. He also has a job in the computer field and as he mentioned to me several times, he'd rather jam bamboo skewers in his eyes than have to check another computer once he comes home from work.

I can respect that.

And I don't want a blind husband, so I (rather gleefully) accepted that the Evernote option wasn't going to work for us. So I gave myself permission to return to paper.

Except I really wasn't interested in going back to Circa. It's just not customizable enough and I'll admit the ring thing started to annoy me in the end.

I searched for a new planner, and almost immediately I saw the purple Malden.

I looooove purple. Like my powder room is painted purple. So is the front hall.

I knew this gem had to be mine.

I started with a personal size, but quickly realized it was too small for my day-to-day. I record a lot of information, including activities and appointments for myself, my husband, and our two sons, and the pets, plus keep lists of things that need to be done (for everyone to reference). I was also hoping to track my work hours, so the personal size just wasn't big enough.

Personal Malden in purple.

Enter the A5, naturally, in purple. I was very lucky to find a Malden for sale.

 

A5 Malden in purple.

 But the A5 is too big to carry around in my purse.... dilemmas, dilemmas... so I found a compact zipped Malden in.... wait for it.... purple... to use as my wallet.

Compact on top with just general appointments that I might have to reference if I am out plus my wallet contents. A5 on the bottom that I use as my personal diary and house binder.

Unfortunately, the A5 was waaaaay too stuffed with the regular house items and my daily stuff for my work items, so I opted for another A5 for my work information. I'm a writer and I work in my house, so I don't have to drag these binders around with me, and I certainly don't need to drag around my work info to appointments. In this binder I keep track of work hours and what project I'm working on along with notes like reviews I'm waiting to formalize and business contacts. 

The inside of my A5 Finsbury in black.

 So I have three binders that I use regularly... a compact zipped Malden that I use as a wallet, an A5 Malden that is my home and personal binder, and an A5 Finsbury exclusively for work. It seems to be working really well for me, and it's taken me a little while to get to this point.

 I do enjoy personalizing them, and I use mostly stickers and pens. I have a to do list stamp for the notes side of my week-on-two-pages with notes, and that works well. I also don't color code anything because it kind of makes me crazy to see 10 zillion different colors on one page. Just personal preference. I don't go crazy with the decorating because it takes up too much space for planning, but I do like to make personalized dividers. If anyone would like to see those, let me know.

This is my little bag with decorating goodies.

And here is the family. A5 Finsbury in black, A5 Malden in aqua, A5 Malden in purple, compact zipped Malden in purple, personal Malden in purple, and pocket Malden in gray.

It wasn't until I started searching for the aqua Malden that I realized what an amazing web presence Filofax has. I'm looking forward to meeting other Filofax fans! Leave me a comment.