The Progression of Planning

In my last post regarding my Personal sized Finsbury, which was, ahem, over a year ago now, I was using it fairly regularly and quite enjoyed the different things I found to go in it. Now a busy full time job, gym schedule, moving house, two weddings, two deaths and a break up later - and I barely have time to use it at all.

In fact, shamefully, until I wrote this post I wasn't even sure where it was... (I blame the very recent house move for that). When I found it though, I did find a couple of weeks with the lovely diary insert that I bought off of Etsy that I thought were worth sharing -

Delving back into this blog got me thinking though - could I manage my time better, and if I could, how would I do it? Does it really just take a little bit more planning and effort to fix all the time management problems in my life? Or are some people, like myself, just destined to always be chasing their tails no matter how many Filofaxes, Dodo Pads, Midoris and Google Calendars they have?

At work I find sometimes that I forget about events until the last minute, which is not great when most of my job is focused around events and is punctuated by meetings and a long to-do list. I use a DoDo pad but for the most part, I use it just for logging in my annual leave hours. It never leaves the office - which makes it a bit pointless!

I don't even use my A4 Metropol and I have no idea where my A5 or Domino are. Shame on me!

I think I'm going to see if I can get back into using my filofaxes, otherwise in the new year it may be time to let at least one of them go.

Inside my Personal Filo (video update)

Excuse the clunky title...

I rather enjoyed making my Smashbook video last weekend so I thought I'd make an updated version of my old 'Inside my Filo' video from 10 months ago. My filo has changed somewhat!

I tried to keep it short and failed miserably I'm afraid, it's just under 10 minutes long. Whoops.

I will be posting a 'my week' post soon to discuss how I'm organising my weeks in more detail so stay tuned for that! Anyone else a video addict? They are so much fun to make. I would love to see your videos too so please leave me a comment either on Youtube or this post with your username etc. so I can check more people out.

Dilemma... again.

Now that the end of uni is very much insight I need to figure out what to do with the two filofaxes I don't use - my pocket Domino (you can read about it's discovery here) and my A4 zip Metropol (previous post detailing it's major failings here). My personal Finsbury is definitely staying right where it is, but these two may soon find themselves on the Adspot or ebay...

The Domino has been sat in my desk for the last 6 months picking up dust. I started using it as a nail varnish catalogue but I've found Evernote to be better for this, and my passion for nail polish is starting to wane somewhat as I have no money to buy it and my nails are in awful condition from too much acetone :( Since I got it from a charity shop, and it's in fairly 'well loved' condition, I might just donate it back into the system again.

The saga of the Metropol is definitely ongoing... in the end, I did store my uni notes for my dissertation etc. in it but the diary was quickly removed and it became a glorified ringbinder. After uni I want to take up learning languages again but I'm unsure whether it will be worth keeping hold of just for this sake. I'd need to spruce up the dividers (and maybe finish my drawings on them, 'cos that never happened...) but unless I was writing comprehension out, or self testing, I can't see myself using it that much. Another option is using it as a pure financial records holder; something that I need to learn but equally for someone who is *awful* with numbers something that is quite daunting.

Sigh. It's tricky! Moving into a smaller flat has definitely got my 'GET RID OF ALL POSSESSIONS' urges going :/

Cult Pens Haul

I don't normally splurge on pens, but occasionally you just have to don't you? I'd never ordered from Cult Pens before but I decided to give it a go, especially as their postage rates were cheap (free over £10) and they have such a wide selection.

Left to right - Staedtler Fineliner (free sample), Uni-ball Vision Elite, Zebra Antique Rollerball, Gelly Roll Stardust, Artline Calligraphy liner, Berol Fineliner, Zebra Antique Rollerball, Faber-Castell Highlighter (sample)

All the lovely swatches!

I ended up getting an assortment of pens; one calligraphy liner, two fineliners, one highlighter, one gel pen and four rollerballs. Whoops. I swatched them all and then decided that in this post I would rather focus on the four rollerball pens, as they will be the ones I'll be using the most often in my Filofax and generally. I tested them all on filofax paper and on the scrap paper I use to make most of my blank inserts as this is what you find in my filofax!

All four tested on scrap cream paper

Other side of the scrap cream paper showing visibility of writing

As you can see, all four write really nicely and there's not a massive amount of show through on the other side. Whilst there is a little bit from the Uni-ball it's not enough to put me off using it on this paper. I imagine that cotton cream filofax paper would have similar results as the scrap paper I use is comparable to the weight and colour of it (even though it looks a bit grey in these photos).

