03 March 2007

Right Turns Only

If I had to pick one way that my Filo paid for itself more often than any other, it would be as a keeper of directions and other place-related details. When I get directions to, say, a friend's house, I write them on a single page. I can move the page around, edit it, and move it from one organizer to another without rewriting it. And no matter how much time elapses, years even, I'm always able to return to that same address (assuming that my friend hasn't moved). Need a code to get into my doctor's office door? It's right there on the same page.

Similarly, whenever I call a phone number, I write it in the Filo, even if I don't know if I'll ever need it again. I did the same thing on my Palm. If I ever wanted to order a pizza from the same place again, I could do so without looking up the same number more than once. For some reason, that efficiency really appeals to me. Look a number up once, write it down once, use it forever with no further effort.

But then, I'm weird.

11 comments:

  1. Yes, that brings up another challenge -- where to archive pages that you don't need to carry in your great-smelling everyday lambskin Filo. I'm not wild about the "storage" binders that Filofax sells. You can't open them fully to read the contents. I think they're only useful for unused pages.

    And it's almost impossible to find regular ring binders that fit the Filofax pages, at least not without some repunching.

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  2. Years ago I found a plastic binder the size of the Personal Filofax, to store pages I don't need but want to keep. I use a Filofax storage binder for old diaries with post-it tabs for each year. Since I don't refer to them often it works fine. I just ordered an A5! After obsessively reading Philofaxy I had to have one.

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  3. Congratulations, Tangerine! Let us know when your A5 arrives! What model did you get?

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  4. The Finsbury, for its larger ring size and softer feel. I'm tracking my A5's journey on-line - it departed Pennsylvania at 7:19 this morning!

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  5. I use an A5 Finsbury, too, for work. The large rings are very nice and operate nice and smoothly. It's a great binder.

    My Finsbury is black, not my first color choice, but I was so desperate to start using it for work that I ducked into an office-supply store just a few minutes before closing, and that was all they had in A5, in leather.

    We're an obsessed bunch, we are.

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  6. tangerine, are you saying you left your A5 on the train? I did that with a wallet once; fortunately this was found by an honest person and it was returned to me from Paddington. I hope you were just as fortunate.

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  7. hello andrzej, nope- not on a train. Thanks for asking! I was so eager for a new A-5 to arrive I tracked its shipment status online. After it arrived I found I was attached to the Personal, but slowly I'm setting up the A-5. The plan is to carry the Personal for portable calendar/collection, but put everything in the A-5 (I needed more space), leaving it at home where I mostly work. (I've been having trouble posting a comment so I hope this is the only one that shows up.)

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  8. Hello Tangerine, you have been very polite for I realised, some time after posting, what was happening with your A5 (by reading the previous posts). That will teach me! Embarrassment prevented correction.

    Aside I hope all goes well with your plan. I do a similar thing though my “red/black” A4 spiral bound hard cover notebook stays in the office. That’s where I write meeting notes. “Chocolate Filo” (personal size) rides with me everywhere in my starboard cycle pannier. I agree that space on the Personal page is limited. Your comment has appeared perfectly in Inky’s blog, no worries there.

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  9. Archiving pages: Years ago I found small memo ring binders that fit my Personal pages perfectly, and they were only about 4 bucks each. I bought 6 of them and use them to archive things annually, as well as one for purged addresses and business cards. Now I'm on my last one and am desperately searching for more. I got them at a drugstore last time. Does anyone know where I can find these now? Online searches are fruitless because any search for a binder brings up full size ones. Any ideas?

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  10. The only thing that reduces my guilt at splurging on new organisers is that the older ones can get used for storage, with flags or dividers to organise the pages, notes,whatever..

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  11. Hi Shuba -- You're right...old, used binders do a fine job for archiving pages. Stick-on tabs are a great, inexpensive way to organize the archived pages by type.

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