I ordered my new Filo on Sunday from Viking Direct - it was £20.47 including postage. It arrived yesterday morning (Tuesday) - so pretty good!
As you can see it's a really nice green colour - the button which the elastic strap fastens around has musical notes on which is really cute!
I was really happy that the elastic pen loop holds my big chunky Cross ballpoint well - I won it in a raffle about eight years ago and have only recently started properly using it. I use it as my main pen for writing in my Filo, but for recording homework I usually use the cheap WHSmiths blue fountain pen I use in class. For especially significant things I use 'accent colour' ink which rotates between purple, turquoise and pink (though I've run out of purple ink cartridges).
In this photo you can also see my tabs - this is a set that I found in one of my other personal size binders that I've had since I was seven or eight - they came in a Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Filofax thing, I think, though there's no information on them regarding whether they were actual Filofax brand or what. They're significantly thicker than the Filofax issue ones, which means they're probably a bit more robust.
First comes my Personal tab with things like the Personal Information Sheet and passwords (heavily coded, of course) in.
Here's the diary section, with a shot of Hermione looking wistfully into the distance, and a nice bit of my eight year old handwriting... I've only put stickers on the tabs where they were categories I don't want - there was a 'stickers' tab, and a 'stuff' tab, etc. I've changed those to Planner, Writing, Finance, and Misc. to go along with the Personal, Diary, Contacts, and Notes
Here's a picture of the back of a divider - they all have that on, on the corresponding colour background.
Here's this week. Fairly empty, mainly because it's the first week I've had this Filo. I've my Swimathon on Friday so I put a Quidditch sticker over the end of this week, because I can now archive my old weeks (more on that later) so I don't feel bad about using stickers.
This is the Planner section, containing timetable, revision plan, to-do lists, etc.
I've put the ruler which came in the Potter organiser there - it doesn't move around as easily as the today ruler, and it doesn't stick out the top, but it's useful for creating the list paper to the left - I have a column for the topic I'm revising, a column that I fill in with the date I've done that hour's work, and a tick column for if that topic is completed.
Here's my Contacts tab - I have yet to copy in/organise these. I did see mentioned on Philofaxy a way of organising by category rather than surname, which seemed fairly good, but I want to let the rest of the system bed in first.
Here's some address paper I found, on the left from my Potter organiser and on the right from my G-File (Girl Guides handbook). The G-File paper was a little too wide but I trimmed it, so it's fine.
Notes section - I've always found that scene in the film really suspenseful...
Writing section - you're not seeing in there ;)
Finance section - originally this and Writing were the other way around, but I couldn't resist having Griphook look after my money. I don't have the official finance insert, I'm just going to list spending on one side of a page, and pay on the other side, and tally one against the other at the end of the month.
Everyone needs a Miscellaneous section, right? Though my friends and I are confused about what cat that cat in the picture is - any ideas?
The only two stickers that came with the Potter organiser that are left - I still have some stickers I got with the Breast Cancer Care organiser, but those aren't punched so live in the transparent wallet at the front.
Things I don't use often enough to warrant a place in my purse - I got this card slip thing out of my G-File, the Go-4-Its in Guiding are shaped like credit cards.
These are my two other personal-size-ish binders, by which I mean they both have the right ring layout. The one on the left is my Mum's - I've no idea where it came from. The one on the right is my guides handbook, with my scarf tucked in it. That I'd rather not pull apart to use for archiving, but the Mickey one, as it's empty, can have old calendar weeks stored in it.
And here's all three together.
How do you organise your life?
