Well Planned Life

Back when I discussed my 2012 setup, I mentioned that it is working well for me with the exception of the Filofax day per page inserts cramming Saturday and Sunday together on one page.  I also mentioned that I had something up my sleeve to combat this annoyance. So what is this idea, you ask? Ever since reading about J’s setup , I have been coveting the Franklin Covey day per page inserts .  The only problem with the FC inserts is that they are wider than the Filofax personal size binders and inserts, thus creating a slight overhang of the FC pages in any Filofax personal binder.  But I had a plan for that too—I decided I would trim and repunch the FC inserts. “But wait,” I hear you say.  “Didn’t you do this already?”  To that I say, “ Yes, I did. ”  And now you say, “But didn’t you end up not liking them?”  And to that I say, “ That is also correct. ”  My main gripe with the first round of trimming and repunching FC inserts...

There’s that age-old question: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you want with you?   One of the things I would want is an endless supply of lotion.   I use it several times a day, so not only is it something I love, but also something I need. I have been a lotion user since I was about 8.  It must show since I have heard the same comment more than once: my hands look like they have never seen a day of work.  This isn’t true though—my hands have seen plenty of work.  I just take care of them (maybe too much) so it doesn’t really show.  I am one of those people who lather on lotion after every shower, after every hand wash.  I have a bottle by every sink in my house, at my desk at work, in my bag at all times, and more than five bottles on my dresser at any given time.  I couldn’t live without it. Not only am I a heavy lotion user, but I love the variety of lotion products out there.  First and fo...

There have been a couple of posts on meditation lately, and I am thankful for that.   In its most basic form, meditation is the practice of sitting quietly.   The point is to clear your mind of all thoughts.   If you’ve ever tried to do this, you know how extremely difficult it is, especially in the beginning.   Many yoga instructors include some form of meditation into the practice.  My yoga instructor tells us to sit quietly and just notice—without judgment—the thoughts that come into our minds.  I think this is a great way to introduce meditation.  One can sit quietly, but to clear one’s mind is so difficult.  I often find myself letting go of my mind, allowing it to move from one thought to another.  My thoughts are so controlled throughout the day, focusing on this or that task, that just letting it go where it will is meditation enough.  But just observing those thoughts without really attaching yourself to them takes the m...

Now that we’re well into 2012, I have moved all of my 2011 items to the archives.  My archival system hasn’t changed that much since last blogging about it .  I still put the old diary inserts in my archival box. The difference between this year and past years is that I’m not keeping the previous year’s diary in a binder.  That’s what I did last year (you can read more about it by clicking on the link above).  Since I used the Filofax two-pages-per-day this year, there was no way I was going to be able to put all of my 2011 diary inserts into one binder together. You can see how big the stack is.  This pile contains the month-on-two-pages layout , the week-on-two-pages (lined) layout, and the two-pages-per-day layout .  It doesn’t look that big until you compare it with the first archived pile I have from 2009 which contains only the month-on-two-pages and week-on-two-pages layouts. Hopefully, the height of my 2012 in...

As promised, today’s post is a detailed description of my 2012 setup.  I am using the Compact Regency , which I imagine will stay with me for quite some time, though should Filofax introduce more compact binders, I might be tempted to splurge on some color.  But I digress. You can see how slim he is, which is the whole point of moving to a compact binder.  I am trying to keep my system as simple as possible , while making it as useful as possible.  I think I have stumbled across a pretty good system.  I can’t say that it won’t be tweaked here and there, but for now, this is what’s working. This is a quick glance at everything I’ve got in my binder.  For a thin system, it holds everything I need to carry with me on a daily basis.  Everything else stays at home in my Malden (a post on the specifics of this is forthcoming, once it’s set up to my liking). First, some have asked how I store my pen.  Most binder pen loops are ...

Because I’m not declaring any resolutions for this year , I thought I would do a blog round-up since its inception.   It’s fun for me (and perhaps you too) to look back on everything I’ve written about, as well as my statistics for the blog.   I hope you enjoy it. Some statistics: The blog was born on December 20, 2009 The entire blog has 50,352 page views I have written 176 posts (not counting this one) I have 79 followers (thank you!) The top three traffic source to my blog are from Philofaxy (no surprise there), Google , and Plannerisms A majority of my page views are within the US at 23,760 followed by the UK at 12,303 and Germany at 2,658 From the beginning, the month where I got the most page views was August of 2011 With 686 views, the most viewed post is Happiness Binder: The Big Reveal followed by The Planner that Wasn’t: the Second Philofaxy Meet Up with 566 views and Introducing ...

What a whirlwind of a holiday season!   But I am back to do my first post of the New Year.   I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s celebration, whether you did something exciting or just stayed home and enjoyed the peace and quiet.   My husband and I went to Chincoteague Island in Virginia (one of the draws is the wild ponies that you will most likely see—and we did!) with friends, and while we had a great time, I have to confess that a simple and quiet weekend at home was more of what I needed, mainly because we had been here, there and everywhere (both locally and not-so-locally) to see family and friends during Christmas.   The trip to CI is a 6½ hour drive each way, so we did a lot of driving in the last two weeks.   Thus, I am spent.   I am hoping for a very quiet weekend, minus the Christmas clean up we’re doing on Saturday and the fact that I’m working on Sunday (so, yeah, not so quiet after all, I’m afraid).   But Saturday night is al...