Reader Question: The Filofax f

When did Filofax start to put their f logo on the spine of their organisers?

It was before 1999 as far as I can tell, but does anyone have a more accurate date/year?

Please comment below.

Vintage Filofax Organisers, What would you buy?

An interesting question from a reader in my Instagram in-box this week.

If you want to buy a Vintage Filofax, which models should you be looking at? Which ones do you consider to be good quality? And for each of the models you recommend what is a sensible price to pay?

Yep it is a tall order, I know we all have our favourites. This particular reader is waiting for a Winchester to arrive so that is a good start!

Please leave your favourites and also ones to avoid in the comments below...

Can You Help To Identify This Organiser?

Can you help one of our readers identify this organiser. There doesn't appear to be any makers name on it, but you might recognise the design or the style or the layout of the interior of the organiser.

Any help is gratefully received, please drop a comment down below.

Thank you.

Reader Question - How many people use paper planners?

I got an interesting email this week from one of our readers.

How many paper planner users there are world-wide?

Do you know how usage is trending?

It is a difficult question to answer in terms of accurate numbers. Yes some of the Facebook groups are over twenty thousand in terms of membership numbers.

However, I doubt that the number of people in a Facebook group reflects an accurate idea of the number of active users of paper planners, even if you added up the number of people in all of the various planner groups and there are lot of them now!

How many users of paper planners would think to join a Facebook group about them? 1%? Higher or lower?

I've personally come across a few of my old friends who have revealed to me that they are ardent Filofax users, when I've mentioned Philofaxy, but they wouldn't necessarily join a group or be regular readers of the blog.

They might emerge once a year when they are looking for diary inserts and ask me if I know where they can get a particular insert or similar.

I then discover they are using a well worn Filofax that they bought in the late 1980's and I have to contain my excitement!

So quantifying the number of users of paper planners I don't think is easy.

Is the number of people using paper planners increasing or decreasing?

I know a lot of people are using their phones these days, they seem to be married to them almost! But I still see a lot of people with notebooks and paper planners and a pen writing things down.

What do you think?

Foundry Reference Book.

Can you help Alan identify this binder? 

Dear Filofax lovers, 

I have owned and used many different 6 ring binders over the years but I think the one I've just acquired may be one of the earliest. It is an imitation leather binder made by Moores Modern Methods, London EC4, for The Mond Nickel Company Ltd for its foundry reference book 'Nickel Cast Iron'.

Mond Nickel apparently became International Nickel in 1928.

The binder is standard Filofax Personal 6 ring spacing. Reference in the text to a paper of 1937 shows it is probably late 1930s.

Any ideas or further info would be welcome. Regards, Alan Burgess

Please leave a comment below if you have any information you can share. 

Your Organiser and Your Profession? - Reader Question

This topic was suggested by Gaynor during the Philofaxy Round Table Skype chat last weekend. I thought it was a great discussion topic and wrote it down quickly!

The question she posed was 'Does your job/profession influence how you plan in your organiser?'

I thought about it for a moment and of course in some jobs I'm sure there will be an influence.

Teachers I would think would be more at home with diary inserts that mirror their academic year. I wonder if accountants would prefer ones that started and finished with the start and finish of the tax year?

Then there is the type of layouts people prefer, does a vertical layout work better for some jobs compared to a horizontal layout?

Let us have your thoughts in the comments below. But I would also be very pleased if any of you would like to submit a short guest post on how your profession influences how you use your organiser.

Reader Question - Help identify this vintage organiser.

Hello Philofaxy team,

We received this from Linda, can you help identify this make and model of organiser? Leave a response in the comments or email me steve@philofaxy.com  

I have a lovely old diary/planner that I got in 1991 and had never thought much about the brand until now. And now it's driving me nuts because I cannot work out who made it. I am happy to keep using it but if I could get another of the same beautiful leather I would like to. Of course in my searching I've seen and now fallen in love with lots of other brands and I can feel an obsession coming on.

Anyway I am hoping you might recognise it and be able to tell me who made it. Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Regards

Linda

Reader Questions: Keeping track of so many things?

