11 reasons why a Filofax is better than a smartphone

The only way my Filofax will ever hang!
The only way my Filofax will ever hang!
  1. I can use it as much as I like without worrying about the battery going flat
  2. I can take it all over the world without having to buy adapters
  3. I don’t need to tack like a yacht around the room trying to find a 3G or WiFi signal
  4. It doesn’t crash or hang
  5. I can open, write a booking or a note and close instead of turn on, wait for it to warm up, tap in my PIN, get a signal, tap to the app, tap to open it, tap to get to where I am tap, delete miss-taps, tap again, save, close app, turn off device
  6. It doesn’t stop functioning in very cold weather
  7. It doesn’t break if I drop it
  8. I don’t need a user manual or helplines to learn how to use it
  9. If I want to get rid of information I can just shred it
  10. Generations after me will still be able to read the information if I want them to
  11. I could bury my Filofax in a time capsule and whenever it is dug up, it will still work

Author: Janet Carr

Fashion, beauty and animal loving language consultant from South Africa living in Stockholm, Sweden.

25 thoughts

  1. Another thing with the Filofax is its flexibility, you can customise it for whatever you want, list of books to buy, bibliographies of authors, bullet journaling, journal, diary etc. All available without learning to code, or fitting into a ready made system devised by Apple/Linux/Microsoft. Also My iPad and phone need updating, and when I had a Microsoft machine I was always doing more to keep it virus free than actually getting stuff done. I am not a Luddite, but after 25 years of buying software for a big organisation, I am bored with all that. I just want stuff to work and give me pleasure, so an iPad and a Filofax.

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  2. I don’t completely agree with this post. May be it is just me.

    1) writing something down is better. – agreed.
    2) A Filofax doesn’t remind me when I need to do things.
    3) Yes your smartphone needs charging. That is not a reason not to use it. It is like saying, you want to ride a horse because your car needs gas.
    4) You need a phone anyway. You can’t make calls using a Filofax. So why not use the phone instead of carrying both phone and Filofax all the time.
    5) if you loose your phone you have backups on the cloud and/or on your computer. But if you loose your Filofax ……..
    6) I don’t think you need wifi or 3G signal to use a smartphone as an organiser.
    7) I don’t think paper will last long enough for your future generations to read from your Filofax. Where as digital data will last for ever.
    8) Then y don’t we stop using computers, email etc and just use pen&paper and good old post.
    9) I can easily search what I want on a smartphone.

    I agree that paper has its place and I do encourage its use. Similarly in this day and age, digital media has its benefits.

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  4. Love it! The bit about tooling around like a yacht made me hoot out loud–as I’m sitting in the salon letting my color process. Everyone wanted to know what was so funny. 🙂

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  5. Great post. I was once accused of being “so 90s”. Wish I could remember these. Oh duh, my Filofax!

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  8. I am employing a professional interior designer right now and was showing my VDS leather samples to her yesterday. I figured as a designer she would appreciate, She admitted that she once owned a Filofax (lizard or alligator) and asked me if there was really a market today for users. She pointed to her cell phone holder that has credit card slots and a pen loop. I told her yes there is a market and said she would order if she didn’t have her present system. Now rating her cell phone drowns!!!

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  10. In July someone broke into our home and all the electronc devices were stolen when we returned. But: all my fountain pens, my notebooks, journals, diaries and binders they left behind, so my “second brain ” (or my actual ohne!?!?!?) was still there. Made me feel secure in spite of the terrible situation and I am reasured that I am not really much dependend on Ipad &Co and that all the important things are safe. So I fully agree with your post!

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  11. Additionally, it has been proved that by writing something by hand on paper, we remember it better than making a note on a smartphone, iPad or whatever. For lecture notes one organises ones thoughts and writes what is important selectively, whereas if we write digitally we tend to write verbatim, which isn’t as good for understanding or memory.

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  12. I love this list. You might want to use smartphone in the title though, since PDA is a bit of an out of date term now. 🙂

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