Thursday 3 January 2013

Planning my 2013: Part 2- Filofax

Hello!

This is Part 2 of my 'Planning my 2013' posts, about how I am using the planners/organisation tools to plan my life for this new year! If you haven't read Part 1, please do so now! :)


Part 1 is where I discussed how I am using my Plannerisms planner to plan my recurring tasks (monthly), and, most importantly, forward planning my weeks. The next stage of my planning is where my Filofax comes in!



I got a lovely Plum Osterley personal Filofax for Christmas! Yes, I know I said in a previous blog post that I would try to stick to my Orange Osterley... but I have a good excuse! My mum was desperately trying to find a big present for me for Christmas, and I couldn't think of anything, except for the Plum Osterley that I had been in love with for about a year and a half! I had found a good deal on amazon, and a few times I had come close to buying it myself! So I asked for the lovely Osterley, and received it for Christmas!! I had been worried about the rings being terrible, and although they aren't perfect, they're not too bad, and they function ok, so it's all good :) I'm sure I will do a review on my Osterley soon :)

I have put together my diary system for my 2013 Filofax set-up very carefully. I have been going through Planner Fail for a long time, so I need a system that will work perfectly! It took me a lot of thinking and much back-and-forth decision making, but I have finally decided on, bought, and started using, my diary :)

Firstly, I have the 2013 Filofax vertical-format year planner. I don't know what I will use this for, but I hope that I will find a use for it soon!
Then I have my diary proper, which is composed of several parts.


I am using 2012's Day Timer Flavia month dividers. I am reusing the ones I got last year with my Day Timer diaries, and I don't mind that they're out of date, because I never used the month grid that was printed on them anyway. They are so pretty, and very useful! I have the dividers from January-July in my filo, and I will put the rest in later in the year.

Then I have my 2013 Franklin Covey Monticello MO2P. Unfortunately, the DPP didn't work out for me, but the MO2P are great. The paper quality (well, actually it's more like cardstock!) is excellent, and the boxes are much larger than Filofax's grids, and are lined, which helps keep it all neater. The month pages that came with the FC diary go right up to June 2014, and I have them all in here. January-July 2013 go immediately after the month dividers.

Then I have my DPP sheets. I decided on Filofax DPP, rather than the Franklin Covey DPP, for several reasons, which I will do another post on, but the main reason is because I like how plain the Filofax pages are, and how I can customise them to my own needs. I only have the current week of DPP in my Filofax at any one time.



Immediately behind the current week of my DPP, I have this week's DodoPad 2013 personal-sized insert. The DPP inserts sit spliced between this week's DodoPad pages- the notes page on the left, and the diary page on the right. I also have the rest of the current month's DodoPad inserts, but no more than that, to save on space.


So this is how I am using my Filofax for 2013 :)


I use it in conjunction with my Plannerisms Planner, which you can read about it Part 1!



After I have finished forward-planning for the coming week on Sunday nights, I should have a lovely weekly page in my Plpl!
Updated (read: finished!) since my last post!


I copy the important things from my Plpl current week over to my DodoPad Filo insert. I don't take my Plannerisms Planner out with me, so this is here in case I want to check something about my week when I am out and about. I try to make it fun, with lots of colours and doodles!



Then, the most important part- My Day Per Page inserts!



Every night, I sit down and plan for the next day. I use the daily column in the WO2P of my Plannerisms Planner to give me a picture of my day.
Firstly, I write down my daily focuses, which helps give me an idea of what I should concentrate on during the day.
Then I use the basic scheduler from my Plpl to give me a picture of when I should do things during the day. I write them into the appointment slots of my DPP insert. Of course, I write in time-dependent things first, like work shifts, and then I fit in other things from my scheduler, like tasks that will take a long time, or to-dos that have to be done by a certain time during the day. I use arrows to show the length of time things should take.
On the right column of the page, I write my to-dos, notes, info, anything I will need for that day. At the bottom of the column, I draw 8 boxes where I put crosses to record how much water I have drunk that day (I think my record is 6 glasses, I never drink enough!!)
I make sure I write in everything from my Plpl daily column into my DPP. I actually really like that my 2 planning tools are in separate books, because I love that I can have the two sitting side-by-side, rather than having it all in my Dilodax and having to flip back and forth in copying from WO2P to DPP!




I colour-code everything, because it makes it easier for me, but also because it looks pretty!



So that's my Planning for 2013 :)

11 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Haha I read that as something else then!! :b

      Dodofax :)

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  2. I have to say - I had a misreading moment to!!! Ha ha ha!! Hoping your new setups work for you this year :-)

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  3. I am still working out this year what will work best for me. Can I ask - isnt this very complicated to maintain? I know its only the first week of the year, but it seems like ALOT of work to keep all the areas up to date?

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    1. Hi SSA! It's not too complicated to maintain, although I know it looks like it is! I like it because it makes me think about my week a lot more than I usually do, and also seeing things multiple times over the week makes me remember them better! Once I get into the habit of doing all this, it shouldn't take more than 1 hour on Sunday nights, and 5 minutes every night for the rest of the week! The hardest thing for me is thinking forward up to 7 days, which is something I definitely want to learn!

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  4. I love the Flavia inserts and can see why you would want to reuse them.

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  5. I'm so glad you got the plum of your dreams! But what's happened to the orange one? The orange osterley compact is my ultimate dream filofax I love bright coloured filofax's! I'm trying to decide whether or not my birthday present to myself should be an ipad mini or an orange compact osterley! It's too hard though!

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    1. Hi! My Orange Osterley (still can't think up a name for it!) is going into my Filofax rotation, but mostly I will use it in the Spring/Summer because it's such a summery colour!! :D

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  6. How do you find your A5 filofaxes for carrying round?
    Also what pens did you use for your dodopad inserts? Struggling to find one that works for me!

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  7. How do you find your a5 filofaxes for carrying around.. i like the idea of having all that extra space but tend to take my filofax everywhere with me!

    Also what pens have you used for your dodo inserts.. struggling to find one that works for me in such a small space!

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    1. Hi Antonia! I don't actually take my A5 filos out of the house, even when I use one as my planner! Most of them are for hobbies and projects, and so they stay at home. When I was at uni, I took an A5 with me everywhere, but it lived inside a netbook bag, which had a shoulder/across body strap, and so it was very easy to take with me!

      For the Dodopad insert, in the picture above, I used my Stabilo Point 88 pens- they bleedthrough a tiny bit if you let the ink run into the paper, but these pens bleedthrough on most papers! Besides that, Dodopad paper is excellent, 100 gsm, so it should be able to take any ink, even fountain pen. If you're looking for something to fit more words into the little boxes, try a fine nib, e.g. the Pilot Coleto 0.4 multi gel pen- it writes very fine, and is excellent for a filofax because you can carry multiple colours and even a pencil with you, in one pen body!

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