The last time I did any serious Filofax blogging, I was happily using my hand made day on two page inserts. They had plenty of space, and since I designed them, they were suited perfectly to what I needed.
But, they didn’t solve everything. While they provided plenty of space for everything I needed, I often felt that I had too much space. And the only thing I hate more than a cramped planner is one with giant swaths of blank space. Blame it on my OCD brain, but it makes me feel like I haven’t accomplished anything.
The inability to carry more than a few months of pages was also starting to wear on me. The longer I use a Filofax, the more I’m accepting that I’m the type of person that needs to have a full year in my binder. This might stem from the fact that I really don’t like using the monthly pages unless I absolutely have to. But when I can only carry a few months at a time, the monthlies become absolutely necessary for forward planning. Which means a lot of double writing, which is just inefficient.
So I purchased a set of cotton cream week on two pages inserts for the rest of 2013. I did this back in July. Oops. I didn’t even think about sharing the switch until I posted a photo on the Philofaxy Facebook group and someone responded with something along the lines of “Wait, you changed your pages?” I don’t remember who it was, but here’s the answer!
While I’m still using the monthly pages I designed, I’ve switched to the Wo2P cotton cream 2013 pages. I’ve realized that I’d rather add sticky notes and other extras to a busy day than deal with having a ton of white space on a slow day in a Do2P.
I find that I’m filling up the space pretty well. And on days where I don’t, I have less space to fill, which means I can play around with actually decorating my pages instead of constantly being a form follows function type. And yes, I realize I draw boats like a four-year-old.
As much as I’m loving these inserts for their ability to not cause me blank page stress, they aren’t without their faults as well. Or maybe I just have too many faults, one or the other.
The problem I’ve been having is mainly my refusal to stick with a color coding system. I do really well for a while, but at the end of the day I really just like being able to carry one or two pens and jotting down whatever I need to without considering which color I’m using first. And as much as I love my Coleto, the ink runs out far too quickly for me and ordering refills is cost prohibitive. So I’ve been making due with my trusty Pigma Micron 01 and a few colored pens for noting things like the weather and my gratitude list.
But do you see the issue? Everything, at least to my eye, just sort of blends together. Especially on busy days. I can’t tell my appointments apart from my tasks – they are too close together and in the same color! Plus, without going through a bajillion color coding stickers, it is a pain to tell my schedule apart from Brian’s. I’ve tried a few different things, including boxing off certain parts of the day, like I did for Brian’s class schedule here:
It works, but it’s not ideal. On the left page I physically boxed off his schedule and on the right page I boxed each day in pencil, going back and erasing it once the day was finished. I had hoped this would create a cleaner look and while it did help, it didn’t solve it all.
Being diligent about using color coding stickers (that I keep in the back pocket) also helped, but is time consuming and cost prohibitive to do all the time.
Can someone tell me why on earth I find it easy to stay in the same binder for two and a half years, but I can’t settle on inserts?
So, in an effort to not deal with color coding stickers or pens, I’ve ordered a new set of inserts for 2014. And magically, the 2013 set was also incredibly discounted so I grabbed a set of those as well (you know none of us are patient when it comes to a new Filo set up). Speaking of being patient, you’ll all have to wait, as I’m not going to reveal what I got until they arrive! Let’s just say I’m really optimistic that these will be the perfect combination of space and layout to keep me happy.
In the meantime, how are you getting along with your set up? Have you fond anything that’s working fabulously? Or are you changing it up for 2014 (or sooner)?
I picked up a set of FC 7 Habits inserts in the sale for the rest of 2013, and so far I'm really liking them, even though I wish they were more colourful and they stick out of my FF Osterley. I like the three section To-do list, which lets me divide between 'Spiritual', 'Open University' and 'Personal' tasks – and make sure that by going mostly from top to bottom the important stuff gets done (though I procrastinate on the 'personal' tasks something terrible!). I find the notes page actually gets me to record some stuff about my day – I keep meaning to keep a separate journal, but I never do, whereas that small space – even too small sometimes – I often fill. I love the style of the monthly calendar too, although I could very much do without the wasted space on the front with the index and tasks all crammed on the back. For 2014, I want to keep to something like this but… My binder is too narrow, the inserts are not colourful *sigh* I don't know!