Well Planned Life

This has been one crazy week, full of chaos, disorganization, and an array of events.   I’ll let the photos do the talking… Monday was Presidents’ Day here in the US.   It’s a federal holiday, so most people have the day off from work.   As you can see, I was not an exception.   So there are no work to-dos listed for the day.   However, I did go to yoga, as well as get a little shopping done.   I’m currently working on a photo project, so I headed out to buy some more frames.   It’s a project that will take some time, a big project that I have been putting off for a couple of years.   But I have vowed that 2013 be the year of finishing all unfinished projects, so this was first on my list.   When it’s all finished, I will do a post on how I broke it down into small bites—my planner is a huge help in this area. Also, we had out roof redone this week, and since we also had the skylights replaced, we had to move around some furniture (not an easy task in a small house) and

A little over a month ago, I was on a mission to find a new iPad case.   Originally, I bought a generic one, something simple just to protect it.   But after a while, after I started using it in work meetings and for general research and planning of certain projects, I wanted my case to do a little more than just protect the iPad.   I wanted something that looked professional and hold a small amount of papers.   I have always been drawn to the portfolio-type of pad holders (something similar to this —I especially love the legal portfolio that “ The Good Wife ’s” Alicia Florrick totes with her everywhere ), which I’m sure is one of the reasons I’m so fond of Filofax planners , that professional look. Indeed, the first place I looked was Filofax—they now offer some lovely iPad cases .  There were two problems with what I found—the cost, and I didn’t know anyone who had a Filofax iPad case, and so I didn’t know if any of them would fit the bill of my specifications.  I hopped on

This week has been fairly calm, compared to last week .   The main event this time around is that I switched from the day per page insert to the two pages per day .   You can read more about why I’m switching here .   So the first part of my week was organized by the DPP inserts, and the second half by the 2PPD.   Here are the highlights: Fairly typical days.   I’m starting to keep track of the books I read by adding them to my pages.   I’m not keeping track of how long it takes me to read them or noting down when I’ve finished them.   And I keep a complete list on my Shelfari and GoodReads pages, but I like to have them noted here too.   (At some point I will be keeping a written and/or typed list in the Reference binder I am planning to set up.) There isn’t photo for Tuesday, February 13, but it’s the day that I made my transition between inserts.  I prepared my supplies: Note: I have finally started Downton Abbey .   I have one more episode left in seas

With all of the snow that I'm currently dealing with (30 inches, give or take), I'm looking forward to spring now more than ever.  And what better way to do that than to start thinking about a spring Philofaxy meet up in New York City? We have had four very successful meet ups thus far (see one , two , three and four ).  However, the last attempt at a meet up showed that interest is waning just a little (in the end, we ended up canceling it), especially since the numbers have been dropping a bit since the first meet up back in 2011. We have a strong core group of people (maybe five or so), but in the interest of gaining newcomers, I am looking for feedback on planning the next meet up.  In the past, I have tried a few different ways of putting it together: I had all interested parties email me, and together we chose a date, venue, and time; I chose a date, venue, and time myself (in order to save us all from several back and forth email discussions), announced them and w

It was a dark and stormy night.   All week Reggie had been gearing up for the season’s biggest snow storm.   Nemo, they called it, saying it would bring 12 – 18 inches of snow, more in other parts of the country.   They warned of high winds and power outages.   The drama made Reggie just a little nervous. Around 2 o’clock, the weather had turned, just as they said it would.  Traffic became a nightmare, leaving vehicles and drivers stranded on roads and highways.  Thankfully, Reggie was released from work early, and so made it home just in the nick of time.  But he watched by the window, knowing conditions were worsening by the minute. The drifts by the back door were tall, and he needed a better view.   So atop his tower he climbed. While the weather raged just outside his door, he took comfort in the warm fire that the hired hand had created for him. But alas, even that was not safe for a fearful Reggie. What IS this creature , Reggie demanded to

This has been one busy week, and my Filofax has kept up with me quite nicely.   So what’s going on? First, on Tuesday, there was a birth in the family: That was very exciting news, as we weren’t expecting it for another week.   But the baby is healthy, mom and dad are proud and happy, and the rest of the family is super excited! There was a blood drive in my area: I had planned on going, but the day was quite busy and I didn’t get there before they closed.   Luckily, blood drives happen often around here.   If you are able, you should give—you can read why here . Thursday’s page got a little messy (for me): Originally I had my annual hearing test scheduled, but had to change it due to work obligations going on this week.   After work, I met the new baby in the family, followed by dinner with my hubby, brother-in-law, and the baby’s daddy.   And of course, we were all bracing and prepping for the blizzard of 2013, the height of which we will be gett

I love my planner set up.   Since coming up with it at the start of 2012 , I haven’t changed it much.   There have been some tweaks just to streamline my system, but nothing major has changed since I started using the compact binder .   For me, the compact provides the best of both the personal planner world and the ability to keep it simple and light, though some may say that having to swap out inserts each month isn’t necessarily keeping it simple.   But for me, it is.   Yes, it’s a lot of maintenance to keep everything up to date, but that’s what allows me the ability to carry only what I need, which is what I have always wanted.   Then again, being super organized does mean a lot of required maintenance, and while sometimes it is annoying and tiresome, it is always worth in the end (for me) because I don’t waste time looking for everyday items. During the last week or so, I’ve been contemplating going back to two pages per day inserts.  I have a pretty good system going with