25 February 2010

Retirement (not mine!)

About four years ago, I dashed into a stationery store a few minutes before closing time with a purpose in mind—obtain an A5 Filofax. I had made the decision to use A5 for all my work-related planning and record keeping. I bought a black Finsbury. Not my favorite color or style, but it was all they had, and the rings were nice and big.

I had made a commitment to stop changing systems every few weeks. If I had to change anything, it would only be at six-month intervals. And so I stuck with the A5 for 4 years.

But to be perfectly honest, I never came up with an A5 Filofax system that worked well enough. I ended up writing to-dos in more than one place, sometimes losing them completely. The day-per-page had too much room to write, the month-per-2-pages not enough. I wasn't seeing the information I needed to see when I needed to see it. Even making my own tabs didn't solve these problems.

With an increase in the number of projects I have to juggle at work, the whole system broke down.

My new solution will depend on full-size file folders for to-dos and project info, an online calendar, a basic notebook, and a full-size appointment book. I don't have all of this paraphernalia yet...time for another trip to the stationery store.

But don't worry, I still have 2 other Filofaxes in my life!

3 comments:

  1. Nan, good luck finding a system that works well for you!! That was a huge challenge for me at work, finding ways to manage multiple projects. I hope you figure it out soon (and when you do, let the rest of us know how it's done!)

    :D

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  2. ...

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    I have a lot of things I wanted to say about retiring Filofaxes and changing systems and the search for the perfect system but I have to stop myself.

    I think it'll be better to write a draft and submit that for review as a possible guest post.

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  3. Thanks, Laurie! I will let you know the details.

    Joffrey, we are looking forward to your guest post!

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