My Transition to Personal Size - Choice of Organiser

As I previously posted, I will be using Personal Size next year for the first time in quite a few years. I've been using A5 size organisers since about 2006, so it is time to have a change.

One thing that has changed since I last used Personal Size (full-time) is that my collection of different organisers in that size has grown, different models, brands and ring sizes.

Personal size I think has the largest range of ring sizes available. They go from 11-13mm in slimline size. Through 15-16mm in compact. 23-26mm in regular size rings, and the biggest are 30mm in internal diameter.

Most if not all Slimline organisers don't have a clasp, some don't even have a pen loop, so they will slip into a jacket pocket easily. I do have a DeVille organiser that is like a Slimline in design, no clasp or pen loop, but it comes with 15mm rings which is unusual but a useful addition in my collection.

As the ring size increases the overall size of the organiser increases along with the weight. This especially applies to the two-part organisers such as my Gillio Mia Cara and Moterm Versa, both Personal Size, but quite a size compared to say a regular Malden.

Detailed research on ring capacity.

Doing some research, I found this table in one of the Filofax catalogues.

Ring Size	Organiser Size	Capacity (Sheets)
30 mm	A5, Personal Zip	330
25 mm	A5 Clasp	270
23 mm	Personal Clasp	250
19 mm	Pocket	200
15 mm	Compact	150
13 mm	Slimline, Mini	120
11 mm	Slimline, Mini	105

It does list the capacity in terms of the number of sheets of paper, but I assume that is 70gsm sheets of paper. My own inserts are printed on 80gsm paper so the capacity will obviously be less. 

A slightly more accurate method is to measure the thickness of your stack of pages. Krause give paper capacities for their different ring sizes:

The ring capacity is given in the specification sheet as a thickness of paper on the rings. Krause quote their rings by the external diameter, were as we normally quote the internal diameter. The letters and numbers in () are the Kruse model numbers which you will find on page 21 of the catalogue in the link above.

• Pocket (PER152/06/20) - 20 mm internal diameter - Paper capacity 14mm
• Personal (PER171/06/25) - 25mm internal diameter - Paper capacity 19mm
• Personal (PER171/06/30) - 30mm internal diameter - Paper capacity 24mm
• A5 (PER216/06/25) - 25mm internal diameter - Paper capacity 19mm 
• A5 (PER216/06/30) - 30mm internal diameter - Paper capacity 24mm

So as a rule-of-thumb, take the ring internal diameter in milli-meters and subtract 6 mm and you have the paper capacity in milli-meters.  You should be able to apply this rule-of-thumb to any brand of organiser with similar size rings. 

Putting this information to use. 

I've measured the total thickness of my diary inserts plus other pages that I intend to carry. I've also tried them in various organisers in my collection. 12 months of the diary inserts on their own will just about fit in a 15mm organiser such as the De Villiers or Holborn Compact the later having a pen loop and clasp 

Larger ring Filofax organisers with 23mm rings can take all of my diary inserts and a parred down selection of additional pages. 26 and 30 mm ring organisers can take the full set of pages. 

If I cut down how many months of diary pages I carry and may be use a year planner for the rest of the year then 13 or even 11mm Slimline organisers can be utilised. 

Therefore I have plenty of scope to try out most of the organisers I have in my cupboard!  

As you might be able to tell, I'm quite looking forward to trying out Personal Size again. 

How Steve Gets Things Done (SGTD!)

I'm frequently asked how I use my A5 organiser. A picture saves 1000 words! It approximates to something like this: 

At the start of the week I find some quiet time to sit with a notebook/pocket organiser or any post-it notes I have hanging around from last week. 

I write out my notes in no particular order I just want to get them on paper whilst away from any distractions. 

From this list I add any new appointments to my Apple calendar to keep others informed of my movements! 

I also transfer the appointments and tasks from the 'Brain Dump' list to my A5 organiser. I put the tasks in the appropriate day if they have a deadline attached to them.

I copy any future reminders from Apple Reminders in to the Tasks part of my A5 organiser. This makes my organiser the centre of all activities and then I don't have to look in there and in various apps for what I should be doing, it's all in one place. I'm using the Enhanced Time Management Philofaxy insert shown in the picture. 

I journal most days about what I actually did each day, not too detailed, but enough detail to recall what I was doing, what I was reading or watching etc. 

I journal in a Quo Vadis Daily 21 bound planner, as shown in the picture above. The Daily 21 has very good paper which takes fountain pen perfectly and I archive each of these books at the end of the year.  

At the end of the week I review the week and carry forward any missed or unfinished tasks. 

