New planner... new chapter in your life?

I'm a great believer in improving yourself. Learning new things, improving your skills, changing your habits for the better.

It's best to start these things ASAP, so that the improvement kicks in soon. But I used to find myself thinking, "Oh, I'll do it that way next time." Next time WHAT? In my next life? When I'm reincarnated?? (Something I personally don't believe in).

I do think of my life as divided into chapters. I guess it comes from moving around the country so much- you can easily leave your old life behind, and kind of reinvent yourself in the new place, as no-one knows you there- so it's a new life, effectively. I think my life can be divided into chapters- Childhood, Studenthood, Adulthood, Parenthood, Retireehood... So I guess my "next time" is in the next chapters of my life, established adulthood and parenthood. Although, now I realise I need to seize the moment and improve myself now.

Anyway, today I was thinking about needing to improve the way I do certain things, and I found myself thinking, "I'll do it soon", which felt exactly like I was saying "I'll do it next time", as though a new chapter in my life is starting (which it isn't)... but it kind of feels like it is.

Why? Because I'm about to switch to a new planner. These things I want to do, which should improve aspects of my life considerably, involve quite a degree of planning, and I can't plan these things in my current planner (it's just not a flexible enough system to plan them). Therefore, I feel as though when this new planner arrives in a few weeks, it will suddenly open up a whole new world of planning ability.

It's as though an entirely new planner system enables you to make such a distinct change in planning your life, which enables you organise and improve your life considerably, that it feels like getting a new planner starts a new chapter in your life. Because you know that this will be the start of your new, productive, well-organised daily life. All hail the new planner feeling.

The Filofax Want-Need-Buy-Dismiss Cycle and how to break it.

Hi guys!

Sorry I've had an unplanned blog hiatus, but I just couldn't think of anything to write about!

Anyway, this one started out as a post on the Facebook Midori TN Resources group, but it was so long I decided to make it into an actual blog post!!

When I started out in the Philofaxy community over 3 years ago, I was caught up in the 'I need to buy X Filofax because it will change my life'. Nearly everyone in that community goes through a stage when they think that buying a particular Filofax with a different pocket layout etc will solve all of their organisational problems, because they think that their life wasn't perfect when they were using their previous Filofax, and everything will change now with a different one. Looking back a few years later, I see how silly this stage of my Filofax voyage was. OK, some binder changes will help- upsizing or downsizing as best suits your needs, or getting one with bigger or smaller rings- these changes are practical and sensible. But really all a binder is is 2 sides of a cover and a set of rings. What they look like and how their pockets are set out shouldn't change how you enable the key purpose of a Filofax- to organise your life- and that happens on the rings with your organisational set up. Really, all we need is something as simple as a cardboard or plastic cover and a decent set of rings. Then set up the actual pages and sections as YOU need. But it's easy to get caught up in this whirlwind of planner buying, and thinking a new one will change your life is part of a largely unavoidable cycle; after a few weeks or a couple of months, if the user's life hasn't miraculously improved, they think it's the binder's fault and look for yet another one with a different pocket layout etc, thinking that will solve all of their problems. It's so easy to forget that with all of the binder configurations out there, it's more important to work on the inside set-up of your sections etc and how you use them, than to worry about the actual binder they're in! You could spend £10 or £300, but really, it's what's inside (i.e. the set-up) that counts.

    Since I've been using my Midoris and Fauxdoris I've found planner peace. The beauty of Midori Traveler's Notebooks and Fauxdoris is that they're so simple. Because they all (well, most) start out as only a rectangle of leather and some elastics- no pockets, no zips- it really is up to you how you customise it to your own needs. There's no need to buy another one because this one doesn't have the pockets you need, because you can just buy the Midori pocket inserts, or make your own file folder insert.  In a Filofax, if you want something with the Holborn pocket layout, you have to buy a Holborn. In a -dori, all you have to do is make a folder insert with the same pocket configuration out of an old file folder. I did it last night for my new A5 one; it took me a couple of hours and cost 80p for the file folder, instead of £70 for a new Filofax. It's so easy to make things yourself that it is possible to customise your -dori almost to perfection. No need to buy a brand new one because your current one isn't working, just modify the insides to your needs. And because they are all basically the same, you don't think 'this rectangle of leather with elastic bands isn't working for me, I need to buy another rectangle of leather with elastic bands to change my life'. There just isn't the same market out there with all of the options like there is in the binder market, so if you want your -dori to be a certain way, you are forced (in a good way) to do it yourself. This helps you achieve planner peace on the superficial level (i.e. the 'pockets and pen loops' level) so much quicker, and in a way so much more perfect for YOU, because the Midoris and Fauxdoris are simple objects with the ability to be moulded to your life. OK, there are some fauxdoris made with custom options, like ones with different elastic configurations and ones with pockets built in, but in essence the majority are the same, they are just made with superficial changes like a different colour leather. Unlike the buying binders frenzy of the Philofaxy world, the only way that I can think that buying a new one would improve the way you plan and organise your life is that getting one in your favourite colour would make you use it more, or buying (or making) one with 4 elastics instead of 2 would let you fit more books in, enabling you to fit everything you need in there. So once you have customised all of the pockets etc to your needs, you can stop worrying about it, and get on with the important thing: creating a set-up that is ideal for your life and helps you stay organised. Instead of the stress of thinking "I need to buy a different binder", you now have the focus and concentration to perfect your set-up, and find planner peace.

