On a true Filofax love affair, finally, and on how to do to-dos... and it looks like this isn't the end yet!

It's three weeks of me being back to work after a year of maternity leave - need I say more?! :-)
I planned weeks ago to make this blogpost, and even promised to some of you to do it, so... let's go to work without any further delay!

Just to remind you where we stayed at last time: there was a christmas present which shook my ground, and it came in the shape of an Apple Green Personal Piccadilly.
Can you imagine what are the odds that someone who knows absolutely nothing about Filofaxes (apart from seeing me clearly having trouble with my self-control around them) gives you a brand new Piccadilly in 2011 (I gather they were sold between 1998 - 2001)?!
Only one person in the world is capable of that. My mum.  :-)

I have read about the Piccadilly before and frankly couldn't imagine its addictive powers. Well, now I have tested them myself and to put it short and simply: after the Malden and the Amazona and many binders in between as well, this one is without a doubt my favourite.

I can't exactly tell you why. It's hidden somewhere in the mixture of the pockets layout, its vibrant colour and great soft padded surface, I guess. It's like coming home to a soft, worn, comfortable couch. There's just the chemistry that wasn't there with the previous ones! :-)

Hm, but let the pictures do the talking!

It lays perfectly flat out of the box and its brilliant colour was just calling for a brand new decoration... you could see me searching through decorative paper like never before and then actually making new dividers for it - now that must be love! :-)

I couldn't imagine any other pen to go with it than the trusty old Bic Orange, I think it just completes the uber comfortable look and feel of the organiser!

The other part of this re-decoration was my new DIY post-it accessory.











The set up didn't change much though, as it was working great for me as it already was: Diary, Me (with various Lists that are marked with small top tabs each, Journal and my Finance section with the punched envelope for receipts and odd banknotes that I hide from myself), Info (Adresses, Bus Schedules, Passwords, Doctor's numbers ect.) and my little one's tab with all her important info. The only new tab was given to my Projects... now that the work began again, haha... 

I hope you liked it so far, and now off to the second today's topic, the to-dos system, which is my new improvement in the use of my Filofax.

I always use week on two pages; not just because I have countless numbers of them, arriving with each new Filofax, but also because I find them as the best compromise between the available space and still bearable bulk of the organiser.
The nature of my work is quite predictable appointment-wise, so I use the daily space mostly for my to-dos.
I use different colour pens, but solely to pretty things up, I colour-code my writing only occasionally, I don't have the time or the nerve to pick the appropriate colour when on the go!

Therefore I use another coding method to orientate myself quickly: I divide a day's space mentally into 4 quarters, and the quarters mean:

• left upper one = priority stuff, usually work or doctor's related 
• left lower one = to-dos related to household and family
• right upper one = my pleasure activities, yay, I often write here the type of tea that I drink that day (very important journalling info, lol!) and
• right lower one = events and things of that day that I want to remember, i.e. my baby's milestones... or simply the arrival of my new Filofax Compact - ooops, but that's another post! ;-)

While I have my to-dos on day's space, it is easy to check them up later; but then there are some to-dos and reminders that I want to keep in sight every time and I had to invent a hack for it. The basic idea was to write them on a post-it and move them from week to week, but I didn't like the post-it covering my days, so finally I came up with the solution: I put a transparent flyleaf in between the week's sheets and used it as a dashboard for my post-its. Ray with his incredible inventions was most helpful here, giving me the idea of diy transparent flyleaves.So this is how my dashboard looks like in action:

Hopefully, any of this will be useful to you, too... and please, do share any comments and ideas!!!

So here I am Filofax-wise so far; loving the binder and satisfied with the system. But. But! Of course there has to be a "but" now. And it has to do with both the binder and the system.

Firstly, as I said, I love this Piccadilly like no other model so far and am already on the quest of buying all the existent Piccadillys in the world to make sure I never again remain without one. The problem with this current one is because it gets scratched sooooooo easily! After only a month and a half, the marks of use are clearly seen, and as my little one is especially drawn to it (now at least one gene of mine she's gotten...), its future is quite predictable. I guess it has to do with the binder's age and maybe dryness that, ironically, obviously even Nivea cannot fix completely.

The other problem that surfaces constantly is the thickness of the binder. I love the idea of one life - one binder, but mine is as thick as a telephone book now! And since I don't use it just at home as I used to, lugging it around along with other necessities is quite a work to do.

Therefore I have a few open challenges again:
1. I'll probably put my Piccadilly to rest for a while now, so I don't ruin it too much too soon. Hardly, because I cannot imagine any other binder replacing it, but it'll be necessary, I guess. But on the other hand, I did have the idea to change the binder with the change of seasons last year, so the new challenge would be - which binder to use for the nearing spring? :-)
2. I am considering a compact size binder, especially with the forecasts of the new Filofax range being a bit more compact - oriented. But will it really suit me?

Ahhh, the never ending adrenalin in the land of Filofax... ;-)