Nothing New

Now this subject has been done to death but seeing as I am still not fed up of looking at other people’s Filofax setups then I thought I would share part of mine.

I have been using a Filofax for about 2 years and currently use an A5 ochre Malden.  I have occasional guilt pangs about it as I am a vegetarian, but then again I also have 2 pairs of leather shoes. One day I may realise how gross it is and rid myself of all things leather but until then…

I credit my love of Filofax to philofaxy. I am an avid reader.  In fact about this time 2 years ago I downloaded every post and spent several nights reading through them all. I had recently got a new job and had been researching time management (yes I know a few hours ‘thinking’ that I could have spent ‘doing’). A ring bound system seemed perfect for me as I appreciate aesthetically pleasing, which in this case means packed with paper poking out everywhere, as well as practical.

It has definitely worked for me. Now my previous post was about how I don’t ‘do’ stuff. I want to clarify. Stuff like house, family and work are organised and happen. If I didn't follow through with that organisation it would still all happen, it would just happen badly and I would go loopy. So the house is (reasonably) clean and tidy, bills get paid, food is bought and meals are cooked, maintenance is done, family know what they are doing and when, and so on. What doesn't get done is anything that takes me out of my comfort zone and requires me to take a risk.

Now on to the nitty gritty. Behind the front tab I have stuck a small plastic pocket (Martha Stewart @ Staples) which is where I have a few tabs and stickers. I don’t really use them that often so I only need a small space for them and they kept falling out of the front pocket.

The diary I have used this year has been the DPP Leadershipdiary. It was a spiral bound diary which I took apart and re-punched. The messiness doesn’t faze me and I love having the monthly tabs printed with a monthly overview. I write appointments on the left as there are time slots and write my to dos for that day on the right in the notes section. I colour code family appointments and indicate whether I will be involved or not. For example if my daughter has a doctor’s appointment I write it in her colour but star it with my colour because I will need to take her. However if my son is going to the cinema I just write it in his colour. This way I can see at a glance whether I have that time free or not.  If I have a particularly busy day coming up I allocate the most important to dos time slots as well. That way I can prioritise and also have an idea of whether I am roughly on schedule during the day.

I use the flyleaf as my daily marker. I also stick a post it on it where I write my non time specific to do list.

As I have the monthly tabs my other tabs run across the top. I made these tabs before I had my label maker so they are not pretty, but they work. All of the sections are useful apart from one. The projects tab is my revolving door section mentioned in the previous post. I have told myself that if I am still posting regularly a month from now and I have opened an etzy shop then I can put something behind that tab. Otherwise it has to go.

So there we go, a brief overview of how I organise my daily life. Mundane but true and I like it.