I'm not trying to say that Midoris are better than Filofaxes, or trying to insult the Philofaxy community. I love this world, and the Philofaxy community is full of wonderful, helpful people. It's just that I recently read a post by someone who I know is still going through all of this stress with trying to find the perfect binder even years after she started looking, and I wanted to write something that could maybe help some people realise the binder isn't the important thing, it's literally what's inside that counts. I've used Filofaxes and Midoris as my two examples, but you could say the same thing about other types of planners too. I'm not saying you need to buy a Midori or Fauxdori to find planner peace; you can do this with the planner you already have. Basically, for a couple of months, try this experiment. Sit down and really think of what you really need from a planner. Pick up the planner you are currently using. Does it have the pockets you need? No? Well, get some card and make a pocket insert that sits on your rings. Does it have a second pen loop that you need? No? Make one out of washi tape or duct tape and stick it on to a divider. Make other modifications as you need. Now it has everything you need on a superficial and practical level, you can give out a sigh of relief and concentrate on your set-up. Then, just USE it. If ,after a couple of months, you still really need something with different pockets, consider buying it. But hopefully this experiment will help to break the want-need-buy-dismiss cycle.

Task Prioritisation System 1.0

Hi guys!

A quick post this evening to share something I came up with in my Filofax over the weekend. I've not 100% finished setting it up, but I wanted to show you it in its infancy!

Task Prioritisation System 1.0 
(It's only a coincidence that it matches my internet handle's initials 'TPS'!!)

Basically it's a system to prioritise tasks and keep them in perspective, for time management and organisation.
It's comprised of 8 sections (although you may need fewer), characterised by a) degree of importance and b) when it needs to be done, in which you 'file' your tasks:

• Now, Important/Urgent
• Now, Unimportant
• Ongoing, Important
• Ongoing, Unimportant
• Not now/Later, Important
• Not now/Later, Unimportant
• Other, Important
• Other, Unimportant

*The above order arranges the sections more by Time; you can also arrange the sections by Importance= 1) Important, Now; Important, Ongoing; Important, Later; Important, Other; Unimportant, Now; Unimportant, Ongoing; Unimportant, Later; Unimportant, Other.

Step 1-

Basically, you file all of your tasks under one of these sections, by deciding how important it is and when it needs to be started/be done!

    So for me, I take my several, scattered to-do lists, and re-organise my tasks in this way. I have a paper divider (no tab) for each section, then at the start of that section I have a to-do sheet with my lists of tasks under that section, and I cross off those taks when completed; some tasks have accompanying pages with notes/lists to break down/give more info, behind the to-do list inside that section.

    Here are some examples:

Find a job- Now, Important!!

Organise my bedroom- Ongoing (because it won't be done in one day), Important (because it needs doing!)

Decorate my Filofax- Later and Unimportant (although I WANT to do it, I don't NEED to, and I should do it when I have the time, not now. However, I can schedule it in my diary for when I have time soon, e.g. this evening/this weekend)

Things on my Someday/Maybe list- go into the Not now/Later, Unimportant section

Step 2-

Schedule these tasks into your diary/calendar/planner.

    For me, this means I can flick through the to-do lists in the sections described above, and schedule them into my weekly diary, according to how they are prioritised -->

    Because the point of these sections is prioritisation, this system helps you schedule your tasks more sensibly (I would schedule all of the 'fun' tasks first if I could!). By breaking tasks down by both importance and when they need to be done, you can see easily which tasks to schedule above others. Prioritise the Important ones and the Now ones, and try to do something towards the Ongoing tasks every week.

    So first I look at the Now, Important list, and try to schedule as many of those into my weekly pages as possible. However, some I know I don't have to do immediately, so I can look at those again when I know how much free time I have later in the week. Then I look at the Now, Unimportant list- even though the things on here aren't important, many them have deadlines, and I should try to do them this week anyway. Then I look at the Ongoing, Important tasks, and try to make progress with these ongoing projects, which may have many steps, and possibly a deadline which is further away. Then I look at the Not now/Later, Important list- although it isn't the time to do these tasks yet, it is important to keep them in perspective and in my mind. Then, if I have some spare time, I can try to schedule the Unimportant tasks.

    You can also break these lists down into your filo in other ways, e.g. this month's to-dos, this week's to-dos; even tasks to finish by the end of this year (e.g. for scheduling the not now/later tasks).

Pheww!! I hope you guys followed that!

I think this is a good system, and I'm proud of it, but personally I think it's a bit dry and boring. It's not fun like how I want my Filofax to be! So I'm going to try to make it a bit more fun! I think I might develop a colour-coding system with highlighters, and instead of having tasks on separate to-do lists, in separate sections, I will have them on one to-do list, prioritised using the highlighters, so all of my tasks are viewable in one glance, and are prettier because of the colours! 

Anyway, let me know what you think of the system :)

March Organisation Challenge: The Results!!

Hi guys!

I'm finally getting around to showing you the 'After' of my March Organisation Challenge!

I managed to finish the challenge on the last day of the month, and I'm really proud of myself because I thought it would take me until the first few days of April! 

Since then I've managed to keep my room quite tidy and I love how organised it is compared to how it used to be!

I haven't gone with the minimalist approach, because I don't think I could ever be one! I love my 'stuff', and I do try to get rid of the things I don't need, but I think most of what I have I need, and the rest of it has sentimental value!

So my room might look like it has a lot of stuff in it, but now the majority of those things are organised, and I just love it!

The things that still need sorting I'm in the process of doing, I have a list in my Filofax which I implement into my weekly to-dos, so I hope my long-term projects in my room will be finished soon!

I decided to make a video because I wanted to show you more than photos can do! Please enjoy :)

Ultimate Organisation Project: Craft Area

Hi!

As promised, today I'm showing you a video of my craft area! I've tried hard to get this area organised, as it gets very messy because I use my craft/stationery/Filofax stuff so often!

So here's a video showing the progress I've made in one area of my room, and I thought you might like to see my craft and stationery stuff too!!

Ultimate Organisation Project: Weeks 2 and 3!

Hullo!

