Finding the Love for Filofax again......

Coming soon....

Filofax College - Week 5 - Getting out that Planner Fail

Today I am going to teach you a lesson about how to escape that planner fail!

This is something that has been happening to me recently, and with a little bit of reading I came to a way to escape this nightmare, so here is a lesson on how to do that.

First of all, as it is the end of term due to school holidays we get to watch a video! YAY (Term starts again on Monday 5 November!

Here is the video...

As you can see what you need to do is to make a little file, it can be a section in your Filofax or an envelope cut up like I did.

Then break it all down and write everything, first of all make a mind map of all the different ideas you want to try, and ideas you have tried.

You will need to make a short list, and answer a few questions.

1. What do I need my planner for?

2. What sections do I need?

3. Do I want it bound or a ring binder?

Once you have decided on your ideas, start to break down the ideas on to piece of paper and make lots of notes, like this:

I find graphs and charts really help me know what I want from something.

Your Homework this week is to (if you are having planner fail) to write out what you want from your organise, how you will get that and what steps you will take to succeed with it. Even if it is just to plan for a different layout in your Filofax, then post some of the pictures of your planning stages in the Filofax College Flickr Group.

I have noticed that people have not been getting involved with the Homework, and also that people seem to read my blog less since I have stopped using Filofaxes so much. Have I done something wrong?? Or do people only want to know when it is something Filofax related and as I am not in Filofaxes I am no longer part of the group?

Filofax Regency, How I am using it....

As you all know Filofax are not my favorite brand at the moment, but I need something to keep track of dates, therefore I am using my NEW Regency Compact, I had the old one exchanged due to the ring issue!

Update... Personal Osterley has been returned for a refund!

Here is my Regency...

All I have inside is....

Stickers..

Month to View

Cotton Cream Week to View

To-Do Lists

Finally my work stuff, which I cannot show you for obvious reasons!

I do not even have any tabs, so we shall see how this works out!

I will keep you updated!

Regency, oh how I miss you

I am going to re-set up my Regency tonight.

Just for temporary, and see how I go back in a Filofax.

I have not used a Filofax or any sort of diary really now for 2 weeks.

Regency, I miss you.

That is all.

This Quagmire is getting Boggier.....

My bog continues, and during my bog I saw that Plannerisms posted a post called Planner Quagmire (hence why the bog references and the title).

Yesterday lunch time I went to look at the Flex by Filofax cover again to see if my Cahier notebook would fit.... they do...

A5 Flex by Filofax

Slim Flex by Filofax

I then today decided I should answer Lauries Questions...

From this I decided for the temporary time being I would use my Cahier Moleskine for notes!

My heart is telling me Midori Travelers Notebook...........

Where to next?

I really feel lost, I just do not know what to do with myself.

I just moved in to my Amazona, but I feel NO LOVE AT ALL!

I have received my replacement Regency after the ring issue I posted about yesterday, but I felt no love for the new Regency.

I have sold my Finchley in Vintage Rose, which I have lost love for.

Finally I am hopefully returning my Osterley for a refund, which I have lost the love for.

Overall I believe I have no Love for Filofax anymore, and this really saddens me, as I have been using a Filofax since I was so young! It makes me wonder, where do I go now?

What should I use? I can't use nothing, I need to use something, I have virtually stopped writing in my Filofax as well, which makes things worse. I just do not know what direction to go in!

I am thinking of trying the Midori Travelers Notebook at some point, but when I can afford it.

I thought about using a Mulberry or Louis Vuitton Agenda but that just seems a bit mad!

Where would you go once you had lost love for the one brand you used to love?

I just am not sure as to what to do! 

If you were in my position where would you go?  Ideas would be great!

Ring Problems - Quality Controll Issues - Filofax

I seem to have so many issues with rings and Filofaxes...

I have had issues with...(from day of purchase)

2 Personal Cuban Zip Filofaxes

Personal Deco in Brown 

Compact Regency in Brown

Personal Osterley in Plum

Here is a close up of the two most recent Filofaxes, some people may think, oh that is nothing, but this is a serious fault!

Compact Regency

Had issue from day one, but just got more annoying, cost £110 - Want to return it.
Bottom ring has the issue

Personal Osterley 

Two top rings are misaligned, I am going to return it next week.

