2014: Ready to Rock

There’s only a little over a month remaining until we hit another new year.  I am hopeful that 2014 will be better than 2013 was.  I am looking forward.  So is my planner.  I am all set for 2014, with inserts updated and ready to go.

Back in August I bought the 2014 Day Per Page calendar inserts.  Soon after I received them, I added all pertinent information such as birthdays and anniversaries, paydays, holidays, and anything else that I might have noted for 2014.

Also back in August, I bought a Thirty-one Gifts Keep-It Caddy specifically to keep and carry all of my Filofax gear.  This made it much easier for me to gather my supplies when preparing for 2014 (more on my entire Thirty-one collection forthcoming).


I gathered my archive binder, my insert binder (more on this to come), my compact binder (I was using the Calipso at the time), my label maker, my 2014 inserts, and my bag of pens.



Usually I keep other planning supplies in the caddy, such as my paper cutter and scrapbooking tape.


But for the purposes of getting ready for 2014, I swapped out the supplies inside.  Once I had the above supplies gathered and packed, I grabbed the caddy and headed downstairs to organize and plan while watching a movie.

Just the other day I added my January inserts to my compact (since the compact is small and can only hold so much, I rotate my monthly inserts).


My biggest beef with the day per page inserts is that Saturday and Sunday share a page.


I really don’t understand why Filofax does this.  Most people—at least the ones I’ve heard from on the subject—have more to do on the weekends than they do during the week, or at the very least, the same amount of tasks.  Not less.  So why less space, I haven’t a clue.  But that’s what it is.

Currently I’m using a mash-up of the day per page and the two pages per day so right now, I do have Saturday and Sunday on their own pages.  I started out 2013 with the 2PPD and ended up with the DPP so I had both on hand.  This year I didn’t want to spend the extra money on an entire extra set of inserts only to use just a handful of the pages.  That would have been a waste.

To compensate I will probably put all of my weekend tasks on a sticky to-do sheet (I use Russell + Hazel’s sheets—they are the perfect size for the personal planner).  In most cases, I can complete tasks on either Saturday or Sunday, so long as they get done at some point during the weekend.  So that should work.

I am a little leery about the rest of it, however.  You can see how much information I tend to record in a day:


There isn’t a ton of room for this on the DPP weekend sheets.  We will see how it goes—if it’s too cramped, I may end up moving my food journal into a separate binder or notebook (perhaps another use for another Midori).  But I’d rather not do that for the simple fact that I’d have to carry around a second notebook.  But we shall see how it all plays out.

So that’s where I’m at for 2014.  Thanksgiving arrives later this week (along with a possible storm).  And since it’s so late this year, we will probably start decorating for Christmas early this week—we usually wait until after Thanksgiving, but for all the work we do, we want to be able to enjoy it for a full month, so this year will get an early start.

Are you ready for the New Year?


*Note: I am in no way affiliated with any of the products or companies mentioned above.  All opinions are my own.

Comments

  1. I think the Filofax concept was originally for business use and so weekends might have been considered less important. I do think they need to look again at their customer base and adapt for modern day life and planner use. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas. As we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in the UK, the Christmas decorations usually go up later. Advent starts on Sunday 1st and used to be a period of fasting and no decorations through to the Fourth Sunday but we don't stick to that nowadays!

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    1. You make an excellent point about the inserts being made more for business. That does make sense. But, like you said, I don't think that's strictly how people use them anymore. In general, ooo me changes to the Filofax inserts would be great. But I'm not holding my breath for that. ;-)

      I remember my mother saying that they didn't decorate for Christmas until Christmas Eve, or very close to it. With all of the craziness that the season brings these days, that's not very practical, at least here in the US. But the true meaning of Christmas has been lost in many ways.

      I any event, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season as well!