This post is about the 2 weeks together, as I have had a very busy week and wasn't able to post about last week separately! On Thursday I had my telephone interview for my new uni course, with only a couple of days to prepare for it, on Wednesday we got our new cat (more on her soon!!), and I've been babysitting a lot this week, as well as volunteering at my local museum on Tuesday and Wednesday! :D

But I have tried to do a lot in my bedroom for my challenge weeks 2 and 3!

This is how my bedroom tidying routine is starting to form:
On Mondays I try to tidy my room thoroughly, because I think it makes a good start to the new week! This is something I started to do early this year, and I definitely will be continuing in the future. If I have had a lazy weekend, my room is a mess, so if I don't tidy on Monday, it will be a bombsite by the end of the week! Tuesdays and Wednesdays I volunteer in my museum, so I can't do much on those days, but then I just have to try to keep my room tidy the rest of the week, and use my free time to do some of my to-dos, even while I'm being lazy in front of the tv- such as sorting through my old uni homework!

During Week 2 I didn't do much, I was quite lazy! I did tidy my room on Monday, and I sorted lots of my craft (Filofax stuff, stationery, scrapbooking stuff!), but that's fun for me, so it kind of doesn't count ;b I also tidied my desk area, clearing the desk and the floor, which made the room look so much better, and I found some cool stuff I didn't realise was under there!!

During Week 3, I have done LOADS!!! It helped that on Tuesday we had a home visit by the cat sanctuary to make sure we were ok to adopt our new cat, so I spent lots of Monday tidying and sorting in my room! I organised my craft stuff again (fun for me!! :D) and spent the evening preparing my room for the home visit- I think it looked good! On Tuesday, the cat sanctuary people came around... and didn't even look in my room!!! Oh well, it was tidy, which is good! I didn't do much on Tuesday and Wednesday, because I was volunteering at the museum, babysitting and picking up our new cat! On Thursday I had planned to finish sorting, cleaning and organising my desk area, but I had to have the telephone interview for my new uni course. I thought it didn't go very well, so I felt very deflated and distracted all afternoon, so I felt like I couldn't do any tidying, and in the evening I played Sims, which is what I do when I feel like I have to get out of my own head and be distracted from my life. On Friday I felt better, so I made an effort to do my desk area, which is what I had planned to do on Thursday. I organised my desk, and I really like the way I have it set out now. I cleaned as much as I can, but I will need to do it again properly when I have sorted the folders I've got on the shelf above my desk. Then I moved on to my bookcase next to my desk, but I didn't manage to finish that because I had an impromptu babysitting evening! And today my mum came up to my room at about 4pm saying that we would sort out my paperwork, which I had piled up yesterday on my desk- I thought it would take 20 mins, but we went through more loads more than I had planned, including the perpetual pile of receipts etc on the floor by my chest of drawers, and my mum also made me sort out all the little bitty things (random stuff that I don't know what to do with!) that had been sitting by the side of my bed in shoe boxes for months! Suddenly, it was 6:30 and we had done loads!! Thank you mummy!!!

So I feel like I've made so much progress this week! And to celebrate, I'm going to film a video of my newly organised craft area, which I will show you tomorrow!! :D

Ultimate Organisation Project: Planning tools for this challenge!

Hi guys!

This is a quick update about my March Organisation Challenge! I aim to blitz my room by the end of March, so that it stops looking like this! I am making progress, but you don't get to see photos yet!

Today I am going to tell you about the tools I'm using to plan my Challenge. It's a fairly simple system:

1) My Plannerisms Planner

I'm using the fantastic month-grid of March for planning when to do certain areas of my room. I love how big the blocks are! I use the column on the left to write what the aim for each week will be, and on Sundays I write down the blog posts in this series (today's is late, woops!)
I haven't finished writing in the blocks for the rest of the month, I will do this as I go along.

Every day I transfer the task for that day into my planner. I don't write a long list of to-dos etc into my daily spaces in my planner, I just use the lists I have made in my A5 Malden!

2) My A5 Purple Malden

I'm in the process of setting this Filofax up as a binder for all of my lists, notes, etc etc that I don't need with me every day in my normal planner. Most importantly, it's the home for my projects. My bedroom organisation challenge is my main project for March, so I've set up its own temporary section in my filo, although I will be setting up a permanent section on my room (routines, where important things live, cleaning tips) when I've finished my challenge. Once I've done this big Spring-clean (which I guess my challenge boils down to!), my goal is to maintain the tidyness and cleanliness of my room every day, so I will have lists etc for that (maybe based on Flylady!)

So in the Challenge section of my filo, I have lists of tasks that need doing in my room for the organisational challenge, and to-dos that have needed doing for a while anyway, which I will get done this month!

Ultimate Organisation Project: My bedroom! Part 1

This is a scary post, and very difficult for me to write! I have a confession to make...     I have a VERY messy bedroom!!

Before I show you photos, let me give you my reasons (excuses) as to why it's this messy!

1) I have a LOT of stuff. I'm not a hoarder, I just have a lot of stuff that I need, or is useful and still functions well, or is sentimental to me. I can get rid of stuff when I need to, but I often don't feel the need to!

2) I am a nester. If I sit in one place (on my sofa, or in bed when the weather's cold), I have to have all the things I'll need (books, stationery, laptop etc etc) within an arm's reach of me. Therefore, my sofa and the surrounding area, or my lovely big bed, get a large amount of accumulated stuff on them.

3) I am a leaver. Comedian Jon Richardson argues that there are 2 types of people in the world: putters and leavers. I am definitely in the latter. In fact, my mum would call it 'dumping'- I just leave stuff where it is, or move it to somewhere else and leave it there. I don't sort things unless I have to, and I don't put things away unless I have my 'tidy brain' switched on.

4) I am very much an out-of-sight-out-of-mind type of person. Therefore, I have to leave things out, so that I can see them, and be reminded to deal with them! I said this to my mum once, and she said my dad is exactly like that- in fact, he would like floor to ceiling shelves around every room, and everything on show on them.