We sometimes receive emails in the Philofaxy in-box that are a little bit more than a simple question that could go in to a FFAF or FFAT post as a comment. 

As you can imagine someone with a similar question is going to struggle to find the relevant comment several weeks or months later. 

So I thought this message from Paul was suitable for a post in its own right. 

Hi everyone

I’m Paul from Sydney & have been a Filofax user on and off for decades.

For the past year, I have been using my Personal size with Filofax One Day on Two Pages Calendar, in which the right hand page is a ToDo list.

I keep a MasterList in which I dump everything from my head onto, and then pick tasks from the list & write them on the RH side pages under “Priorities”.

This has served me well during this time and is not overwhelming to look at.  I have now found myself in a position to care for a family member at their home and I live at my home with my family.

With this comes extra pressure, responsibilities and tasks and I feel that my current system will not handle it all for the following reasons. I have these areas in my life that need tracking:

• Work (I work for myself),
• the person I am caring for (chores inside & outside the house, grocery shopping, chemist, online medical purchases, house bills, etc),
• my personal life (chores similar to those in the last brackets),
• my partner,
• family,
• friends, etc.

How do I keep track of it all in a paper based system so I can easily see what priorities need doing? I tried the following GTD system but it is so labour intensive:

Projects Page:
- eg. Christmas PRJ_XMS001   (just a code made up to identify this project)
  1. Buy Cards   @Shops    (showing that Task #1 is on the @Shops context page)

Contexts:
- @Shops (context page)
 Buy cards PRJ_XMS001/1     (Referencing back to the Christmas project/ Task#1)

As you can see, this is far too time consuming, so I feel like going back to OmniFocus which will handle it, but I don’t want a computerised system as I am trying to get away from technology

1. Back in the 1980s how did professionals using the Filofax system keep track of multiple projects?
2. Does anyone here have or know of a system that is Not labour intensive?
3. Will the book “ ‘A’ Time” or “Start Time Forward” by James Noon answer this?

Is this at all possible on paper?

Hope the help that I receive will help others as well.

Best Regards,
Paul

So people can we help Paul, pop your suggestions in to the comments below and even if you only know of part solutions I'm sure they will be helpful. 

Is there one......

Is there a Filofax that you have ever regret selling or giving away? May be you have even gone out and bought another one?

Combine Work and Personal Organisers?

Do you use separate organisers for your personal life and your work life? Or do you combine them in to one organiser?

How do you keep the information if you combine them in one organiser?

Share your tips in the comments below.

What would you choose?

Thank you to Janet for this post idea...

If you had a choice of a free Filofax, which one would you choose - the one you wanted or the most expensive one?

Or if you were choosing a Filofax for a friend who you had introduced to Filofax which model and size would you pick for them? 

Reader Question - Keeping Filofax contents safe - Louise

We received this question from Louise in our in-box last week. Please take a read and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

I am a long-time Filofax user and a long-time Philofaxy lurker - what a wonderful blog!

I have been wondering for a while about the security of the information we note down in our Filofaxes, I would be interested to know whether others are concerned by this, and any steps that they take to mitigate the risks.

For many (most?) of us, our Filofax will contain many of the details we keep locked in our home filing cabinets and if it were to fall into the hands of a 'baddie' the repercussions could be grave. 

The kind of issues that spring to mind are:

• My name and address together with my diary - shows when my house will be empty
• My name and address together with reference to key personal information (name of my pet, wedding anniversary etc) - could be used for identity theft
• The name, addresses, phone numbers and emails addresses of friends and family in my address book - could be used for the theft of their identity
• Details of the banks I use, dates of direct debits and amounts etc in combination with the above information - could be used to take money from my bank account (and possibly indicate my wealth)
• Details of internet passwords - could be used to access my online accounts and my online identity

Naturally, if we also use our Filofax for work purposes, we may note down sensitive commercial or client information that we wouldn't wish anyone else to see.  Perhaps it wouldn't be a disaster on the same scale as some of the 'civil service usb stick left on the train' incidents, but it could be unpleasant nevertheless!