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  2. I hope you have a lovely family time :) I don't know why FF won't listen about those weekend sheets - surely they can see that people want each day equal? Anyway, as always your sensible, committed setup inspires me, so thank you! I know how busy you are now, but I wonder whether you could do me a huge, huge favour? I love the compact ff size but use FC inserts now and no way I have time or patience to trim! The tabs fit, just, in my compact chameleon only getting slightly bent by the clasp, but the regency won't even close with them in. Do you have any you could just test in the holborn to see if it's wide enough? I know it's a huge cheek! Thanks for the great post :)

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    1. Thank you! I hope you have a lovely holiday season as well. :)

      I don't think I have any untrimmed FC inserts. Is usually throw out or reuse any non-used inserts at the end of huge year and keep on the ones that were used. But let me poke around and see if I can't dig some up. At the very least I can measure the width of the Holborn to the width of the regency, though for some reason, I'm inclined to say that the Holborn is a little more narrow. I have my compact chameleon to my sister - I could also measure the Holborn against that, though I don't know when I'll get a chance to get over there to do that.

      I'll get back to you. :)

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  3. Thanks so much, you are really kind! I just can't find any reliable stats - the ff websites from the UK and other countries don't even agree on it! Very much appreciated, and I hope you are having a good day!

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  4. Thank you so much! I really appreciate the help. I've tried looking them up on the ff websites but each country seems to give each binder's dimensions as different so I have no idea what's true! Hope you're having a great day :)

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    1. I don't have any FC pages that aren't trimmed, so I can't say for sure, but I think they would get bent in the compact Holborn as well. The holborn and regency seem to be the exact same size, both in width and height. But again, this is just a guess on my part. It also looks as if the clasp on the holborn isn't as long as it is on the regency, so you might actually have more trouble with the holborn than the regency. The only difference that I can see between the chameleon and the regency (and thus the Holborn as well) is that the pen loop on the chameleon is as close to the edge of the binder as possible. On the regency, is attached inside more, so that might be why you're running into trouble with it not closing with the FC inserts. The pen loop on the Holborn is at the very edge of the binder as well, like the chameleon, so you might actually have better luck with the holborn than the regency.

      I should have pictures of all three binders on my Flickr page -- you can peruse through there to see if you can gain any more insight.

      Good luck!

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  5. Thank you so much! But dang, this is confusing! I thought it must be that the chameleon is a lot bigger than the regency, but if that's not the case I'm baffled, because I tested the regency with no pen, and it doesn't work, but it works fine with the pen in the chameleon. *sigh* Thanks so much for taking the time to help me :)

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    1. Perhaps the ring size on the chameleon is a slightly bigger? Or maybe because the leather isn't as thick? The regency has a few more pockets than the chameleon, so maybe it takes up more room inside the binder, making it less possible to put as much into it as you can the chameleon? I'm not sure. Are you trying to get untrimmed FC inserts into the Holborn, is that the ultimate goal? (Now I'm confused, lol.)

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  6. Sorry I didn't mean to confuse you! Yeah, that is the goal, basically :) I want to use a compact, and I want to use untrimmed FC inserts, and I don't want to be limited to only the chameleon, the rings of which are struggling. I know the regency and luxe don't work, and the osterley has issues, and I don't have any other ranges available to try, so I'm seeking expert help - you! :) Thanks so much!

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    1. Oh! Well, I don't know that I'd call myself an expert, but thank you. :)

      Yeah, of all the FC experiments I've tried, I haven't tried them in a compact. But having inserts stick out further than the binder, or if they got jammed up, would tweak my OCD, so I know I'd end up trimming them. Unfortunately I can't say for sure if any compact binder would work with the FC inserts.

      I'm hoping at some point to purchase the gillio slim - I know the rings are slightly bigger there than on the ff compact. But I'm not sure about the binder width itself. That purchase is a long way off due to its expense though, so it will be awhile before I could say for certain.

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    2. Well I think you're a 'compact expert' - you have such a functional system and you've stuck with it for so long! Yeah, the Gillio's are pretty, but no matter what fits inside them, they are galaxies beyond my budget! If you ever get one I'll just enjoy the pics. Thanks so much for taking so much time to help me, and I'll look forward to all your future inspirational posts :)

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