5) I don't like tidying. I don't like sorting or cleaning even more! So if I can get away with it, I won't do it! Even worse, I have a very high threshold for untidyness... my room can be really messy before I actually realise I should tidy it, and then it's usually only because my bedroom is becoming an assault course or a trip hazard!

So, these are the reasons why my room is very often messy, or even when it's tidy, why I can't finish sorting out my piles and boxes of STUFF.

Below are photos of my room this morning, after I haven't tidied it for at least 5 days. It's not normally so bad, but there are key spots that I haven't touched in ages.
I am hoping these photos will shame me into my goals of:

• Getting it sorted and cleaned thoroughly, once and for all
• Maintaining the tidiness and cleanliness level
• Changing my habits and making new habits to:
•  tidy as I go, and
• sort my stuff on a regular basis.

So this month of March, I am going to BLITZ my room, once and for all!! I need to do this ASAP, because at the moment I don't have a job, but I will hopefully get one soon, and then I won't have the time to do it!

I am going to be using my Plannerisms planner and my A5 purple Malden to plan this!

I will be turning this into a series throughout this month, showing you how I am using my Plannerisms planner and filofax, new methods and tips I think up, and of course, my 'After' photos!

Here are my 'Before' photos: please don't judge me!!

 My desk area. I don't sit here any more, and my desk has become a dumping ground. If you can believe it, this area has been tidied and sorted a lot recently, and is a lot better than it used to be!

Between my desk area and my wardrobe- washing bin, paperwork and stuff to sort etc, and my storage area behind my wardrobe, which quickly becomes messy!

Dressing area. Wardrobe drawers open, but they are difficult to shut because the wardrobe is about 80 years old and the doors are misaligned from the frames; however, it still makes it look untidy. My bin nearby (it doesn't have a permanent home), my chest of drawers with perfumes and make up on top (I sorted all this last week). This is actually the least messy part of my room... until:

This pile of papers and stuff on the floor. It's been there for a couple of months, because I just do NOT want to deal with it!!!

My bed. Unmade, messy, covered in stuff. This morning I had to search for receipt, so it's very bad today, but normally isn't much better! The boxes on the floor to the left are little bits and bobs that I have to sort out- and keep putting off doing, because I don't want to do it! 

Beside my bed. All of my teddies sit nicely on my window-sill, but my bed-side cabinet always has used glasses on it that need to be washed up, and other stuff that shouldn't be there.

Trousers left on the floor where I undressed last night, lip balm which fell off my bed, a bag of stuff to put away, magazines I've been meaning to read and get rid of.

My 'living room' area! Clean laundry to put away on the back of my chair, boxes and containers on the floor, my craft stuff on top of the cabinet that REALLY needs organising...

The coffee table another dumping ground, and stuff all over my sofa too, so I can't sit down on it!!

Lists, lists, and more lists!!

Does anyone else find that their life (i.e. Filofax) condenses down to a long series of lists?
This is what I am finding more and more as I look through my Filofax.

I have to say, my Filo is the most developed and mature it has been for a while. This is mostly in my 2nd section, 'Organisation', because since I restarted using my Filofaxes around Christmas (after all my planner fail) I have tried hard to get my life sorted inside my Filofax, and the way I naturally do that is to write many lists!. I also stopped splitting things between my filos, for example I had lists in both my personal which I use on a daily basis, and my A5 Purple Malden which I hadn't opened for months!!!, so I decided to put them into my life-in-one-place personal. I also made an effort to get other things down on paper that were floating about in my head, that needed to be written down, in order for me to maintain my sanity!!

I LOVE lists- I think very linearly, so they really help me to get my thoughts on paper. And most importantly, they really work for me!

Here's a list of the lists!! that I have in my filo:

• A list of the sort of things I should include in my Organisation section 

• My 2013 resolutions 

Not finished yet

• A rough list of my 2013 goals (still in progress of deciding what they should be)
• A diagram of how I should break my yearly goals down into weekly tasks (not really a list!)

• A list of my morning routine actions
• My night routine actions
• A list of monthly recurring tasks to help me in planning my monthly actions
• Things to consider putting into my weekly planning in my Plannerisms planner
• A list of things to do when doing my daily 10 minutes of quick tidying in my room
• My master to-do list
• January to February goal of sorting my room out- list of things to do
• A quick list of my projects
• A list of next actions for sorting out my itunes
• A list of things that are currently in process/in progress
• A list of things that I must keep in mind or remember
• A list of things that are currently on my mind (so I can brain dump and not worry about them!)
• Waiting For list
• The ubiquitous shopping list!
• Wish list (things I want but shouldn't buy yet!)
• A list of blog post ideas/posts to do
• Vlogs to do
• My bucket list

Definitely a work-in-progress! I'm leaving room for other things

• Books I want to read
• Recommendations of books from other people
• Favourite books/series/authors
• A list of my favourite TV programmes
• TV programmes to check out
• A list of fun things to do when I am bored
• A list of wages from my old job, to check against my bank balance
• A list of things to do when I go to London!

And then in my Reference section I even have a list of things to consider taking with me when I leave the house, and other stuff like that!

So my life really does condense down to lists!

But I also realise that lists, lists and more lists wouldn't work for me for daily planning. I am the sort of person who stops seeing/reading things when they look boring or the same every day. So if I were just to rely on all of my lists to get me to do what I need to do (such as just looking at my master to-do list for things I should do today), I would ignore them all, and instead do what I want!

I am also the sort of person who needs some sort of time reference for my day. I can easily lose hours of my day by being engrossed in something, not realising where my day has gone, and therefore not getting the stuff done in the time I should have done it in! As I have a linear brain, I find the best tool for me to organise my time is a diary insert with appointment slots. This means that I can visualise my time, when to do the things I need to do, and when  I have free time in between those things in which I can do the things I want to do!