During the week I will of course write in anything that pops up as needing to be done that week or in coming weeks, I don't wait until the Monday, my memory isn't that good these days. 

I realise my method and work flow might not work for everyone, thankfully it is working for me! 

Getting back to rings - my minimal Lefax set up

As mentioned in one of my previous Free For All Fridays, I've had a couple of months off from using an organiser and I feel that the break has served me well. I hadn't set any deadline for my return, but have recently started to feel ready to get back to it, so I thought that I would share with you the first of my two possible set ups. I have some backlog projects that I want to clear, plus the majority of my to do lists etc. are all out of date and a good review is needed anyway. 

I bought this beautiful Lefax City slimline on eBay last year, but I admit that it was bought on a bit of a whim and it's just been sat in a drawer. Whilst I love the slimine size and have owned some before, I've always ended up selling them as I find that normally the small rings don't have quite enough capacity for everything that I want to keep, plus spare paper. However, I do think that the size could work well for planning a particular project, so for the time being I will be using the Lefax as my main binder, alongside my Kensington which will hold any old notes or to do lists that need going through.

Like some slimlines, the Lefax doesn't have a penloop, so initially I tried using an Oli Clip, but eventually decided to go with the simplest option of just clipping the pen clip to the front. I think this works well with the Kaweco Sport as it's such a small pen when the cap is on.  

Dividers from Kate After Coffee (purchased by myself, not an affiliate link)

 

As I'm just easing myself into getting things done, my Lefax has just two sections - 1) Inbox and 2) Lists. I've found over the years that having an inbox as my first section works really well for me, so that I can just write something down without needing to think about where it should go. As per usual, I'm using up some out of date diary pages for writing notes. 

For my lists, I'm using some Raymay Davinci checklist sheets, which I really like. I don't remember buying these, so I think they were gifted to me by a friend.

My first list will be for next actions and any other lists will just be created as I need them. Once again, I don't have a deadline for how long I plan to use this super simple set up, but I love the idea of this fresh start, whilst I can also be working through old notes in the Kensington and adding anything that needs to be kept. I can imagine that when I've made some good progress on the contents of the Kensington, then I will be ready to move back to using personal size again as my main planner as I will also start wanting to look at other projects that need completing. 

Another potential set up that I will be looking at is to have these two sections at the front of the Kensington, and then to have the backlog as a third section after that. However, I will be trying this set up in my Lefax first to see how I get on.

Change Over Week

Well today is the start of my 'change over week'. It is the week that my 2019 inserts finish on, as well as the week my 2020 inserts start on, effectively a week overlap.

In the next couple of days I will be taking out my 2019 inserts, going through them, before archiving them in another binder.

My end of year review is to capture any tasks or notes that need to be carried over in to the new year. It shouldn't take too long to do.

It is also the end of my journal for 2019. I have already purchased the same type for 2020, but I will be inserting it in to my new Van der Spek Codex A5 planner cover. I prefer to use a bound planner as a journal as it makes archiving it easier and complete, also the paper quality is excellent I can use fountain pen without any issues.

Another task I will be doing this week is to check my notes and information pages in my organiser for updates or no longer required.

2019 was a busy year for us, no doubt 2020 will be just as busy with the arrival of our first grand child expected in May.

My planners of choice this coming year will be as follows:

Van der Spek Custom A5: This is my main day to day planner which sits on my desk.
Filofax Chester Compact A5: For when I'm travelling
Van der Speck Codex A5: Used for my journal
William Hannah Pocket Notebook: Used for on the go notes in a Rhodia Unlimited notebook.
Letts of London Travel Journal: For journalling whilst travelling.

What are you using this coming year?

My Set Up - 2019

I forget the last time I shared my set up here on Philofaxy. I don't think my set up has changed dramatically in recent years, but I'm often asked for details and photographs of my set up, so here it is.

Currently my sections are housed in these two Van der Spek A5 custom organisers.

On the left is the 'compact' clasp-less A5 with 25mm rings, that was originally created to go with the Gillio A5 outer jacket, but I now prefer to use it on its own, as I will explain in this post. Full details about this organiser are shown in this earlier post here.

On the right is my recent acquisition the custom A5 in Dark Brown and Yellow leather, with 35mm rings. Full details about this organiser are in this recent post.

The contents of the organiser is the key part of my set up. How they are carried in a way is secondary to the contents. So this post will concentrate on the contents rather than the actual organisers themselves.