I know I have had other issues with Filofaxes too, and quite a few have had ring issues. But this needs to stop, the quality control of Filofax is ridiculous to let so many badly made Filofaxes through the net! 

I hope I am able to return both to where I purchased them, due to how fed up I am with having these issues and the fact my pages get caught. I do not want them fixed as I know they were not perfect when I bought them and it has kind of ruined the whole experience for me.

I am one VERY UNHAPPY Filofax customer, and am starting to think I never ever want to buy from them again!

If you have had issues with your Filofaxes/Filofax do a blog post about all the issues! We should collect them together and send them all to SlamPR and Filofax in one email. I know they will take NO NOTICE.

From a very unsatisfied customer!

Should I stay or Should I go?

I bought a beautiful Osterley in City Organiser, but unfortunately, it has a bit of a ring issue!!

I am going to return or exchange it next Monday/Tuesday in the shop as I will be in London. But here is my issue! I kind can't keep all my Filofaxes as it is necessary, and I am kind of going off Filofaxes due to the ring issues, and just genearlly feeling unhappy with Filofax as a whole so I was thinking of trying a Midori Travelers Notebook as a Diary notebook etc, and I had the idea of using a small bulldog clip at back with some pink paper for to-do lists so I can remove them once they are cleared etc, so there would be nothing that would need tearing out as such. Obviously would end up going to A Filofax one day but would like to try that theory out.

So here are the options for you to choose and vote for below:

Option 1 - Exchange Osterley, Sell Amazona and Finchley on blog/eBay

Option 2 - Return Osterley, use either Amazona, Finchley or Regency and maybe sell one?

Option 3- Sell two Filofaxes, Keep Osterley and buy a Midori and try that idea out?

Please vote below and tell me your opinions in the comments! 

Which of the options should I choose?

Option 1Option 2 Option 3

pollcode.com free polls

Thank you

Temperley for Filofax - Violet Review

I am going to do a completely honest review of what I really thought of the Violet Temperley for Filofax!

I had a look at it and took a few photos, but I didn't want to take too many in the worry that my camera could possibly break....

I definitely could not take one of the iKat at a risk of being sick on my iPhone, and that would be a costly mistake, just like buying the iKat would be, I possibly think I would rather spend money on an Apex over the iKat, and that is saying an awful lot! Try giving them away....you will see they are as popular as an Apex!

Here is the Violet.

What comes to mind is....

A CAR TYRE THAT HAS GOT A NAIL STUCK IN IT AND HAS RIPPED OFF AND IS LYING ON THE SIDE OF A MOTORWAY!

It does not look as shiny in real life it is more matt, it does not feel like leather.

The stroke-a-bility would be a mear -100 maybe?

The inside...

Ooooo these inserts look like they could be pretty...

No I was wrong, they have already filled in the diary for you!!!!

You have no room to write your own things as all the languages take up all the page.

Now this is where my review is going to stop.

I am supposed to be of the age of people this is aimed at I would say, people who are Fashionable (which I am not) what happened Filofax?

iKat...

I think you just gave a piece of hideous bus seat to a person in a sweat shop and some plastic and said can you make a really simple cheap Filofax that we can charge outrageous prices for! Put some designers name on it and try to sell it to the masses! It is supposed to also be a clutch bag...I would say more of a break pad holder? Add it to the car family along with the Violet.

That was my review.

I know people will not agree with me. You can say what you like to me in the comments. It is just how I feel about Filofaxes latest range.

Have a nice day, I shall enjoy my beautiful new Personal sized Filofax which you shall see more about soon!

Filofaxes - an open letter to Helena Bloomer of Slam PR

 I am a bit late to posting this letter which was written by David Popely regarding Filofax and SlamPR going in the direction of saying that Filofax is a fashion item, not an item for organising your self, it is just for notes and being "Fashionable" which is a word that has become a joke within the Philofaxy Community on Twitter.

I am not going to post much before this as it doesn't need much to be posted so many others have said it all well, so I am just posting this on my blog to say I AGREE!!!