I use DPP inserts because although I have a set of 2013 WO2P with appointment slots, there isn't enough space on them, they only go up to 4pm, and they don't have appointment slots for the weekend. The reason I don't use regular WO2P is that I know it would just turn into a day space filled with lists, and no time reference, so it would just turn to mush in my brain!

I do make lists (to-dos) on my DPP, in the right-hand column, but the most important thing for me, to actually make me get things done, is to schedule a time to do them in the appointment slots, or at least in the general time frame (early afternoon, late evening etc).

I sometimes don't stick to these appointment time slots, but at least if I have them written down and visible, it shows me that I don't have all the time in the world to do what I want, and I have to get things done by a certain time today!

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 :)

Planning my 2013: Part 1- Plannerisms Planner

Hello!

I didn't realise how long it was since I last blogged!! Sorry guys, I will try to blog twice a week from now on ;-)

Today is New Year's Day, 01/01/13!! Happy New Year!
So it is the perfect time to tell you all about my planning and organisation for 2013! I am going to show you my planning tools and how I am going to use them :)
This is Part 1, because it is going to be really long if I write it all into 1 post! Part 2 will be about how I am going to use my Filofax for my 2013 planning!

To cut a long story short, I was in planner fail for MANY months!! I feel like I am almost out of it, but as always with coming out from the dark side of planner fail, it is taking a while to build up my organisation system again, because when I stop using my planners, as I inevitably do when I hit the murky world of PF, I don't write down any of my to-dos or anything, so the next few weeks are always difficult, especially now; not only do I have to start planning again, catch up with my life, and plan for the future, but as it's the start of the new year, I have to plan all my goals and resolutions for 2013 too!! So I am getting there, but it is all still a work-in-progress!


My Plannerisms planner:

I LOVE this planner! It is made by the lovely Laurie from Plannerisms and Philofaxy, who is amazing, as you will know from reading her blog!
Laurie has written loads of blog posts and made videos about the planner, so I won't repeat here what she said there, but I will show you how I am using it!
I chose the pink one, because although I love the purple one and have been going through a purple phase for a while, pink is my favourite colour, and if I get bored of purple, pink will still always be perfect for me :)
I use it in conjunction with my Filofax. They each have distinct purposes, but are partners-in-planning :)

I am using my Plannerisms planner (a.k.a. Plpl) for forward planning. I used to be terrible at this. At university, I only ever planned 1 day in advance. OK, it was very detailed planning, on Filofax DPP pages, and it got me through university, but it's a bit crazy that I didn't have a mental picture of anything more than 24 hours in advance! So now I have decided that I need to plan at least 1 week in advance! In fact, I would like to have some sort of picture of at least a couple of months in advance, even if it's just for goals. After all, a chess grand master sees at least 10 moves ahead, doesn't he? This is where my lovely Plpl comes in!

Forward planning on a bigger perspective: Goals!-
Laurie has focused a lot on goal planning in her planner, and on her blog- check out her latest posts about how to use the Plpl for goal planning! So she has included yearly goal planning pages, quarterly goal pages, then after each monthly grid, monthly goal planning pages. Goal planning is new for me, but it is something that I am trying to work out at the start of this year, to go with my resolutions. So I am going to figure out some yearly goals for 2013, then break them down quarterly and then monthly, which will give me a picture of what I should be trying to do in each month. So now I can see a month or 2 ahead a bit more clearly!

This month so far I have decided to focus on 2 things: sorting out my (extremely messy and cluttered) bedroom, and planning/organisation. These are goals, but they break down like projects. I will tick the check boxes once I have done them. I will probably copy out these lists into my Filofax too!
So writing my goals (and the steps to achieve them) gives me a picture of what to do in January to make progress. I think I will kind of use this as a 'theme' for January, with many of the activities planned on my weekly pages working towards my goals! I haven't decided whether to use the monthly grid to plan these goal activities, but I might do that :)


Recurring tasks scheduler-
I am using the lovely and big monthly grids of my Plpl to schedule my recurring tasks. I tend to forget when I last did certain household chores that don't need doing everyday, like changing my bed, so I'm not very good at planning when they need to be done next. So I am using this monthly grid to plan when these recurring tasks need to be done.

In the left-hand column, I have listed the recurring items that I need to schedule. These are things like Filofax previews/reviews; tidying/cleaning my room, cleaning my bathroom, and changing my bed; blog posts; and also when my cat's claws need clipping next. In my Filofax I have a similar list, with a note of how frequently these tasks need to be done, e.g. every 6 weeks, once per month, every 2 weeks etc. Some things happen on the same day every week, like weekly Filofax previews and reviews, which is every Sunday night.
So at the end of every month I am going to plan my recurring tasks for the next month. I will look at the list in my Filofax, look at the previous month to see when those items were last done, and work out a general time when they need to be done this month (e.g. around the start of the 3rd week). Then I try to work out precisely when they should be done:
I circle the day's number in either purple or brown to signify if it's a day off or if I'm working, and then if I am working that day, I write my working hours next to it. This means that I know how much free time I have in that day, so I know how much or little to schedule. Then I schedule the recurring tasks onto specific days! I haven't finished this month because I have been so busy planning everything else, but I will get it done soon.


Weekly forward planner-
One of the best things about the Plannerisms planner is the weekly layout.

I love the weekly structure because you can divide up the columns however you like. They aren't divided up for you, the planner doesn't tell you what you should write in certain sections, it is completely up to you.
This is how I have arranged this week's pages:

I haven't finished planning this week yet, it's still in progress. I have to hurry up and do it, because it's not forward planning if I don't get it done ahead of time!

In the space at the bottom of the page, I write down what I want to focus on that week, taken from my goals for that month.

