I was thinking of copying the idea, but just one QR code per page, it would be just a link to Philofaxy.com just in case you had forgotten the website address. >> Test it out!
I love technology as you might have already guessed, but I don't like it when it's forced on us. Changing your organiser habits just because someone thought it was a money making idea is not a good idea.
As usual on a Friday, please feel free to discuss anything Filofax related.
The new year is a little more than a week old. How is your 2025 going so far, organizer-wise?
Is your 2025 setup all complete and working smoothly?
Are you still working out the kinks?
Are you still getting all the parts into place? (me!)
And as always on Fridays, feel free to discuss anything Filofax related!
Happy New Year! Welcome to the first Free For All Friday of 2025!
In the spirit of personal growth, here's a question for you:
What are some Filofax lessons you wish you had learned (or solidified) earlier?
Here are some of mine:
A5 Filofax binders with large rings are too big and heavy for me to carry everywhere. I've tried multiple times, and I just end up leaving it at home. (A5 binders with smaller rings changed my life.)
I don't need to have everything in one binder. I can have multiple binders for different uses.
Be consistent and have a method with archiving pages so it's easier to find things later.
What are some Filofax lessons you have learned that you wish you had learned earlier?
And as always on Fridays, feel free to discuss anything Filofax related.
Wishing you all the best in 2025!
Whilst finalising work before my Christmas break, I decided that it was time to start thinking about what I want to do or choose not to do when I'm off. I always give my Filofax a clean and a clear out, but wanted to try out something new this festive season to help me relax and recharge.
Some years ago, I used to keep a TLC list in my A to Z section, but I stopped using it as I just forgot to add things. So here we have my new version... I jotted down the first 20 activities that came to mind that either I enjoy doing and/or will make me feel better. My husband (A) has lots of dice from when he used to roleplay (we met when I joined his roleplaying group), so I have borrowed a D20 to help me pick something from my list. I also like that this particular die has lots of history, as it was one of the ones from when he first started playing Dungeons & Dragons as a child. This list isn't one that I am looking to complete, but
instead a reminder to ensure that I'm taking the time to do things that I
enjoy, and the focus is on simple things that I already own and can easily do.
Do you do something similar in yours?
And as always on Fridays, please feel free to discuss anything organiser related. I hope that you have a great weekend and wishing you a happy New Year.
In many parts of the world, the winter holiday season is already under way. Even if you don't celebrate a religious holiday, the holiday season poses certain challenges. A change in weather conditions, increased traffic, events to attend, visitors to entertain, and so on.
How do you handle the changes? Do you have a separate holiday organizer or journal? Do you add a holiday section or a few extra pages?
And as always on Fridays, feel free to discuss anything related to ring-bound organizers!
Aside from the initial outlay of money to purchase a binder, a Filofax can be a very economical way to plan.
Least expensive is drawing your own planning pages on paper you already have. Paul showed an example in his Filofax No. 12 post.
Also very inexpensive is printing pages you have created yourself, or free printables (such as those available here on Philofaxy). Depending on how much your printer ink costs, this can be cheaper than buying pre-printed inserts.
Pre-printed inserts can still be very economical, and often cost less than buying a bound-book planner (depending on which brands and where you purchase).
And if you get really hard up for cash, ring binders (especially leather or discontinued ones) retain value and can be sold on.
Do you use your organiser as an economical way to plan? Have you ever sold a ring binder?
And as always on Fridays, feel free to ask and/or discuss anything ring binder organiser related!
My wife Alison said to me the other day, 'Today feels very Saturdayish, yet it was a Thursday. It gave me an idea... 'What if the days of the week didn't have a name, just the date?'
Think of the extra white space you would have on your diary inserts without Monday, Tuesday etc printed on each page.
May be Philofaxy should have a range of inserts without the names of the days, just the dates! Would it mean that we no longer would have weeks? Just months?
Of course it is that day of the week to discuss anything Filofax related.
Have an enjoyable 23rd and 24th of November!
Do you use your own codes, acronyms, or a secret writing system to save time or to keep information confidential?
For example, I use a code to remind myself of passwords without revealing the full password. I can imagine people who know speedwriting or shorthand using these systems to make their notes harder to decipher. Or writing in a foreign language or alphabet.
As always on Fridays, all organizer-related discussion is welcome!
I recently started a new job! Hooray! As part of my job-hunt process I freshened up my CV. I was looking for work similar to what I did several years ago, so I wanted to feature that experience in my CV. To help flesh out that time in more detail in my CV I dug out the planner I was using while I did that job.
Happily for me, I kept work details in that planner like lists of trainings I did (more than 60 hours), and other relevant things. If I had kept those on my work computer, they would be long gone.
As I was trying to translate that information into CV-worthy content, I wished I'd kept even better records of things I did. Going forward in my new job I think I will keep monthly, or at least quarterly, records of my duties and projects, and information related to those.
Do you keep work details and records in your Filofax to be able to refer to them in the future?
And as always on Fridays, feel free to ask and/or discuss anything Filofax related!
As the clocks are going back an hour that should be an extra hour in bed? Well I suspect as usual that extra hour will be spent correcting lots of clocks.
Lots of things change automatically I know, but there are still a lot of things that need manual intervention.
I have a list! As an insert of course!!
I do cheat... I will change a few of them the day before, ones that aren't going to be in use or visible. It reduces the task on Sunday morning.
The insert is just a To-Do list I relabelled and adapted for the twice yearly task. I have some notes on the reverse side on how to change things that aren't at first obvious.... the cooker... enough said...