Splitting up the contents in to sections. It goes like this:

Notes In (Inbox)
This has one or two sheets of the following:

• Blank note paper, ideal for drawings etc.
• Lined note paper.
• To-Do list
• Address/Contact page

I use these for gathering information quickly as it is the front section and I can move the pages or copy the information to existing pages when I have more time. 

Planner

This contains my main Enhanced Time Management Week on Two page planner, which tends to be my main focus on a daily basis. I use this for all my appointments and tasks, reminders, notes of forthcoming things etc. 

Also in this section I have a Month on One Page planner which is only used for planning blog posts here on Philofaxy. I find it easier to plan these on paper rather than looking at dates on a calendar or the edit page. I tend to use pencil to plan these because there is often changes of dates etc. 

To-Do

This section is used for my longer term task lists, I tend to review these lists at least once a month. Tasks are moved in to the planner section as and when the time is right etc.

Notes
I use this section for additional lined paper notes, copies of my blank packing lists that I use for most of my travels. A5 size: Weekend Travel Packing List - .docx .pdf

Information
In here I have the following pages:

• Popular Paper and Page Sizes
• Conversions and SI Units
• Electronic component colour codes
• International Dialling Codes
• Weights and Measures (Conversions) - Old Filofax Information Page
• World Temperature Guide - Old Filofax Information Page
• Clothing Size Equivalents - Old Filofax Information Page
• Map of France including departments 
• London Underground Map - TFL
• London Street Map (A3 size) 
• Local French Road Maps 
• World Time Zones
• Travel Insurance Information

Contacts

I have devised a method of being able to print my Apple Contacts in a suitable format for my A5 Filofax, I don't have every field on the print outs, just Name, Address, Tel, Mobile, Email address. 

A typical address looks something like this:

I will do a separate blog post on how I create these pages if there is enough interest. It took me a little while to get it right and there is some manual editing required. 

Normally all of the sections are kept together in the Dark Brown A5 as that one has the larger 35mm rings. I can carry that if I'm using my laptop rucksack, but I prefer to use a smaller bag for day to day use.

Therefore when I need my planner and I'm just using my smaller messenger bag, I take the first four sections out (Notes In, Planner, To-do, Notes) and put them in to the lighter brown clasp-less A5 which slips in to the back pocket of the bag like this.

As both organisers share the same inside front layout  I can easily transfer any paperwork across easily too.

I don't miss the other sections when I'm using my 'portable' A5 set up, I can move individual pages in to the portable set up, if required, there's plenty of ring space still even with only 25mm rings on the 'clasp-less' A5. 

If you have any questions about my set-up, please post a comment below and I will endeavour to answer them.


Further Information.

Web Site: http://www.vdsshop.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/VDSleathergoods
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanderspekorganiserfans/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vdsshop/

What’s in my Filofax - Sally

Thank you to Sally for sending in this post about her Filofax Malden Pocket. 

Here is the setup of my Filofax pocket Malden in black.

This is a short run through of my simple Filofax setup. It is the only planner I am currently using and is easily adequate for my needs.

I have been using this planner for 2 or 3 years, it was purchased in TK Maxx for half price. This was at a time when TK Maxx in my area had a large selection of leather Filofax organisers such as the Cuban, Regency and even an Enigma! For the past few years they have only had a small selection of the cheaper ranges.

Let’s get started...

In the zip pocket I keep my contact details. The other front pockets just hold sticky notes. At the front of the rings I have two clear acetate dashboards for attaching sticky notes that I need to see when opening my planner. Behind these are my only concessions to decoration...a journal card and a vinyl dashboard.

After many trials with laminated dividers I have returned to using the cream Filofax 1-6 dividers.

These do the job perfectly well. This is to reduce bulk on the rings. I also find it easier to flick through the pages with card dividers.

Divider no.1 is my diary section. After trying many different diary formats I have finally settled on the Filofax WO1P with Notes. This provides all the space I need. I use highlighters to mark events eg. pink dot for birthdays, yellow dot for health etc. I don’t use stickers because I prefer a smooth writing surface and dislike the ‘bumpiness’ of stickers on previous pages.

Divider no.2 is for contacts. In this section I keep a few addresses and phone numbers. I also have a Filofax MO2P which I use for birthdays and anniversaries. This is not strictly necessary as I have this information in my main diary but I like being able to see the whole month at a glance.

Divider no.3 is my To Do section. This is more for long term tasks. For more immediate jobs I make a daily list and then discard it.

Divider no.4 is Christmas! A little early but this section is unused as yet. It just consists of some seasonal paper cut down from a list pad. Later in the year I will start a food list, jot down ideas for presents etc. Much nearer the time I will use a few pages to rough out the month of December and write down specific tasks on specific days.