This is how I divide up the daily columns:
I use the left-hand column to write labels for the sections/blocks I have divided the columns into.
The main part of the columns is basic scheduler, which is 3 blocks of 3 lines each, 1 block each for morning (waking up time to 12pm), afternoon (12pm to 6pm) and evening (6pm to bed time). This is where I do basic time-block planning for the day. First I write my work shifts, and then I write other things for the rest of the day. I don't do precise scheduling unless things have a proper time to be done, like a meeting- otherwise, I just schedule things for a general period of the day, like morning or afternoon. Basically, that task should be finished by the time the next period begins. Any more precise time planning will go into the DPP inserts in my Filofax, which have half-hourly appointment slots.
Under that I have listed TV programmes to watch on that day, and a little bit of note space.
Then I have the most important section: my 'Focuses'. This is where I write the 3 things that I should focus on most in the day, taken from my focuses for the week. I added this section late, so it's at the bottom of the columns, but really it should be more prominent, so for next week I put it at the top of the columns. I decide my focuses for the day based on either my weekly focuses section, or the recurring tasks from the day's square in my monthly grid. Then I use the focuses section of those weekly columns to plan more specifically what I'm going to do on each day of that week, which goes into the basic scheduler.
At the bottom I have some space for notes, and then a space where I record how many drinks of water I have in a day. I am really bad at drinking, I get really dehydrated, but I find that if I record it that I drink more. However, this isn't really a place to record things (my Plpl is a forward planner, not a recorder), so I don't think I will put this in here for the future weeks.


So that's how I use my Plannerisms Planner!


Part 2 will be up soon, about how I am using my Filofax!

A dying breed??

Hullo!!


I recently came across this video on youtube:

This woman is apparently an 'organisation expert', who works with clients to get them more organised. It seems she works for high-powered business type people... OK, not like me, but I still took exception to what she says in her video!!

She says that she thinks Franklin Covey planners- and by extension, all paper planners of similar type, including Filofaxes- are dated, and a dying breed!!!

The main problems she identifies are:

• The need to transfer (by hand) all to-dos etc to another day if you don't complete them on the scheduled day
• Her clients have 50+ to-dos on their to-do list, and as such they need a list that can be easily updated. So she's implying they need an electronic to-do list, instead of a paper one.
• That paper planners aren't suitable for to-dos, notes etc that come from emails- she says electronic planners are better because you can drag and drop info, to-dos etc from them into an electronic system, and not have to keep writing everything onto paper multiple times.

In my opinion, I think her argument is flawed. Paper planners, like Filofax, Franklin Covey, etc etc, aren't just for to-do lists- they are for planning your time too, and so much more. She thinks that FC is a dying breed because of her issues with the to-do lists etc- but that's not the main thing that paper planners like this are used for! I think there is a future for paper planners- just not in the way she assumes people should use them.

But I think what she says about emails is interesting. I don't receive many emails, but I guess for people who are being bombarded with emails all day long, it would be easier to use a 'drag and drop' electronic system. 

What do you think? Do you manage to deal with lots of emails effectively using your paper planner?

What do you think about what she claims are 'problems' with paper planners? Do you think that paper planners are a dying breed?

Making it work for me...

I just did something unspeakable. I ripped pages out of my pocket Moleskine. OK, I didn't rip, I perforated them neatly with my cute little Xcut perforator and gently pulled them out. But still, some may say, a violation of the precious Moleskine.

But, this little Mole, or the system I was using, just wasn't working for me. It's a pocket ruled Moleskine, and I had it set up as a GTD notebook, according to a lot of the systems linked to on this website. First, I had an inbox for all of my to-dos, which contained a column down each page to write the context in; then a section for different contexts- @home, @campus, @mum etc, then a 'Project' section for anything more complicated than just a couple of to-dos, then a uni work section where I would list assignments, a 'Waiting for' section, and a section where there were post-it notes so I could write down ideas and then transfer them into the relevant place in my filofax. I thought this system would work for me because I needed a place for my non-urgent to-dos, and I was struggling to keep track of them in my filofax. They were behind a divider; and out of sight = out of mind. Also, I was struggling because instead of dumping these to-dos into an inbox and processing them later, I tried to work out their context then and there, which meant I spent longer trying to work out where they should go than it would have taken me to do them. So; my plan was to write all of my to-dos down in the inbox section of the Moleskine, and frequently process them into the right context, and then make myself achieve them. This sounded like such a perfect system, it would undoubtedly work for me; how could it not?!
I tried to make this work; I willed it, BEGGED it to work. But... even if the system is perfect in theory, there's always a hurdle. And that hurdle was me. The system called for me to process the to-dos. I did that occasionally, but not enough. And then even more importantly, it called for me to DO them. There are 2 problems here: my life is very busy; and I am very lazy. Very.
For the past couple of weeks I have walked around with 2 Moleskine/moleskinesque notebooks in my handbag (plus my filo in my hand, and my school notebooks in my backpack!). The first one was my GTD notebook; the second, my Blackwell's bookshop Moleskine-knock off, half the price and just as good! I needed this second one because I always have ideas for assignments as I walk around, and I couldn't write them in my Moleskine, because that was just for to-dos. A whole Moleskine, just for to-dos... that never get done. Today I realised I also need a place for my more general ideas as well as my uni ideas; Christmas presents, things to consider buying, horrendously incorrect maths equations etc... Besides buying ANOTHER notebook, I decided to commandeer half of my Blackwell's notebook as my general ideas notebook. Easy-peasy. But there was still a stinging resentment towards my GTD notebook, as it obviously wasn't working for me. A couple of days ago I considered whether I could tear the used sheets out and use the notebook separately, but thought against it; I don't want to destroy something I had paid a lot of money for.
But thinking about it tonight, I could quite easily use my Blackwell's notebook for all three things; uni work ideas, general ideas, and to-dos within each of them. I realised that I DO need something to act as a brain-dump for me, a place for me to dump my thoughts. There is something very beneficial to writing things down; even if I could remember that idea later, which I probably do with about 60% of my thoughts, sending the thought through your nerve-endings and muscles, out though your fingers, into a pen, and then out onto paper through the ink is VERY cathartic, and just helps me hold that thought better. Anything that wouldn't have been remembered anyway is duly captured in ink permanently, and can be accessed later. For me, nothing is better than pen, paper, and the act of writing.
But, you might say, won't you forget to process these ideas? Well, I don't think so; I like looking back through my filled-up pages, because I feel proud that I have filled them, and just by doing that I cross off things that I have already dealt with or are no longer relevant. Other things will get processed to their relevant place. Or, just by reading them over and over as I flick randomly through my notebook, they will find their way into my brain permanently, where I can recall them at will. This notebook may be, in essence, a brain dump, but it's also a brain re-filler. If that's a word.
So, I decided, I'm not going to let my GTD notebook sit there all forlorn, and me regret ever starting it on that doomed course. So I carefully took out the filled pages (there wasn't many of them). Now it's a tiny bit slimmer, but you can't really notice that pages are missing unless you open it up to where I've pulled them out. The page numbers I wrote in there when I first got it now don't match up; but I don't care. The beauty of my much cheaper Blackwell's notebook was that it wasn't an expensive notebook, so I didn't feel bad about filling it with my bumpy handwriting (I write as I walk through campus); but I always stopped and tried to write neatly in my Moleskine, and wait until the ink dried before I closed it, which was annoying. There's a freedom in being able to treat your notebook as you like. It works for me, not the other way around. When I start using my Moleskine as my next notebook, I will scribble in it as I like. Because I can.
And if (when) this is successful, I'm going to treat myself to Leuchtturm 1917's pink notebook. A nice incentive!

