The Well-Appointed Desk

Now that I’ve settled on the Filofax Original personal-sized planner in dark aqua as my planner for the year, I was ready to add my inserts and customize it to be mine. I’m not inclined to be too craftsy with it because I want to use my planner to get organized. I don’t want it to be another “project” I have to do each week. I just want to plan out all the projects I want to do (and need to do), but I wanted to add a little “me” to is as well. I thought I’d share the little details I added to make this my planner.

It’s not “finished” yet but I’ve been using for over a week and its meeting all my needs so far.

As you can see, I’ve stuffed it full already with pages and some other bits. Because its really just a leather cover, the bulk of the bulk is the content and not a big planner.

The pen loop is on the let side which a lot of people have complained about. As a lefty, this couldn’t be more perfect! Its the first time ever that the pen loop is on the proper side. There are a couple business card-sized slot pockets on the inside of the cover and the elastic is stitched in two places so there is theoretically room to slide other things under the elastic but I have discovered that the more stuff I stick in the inside front cover, the less pliable it becomes. Since its already pretty full, the stiffer the cover, the harder it becomes to snap the cover shut. So, for me, no junk in the inside front cover.

There’s a clear plastic flyleaf on the front that I’ve been paper clipping coupons to. It keeps them front and center to I remember to use them. Under that is one of my handmade, laminated dividers. I drank my own kool-aid here and bought a budget priced Amazon Basics laminator for about $20.

I’ve been collecting bits of pretty paper for years and this seemed like the perfect use for some of it. I used the stock tabs that were included with the Filofax as guides and cut out the tabs, ran them through the laminator and then trimmed and punched them. I used an electronic Dymo to print sticky labels on clear film and cut them to fit on the tabs.

Right now, I have five tabs:

1. Calendar
2. Lists
3. Addresses
4. Post Log
5. Blank

Inside, I upgraded to the Filofax Cream Cotton week-on-two-pages inserts for 2015. I use these pages to write things I need to do in a given day, be it “stop at library” or “get gas” to “project due”. For activities that need to happen in a given week, I’ve been hole-punching a smaller card and inserting it in between the week. These can be things like a list of topics for the blog or “call the dealer to schedule car maintenance”. If the tasks don’t get completed, the card can be moved to the next week.

I’ve heard that the Cream Cotton paper is thicker and better quality than the standard Filofax bright white paper. I haven’t done any comprehensive ink tests yet but, in general, I think the best course of action with a planner is to keep a multi-pen filled with fine tipped gel inks rather than to try to make it work with my fountain pen collection. I’m willing to sacrifice some fountain pen time to not have slow-drying, smudging, bleeding, etc issues with my planner. Besides, my multi-pens frequently get neglected in favor of fountain pens so this is their chance to shine. At present, I have a Pentel i+ in the elastic pen loop but I’ve also used my Uni Style Fit pens (4 colors plus a pencil) and they both easily fit in the elastic loop.

I printed a year-at-a-glance fold-out calendar from What She Was on Etsy which is super clean and simple and gives me quick access to the whole year. I might also add a month-on-a-page calendar for tracking longer projects, holidays and birthdays.

Behind the “Post Log” tab is only a little glassine bag that I punched and filled with an assortment of stamps. This will eventually include the PenPal Mail Log sheets I purchased from Holiday Notes on Etsy but I am waiting to print them on a good color printer rather. Hopefully, I’ll have a few sheets in place by next week.

The addresses section is also the Cream Cotton pages from Filofax. I used a page or two for all my contacts. It took me awhile to transcribe them from my old address book but I love having all the addresses in one place, along with my post log.

In the Lists section is just a few sheets of the Filofax sample To-Do List pages but I plan on downloading and printing some To-Do Lists soon. I’d like a slightly different format than what is offered on the Filofax sheets but will have to shop around on Etsy and My Life All in One Place in hopes of finding a better option.

In the Notes section, I have it filled with the multi-colored paper samples that came with my Filofax. I am burning through this paper so I suspect I will need to order more soon. I do like the colored paper and the lines so I might buy some from KiddyQualia or Yellow Paper House.

Behind the black tab is a vintage air mail envelope that I’ve been tucking receipts into. It fit perfectly, I just needed to punch holes and voila!