Now for the filofax paper - again I just used some random address paper scraps I had lying around as I didn't want to ruin my diary if they bled or were bad for showing through!

All four tested on Filofax standard white paper 

Back of Filofax paper showing ink

As you can see, on the Filofax page none of them are particularly good at being invisible on the underside and the Uni-ball Elite in particular is quite prominent. However it's not as bad as some pens I've used! I think I'm going to do a trial run of using the Antique pens in my Finsbury as the main writing implement. They all make my handwriting lovely and neat which makes me very happy! They'll be great to use in my revision posters and notes for my upcoming final exams. Definitely a good purchase!

My Week #2 (+3)

Whoops, last week got kinda busy at the end and I didn't have time to post my photo before Paper did her review so I thought I'd just keep it til this week (after all, it's not going anywhere!). This week has been less busy but still quite hectic - it's tiring work being in your last semester of university!

In week 2 I tried out a new tactic of colour coding each day separately, as you can see...

Not really my favourite thing if I'm honest. I love colour but it's too much and it's still really quite messy - plus it's a hassle trying to keep hold of the same pen for the day and remembering to switch when I need to write something new in etc. etc.

Week 3 I tried out another new tactic, this time writing everything in my fountain pen (which is black ink, I swear, but for some reason dries a really weird light brown colour... like it was written 100 years ago!). This I much prefer - the stickers and washi tape add colour but it's much neater and more organised. I think I will probably be sticking with this and just using one colour for very important dates.

For those that are interested, this is dried fountain pen ink vs fresh ink...

Odd, right?! Ah well. I quite like the brown... would be nice to have it stay black though.

I hope you've all had a good week :)

My Week #1

Now I'm sure most of you have already heard about this through Philofaxy, but I was a little late to the party so I'm starting 4 weeks in! Yes, I'm doing Paper Lovestory's 'my week' blog post train!

For those who haven't seen it, reading this blog post will explain it a little better than I can. And onto my first week!

Ok, so right at the top on the Monday header I have my budget aim for the week - this will probably stay pretty static but may change if and when I find some money! This week I aimed for £20 on everything. I did ok until yesterday when I went to go watch the rugby, had a few drinks and ended up going out * embarrassed face*. I'd been working hard all week and just needed to let my hair down! As you can see, that meant that basically nothing I had planned to do on Saturday actually got done... oh well. I had a £10 'emergency' budget fund built in (not written that down because if I do then I'll take advantage of it too much) and so in the end ending the week £12.85 over budget. Not bad, but next week needs to be better! NSD stands for 'no spend day' and means that I didn't buy anything on that day. I am aiming for a lot of these!

I've written in my lectures and commitments at the start of the week so I know where I *must* be at what time. Everything else after that is what I need to do or am attending but don't have to go to (like societies).

Down the side I have my post it notes, these were on the pages but I took them off for easy viewing. The yellow one details items I've bought online and am waiting to arrive, the stripey blue and white one is blog posts I need to write and photograph and the white one is a list of my goals for the coming month. I may have slightly failed on the last one already but I was not completely sober so I guess a little pasta sauce with meat in isn't a massive crime!

I hate how untidy and messy this week is. Next week I'm going to trial new pens and writing in one colour per day/per 'thought' and see if that's neater. I dislike the messy vibe it has going on!

So, how has your week been? Is your planner as messy as mine? Or are you as neat as possible? As many colours as possible or monochrome? Also, what do you think of the new blog layout and design? Let me know in the comments!

Revamped my Finsbury! Less is definitely more

Now, I moan occasionally about how I don't use my filofax very much and it doesn't seem to have a purpose... but I think I might have cracked it now with a 'less is more' approach.

In my old setup I had everything - addresses, diary, important websites, notes, to do lists, to read lists, to bake lists, gym tracker, weight tracker, things to remember, things to forget, sticker sheets everywhere... It was a mess and I hardly ever used it (apart from the gym tracker). In the end it just sat in my desk looking sad and neglected but stuffed to the gills with *things* that I never used! The start of the new university year was just the oomph I needed to do some revamping.