Divider no.5 is for general notes. At present it consists of shopping lists, book lists etc. I also keep a world map in this section and a horizontal year planner which I intend to use for a decluttering project.

Divider no.6 is currently being used for spare notepaper.

I keep a top opening pocket at the back for business cards and photos.

The pockets in the back are used for postage stamps and general bits & pieces. I have occasionally put a notepad in the back pocket but this does make the planner too bulky for my liking.

The large pocket across the back is usually empty or sometimes holds random notes.

Finally, I use a mini Filofax pen.

I hope you have enjoyed this look inside my planner.

Thank you Sally for this excellent view in to your organiser. Let us see yours... please contact steve at philofaxy dot com 

What is in my GILLIO organiser? - Maria

I saw Steve’s inquiry for a post for the Philofaxy site for the ‘what is in my planner’ column. I have always enjoyed reading about other people’s planner and find mine a little bit boring. Sounds familiar?

Well here it goes, a boring planner 😉

(Disclaimer: for privacy reasons I have only blank pages photographed).

I have  GILLIO personal size grey mat, which I bought because I got a promotion at work. I was eying this planner for a long time and made a promise to buy it when I got the promotion. And I do not regret it.

My planning is a combination of GTD and bullet journal. And a lot of common sense and flexibility and usefulness to my daily life. My planner has 5 sections:

• Note’s
• Calendar
• Projects/ To Do’s
• Lists
• Misc.

In the first section is my ‘In box’. I put there all my incoming notes, request, things I need to figure out. Everything goes there. I then go through it and put in the relevant sections.

The calendar section consist of four sections:

Yearly overview: I have the Filofax the four-year planner overview, where I put in school holidays’ and other school-related stuff for my kids.

Monthly overview: it is the month on one page and in between, I have a month overview where I put in all the important dates, to do’s for the month and goals.

Weekly: I have a week per page with notes. I put here all my appointments for the week, together with the to do’s for that week and some reminders/notes for the week. I also screen my month pages to see if there are things that I need to tackle in the week.

Daily’s: I bought these on a discount (90%!) somewhere in January this year. Even if I do not use it, it is cheaper than printing daily pages 😉. I put here all my appointments, to do’s, etc. for the day. At the end of the day, I screen the page and see if all has been done and/or need to be transfer / reschedule to another day. I kinda use them in a bullet journal style.

After the calendar section, I have my project / to do’s. I have here a master to-do list for the month. All the to do’s during the month are being placed here. From here I put the 'to do’s' on a relevant day that they need to be finished.

I also have my projects here, divided into a small task with there due date. I use just plan graphic paper for this. Nothing fancy.

Next, I have all my list. And this why I love the ring planner. I can take my list every year with me, without rewriting everything. My lists are:

• Running schedule: I am training for the 10 Miles in June this year.
• Addresses
• General information
• Website information
• Work instructions: hmmm need to rethink about this section…
• Finance

The last section is a (Daytimer) pocket that I trimmed to fit in the planner. I have this many, many, many years now. I put their stuff: stamps, nice mandala, writing board. Just stuff, that actually needs to go somewhere else……

As you can see, I find my planner cute, but functional. And while writing this piece I am already thinking that some sections need to find another place.

And now it is your turn: show me your planner 😊.

Thank you Maria for this excellent peep in to your organiser. As she says.... let us see yours... please contact steve at philofaxy dot com 

Guest Post - My Set Up - Guido

Thank you to Guido for this excellent detailed post of his set up. 

Detailed setup

As you may recall I had Van der Spek build me the ultimate organizer. David Popely asked me to share my setup, which I recorded on my list as something to follow up on. I finally found the time to respond to his question. I have not taken pictures of each section and insert avoiding this from becoming a picture heavy post.

Starting off with the overall structure: I use a register / tabs to divide my VDS into sections. These sections are based on a German system called LöhnMethode which is basically GTD, but way before GTD was coined as a concept and more time aware than GTD appears to be. What I particularly like about these tabs is that they combine your dairy sections with an A-Z register and a DataBank 1-6 all in one set. I used to use TimeSystem to do that job, but I find these current tabs to be very clean and efficient in using ring space. Not that I do not have ring space, because my VDS has 35mm rings. More inserts!

Let’s continue with the inserts.