Here are some other people who have posted this eltter on their blog to show how many people agree and that this needs to be addressed by SlamPR & Filofax URGENTLY

Paperlovestory

Plannerisms 

LJ's Blog of Stuff
The Zeitgeist of Zoe

Write Where I Stand 

Icclewu 

There are plenty more, just these were the first ones I found on a quick search.

But it just shows that Filofaxes are not just about fashion, obviously some people buy ones they favour the look of, but it is never a Fashion accessory to compliment an outfit, or to fit in with the herd of sheep out there, it is to manage our time, to make sure we remember things, to plan meetings, to plan trips, to keep anything that is important in there. We use a Filofax over a phone to organise ourselves.

Here is the letter written by David.

I just wanted to show my support!

Dear Ms Bloomer

This letter is a response to the interview recently conducted with you by FeaturesExec Media Bulletin, and is being posted simultaneously (more or less) on a number of blogging sites in the UK, the US and beyond.

What binds us together as bloggers is that we are all members of an international community and website devoted to all things Filofax, and are all passionate about personal organisation, and the Filofax brand in particular. We have read, as a community, and with increasing disbelief, your comments concerning the Filofax brand, and this is our response.

We note from your comments that, as a result of a ‘usage and attitudes study’ you have conducted, you have been led to the conclusion that the distinguishing features of Filofax users are that we ‘like to write notes’, and that we are ‘very interested in fashion/stylish accessories’. We can assure you this is not the case in either respect, and that we find being pigeon-holed in this way to be demeaning and insulting in a way you most probably cannot understand. We are a community whose passions are for good organisation and a flexible, functional system to underpin that organisation. Some of us, perhaps a minority, have considerations of fashion, but all of us care that our systems of personal organisation assist us in the lives we live and the tasks we undertake.

In short, if all we wanted to do was to ‘write notes’, it is highly unlikely we would invest in relatively expensive binders, refills and systems such as your client provides. We wonder just who you have asked to participate in your ‘usage and attitudes study’. Whoever they are, we can assure you they are unrepresentative of your client’s core customer base, many of whom have been loyal customers for over twenty years and now feel ignored by your client.

We want to suggest to you that the direction you are taking your client in is ultimately going to prove fundamentally damaging to their business. The fashion ‘business’ is notoriously fickle and fast-changing, and you seem to have convinced your client that ignoring and alienating their loyal core customer base will bring dividends in terms of a new, fashion-conscious, high-spending corpus. We want to suggest to you, and by extension to Filofax themselves, that when the fashion ‘carousel moves on, your client will be left neither their newly promised client base, nor the client base you have led them to abandon. Do you really think this is smart business advice?

You say in your interview that you consider your brief with Filofax to ‘make (your client) fashionable again’. We would suggest to you that your client’s products, if they were ever ‘fashionable’ at all, were so because they fulfilled a function and a need which was perceived to be important to their customers. We now have growing evidence of a lowering of standards of manufacture in Filofax binders, of poor paper quality in refills, and of a lack of willingness to listen to your customers’ opinions. Several of our members, on voicing opinions similar to these, have been invited by Filofax (or whoever runs their Twitter feed) to communicate those opinions directly to your client. This has been done, and no further comment or reaction from your client has been forthcoming. We would like to know whether this is really the kind of public relations you wish for your clients? Or are you merely concerned with putting fashionable, well-heeled ‘bottoms on seats’ at London, New York and other Fashion Weeks with the aid of free give-aways of ranges of binders priced beyond the reach of the average core Filofax user and similarly poorly manufactured? We would suggest that your ‘fashion focused press office’ would be better employed communicating with the loyal, core customer base of your client, the majority of whom, it now seems, are on the point of abandoning your client’s brand in favour of providers who will listen.

We write as concerned individuals and not as representatives of the community to which we belong. However, it is worth noting that many of us have a very high annual spend on Filofax and related products, and we suggest that Filofax is in danger of sacrificing this loyal customer spend in exchange for something far less reliable in the long term. 

In conclusion, we have every confidence that these opinions will be ignored as ‘unfashionable’ by your ‘attitude studies’ and ‘fashion focused’ executives. However, we care enough about the Filofax brand to communicate these opinions plainly to you, and to hope that Filofax will one day return to the business in which it flourished for over seventy years, of providing highly functional, attractive but reasonably priced, personal organisation systems to those who need them, which is an increasing number of people in the societies in which we live.

