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!