Pocket Perfection?

So I thought I was all set with the format I have been using – personal size, week on two pages and month on two pages. It has been working well for me – everything in one binder, all easily accessible at any time.

Until.

There have been lots and lots of talk about the pocket size binders. With more to posts come, I’m sure.

In terms of Filofax organizers, I always want what others have, mainly because they look so delicious and perfectly organized or perfectly messy, depending on the situation. I’m so highly organized that my own planner always looks as pristine as a used planner can look. There aren’t too many papers stuffed into it, and if there are, they are put neatly into the front pocket or folded nicely and put at the back of the planner. So, organized planners catch my eye because they are like mine. But messy ones catch my eye also because they are not like mine. Either way, I want what someone else has and tend to think my own planner and system are just useless and mundane – not creative and functional like other people’s.

This is what is happening with the Pocket frenzy that’s going on. I’m seeing all the beautiful photos on Flickr and can’t help wanting one myself. In fact, I do have one. I bought the brown Pocket Kendal about a year ago. I remembering open the package, looking at the binder, loving it, all the while knowing it would never do for me as a main planner, setting it all up anyway, and not using it even one day. I came to the realization that only the personal size would work for me, that it’s the only one big enough and small enough all at the same time. So I put the pocket Kendal aside, figuring I’d use it as a health Filo. I don’t know what that meant exactly, seeing as I never did anything with it. I could still use it as such, but I tend to keep that kind of information on my Day Planner pages, on the back under the “notes” section. This way, it’s with everything else I’ve done on any given day, which is the point for my Day Planner pages to begin with. (You can read more about how I use them here.)

But, considering how some people have successfully used a pocket binder as their main diary system, I thought maybe I’d give it another go. I have some 2010 diary pages heading my way. And while I wait for them, I have been considering all the ways I could revamp my system to include the pocket binder.

Some ideas:

• I could use the pocket as my calendar only and keep a few months in there at any given time. I’m sure an entire year of week on two pages inserts will not fit into the binder and this is a workable solution. 
• I could also keep some extra note paper in the pocket binder for anything that comes up and transfer the information to a personal binder when I have the chance. 
• A personal binder would hold everything else – my shopping lists, my long-term to-do lists, my exercise information, my financial information, my projects, my writing ideas. And all of that could stay home – I don’t always need this information with me anyway. 

And all of this would lighten my load – a smaller binder to carry with fewer pages. Sounds like a good solution.

Except.

There are some drawbacks:

• I had two separate binders in the past – a slimline and a regular personal. This set up worked okay until I got irritated by not having everything with me, on those rare occasions that I needed something I didn’t have with me. It was at this point that I went back to the personal for everything. 
• I’d definitely have to get used to writing on smaller pages. This means that I might have to not include some info on my daily pages that I do now, leaving me with the need for yet another binder and/or putting more into the stay-at-home personal binder. Both ideas are okay, but it leaves me with more information that I do not have on hand and more that I would have to remember to write down later (and finding the time to do so). 
• There are a lot less choices of inserts when it comes to the pocket size. In the US, they do not make the Day Planner sheets in pocket. I love these sheets. I like the way they’re set up. I like the separate sections and the vast amounts of room for each. I would miss these pages terribly. For some reason (and I can’t pinpoint it), I don’t care for the day per page sheets, which is why I use the day planner sheets instead. I think it’s because there are no separate sections – everything tends to be a jumbled mess, appointments, to-dos, and notes all squished together. 
• There are no lined week on two pages inserts. It seems ridiculous since the function is the same, but I need those lines. 

And this is my major problem, making that decision. I could try the pocket calendar for a while and see how it goes. If I like it, I could plan to buy a new pocket binder for myself. If it doesn’t, then I haven’t spent any money towards it. I have a feeling I know how this will end up but I’m hopeful that I might be wrong. There’s only one way to find out.

More to come…