Just to finish with, this picture made me laugh :)

http://www.unplggd.com/unplggd/how-to/how-to-integrate-your-moleskine-with-your-digital-life-081073

Cuban Zipped personal Filofax :D

I just received my new filofax through the post! I'm really surprised it arrived so soon so am really happy!

On Wednesday, I went onto flikr to see if anything interesting had happened. I saw a picture of a Cuban Zipped on Aspiretobe's photos, http://www.flickr.com/photos/aspire_to_be/6235876428/in/pool-40748476@N00/ and saw some features of this filo that would work out really well for my current life. The last few days, it's been horrible weather, and I've had to keep my daily filo in my backpack around campus to stop it getting rained on. The zipped feature of the Cuban would prevent that issue, as it would protect my papers. I searched the philofaxy flikr pool for more pictures and found many fantastic features of this filo- 2! elasticated! pen loops!, vertical card slots (which I prefer to horizontal), a nice red colour, 30mm rings!!, a secretarial pocket (really handy) which could double as a notepad pocket :-) There are a few features which I might find annoying, such as the fact that it doesn't lay flat out of the box, but Aspiretobe's photo's comment gave me hope that it would eventually lay flat!

So I bought it on Wednesday on ebay (£40) and it was dispatched yesterday. I thought it would take another few days to arrive, and ebay estimated it would arrive 20th-24th October. Well just 30 minutes ago I heard a bang at the door and it arrived!! No, not on it's own with a tiny Filofax-brand suitcase, but wrapped up in packaging in the hands of the postman! I had to contain my excitement to sort out the other letters he gave me, but soon I took it out of the packaging. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of that, I was too excited!

The first thing I noticed was that it had a few dents and scratches :( The front has a mild dent, the back has a few scratches, and the pen loops and the leather near them have dents where the pens' metal thingy that you can hold it to your shirt pocket (I really can't remember the name!!) has scratched. It's not too bad I guess, because it's the only one out of my collection that really has to work for me. It stops me having to be too precious about it like I am with my others. It has to withstand all weathers, being stuffed absolutely full, being shoved in the bottom of my bag. This is a worker-fax. The purpose: help me stay 100% organised TODAY at university. Not forward planning, not even for tomorrow; my DPP diary in my Malden will do that. This is for the organisation of today (which, by the way, is ironic, seeing as how I have barely got out of bed today ;b ).

It came with some really exciting contents, which almost makes up for the scratches. The first thing is a set of Jan-Dec dividers! Very cool! Don't really know whether I'll use them in here or in my personal Malden, though, and there's always the problem that Filofax diaries are IMPOSSIBLE to separate the months!! because they are printed back-to-back *grumble grumble*
Then comes a brown today ruler, I like the brown as it is a softer colour than the black ruler.
Some normal dividers.
LOTS of to-do sheets!
Some blue and lilac notepaper (a few sheets of each), and LOADS of pink paper :D
Lots of address sheets (unfortunately I don't use these...)
Alphabet dividers.
A world map
A card-pocket insert
A clear flyleaf
And a filofax post-it insert!! I've never had one of these before, and it looks unused, so it's very exciting!!

After everything the previous owner left in it, it looks like she must have just given up on filofax, even after buying some extras (the to-dos, pink paper (too many for the normal basic contents), and the post-it insert). How could anyone just give up on their filo like that??? I guess she doesn't care for them as much as us, looking at how she must have treated it, given all the scratches (my filofaxes are my babies, though ;b )

I'm really looking forward to setting it up, especially with those 30mm rings!!!

End of the old, and a new beginning...

