Sunday 6 November 2011

Work Filofax - More Decisions

As some of you already know, I managed to leave my laptop bag on a train the other week which wasn't one of my smarter moves, especially as it had my aqua A5 Finsbury filofax that I use for work with hours and hours of planning stuff in.

I know, I know - if I'd have done it on my laptop it would have been backed up, but 2 hours in an airport and an hour or so on a plane is way more conducive to writing than typing. And on paper you can sketch stuff out as well, hence I had managed to make changes to the diary template that I was already using. That along with the fact that I just love my FFs and writing things down - colour coding all the way, just means that I will probably never be a technology girl (apart from my iPad and my Kindle and my MacBook - what is it about stationery and FFs that just may writing such a joy).

Anyway, after a few weeks I had to come to terms with the fact that it wasn't going to be returned to me
and so I had to search for a new one.

The aqua Fins hadn't been bought with the purpose of being my work filo, in fact I had decided that it could only ever be a spare as I already had the aqua Fins in personal size. I was using an A4 Metropole in brown as I have always used an A4 day to a page diary as I need that much space to write my task lists.

I had been on Philofaxy one day and read a few posts where people were using the A5 for work and wondered if it could work for me... As it turned out, yes it could!!! All I had to do was to take my A4 templates (designed by me using Excel so easy to reduce in size to fit the A5). The bonus about this was the fact that I had a smaller page size without losing any lines. Yes, it meant I had to write a bit smaller, but as I only write on every other line anyway this wasn't a problem.

Finding a replacement has been tough, I loved the Fins, tough, pretty and practical, and decided that another Fins would be the perfect replacement, but in raspberry as I don't particularly want 2 the same. However, after searching and being unable to find any major bargains I decided I should consider other options.

Philofaxy stepped in again with a notice that the Filofax Denmark site had a sale on, and on there I spied an A5 Graphic in red (looking very similar to the A4 Logic that I had got from the Germany sale - see post) which although not leather appears hardwearing, practical - and very heavy!!! I also saw a bargainous A5 Chameleon in raspberry which will be with me next week, and although these are leather I am not sure if it will be sturdy enough to be my work filo, which will be a great shame as it is beautiful. And so the dilemma starts...

A5 Graphic - sturdy, scratchproof, actually quite attractive
A5 Chameleon - soft, leather, soooo pretty
The second part of the dilemma is the setup of my new work FF. Do I print out my usual day to a page diary sheets which were working rather well for me, or do I try to use the Danish inserts which look like they may actually be up to the job... here is what I'm talking about:

My templates (mostly from in my A4 and not the most recent version, as they were in my missing FF, but close enough).

Month on 1 page
Day to 1 page
Notes page

An A5 page that I had in my bag from using to scribble on after I updated the design I wanted
And then the inserts that came with the Graphic from Denmark:

Black inserts and quadrille paper
Fold out activity plan with quadrille reverse

To do lists
Week on 2 pages
As the Graphic comes complete with July 2011 - December 2012 diary I think I shall experiment with what I have and see how it goes. I have a trick up my sleeve that I already started using when I had a day to 1 page in my work FF, that may even make it possible to move to a week on 2 pages ;o)

I am looking forward to blogging about this one as without an A5 FF for work I have been a bit lost (which is pretty weird as I'd only been using it for a few months). I have been using the personal Fresco for the last couple of weeks to try to ease the pain, but will be so glad to move back into an A5.

Any advice, recommendations? Bring em on!!! :o)

LJx



8 comments:

  1. LJ - your forms are wonderful - would you be willing to share your templates?
    Claudia

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  2. Thanks Claudia :o) I would be very willing to share my forms. I will need to doctor one of them to get it back to the pictured format as I had to add a section. They are in Excel, and I'll try to get them to you by the end of the week :o)

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  3. LJ - thanks for your generosity! I will look forward to this...
    Claudia

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  4. @LJ
    Did you know you don't need to scale your templates, but just 'booklet print' them (or print 2 to a page)? Also, had you checked out DIY planner? (There's a link from the files page of Philofaxy) There's a neat little program you can download for free to make your own diary pages.
    HAve you decided yet about which filofax you're using for work?

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  5. Hi Amanda, I think the A5 Graphic is going to be my work filo - unless it suddenly gets loads of votes to be my happiness binder. I'm a bit concerned that he Chameleon won't be tough enough. I haven't looked at the DIY planner yet, the templates that I have designed were very basic Excel ones (I work in Excel all day so it didn't take long to do them), although I do intend to check out the DIY planner when I have the time. I had't thought of printing them 2 to a page, that would have been the sensible option - doh!!!

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  6. Hi Claudia, how can I get these templates to you? Do you have an email address I can use?

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  7. Hi LJ! you can send them to me at: cvolkman@mac.com
    Thanks a ton!

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  8. Should be in your inbox now :o)

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