What will you be spending your extra hour on this Sunday or next Sunday? But of course please feel free to discuss anything Filofax related.
I love seeing how people use their planners. I've noticed people who use bound notebook as planners love pasting in photos, tickets, and other memorabilia. Their pages look so cool!
So why not do the same in a Filofax? Instead of pasting, I like to simply punch holes, which is one of things I love about a ring-bound planner.
Here's a photo I punched to remember a recent flight!
And as always on Friday, feel free to discuss anything organizer related.
Those of you who have been reading Philofaxy for awhile may remember my FFAF from April 2022 when my son started using a Filofax during a busy time in high school (and how excited I was to help him set it up!). He graduated this spring, and this month I've been helping him move to a different country to start his new phase of life!
During his last year of school he used a different planner, but recently he realised his Filofax would be perfect to help him plan for his international move so he got it out and fired it up.
He (gleefully) pulled out all the pages from when he used it before, with all his school timetables, study schedules, and exam preparation, and threw them in the fireplace.
Then he set up the Filofax from scratch with his new schedule pages (to book lunches, coffees, and going-away parties with his friends before he left), packing lists, reminders of things he needs like paperwork and documents, etc.
After we arrived in-country, things happened really fast and he was meeting new people every day in lots of different contexts. He made a list of people's names and where he'd met them, so he could keep them all straight (with reminder notes like where they are from, shared interests etc. which I thought was brilliant). He scheduled times in his planning pages to reconnect with them.
He also made lists of things he needs to do now that he's here, like set up his bank account, phone, register for a doctor etc. As a new adult in a different country he is realising there is a lot to keep up on! His Filofax is getting a lot of use.
It has been fun to see him use his Filofax again, in an entirely different context for a totally different purpose.
And now that I have an empty nest, I'm sure my Filofax will help me with my new phase of life too.
When was the last time you set up a Filofax completely from scratch? How did your Filofax help you in a new phase of life?
And as always on Fridays, feel free to ask and/ or discuss anything ring binder organiser related!
Thinking back about my Filofax use over the years, I've realised recently that for the majority of the time I have used only one at a time. For some years, I did also use an A5 for planning projects and for writing longer notes, but the personal one was my external brain. Over time, I rehomed the A5s though, as I just didn't end up looking at them as my focus was mainly on the personal sized one.
For some reason recently, I've been toying with the idea of using a second Filofax in some other way, but I haven't decided on what exactly. I quite like the idea of setting up the second as a commonplace book, so as I do, wondered if there was already a post on the subject on Philofaxy.
I found this wonderful guest post - Guest Post: The Filofax that started it all - Jane and also another great post on another site that I'm going to have a look at - https://www.megan-rhiannon.com/gloomy-archive/2024/3/26/on-commonplacing
Do you or have you set up a Filofax as a commonplace book, and if so, do you have any tips or recommendations that you'd like to share?
And as always on Fridays, please feel free to discuss anything organiser related. I hope that you have a great weekend.
If you're reading this, your ring organizer is probably by your side right now. In fact, it probably goes with you almost everywhere.
But do you have another "must-have"? Or two?
Your mobile phone, travel mug of coffee, wristwatch or smart watch?
If I could narrow it down to any two things, it would be my organizer and my Samsung tablet, since these two things make just about everything possible for me! (I don't like to do much on my mobile phone except calls and text messages.)
As always on Friday, all topics are fair game!
The thickness of the paper in your binder makes a big difference in the weight, bulk, and number of pages the rings can hold.
In the past, Filofax brand inserts were 70 gsm. A few years ago they increased to 80 gsm to make them more fountain pen friendly.
Some planner brands use paper that is 100 gsm or even 120 gsm, to prevent show through and bleed through of inks.
Paper doesn't have to be super-thick to prevent inks bleeding through. Tomoe river paper and other similar papers are very thin, but are specially treated to prevent ink bleed-through. The thinness of the paper allows a ring binder to hold more pages. However, if you print your own pages, very thin paper can be problematic when going through a printer.
What thickness of paper do you prefer? Do you like thin paper for reduced bulk? Do you like thick paper for better ink performance? Or do you like something in the middle?
As always on Fridays, feel free to ask and/ or discuss anything ring binder organiser related!
Whilst looking back through some of the posts here for inspiration, I realised that it's been ten years since I first purchased my beloved personal Kensington! However, it hasn't been in my possession for all that time as I sold it some years ago, so it's also belonged to three different members of the community in the US, before finally coming back to its forever home with me in 2020.
To celebrate my love of all things Kensington, here are some of my posts:
Filofax Kensington review - By Anita - my initial post back in 2014.
The Goldilocks effect (home in my Kensington - very kindly gifted back to me in 2016.
There and Back Again: a Kensington's Tale - by Anita - gifted back to me again in 2020! I am so appreciative of our wonderful and generous community.
Personal Kensington flip through - by Anita
After it was so kindly gifted back to me in 2016, I gave it back again to the same person as I'd decided that I'd wanted to own only the one Filofax, and I felt at that time that I needed something more colourful. And then I reached out to them again on the off-chance that they might still have it in 2020... and it's been with me ever since. It does seem a bit silly now, but in the past I've pushed myself to own just the one binder, which means that I have rehomed some that I probably wouldn't now. However, I have enjoyed this journey, so I don't have any regrets about the others and have my all-time favourite back.
Do you have any organisers that you have gotten back again due to seller's regret, or re-purchased one again at a later date?
And as always on Fridays, please feel free to discuss anything organiser related. I hope that you have a great weekend.