Mid-year filofaxing

 First of all, blessed Litha to all! Today is the longest day of the year, which not everybody celebrates, but still, in the Northern Hemisphere we have the day with more sun light hours of the whole year. In the Northern Hemisphere they have the day with the fewer hours of daylight of the year. However, all in all, we still have - no matter where we are - 24 hours in the day, for us to spend, plan, fill, waste as we desire or as we could.

Property of Stormberry

Each first Sunday, as you may know, there is a Philofaxy Meeting via Skype, were we talk about all sorts of topics, and there´s always something about planners. Not to mention that it also happens that you get the chance to pick the brains of true Filofax Connoisseurs such as Steve Morton (THE Mr. Philofaxy) and Graham Rhind among others. For instance, the other day I was pondering about my current planner, an A5 Filofax Malden Ocher, which you can see in this picture, and which always tends to fatten through the year like a Christmas piglet or a Thanksgiving turkey. You see, as the world continues to change, and I had been going out to coffeeshops in order to work on my thesis - the change of scenary does wonders for my inspiration. However, since I haven´t been going to the office daily as in the pre-pandemic days, each time I go out I have to ensamble my bag, and it is a struggle, not to mention I always forget something. One of my struggles recently was the planner question. My filofax is so big and so heavy, it practically fills my whole bag, and if I add my laptop, and a book, it breaks my back.

Property of Stormberry

So, as I was podering on this question, I started thinking about going back to the Personal Size. But I wanted more. I have old binders in Personal size, which was the first size I tried out with Filofax, but those are ruined. I really "worked them to the bone", so none of them are in... working condition. Now, I do have another one, a Saul Book personal size binder a friend gifted me, but that one is so pretty, so delicate, that I don't have the heart to push it through the kind of treatment I normally give to my planners. So, aditional to a personal size, I was thinking I needed something durable, but also something that can, somehow be compressed. That meant basically a personal size, leather, zippered filofax.

Through the Philofaxy meetings I've got to learn of some of the options I had in that area that fit my requirements, and from then on, I went on researching. In that regard I'm still pondering on my options and what would really work for me, as it sure will end up growing big, and I know I tend to put strain also on the rings themselves, and personal sizes usually don't have rings that go past 23 mm (it was 23 mm, right?). At the same time, I have to consider the reduction in the page size. I know I can work my planning in a Personal size, but when it comes to the pages for note taking, the size is too inconvenient, specially for someone who takes copious notes as me.

I'll probably consider this matter from here to october-november when the time comes to order the new inserts, or the new planner.

Property of Stormberry (the five first diagrams).

Through the meetings, I also had the chance to talk to Graham Rhind, with wnom we have had an interesting conversation regarding planning systems such as the Chronodex and all it's variations. One thing I've seen in his videos (he has a YouTube channel), is how he integrates his version of the Chonodex in his inserts. He calls his version Zirkuluak, and it's basically a ring and a half for a whole of 17 hours of daily planning, from 6 am (or 6.00 hrs) to midnight. It takes a bit more space than a regular chronodex, a spirodex or my simple concentric rings, both in 24 hour options and the one I use starting at 4 am (4:00 hrs) and ending at midnight.

I made these "chronodexes" in 2,5 cm and 3 cm size in order have a stamp made out of it. That's the one you can see in blue stamping ink in my filofax pages.

When talking to Graham Rhind, he mentioned that something he doesn't like is the difference in size in the hour slots between the inner and the outer rings. It does make sense if you are trying to mark or section quarter or half hours. The way I use it is less precise, and rather more of a coloring of the our blocks. I used to use arrows and lines to connect the colored sections with the detail of the meeting or the appointment. Then, actually seeing how Mr Rhind arranges his Zirkuluak in the pages, I thought of another way of working: putting the chronodex in a side of the day space, coloring the hour blocks corresponding to the appointment, and then writing down the appointment detail and coloring the first line of it to make the connection and helping explain the different blocks.

I'm still working on this new way of planning, so I'll probably keep you posted on how my new planning journey progresses.