Michelle is back today with her final post for The Crafty Project. It has been so much fun to read about her use of the binder, from recovering the exterior to all of her inserts inside!
Here I am back again for my fifth and final post for The Crafty Project on This Bug’s Life Filo Project. Firstly, I want to start off this post by Thanking Janet for having me on board in her project. I’ve had so much fun finding my way around my first Filofax and re-discovering my love of technology when I was making my inserts. For today’s post, I am just going to show you some things that have changed in my filo during the course of this project, along with some things I have learned along the way, and what has and has not worked for me in my filo.
Prior to receiving this Filofax, I was using a day per page diary, which was not working for me, along with a pile of notebooks and exercise books. While I love my notebooks, I could never find what I wanted when I wanted it or I never had the notebook with me that I needed at a particular time. A quick little snapshot of my calendar and one of my notebooks. I still have things floating around in both of these, waiting for me to transfer to my Filofax. Getting there slowly.
Now, this is what I have today.
From here you can see a couple of changes and additions since my earlier posts. Firstly, I have changed the pens in my pen loop. I do miss my pink pen, but this pen and pencil set from Daisio with their little music note charms and bling are just too cute to not put in the pen loops. You can also see some tabs at the top of some pages. I am simply using these for the sections that I have more than one type of insert in.
Once I open my filo, you are now greeted with a pocket which has some small post its in it, along with some cute check box paper with the days of the week on it.
Colour coding on my month on a page calendar has been a fail.
While I really want to track these things, even if just for a while, I am honestly not sure if I am going to continue to even try. I am loving my little planner stickers showing me when bills are due, but because I am currently paid weekly, I am only going to mark when I am going to get paid on a non-standard day or else I will need to buy a million of these stickers just for pay days.
While one lot of colour coding has been a fail, I love what I have done with the Month on a page calendar in the craft section of my filo.
The other thing I do on these pages is pencil in what I am planning to post, like Project Life Storage or whatever. That is why you are seeing my unplanned, not thought about December pages.
I am not sure if anyone noticed the rather obvious fail when I showed my outgoing pages. I did not include somewhere to write the person’s mailing address. What on Earth?!?! Fail!!! I had to resort to using a post it note.
I will use all the ones I printed, as I hate waste but when I need to print more, I will be removing the date mailed and tracking number section and use that space for the address. Mailed date and tracking numbers can just be noted on a tiny post it or just next to the boxes. It is a lot smaller and much more notable than a mailing address.
My finance section is almost perfect for my needs.
I have added another pocket for receipts, which I colour code if I have more than one type of item on it. This is also the exact reason (multiple items from one shop) why I am budgeting this way, rather than the popular envelope cash method. I do need to make my writing fields larger for my messy horrible writing, In addition to that, having my budget on a separate page and flicking between three sections is a nuisance. I am thinking about moving the budget to memo paper and holding it on the relevant page with a paper clip. Having used this for a couple of weeks now, I think covering my most common spends is perfect for me, and then I just add a post it when I spend on a less common item.
I am keeping my weekly calendar pages quite simple. I had decided to print them just using black ink as I figured I would constantly write in different colour pens, but it turns out I am constantly just grabbing the pen from the pen loop, so if I print inserts for 2014 I think I will be making them colourful.
You are now seeing the reason why I wanted a pile of white space on these pages. Each week, I am selecting a quote that I want to use to inspire me. To make me keep taking steps to changing my life for the better, reaching dreams and living the life I want. To not loose sight of me, and to not let certain things always beat me.
To end this, I just want to say, I love my Filofax and I have no idea why I had not thought of doing something like this before instagram was flooded with Filofax pictures. I honestly see another four Filofaxes in my life, or at least, some cheaper version of a filo.
A personal for nail polish
A personal or A5 (I just cannot work out what size would be best) for my dvd/bluray/hddvd collection. I am so excited for this one, and I am certain the first binder I buy will be for this project. So EXCITED!
A Career binder, most likely personal size. This is actually inspired by the career project in this project, but mine will be completely different and suited to my needs and where I am in my life right now and where I want to be, obviously.
Finally, I have come to realize I do not actually need everything I have in my current filo, in the one filo. Without much thought, I already know the entire finance section could live separately, along with the incoming / outgoing sections. This one will either be personal or A5, I just actually need to look at my filo and work out what I need in my every day filo. Once I decide that, I will be able to work out if my every day filo can be downsized to a personal or not. If I can downsize to a personal, this A5 will become my home filo. If not, I will be buying another a5.
Well, that is it from me for this project. Hopefully, you have enjoyed my little journey into the Filofax world.
2 thoughts