System Overhaul

As I have mentioned, I have been overwhelmed with places to be and things to do. And what better way to feel more in control of everything than to organize? What better thing to organize than my planner(s)?

Since December, I have been using three planners – an on-the-go Guildford Slimline, a stay-at-home Personal Finchley, and a household Domino. The household binder is mainly for informational purposes, and so I don’t really count that as a planner the way I do the other two. I love the Slimline Guildford. But I have also been craving something a little bigger to hold more items. Plus, using two binders was getting to be a pain in the neck – I was constantly going from one binder to the other. It was more work than I really wanted.

I am currently saving my money to buy a Personal Guildford. In the meantime, however, I’m going to use my Black Personal Domino as my main planner. And of course in order to use that, I had to overhaul my system. And not just my main planner, but everything I own. I cleaned out, cleaned up, and reorganized all of my Filo accessories. This took the better part of the day.

You can check out all of the photos here. (A quick note: the pictures are a little dark. I got a new camera and am still in the process of figuring out its settings. I hope you enjoy them anyway.)

I now have everything I might need with me in one planner. This includes:

• phone numbers 
• lists (items to buy the next time I’m at the store; songs, books, movies, tv shows listing to add to my master list for each; items to buy one day; long-term to-do items) 
• notes (blog topics, things to write in my journal, random notes, information on a particular class, extra note paper) 
• projects (resolutions/goals, items to pack for my vacation, information on my friend’s wedding, Christmas ideas, blank colored paper (each project gets its own color) 
• diary (four-year calendar, list of next year’s items to put in my new refills when I get them, and monthly and weekly sheets for all of 2010 

In the household planner, I have:

• information (random household information) 
• notes (lists of coffee houses to visit, ideas for day trips, list of bike trails, notes on a medical condition) 
• exercise (resistance training circuit workouts) 
• projects (any household projects that need to be done) 
• financial (record of monthly spending) 
• addresses (a full address book) 

I’m a little sad to be giving up the Slimline Guildford. I do love it and it has served me well. But the slimness of it was getting too slim and I was finding it difficult to fit in as much as I needed. In addition, opening and closing the rings was a bit of a hassle since they are so small. I will use this to house my maps and to use when I go away – I won’t need to carry everything with me while away, so this would be a good size for that.

I use my other binders to store all of my excess papers and accessories. You can see the full list on the Flickr link. I did go through and relabel and reorganize my note sheet and specialty paper binders – they were in desperate need. I got rid of a lot of random papers that were taking up precious space.

All of this took most of the day and I really could have done so many other things with my time. But when things get crazy, I get organizing. I feel a little more in control of my Filo and my life now.

It was a productive day. Happy organizing!