Tuesday, January 3, 2012

2012 Filofax Set-up

I have been looking forward to this day since around Sept or Oct '11 when my months-old Cuban Filofax began to lose its luster. I scoured thousands Filofax Flickr photos, and tried to emulate the random messiness of schedules, sticky notes, stickers, the more-than-occasional stray page, the explosion of color. It was all so appealing to the eye, so...interesting. I ended up with a schizophrenic amalgamation of other people's ideas.

In reality, I like my Filofax tidy. I like symmetry, order, and monochrome. What I did not like was Filofax's 'array' (I use that word lightly) of tab dividers. Making my own, I discovered that I am not an artist, and that too many colors and patterns turned my eye away from rather than to my Filofax, causing me to neglect its upkeep for days on end.

I was happy to discover these...



Dividers from Succes in navy blue, the most classic color in the spectrum, and incidentally, the same color as my car, and the cardigan I bought yesterday from H & M. I love these. They are a flexible, light-weight plastic(y) material (Succes calls it synthetic). I bought one packet of 5 dividers with symbols (365 for the Calendar section; a check-mark for the To-Do section; a pen for Notes; an "i" for Information; an envelope for Addresses). Because they did not have blank tabs in navy, I bought a packet of 3-letter address tabs to re-purpose for my own use. I flipped them over and re-labeled them with my Dymo label maker. My other sections are ASL (American Sign Language; I'm an interpreter); The Bible, to take notes when I'm at church or during my personal reading time; Finance, to keep track of spending; Lexicon-my word list. When I'm reading and come across a word with which I am not familiar, I look it up, write down it's meaning and try to incorporate it into my vocabulary; Projects, just projects; To buy - my shopping lists. I have different pages for different stores: Target, Marshall's, T J Maxx, Sephora, the mall, etc; To Read. lists of books I have read and want to read. It is prefaced with a quote by Henry Miller: "We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate;" To Wear. I made my own template to plan my outfits for each day of the week.
In the back is a top-opening envelope for receipts, and a card holder; in the mesh zippered pocket I keep paperclips (I only use the circle ones called Clipiolas) and stamps and such.
Other points of interest in my Filo:
*For the Calendar, I use the fold-out year planner and the wo2p diary. 

I pimped out my frosted "Today" page marker with a press on flower (if you read the prior post entitled 'On Filofax', you'll see that I also pimped out the fly leaf in my weight tracker planner). I like how this one looks like a climbing vine.



*In the Info section, I have a fold-out world map, which I refer to often.

*In the Bible section, I have placed a card that I received from my church which has our 2012 Year theme (Church to Live) and a sub-theme for each month. I laminated and hole-punched the card, and placed it in the front of this section.


*This is the template that I created to plan my clothes for the week. I print it on Filofax pre-punched paper.


*I use a navy blue Jet-stream Uni 0.7 pen that doesn't quite fit into the pen-loop, so I just hook it on.


*My Filofax is a Personal Cuban in Chestnut. It goes everywhere with me (except when I carry a smaller bag, but that's another blog),and holds its own against my iphone and Galaxy tablet.


*I only use Filofax Cotton Cream paper, as seen in the haul photo below.


There she is, folks. Ready for the new year...




7 comments:

  1. I know what you mean about the messiness of some Filofaxes. I believe that organisation ought to be orderly, but I also support the principle of whatever works.

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  2. I agree. It obviously works for some people, I think probably the more artistic types, which I am not. It may not work for me, but I still look at the pictures!

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  3. I love those navy tabs and the sections you've made. That is something I need to do; come up with sections that will work for me. I haven't quite gotten there yet.

    Loved this post!
    Tracy

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  4. I love your set-up! Do what works for YOU, not what works for other people - the individuality of Filofax setups is what makes them beautiful. :)

    I especially love your Today marker, and that you put in the card from your church. I keep on going back and forth on having a Bible or Faith section in my Filo - so far it isn't there, but eventually I might just use a Filofax for a Bible study notebook..we'll see. :)

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  5. I love looking at the well-used (read "messiness") of others' Filos, but when it comes to my own, it has to be organized. Sometimes I wish I could be a little more carefree with my planning but it just makes me feel confused and out of sorts.

    As an aside, you're an ASL interpreter? That's awesome! I took 4 semesters of ASL in college - it started as an elective and I loved it so continued with it. I often thought of becoming an interpreter but went a different route in the end. I am a public librarian now, and though I don't often get to sign with anyone, we have had a few Deaf patrons come in. I have signed with one or two but unfortunately I don't know enough ASL to discuss with them what they're looking for - when I learned it was before the big technology craze and so there's a lot I'm missing. Maybe I should take some refresher classes...

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  6. You should definitely take some refresher courses! it's so worthwhile. I love interpreting, but unfortunately , I'm not yet certified so I don't interpret on a regular professional basis. I mostly terp in church and for friends; I also do plays and other random special situations. I'm currently studying to take the NIC written exam. If you don't want to jump back into classes, check out websites like aslpro.com, oic movies, and deafvideo.tv. These will really help out with your receptive skills.

    As for the Filofax, 'carefree' is the right word, and yes, sometimes I wish I were a bit more so, but I need my Filofax pretty tightly run.

    (... can't wait 'til Web Finds tomorrow morning. It's my favorite 3am Saturday morning companion!)

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  7. Very nice setup. Love the Today page marker. How did you do that beautiful decoration?

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