My Personal Sized Filofax Set-Up

My Personal Sized Filofax Set-Up

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I’ve had (and enjoyed) so many planning systems and diaries over the years however for whatever reason I keep coming back to my old-faithful brown Ranger personal-sized Filofax. I’ve had this particular Filofax for years and adore it. The only other Filofax I own was the product of an ill-advised Ebay purchased of an A5 identity which I use as a storage binder as it’s too big and bulky for anything else!

Filofax
My old-faithful much-loved Ranger Filofax in brown leather

Seeing as I continually swing back to the Filofax I decided to embrace it fully and really make it my own.

New Dividers

What I’ve been looking for has been some new dividers and I was thrilled when I spotted these free printable Gorjuss dividers  on Pinterest from the fabulous Lucy Wonderland (who also has an Etsy shop). All I did was print these out (they are double sided), laminated them, cut and used my single punch with an existing divider as a template to finish off.

The end result….. fabulous!

Even better these are top tabs and a little different to the norm as you can see.

gorguss, dividers, filofax

 

Staying Organised

I’ve tried so many different ways of keeping on top of my weekly schedule, work, the family, appointments, home and everything else. This is by far the best (and most simple) to date.

I use these fabulous week to view inserts from Mrs Brimble’s Etsy shop for forward planning, schedules, reminders, appointments, school dates and upcoming everything (cute aren’t they?).

Mrs Brimbles, Etsy, Week to View

For daily tasks, work and basically anything that needs doing I use graph / squared Field Notes (cherry wood) and the bullet journal system which I tuck into the back of my Filofax. These 48 page notebooks (coming in a pack of three) are fabulous to write on and to say that I’ve been more productive since starting to use this system would be a huge understatement.

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Other Filofax Bits and Pieces

I will at some point in the future start doing YouTube walk throughs and video reviews that I can include here however before that I need a much better camera and a tripod so for now you have to put up with my blogging such things!

People often ask “what do you keep in your Filofax”. Right now I have an address section which is for addresses, phone numbers, passwords etc, a client section with rates information and general notes, logins and more, the diary (the week to view), notepaper for scribbles, blog pages for ideas (etc) and finances.

My finance section is not a tracker of spends, I’m pretty good at keeping a check of what I/we spend, it is simply a payment tracker and reminder where I write down all direct debits and ad-hoc payments (including those niggling PayPal payments for Netflix and what not that come out at silly times of the month) so that I can keep an eye on what goes out when and how much it was.

finance, budget, filofax
These bill stickers came from my lovely planning friend Dani who doesn’t have a shop but should!

Stickers – I always have stickers as they work as a visual reminder of some things however I don’t tend to go crazy. I do use washi tape but don’t keep that with the Filofax as it needs to be be portable. I keep some in a zipped Filofax clear envelope and have punched in or coil clipped in others. I do of course also have sticky notes!

Stickers from Alexia Claire's The Stationery Box, some leftovers from my Erin Condren life planner and more from my friend Dani.
Stickers from Alexia Claire’s The Stationery Box, some leftovers from my Erin Condren life planner and more from my friend Dani.

I’m really happy with the set up as it is right now because it works, it isn’t too bulky and it looks good! The only thing I’m considering adding is a year at a glance foldout that I can use to mark upcoming school holidays and what not. I’ll see.

So what do you think? Does your Filofax look anything like this? Do you have a genius planning system that you want to share? Do comment as I love to hear from other Filofax / planning fans!

 

The Erin Condren Deluxe Notebook with Calendar

Erin Condren Deluxe Notebook with an added calendar

As many of you will no doubt already know I have been using the Erin Condren Life Planner for a while now. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it and it has even encouraged my creative side out of hiding. I’ve decorated the daily spreads somewhat, used stickers, become more organised BUT (there’s is always a but) it hasn’t ticked all of my organisational boxes.

I’ve spent an obscene amount of time browsing blogs, YouTube videos and stalking  following my favourite stationery tarts and decided to give using a bullet journal a try. I adapted my current ECLP and used the notepaper in the back and came up with the perfect system.
Planner zen at last.

This system allows me to organise and prioritise work notes and tasks, incorporate brainstorming, lists and more while still managing a busy family and home schedule and all the appointments and reminders that comes with that.

While this notebook is larger than the popular midori set up  the size is perfect for me and I’ve included monthly spreads and monthly note pages in the front for scheduled / adavnce planning etc (this cost $15 more).

I’ll blog properly about my bullet journal soon however for now I’m just happy to introduce my Erin Condren deluxe notebook with calendar.

The notebook comes with:

  • 12 monthly spreads (starting from whatever month you choose)
  • Monthly note pages
  • 132 lined pages
  • 21 designer blank pages
  • A double sided sleeve for storing papers
  • A clear sealable pocked for storage
  • A page of date dots to use on the monthly spreads
  • A clip in ruler / page marker
  • Removeable covers 
  • A voucher for ordering a personalised divider (I didn’t order dividers as I have two ruler/page markers I can use if I want).
  • An assortment of stickers, postcards, sample coil clips, a sample page of EC Do it All Dot stickers
  • Referral cards (gives someone $10 off their order and I beleive $10 credit to the person whose link is used). I’ve not included my referral link but feel free to comment and I’ll email you it or contact me via the contact us page if you aren’t on my FB etc.

I can vouch for the paper quality already as this isn’t my first EC.

Keep your eyes open for a new post shortly about how I’m using this as my schedule / bullet journal.