Gone are the pointless sheets of paper that I never used - the things to remember, the to do/bake/read lists (I catalogue these now in the diary section and with my good reads profile), the addresses, important websites... the wadge of note paper! It feels a little empty but it now functions better and is on the way to lying flat. It was never going to flatten out with that much crap in it!

Here comes the picture heavy new layout...

I've kept the dash/start pretty much the same, though I may do away with the postcard and owl at some point... Remember, less is more!

The astute of you will notice that this is not a current week in my diary. This is because I am channeling my inner PaperLovestory and will be posting weekly shots of my week - I have to say, it's the first time in a long time that I've actually been organised and I'm loving it! I've started writing in it throughout the day, using colour and stickers and getting stuff done so I can have a nicely ticked page at the end of the week! Strangely this is a massive motivator for me, but odder things have happened. This is just a little sneak preview of the way I'm now putting things in my diary :) I also have a 2013 year calendar which I've marked down important dates on and a blank sheet of notepaper headed as 'Important 2014 dates' so if anything comes up that I need to remember to put in my diary for 2014 - I have it there and ready with no need to faff or take up diary space. I need that space for stickers!

Remember I said I had loads of stickers flying around? Well, no longer! This is my solution. I've stuck my stickers (that track my gym workouts) onto the front of my first monthly diary page so that they're always on hand! I'm keeping the monthly workout pages I have done from last year so that I can keep an eye on how much I'm going to the gym. So far I've been something like 12 times since I started the membership in October (not great, but I was home a lot last semester) which is about a third of the way to my goal of making my membership fee back. Again, probably strange motivation but it gets me there! Every workout I do, I stick a star on the day and write the calorie burn underneath just for the interesting aspect of it. I block out days when I'm not at uni as I can't gym when I'm 240 miles away from it!

Behind the third tab is a random space really, it's just a card holder with some sticky notes in. I may change this and put something 'useful' in but for now it's working for me. Later on this year I may use it as a CV/career section.

Behind the final tab I have three sheets of paper - one with my goals for 2013 on, one with important addresses that I don't know on and one spare. That's all I need right now! In the back zipper pocket I still have some sticker clutter but it's not adding bulk and I do use them so it's ok for now. It won't be like that for long though! I need to figure out a good way of storing and displaying my sticker sheets. Oh, and I need more sticker sheets.

So there we have it! As I have revamped my Finsbury, my next job is to smarten up this blog - It's a bit drab right now! So changes will be afoot. Don't be alarmed! I will be back on Sunday with my weekly round up. See you then!

New Year - New Filo?

Happy 2013! Let's hope it's a good one :)

The title is a little misleading - no, I won't be buying a new filofax as I own three already! However this year I want to use my personal Finsbury for an actual use. Currently it sits in my desk at uni and I use it to record when I go to the gym, and what I do there - and that's all.

So I need a decent useage for it. I'm going to start applying for jobs soon (as I graduate in July, eep!) and I'm hoping to move in with my OH as soon as possible after leaving uni. I've used the finance sheets that come from Filofax themselves but honestly, I found them too small to use properly and useless for budget planning. I think this year I'd like to try using my Filo as a way to keep track of my money my way, shopping lists, wants and needs, savings, meal planning, job apps, possible flats to look at as well as the gym record.

I need to figure out a good set up for the above uses then. Hmm. I have no idea where to start with budget planning or set up and it's bothering me a lot! Maybe I'll go with just blank pages and write on those, keeping it organised into sections. Hmm.

I might look at selling my A4 metropol, I rarely use it. I will almost certainly be selling it in July when I've graduated as I won't have a use for it anymore.

Youtube Debut

Yes, my youtube debut :D I'm not sure (if) when I'm going to do any more videos, but it was fun to do anyway so it probably will be soon! I'd say sub to my youtube channel but there's not much on it yet.

Introducing my filofaxes

I have two filofaxes - a personal sized pink (pink? rose? I dunno) Finsbury and a black A4 zipped metropol. The second is, unfortunately rather boring to look at on the outside, and currently even more boring to look at on the inside, as it's my university folder; so is currently being used as an occasional diary and not much else. The first, however, is quite pretty and fun!

A brief snap of the initial view inside

I will at a later date, do a post or four about the insides of these two beauties, but for now all that's needed is a little sneak-y peek!

I envision this blog as a place for me to squee about awesomely cute stationery, keep an update on my life through my filofaxes, and share a little bit of wanton enthusiasm for material items with some like minded people!

Nat x