Of course, the chance of this happening is slim and I have laid out the worst case scenarios to illustrate my case.  

The same arguments could also be made about losing your phone or laptop.  However, electronic devices require a password where a Filofax can be read instantly, and there are a variety of security apps that can be installed on electronic devices that aren't available for paper planners.  It strikes me that Filofaxes are uniquely vulnerable because they inspire such intimacy from their users but could be accessed by anyone who has it in their hands.

There is a balance to be struck between maintaining a useful Filofax that contains all of the information that we need, and sharing details that  could compromise our security, or those of others.  There is also a balance to be struck between a state of reckless abandon and one of constant paranoia! 

I don't believe that there will be many Filofax users who write out their on-line banking details in full under the Finance tab, but I do believe it is worth reflecting on the repercussions of losing your Filofax.  I have read comments from Philofaxers who encrypt their login details before noting them down for example; I'd be interested to know of any other similar strategies that folk use. 

Louise

Thank you Louise for your excellent question.

Is your partner a Filofax user also?

During our enjoyable 2 hour round table chat yesterday afternoon, one of the topics of conversation amongst many was...... 'Does your partner use a Filofax?

We wondered if your partner is also a Filofax user how do you cope with sharing your stack on inserts/organisers?

Imagine going to your box/cupboard/room/drawer and finding that there were no To-Do lists in personal size left, or the Filofax organiser that matches your bag/suit has been taken by your partner, because they decided to swap set ups without consulting you......

So tell us in the comments about your partners and their attitudes towards Filofax personal organisers....

Reader Question - Paper Recommendations

Thank you to Helen for her question, I too will be interested in all of your responses. 

I love the diary pages you and Ray have produced and was thinking about getting some nicer paper to print them on. The trouble is I am not sure what to buy.

So some recommendations on weight, fountain pen friendliness etc would be really helpful.

Reader Question - Filofax/Stationery 'Obsession'

A very interesting question from Sirpa-Kaarina in the last Free For All Friday...

A Filofax question: How do your hubbies / partners feel about your passion for Filofax organisers and stationery?

As Nan observed: 

Wow...this one could use a post of its own.

So here it is..... I can see people scurrying to change their user names before responding!!  Honest answers please...

Reader Question: Filofax paper, which pen?

We have frequently seen comments about the (poor) quality of Filofax white paper, particularly how it doesn't like fountain pen ink. The Filofax cotton cream paper seems a lot better and higher quality.

So a reader asked me this week. 'Which gel pens or rollerball pens work with ordinary Filofax paper? I can't use cotton cream paper as they don't sell A5 diary inserts in A5 size'

The later point is true, they don't do cotton cream in A5, shame really. So which gel pens and roller ball pens work with ordinary Filofax paper? And I suppose which ones fit the pen loop should also be taken in to consideration.

As a supplementary question I was wondering what paper people use if they print their own inserts? 

Reader Question - Filofax Storage?

How do you store your unused pages or inserts? As the end of the year is approaching, how do you archive your past years diary/journals from your Filofax.

Does anyone have any different way of storing their 'spare' Filofax organisers?

Share your ideas in the comments.

Reader Question - Emergency Filofax?

One of our readers wrote in and asked 'How has Filofax helped you in an emergency?'

I know some people that keep detailed medical records and diet information in their Filofax, but what do you record for emergencies in your Filofax?

I have a follow up question to this, what forms would you find useful for recording this information?

Reader Question - Alexandra

Alexandra asks:

Say if you have 6 personals or whatever do you change them according do your mood? i,e I'm in a tan leather mood today or a red mood or a black mood etc etc? or do you buy one...use it..it gets worn..you buy another one and start using that instead but you keep hold of all your old ones? im just asking so i can use this as evidence when i try to convince the OH I need more than one because everyone else does???

Filofax Matchmaking?

My question a few days ago about is your Filofax a He or She? got some interesting responses. But it was one of the comments from Petra that sparked another thought/idea.

If you are buying another Filofax to your 'collection' do you consciously think about how this new Filofax will match or complement your current ones?