Personal Amazona V Compact Regency

I am having a small dilemma, I have a bit too much stuff for the Regency, and would love to have more diary and see further into the future, but with the compact I am unable to do this! I can just see to November! Which makes me sad! I would love to see further forward and see backwards as well!

I like to be able to check on things and write things in full I cannot just be restricted to future planning with a month to view!

Here are some comparative photos of the two, which do you think I should use?

The main issue is the fact the 23mm rings get in the way when writing and I would have to have an awful lot in there to stop this being an issue, but the 15mm rings of the compact are too small.... hmmm

What would you do?

I have done a guest post on Personal V Compact over on Paperlovestory's blog, so go check that out as well!! (on 10 September)

UPDATE:

I tried Personal out last night, and I found it to be too big, and I missed Compact, I stayed in a Personal for all of 5 minutes, so this blog post was kind of pointless, but it gave you a small glimpse in to a comparison between them!  Check out Paperlovestory's blog on 10 September to see a Full comparison!

Diary Issues - Two Pages Per Day V Two Days Per Page

As you all know a few weeks ago I was going to try a "calling of the dog" experiment with Two Days to a Page, Week to View and finally Dodo Pad Week on one Page with Notes, and I said I would give weekly updates.... FAIL

I didn't give weekly updates as in that time I decided I wanted to try Flavia Day Timer Two Pages Per Day so I bought a set off a fellow Philofaxer, and tried it out, I used it for about 4 days over the long bank holiday weekend and the whole time I thought I WISH I WAS IN MY Two Days to a Page Diary, so that was just showing to me it would never work! If all you can do is think about something else and it feels as if you are cheating then it is pointless trying to make it work!

HEre is a photo comparison, I haven't photographed the whole week as that would be a bit mad!

It is a beautiful layout but maybe just tooooooo much room! Also I couldn't even see a day or two ahead which was really annoying me, but now I can!

As you can see I do not write anywhere near enough, I even tried to make lists on the spare page but it just was not working for me, I will keep them and maybe come back to them in a few weeks or months you never know!!! Just like the other diary formats.

My only wish is that I could hold a whole year of diary inserts, I could if I had nothing else in my Filofax, but I don't want to move up to a Personal as the rings annoy me and are far too big, I think just having a whole year's worth of month to view would be good but I only have from August as I have lost the rest!

I have made one small improvement on my Filofax though, I wanted these post it notes that Tracy posted on Instagram, they were so cute had M - S post it note that was layed out like this:

M _____________________

T _____________________
W _____________________
T _____________________
F _____________________
S _____________________
S _____________________

With lines etc, and I thought oh that would be perfect for blog post planning, so I made a page using my computer and my idea is that I will write in my Frixion and then rub it out when it is finished with! Now how genius is that... here is the page...

BTW I do have all my pages I have made saved on my computer so if you ever wanted something let me know!!! (I cant host files as I have no idea how too!!!) 

But I have loads and loads of templates all set on one single Personal sized page so you can easily print it out on one sheet, it is an idea, just comment below or email me at filofaximy@live.com and I will send them to you!

HAVE A NICE THURSDAY!

Thinning my Filofax & Avery Tabs - The Obsession

I am considering moving to a Compact Regency (I am definitely getting a Regency, its just whether or not I can thin my life down enough to move to Compact or stick with Personal, it is going to be brown tho) so I have been practicing with thinning my Filofax down!!!

Start...

Spare note paper taken out..

Measures at just about an inch!

I got home and I covered it in Avery Tabs, thinned everything out, took out some diary any excess I didn't need!!!

About half an inch...

Just above 1 cm

Hasn't it had a strict diet of Avery Tabs and less paper!!! Now to see what else I need to put in before it is finished!! Then I can know if the Compact will work, the idea of less ring in the way as you write sound luxury for me, otherwise I will have to completely STUFF the Personal sized one!

Avery Tabs - The Obsession

I went to Staples last night in search of Avery Tabs as I love them, I wanted to use them instead of my dividers so here is what I have done...

Have I gone over the top? and that isn't all of them either!!!