X-ray of the Pocket Filofax I use

A fellow philofaxer and dear friend asked me to write about how I use my Pocket Filofax in detail. She uses the Personal size and has been considering going one size smaller. So, this one's for you:

As you already know, I not only changed organiser model (purple Finsbury to black Chino), but I also recently redesigned my system after coming to the conclusion that it had become incompatible with my new life, even though I had been using it effectively before.

My previous system had more sections than the current one, and I also had the tendency to try and fit every imaginable thing into my Filo. Then again, I also had a more active lifestyle and would always carry 'Filito' with me wherever I'd go.

I believe all the sections I used to carry were:

• Transparent envelope: with pictures and stuff
• Personal info + registration page
• To Do section
• DPP diary: for daily journalling
• W2P diary: for appointments
• Notes + Idea Catcher
• Japanese syllabaries
• Financial
• Addresses: separated by categories, not alphabetized
• World Map
• 2nd transparent envelope

I started using/combining the two diary formats over a year ago I believe, and have like very much the way it works for me. Of course, I can't keep one year's worth of pages for neither diaries, so I would mainly keep only three months of the W2P (week on two pages) and about six of the DPP (day per page).

The Notes was, well, for notes of ANY kind! I'd even sketch (and still do) in it whenever the urge came up. The Idea Catcher occurred to me after noticing that I had been starting to sketch and write down ideas I had for my 21Kittens projects in the Notes section, and then having a hard time finding them in the future. So, this addition to the Notes section was quite a helper, except that I stopped using it around the time we started preparing for our move to the UK.

The Japanese Syllabaries was a section I made roughly a month after acquiring my first Filofax in order to keep practising the little Japanese I had been learning the previous year. It also had a couple of blank pages for practice, but sadly I never used them.

I tried to keep up with my expenses via my Financial section, but only used them a few times a year, it wasn't quite necessary it seems.

My addresses I completely revamped during my first month of Filofax usage.I've never been keen on carrying a specific address book, especially after having a mobile phone became the norm. So, I organised my contacts into categories (this is explained in more detail here).

The rest of the sections are self-explanatory.

Now my current setup is as follow:

• Transparent envelope (still empty)
• Personal Info + registartion page
• To Do's: (only 4 sheets)
• Notes: here, the first sheet is an Expenses sheet where I keep track of my debit card (I was recently overdrawn because somehow I thought I had barely used my card!). Then I have all lines sheets in assorted colours. Ever since I started with the new system, I have been using this section to write down blog entries or Filo related stuff (if this goes on, I might consider creating a subsection called Blogs or Filofax). Sometimes I still draw in here.

• Appointments: this is where I keep my W2P diary. I use it only to jot down future appointments, dates, or urgent To Do's, sometimes even my chores for the day. I'm currently carrying pages from April 8th to Sept 20th. My frosted ruler serves to mark the week.

• Diary: here are my DPP where I simply write about  my day, what I ate, people I met, music I heard, jobs I applied for... all things I consider worth remembering and keeping track of. But I never write my very personal or secret stuff in here! I use my black ruler as the marker.

• Finally I still carry my World Map, a picture of my cats and another transparent envelope.

The missing sections are the Idea Catcher (have a Mole for this purpose), Japanese Syllabaries (have put learning Japanese away for a while), financial (didn't really need) and Addresses (I transferred these to my Mini FiloWallet).

So there you have it, a complete and detailed description of my former and current sections in my Pocket Filofax. Hope you enjoyed it :))

(Will try to add pictures later on, either here or flickr)