Welcome back for the second part of the tour of my Filofax. If you missed the first part, be sure to check it out here. I’m excited to share this with you because I feel like I’ve finally found a set up that works for me. This week is all about my “Diary” section where I use both monthly and weekly pages for forward planning.

{By the way… *shameless pitch*… please vote for my product idea currently posted to Quirky.}

What I’m using in this section:

• Month Per Page
• Monthly tabs
• Week Per Page with Notes
• Transparent Flyleaf
• Frosted Ruler/Page Marker

I’ve always hated that Filofax insists on printing the Month on Two Page inserts back to back. This year, I started using the Month per page inserts because they allow me to put the monthly pages into the weekly pages. That’s the awesome part. The not so awesome part is that the blocks are small {REALLY SMALL!}. I also don’t particularly like how Saturday and Sunday share a column, but it’s a small price to pay to have the layout I want. I’ve considered switching back to Month on Two pages, but I only use my monthly pages as an overview so it’s not a terribly big deal. The backs of each month are a blank Notes page, so I try to write down any thing that’s kind of a big deal – goals, big events, projects, things I need to do for the month, etc.

I do color code throughout my planner, using my Hi-Tec-C Coleto:

• Orange – anything work related
• Green – anything money related
• Blue – any personal things that don’t involve other people
• Pink – any personal things that do involve other people
• Purple – anything graduate school related
• And I use black to check off  or cross out items or to write any general things that don’t fit into a category like days I’m sick.

On my monthly inserts I try to write out any meetings, big social outings, birthday reminders {a B with a circle around it}, bills, when my timesheets are due, and of course paydays. I also like to note when I miss work so that I can see it easily when filling out my timesheets. My monthly view is just an overview, and I generally don’t look at it all that frequently, but I do like to have it. I have a large desk calendar in my office from PaperSource that I can’t avoid looking at because of it’s size. My Osterley is usually sitting on top of it anyway, so I don’t have much of a need to look at my monthly pages unless I’m out and about.

I put every monthly page in front of that month’s tab, so it’s a nice way to see an overview and I can use the tabs to find each month. I use a flyleaf over top of the current month. My flyleaves are always full of static, but it works here because the monthly page sticks to the flyleaf and it’s super easy to find the month, see the month, and flip the page over to see any notes I’ve written.

In between the monthly tabs, I’ve stuck the week per page with notes inserts in for each month. It works great with the exception of the very last week before the tab. Because I put the monthly pages and tabs in, the notes page ends up separated from the week, so I’ve just added a lined sheet in for those weeks. Having the lined sheet gives me the back side of the page to review my month {if I actually find the time to do it}.

My weekly pages consist of mainly the same information as my monthly pages, but I add a bit more detail. For example, I include the times of any meetings I have, social commitments, and the names of who’s birthday it is so I know who to wish a happy birthday. {One of my goals for the year is to remember birthdays.} I also write the bills, paydays, and timesheet information. I’ve started trying to write the prompts for my photo challenges too.

The notes page has my weekly list of assignments for graduate school. All my assignments are due by Sunday at midnight, so there’s no particular day I have to do them during the week which is why I prefer the week per page with notes layout. I do try and schedule my assignments into my daily to do lists, but to be honest, I usually just wait until the end of the week to do them. I also throw in any goals or project related tasks I would like to accomplish during the week. I mark the current week with a transparent Today ruler. If you’re wondering what I did to make the top and bottom pink, I just stuck some pink page markers from the Filofax sticky note accessory to the back side of the ruler at the top and bottom and trimmed off the excess.

So that is my diary section. I hope you enjoy reading about it. Maybe I gave you some tips to help with your own planner. Check back next week if you’re interested in how I set up my To Do section.

How do you use your monthly or weekly planners?