I have a yearly overview sheet from TimeSystem which states the year vertically in weeks. I note my yearly goals on this sheet, which are subsequently transferred to my monthly sheets for more detailed planning. I use 2 sets of monthly sheets: one with a month on 2 pages for rough scheduling appointments (not every single one – I have a smartphone for that – but the big picture). The other one is a horizontal monthly plan by Time System stating my goals on the left hand and vertically the days of the month so I can GANTT-chart my objectives to the day.

The next section is my weekly section with a week on 2 pages on the front and weekly objective pages and time entry on the back. I have designed this insert myself inspired on Tempus A5 weekly’s, Time System and Ray Blake’s time recording sheet. I plan my weeks based on monthly objectives and whatever comes up that I have to sort out during that week.

Then I have a section with capture lists per key area of focus, a concept I took from Time Manager. I keep them all together rather than having one tab for each area, although I have tabs available to that end. I am still debating on what is best. At present, efficiency wins, so they are all under one tab.

The following section is for my project activities. This is where I keep project plans and notes for each current project. Once completed or no longer current I transfer these to a storage binder (TimeSystem A5 35mm) or more permanent storage (large rings).

A specific section relates to my long term vision and goals. I have a separate binder for life planning, but the summary of that binder goes under this tab. Basically, a fold-out page (3 pages in 1) I created myself. Goals and objectives are transferred to the yearly planning pages once completed. I review this section regularly to stay in touch with what matters to me most.

The red section (D) in my VDS is for daily pages. I use DO2P by Ray (daily dashboard version I believe) which I then tweaked to my own liking. I had a go at other setups, including no daily pages and just using weekly pages, but it did not work. I take the rewriting of various bits and pieces for granted. And it also helps to solidify the objectives I set out to achieve with each writing I do. The daily pages, weekly planning, monthly and yearly pages are interconnected with each other, meaning that I designed them as such that they have on the left hand side (I use fold out inserts for year, month and week so I can see them side by side with my daily pages – Time System calls this windowing) they all have the same set of questions I ask myself during planning:

• What is the top 5 focus for this month, week or day?
• What do I want to achieve personal wise?
• What do I want to achieve business wise?
• How do I sharpen my saw?
• Who will I show love, appreciation / TLC?
• What is on my annual goal setting that I want to make major progress on?
• What is carried forward from earlier periods?
• What other goals do I have?

These questions help me focus on the big picture and make progress daily towards my longer term goals instead of running around with a to-do list (or as Tony Robbins calls it the do something list) wondering where my time is going. Occasionally I still have these days of course, but less than I used to.

The other A-Z and 1-6 sections are for temporary storage or reference to documents and notes I need to refer to during a project or as databank.

Thank you Guido.

My Daily/Weekly Planning Tools

I rediscovered this photograph from a few weeks ago. It is a snap shot in time of what my daily/weekly planning tools look like that I'm generally using these days.

Top left is my A5 reference organiser, showing some local maps salvaged from an old road atlas! I also keep a lot of other information pages in this organiser such as:

• Address/Contacts pages
• Information pages on various topics
• Notes pages
• Spare pages
• Maps
• Instruction sheets

I don't carry this A5 around with me, as it is generally too heavy and bulky, but it sits on my desk closed and to hand all the time. I transfer pages from it to my other A5 as and when I need them. 

Top Right is my A5 planning organiser. This only contains my 12 month week on two page planner using the Philofaxy Enhanced Time Manager insert and a Month on One Page blog planner, with a few notes pages between these two planners. Extra pages are added to this organiser as required. 

Some weeks are busy like the one shown, but most weeks I don't have that many appointments, my main need is to remind myself of various tasks to do that week. I use the reminders app on my Mac/iPhone for the routine daily/weekly reminders so as to not clog up my pages with those. 

This A5 does get carried around, it is quite light, and I keep all my daily/weekly requirements in it and other bits of paper such as prescriptions and official cards and paperwork. 

Bottom Left is my Van der Spek Nomad Travellers Notebook I have two of these, but this one is dedicated to the podcast (The Hitchhikers Guide to the Plannerverse) I use it to put together notes for each episode or as shown future episodes, sometimes like this printed paper stuck in to the notebook. I have another Nomad which has three notebooks in it which I use for other projects. I find using notebooks for dedicated projects very productive because you can just sit down somewhere and quietly concentrate on that particular project.   

Bottom Right is my Quo Vadis Daily 21 diary/agenda that I use as a journal, it has lovely fountain pen friendly paper. I'm not a heavy journalling person, sometimes it's just key things I've done that day. I ignore the times on the page and just use it as a dated lined page. I've used this type for the last 4 years, it is very good, and I can just archive the whole book in December and start a new one on 1st January.