The summer holiday is winding up, and I am going back to university early this next week.
I am very pleased about this; I am always bored during the summer because I enjoy university too much and never have anything to do during the summer. I love a proper project, and without one I get very bored! So, I have subconsciously made my Filofaxes etc my project over the summer!
I have spent many hours every day on the internet, reading blogs, looking at pictures on flikr, searching ebay, in an effort to find my perfect 'system'. A couple of months ago Getting Things Done/Time Management systems in Filofaxes was a huge topic in the Philofaxy community, which got me thinking about my own system. Finally, as the summer winds up, I think I have got my systems sorted. This is perfect timing, as I wanted to get properly organised before uni started, so that I could have a good start to my MA, and because I won't have the time during university.
Over the next week, I will test my systems, and then post about them.

Hope you have a nice rest of the summer!!

Filofax for students

Hello!

This Tuesday, Katie asked a question on Philofaxy's Free For All Tuesday asking if anybody was using their filofax to get organised for university, and for any tips.
TPS to the rescue!!

This is an excellent question because this is just the sort of job Filofaxes are designed for! I think the advantages of using filofaxes for this function might be overlooked slightly on the internet, because blogs dedicated to filofaxes are written by (ahhem cough cough) slightly more mature people ;b And I mean that in the nicest possible way, they are people with real lives, jobs, families etc!!
This blog post is about being organised at university. If anyone wants me to write a post on using your filofax to get you organised for PLANNING to go to university in the future, or just how to prepare for uni generally (not necessarily with a filofax) please ask in the comments!
Now I am going to discuss how you could use your Filofax for organising your life while at university!

First up, the diary.
For people who have already used their filofax for a while, or even another kind of diary, they may already have a diary format that works for them and know how to use it properly for their lives. However, being a student (in comparison to being at school, or on your gap year etc) introduces a LOT more that needs writing into your diary on a daily basis. So read on, you may learn something new or get some new ideas, even if you don't change your actual diary that much.
Which type of diary you use is completely up to you. However, I think a version that gives you ample room is essential. You will probably need to write quite a lot into your diary on certain days. (Some of these things are applicable to non-students too).
For example:

• Appointments- lectures etc; meetings and appointments; shifts if you work a job; social appointments etc
• Whole day things- deadlines, goals for that day (for example, "[today I will] FINISH ESSAY"; birthdays, anniversaries etc
• Recorded things- journal entries; log-book; recording the weather etc; food eaten and amount of water drunk (I tend to get de-hydrated); money spent (esp. good if you're on a budget) etc
• To-dos
• Notes on above things- e.g. clarification on to-dos; information on location of lectures, homework due for them etc

(I've probably forgotten some things, but they will come to you gradually as the need arises when you are actually at uni, and you can add them to your diary then).

As you can see, this list is quite long. And when you have a couple of entries of each on a page, even a page-per-day diary, it can get quite hectic on the page, especially if all this is written in 1 colour! A really good way to deal with this is colour-coding (e.g. Jordan). Assign a colour ink to a specific thing in your diary, so that you know at a glance what you are looking at/for. A really good type of pen for this is the 4-colour pen, I like Bic 4 colour-pens, as they have the normal black-blue-green-red and the lovely fashion colours, pink-purple-light blue-light green. These type of pens are really handy because sometimes when you need to colour-code you don't have access to your pencil-case. However, these are very thick pens and don't fit in many of the pen holders in filofaxes as they tend to be slim, but soon I'll do a post on alternative ways to fix your pen inside your filofax.

So, with all this to write in your diary, you may need quite a large space to write in your diary. I prefer the day-per-page format, which nearly always has enough space for my day's writing. I love the appointments view on this, as I need to be able to see my day in chronological order and the gaps in between appointments to see how long I can spend in the library. If I need any more space for notes, I write them on a post-it and stick in on the page, or for a long list I write it on a piece of notepaper. However, some people prefer to see their whole week at a glance (WO2P)- this has less space to write stuff, though.

I also have month on 2 pages diary. I use this for deadlines etc. I put DL for a deadline, EX for an exam etc. This is especially important to know how many days you have got before a deadline or exam, how many days you have left to research, write or revise because day-per-page and WO2P obscure this. This has really helped me to get organised in my uni work.

Sections

This part is completely up to the individual. You may want a separate section, with dividers, for each part, or just a few sheets together for each not in a separate section. I have only used filofax since March, and I am still working out my system. You may already have a system of your own, but these are just a few things to think about when going to university.

- Finances

You could write down your student loan instalment dates (and then you could write them into your diary), customer number/username and password for the Student Loans Company, also phone numbers if you ever need to call them. Make lists of direct debits/standing orders- rent, bills etc. Your budget (a good idea to stick to as a poor student!), and your income/outgoings on the filofax finance pages. On a piece of notepaper, make a list of IOUs: who owes you how much, when, and for what. Of course, DON'T write down your credit/debit card pin in your filofax, just in case it falls into the wrong hands!

- Addresses

Obviously, family, friends etc, just in case your phone stops working. For emergencies, put an emergency contact/next of kin down, where it would be easy to find. A good idea is to note down the phone numbers, email addresses and office room numbers of your lecturers or the secretaries in your department just in case you ever need to phone/email/write them a letter. This might be a good idea too for any experts in your field you happen to know- I am slowly getting a list of Egyptologists' phone numbers! 

- Assignments

This might be one of the most important sections of your filofax. You could dedicate a single piece of notepaper just to write down the title of the essay you have to write and the deadline; or you could have many sheets of paper, with notes such as books to look up, issues to investigate, maybe even notes from your research. However, I find that this really fills up your filofax; writing your lecture notes and research notes in an A5 filofax might work, but it would be a bit of a tight squeeze in a personal-sized filo or smaller. In my opinion, a normal notebook or folder would be better.

Also, sections like shopping lists, general notes section, maybe a separate to-do list, etc

I may have forgotten some things, but this is the basic stuff you will need for using your filofax to organise yourself. Each course and individual differs, so you could find things you need to add when you actually get to uni. Just use this as the framework for your filofax, and let the rest evolve naturally! 

If you have any other ideas, feel free to add them in the comments!!

Hope this helps! x