Behind the envelope is the clear plastic sleeve which I’ve slid some loose papers into and stuck a large sticky pad to the back. Eventually I might swap out the large pad for a smaller pad but I had this one, so I’m using it for grocery lists and what not. Then there’s another clear flyleaf sheet. In the back slit, I placed a plastic pocket folder that friends brought back from Japan for me. Tucked into it are some calendar stickers that also came from Japan, some sticky fold-over tabs, business cards and other paper detritus.

So, there you have it. A tour of my planner for 2015. I’m sure, over the year, things will be added and other things will be removed. The nice thing with the Filofax is I can move things around, take out pages that aren’t getting used or add in more pages where I need them. I can even change the binder completely and move all the pages, tabs and all, with no issues. So maybe in the spring, I might try a more summery binder. For now, I am in love with how flexible and aesthetically appealing the dark aqua Filofax Original is.

After putting together the Ring-Bound Planners series, I decided that I needed to take my own dive into planners too. First, I ordered a green Franklin Covey Giada binder in the compact size. The compact size in Franklin Covey-speak is similar in size and ring configuration to the very popular Filofax personal sized binders.

 

The hole placement of the 6-rings is CLOSE to the same on the Franklin Covey to the Filofax.

Since the FC compact-size planner is designed to fit slightly wider paper than the Filofax Personal, and most of the planning sheets I want to use are designed to fit the Personal-sized Filofax, the Giada might end up feeling to gappy for me. But, oh that color!

The Giada binder was on sale (thanks, Christmas discounts) but it was still not the cheapest option available. The Giada ships without any inserts at all so there is an additional cost factor to consider when choosing Franklin Covey.

The thing I noticed first about the Franklin Covey planner is that it did not ship with any inserts at all — not undated planner pages, no plain  lined paper, no dividers, nothing. So, despite the sale price, there would still be an additional investment to build out the planner. That wasn’t a huge deal breaker for me since a big part of my interest in a planner came about when I discovered how many custom inserts were available for download on the internet. But still… nothing but two plastic slip cards for the front and back (what are these things called anyway?).

Inside, the Giada features lots of pockets for cards in the front and a zipper compartment. IT also has two pen loops with elastic on the underside to accommodate a variety of pens.

Inside the back cover were two slit pockets placed quite low but would probably support a reporter style notepad or hold a few loose pages.

I never really unwrapped the Giada because I just wasn’t sure about it.

The more I thought about the size and the weight of the FC Compact planner, the more I started thinking I might prefer a Filofax Original in the Personal size. Its narrower than the FC Giada and the color options were different. I was able to find a Filofax Original on clearance which was actually a bit less expensive than the Giada. Also, Filofax planners do ship with an assortment of filler pages though including a week-on-two-pages diary, ruler-page marker and a sampling of paper including to-do list sheets, ruled colored paper (in an assortment of colors), address pages and a clear plastic envelope. While I may not end up using the sheets that ship with the Filofax, the fact that it comes with these tens-of-dollars worth of add-ons, may be a consideration in your purchase if you’re just starting out with a ring binder planner.

I kept the Giada long enough to photograph it with the Filofax Original. I wanted to be able to see for myself the size and feeling difference between a Franklin Covey and a Filofax before I made a decision about which planner I would stick with for the year. As much as I love green, I didn’t let that be the deciding factor between these two planners. When the Filofax arrived, the feel of the leather, which was much more pliable while also feeling more durable was immediately more appealing. The FC Giada has board stiffened covers which are then wrapped in leather. Add to that the abundance of pockets and zips and the Giada just felt bulky before I had even put anything in it.

From the profile, the rings on the Filofax Original seem larger but the binder clamp looks more streamlined. As you can see from the profile, I took to the Filofax very quickly and I’ll go into a more in-depth review and flip through tomorrow. I just wanted to walk you through my own experiences and show you the differences between a Franklin Covey compact planner and a comparable Filofax personal-sized planner. The Giada has been returned to Franklin Covey. Maybe it will be the “just right” planner for someone else but its not for me. The pockets, the color, and the wider size would be the pluses for the Giada but in every other way, the Filofax  was the clear winner.