Organise and Plan Your Life With a Filofax Organiser

Need to organise your home or work life more efficiently? A Filofax planner could be your answer!

I’ve been a fan of the humble Filofax for years (many of them, to be frank, when it wasn’t all that cool to still be using a Filofax) and still have the original plain black one that I first started out with many moons ago. In recent years the colours, designs and styles of Filofax available have expanded, and there’s now a huge choice of options available, plus their popularity has soared again – hooray!

In fact, planning and organising now has a major following and there are numerous YouTube videos outlining ideas for how to use yours to be most effective. They’re big on Pinterest too and we’ve got a Planners and Organisers board full of ideas and inspiration.

Until now I’ve always used the personal sized Filofax and found them great. The old black one gets used as desk diary, as it’s super easy to just buy new inserts every year without having to buy a whole new diary.

I also succumbed to buying a prettier design a few years ago, in the form of the green and pink Cover Story Flamingo design by Rebecca Mountain, which won Filofax’s graduate design competition one year. Again, it’s the personal size and has everything else in it – work reminders, notes, shopping lists, social stuff, a year planner and more – and this one gets carted around. I love it, but it is bulky and heavy, and it’s a bit of a pain sometimes as you need a big bag to accommodate it.

Pocket Filofax

Filofax have recently launched some more new designs, including a lovely blue and white Indigo Floral design, and they sent one through for review in the Pocket size. This is smaller than the Personal size and way more compact, but still has all the great organisational features that I know and love.

Here’s an insight into the size difference:

Its beautiful floral pattern design is on the outside, and inside it’s complemented by a plain blue, soft-touch fabric that feels like leather (but isn’t).

There are four credit card sized slots on the inside flap, which are useful for business cards or storing paperclips, plus a full length pocket. At the back of the organiser there’s a large pocket, which can be used for notes and memos or for popping in one of the Filofax notepads. There’s a pen loop included too and it closes with a stud press.

What’s great about the ring-bound style of the Filofax is that you can organise it to suit your needs. You don’t have to keep a diary in there if you don’t want to and you can buy all sorts of great inserts to make it personal and functional for you.

They have a great range of paper, accessories and inserts available, from address books and to do lists, to website and email address inserts, squared paper and notepaper. There are little plastic inserts too, some designed to hold business cards and credit cards, or others like pockets which you can use to store all sorts of important things!

Until now, I’d never given a second glance to the pocket sized Filofax, but I’m definitely seeing the benefits. It’s so much lighter, more compact and better designed for carrying around in a handbag, plus it takes up less space when used on a desk. All my favourite inserts are available for this size too, so it does exactly what I need.  The design is fresh, with on trend colours, and I definitely appreciate the smaller size.

The Indigo Floral design is also available in the Personal Filofax size, plus there’s a range of other lovely colours, styles and designs available. Do check them out and get organising your life!

How to Use a Filofax

There are various ways in which you can use a Filofax. In fact, one of the key benefits is that it can be customised to suit your individual needs which may evolve and change over time. A Filofax can be:

• The holder and organizer of your entire life
• A diary
• A business organiser
• A weekly scheduler
• A monthly planner
• A meal and shopping planner
• An accounts record
• A daily to-do list

Unlike a phone or electronic calendar that tends to look relatively uniform and generic, a Filofax can be personalised and organised however you’d like it to be. You can use different coloured tabs, washi tape and sticky notes and make it look and feel personal to you.

If you want to get ideas on how you could set up your Filofax, there are heaps of videos and tours on YouTube (yes, Filofax tours really are a thing!).

Key Benefits of a Filofax

Compared to a traditional diary or electronic organiser, there are some key benefits of choosing to use a Filofax:

• It can be reused year after year
• A good quality Filofax lasts well
• It can be adapted over time as your personal or work needs change
• It can easily be carried with you, and some sizes fit comfortably into a bag
• You can personalise it and organise it however you like – there are no fixed pages.
• You can buy or make the inserts, page markers and bookmarks you need.

(Disclosure: The pocket Filofax was supplied for review purposes, but all views and opinions are my own).

26