On Filofax...

I am not one that likes a lot of bulk and clutter and useless items in my world. I only want what I positively enjoy and what it absolutely necessary. Two of my favorite material things are handbags and Filofax(es). Today, it's all about the Filo. I shared a little of how I use one of my organizers on the blog  Philofaxy, a source of daily reading for me, so I thought I'd post about it here as well.

I don't own shelves and shelves of planners as some of posters there do ( although I get trapped in a daze when I start looking at those shelves); I have four, one of which I gave loaned to my daughter when she graduated from college and became a professional. It's not really a Filofax, but more about that and my daughter's unfortunate attitude towards the Filofax culture later.

The focus here is my weight tracker Filofax. It's a butter yellow pocket Piazza which I purchased from Pens and Leather for a nice close-out price. I must say, it is beautiful!

                      As you can see, I pimped out the fly-leaf in the front with a beautiful press-on flower

                                     I keep the Weight Watchers weight record in the front pocket.                                           

This is the meal tracker from the Philofaxy Files tab. I plan my meals for the entire day and log it all in at once. If I change my mind for what I want, say, for dinner, I can just erase it and re-enter it, because everything is recorded in pencil.

I'd like to find a convenient way to keep my WW calculator with the Filofax. My first thought is to get a small pouch and put grommets on it and actually insert into the book, but it might look too bulky; or I might just hang a small wristlet onto one of the rings. We'll see.

My sections are: Notes; nothing specific, just notes; Information: here I jot down websites, recipes, tips on caloric and carb intake, etc; Points Tracker: this is where I use the Philofaxy meal tracker to capture the carbs, fat, protein, fiber and (I changed it a bit to suit my needs) the points value of each food item; and finally, Points Values: I use the Weight Watchers  points system to control how much I consume in a day. Each food item has a points value and you get that value by calculating the carbs, fat, protein and fiber. Once I know the value of an item, I jot it down in this section alphabetically, so I don't have to calculate each time I want to eat something. I use the address abc tabs for this purpose.

This Filofax is so tiny and lightweight, I just pop it into my lunch tote and carry it with me.

This of course is only my meal planner. I will post a blog of the two others that I use soon

On Fantasizing vs doing...

My Life is PERFECT. I have the job that someone recommended I apply for and when I called about it, the woman I spoke with liked what I told her about my experiences and told me just to email my resume. My home is beautiful and organized and run like a tight ship; my closet...oh, my closet! A large walk in closet that looks like a glam glitzy and gilded Hollywood starlet's dressing room. I have purses and shoes to die for. My office is perfect and peaceful and I'm in there every morning before work organizing my day, planning my life, and every evening (after my delicious dinner has been cooked and consumed and the kitchen cleaned to a shine), making sure all has gone according to plan, and each and every item on my to do list has a small, neat checkmark beside it.  My children, who are very nearly grown, are now cubby-holed into their own pockets of well-adjusted, well-educated and well-settled lives and my husband is faithfully there when I need him to be and conveniently gone when I'd rather be alone. I have plenty of appointments to me busy--lunches with friends, important meetings, which, by the way, I am never inclined to skip, and the occasional party invite,  for which I don a not necessarily new, and not exorbitantly pricey, though high-end and very fashionable outfit. I am as organized as my Filofax says I am.

That, folks, is the fantasy. I fantasize a lot. I have fantasies that are so far out of this world I'm ashamed that they come from my head. When I half play them out at home alone (does anyone else do that?), I get embarrassed to find my cat watching me. She always looks at me with this "I'm Way Better Than You" look anyway. I have fantasies that are so darn possible to become reality that I am ashamed to tell people that I have them for fear that they will ask why I haven't acted upon them.

The reality is, I haven't yet emailed my resume for that job I want; instead I sit languishing on a nice, safe job, going nowhere and not really enjoying the trip; my family, well, I must say, is not too far off from my fantasy, and on this day after Thanksgiving, I have some leftover thanks to give for that. My house is not organized and not necessarily beautiful. As for my office and the time spent there and the things that get done there...hmph. It's more like this: I get up in the morning, say a quick, too quick prayer, grab my lap top, sit on the sofa just outside the office in the family and read articles and look at pictures of office organization, and beautiful closets, and well cooked meals. Such is my life.

But not to worry... I am re-configuring my Filofax for 2012. I fantasize that it will help my fantasies become reality.

On Organization...

I have been on a quest to become an organized person since I can remember, though I am not a BO (a person Born Organized). I have read Organize...Today!, Organizing from the Inside Out, Getting Rid of Clutter, and countless magazine articles on the subject, yet I still struggle. Recently I tapped into fly lady.net to try to bring some order to my home and my life and some things, I am happy to report, have changed, even though I did have to blow a cloud of dust from my Control Journal yesterday. Will I ever meet all of her requirements? Probably not, though I have learned to leave my bedroom every morning with a load of laundry.