Category: Paper Planning

An Ochre Malden Update

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Do you remember back in August when I caved in and finally ordered myself a personal ochre Malden? Well, it turns out the retailer is having problems getting them from Filofax. {I thought they had been discontinued, but maybe I was mistaken.} In any event, after about 5 or 6 emails from the retailer telling me that the shipment had been delayed again and again, I decided to just cancel the order. {The last email said they expected to have them by December 31.}

Now I know you’re probably thinking, “But Andrea, you don’t even use a paper planner anymore! Why on earth would you need another Filofax?” The truth is I don’t. I held onto the order for as long as I did because I didn’t want to miss out on an ochre Malden in the event I wanted to use it someday. {I really sound like a hoarder there. I promise I’m not.}

In the end, I got fed up and cancelled the order. Now I’m not saying that the retailer didn’t do nearly everything possible to keep me happy. I got regular updates from a real person. They even offered me free inserts in exchange for the delay if I were to keep the order. They were great. What wasn’t so great is the fact that their system charges your order is processed NOT when the item ships. That meant I was charged for the Filofax back in August but never received it. I told them that I’d be happy to keep the order open as long as I wasn’t charged until the item was actually available, but unfortunately their system did not allow for that. The fact that I was charged for an item and it seemed like I had no guarantee of even receiving it was what made me cancel the order in the end.

There’s still a part of me that wants an ochre Malden, but for now, it doesn’t look like it was meant to be.

Signature Update

A Month Without a Paper Planner

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Hello everyone! Happy Monday!

It’s been about a month since I decided to move from a paper planner to a cloud based system, so I thought I’d give a little update about how it’s working.

It surprisingly wasn’t as easy as I had thought. As much as I hate to admit it, I think I actually went through a bit of paper planner withdrawal which is a bit scary to be honest. There were definitely days where I wanted to have a planner with me {for what reason, I don’t know. I didn’t have anything to write in it, and I wasn’t going to use it. I just wanted to have nearby.} There were also days {or weeks…} where I scanned Flickr, Pinterest, and Youtube for planners, and Philofaxy’s Webfinds are still a staple in my blog reading. I’ve just kept reminding myself that it’s all in my head.

I guess the most shocking thing, after I got the whole withdrawal thing out of the way, is that it actually worked! I did have to tweak Things a bit, but I’ve probably gotten more done this past month than I have in a while. I think a big part of the issue was that before I got rid of the paper planner, I had things scattered everywhere. Some tasks were in Things and others were in my planner, so I was never really using one system fully. Now everything is in Things and Google Calendar. I only have one place to check, and I only have it put it there once.

I’m not sure what the future has in store for my planning situation. Clearly going all digital works for me right now, but I still have some weird attachment to paper planners even if I don’t seem to use them.

Should I decide to go back to paper planners, my next experiment will likely be a Filofax Flex sort of set up with a monthly notebook and either a weekly or daily book that I’d use to implement my Bullet Journal + Life Mapping combo. Size and colors and books are all still up in the air.

Thankfully, for now, I have a system that works. I’ll be sticking with it at least until the end of the year {mainly for my wallet’s sake}.

Signature Update

Brainstorming: Bullet Journal + Life Mapping

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Hi everyone!

This is going to be a really quick post because I just had to share this with you all before I forgot it. I’m a sucker for anything planner, or stationary related. Today as I was reading through a mix of reviews of Ryder Carroll’s Bullet Journal system followed by DIYfish’s Life Mapping Planner post, I had an idea.

You can use just about any journal with the Bullet Journal system, but I can bet most people are using a grid notebook. What else uses grids? The Life Mapping system…

Why not merge the two by using DIYfish’s index system with the Bullet Journal to have the Bullet Journal’s super simple system with an easy way to find everything using the Life Mapping index. Using both gives you the option to rely on the Bullet Journal’s index with page numbers OR flipping through to quickly find things via the Life Mapping index. More is better right?  It’s also a fun and useful way to add some color to your Bullet Journal.

I’m really drawn to both these systems, and despite moving away from paper, they’re calling to me now that I’ve come up with this idea.

Do you use the Bullet Journal or Life Planning systems? {Or maybe both?} Let me know. I’d love to know how it works for you.

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P.S. One critique of the Bullet Journal is that it doesn’t handle forward planning. I’ve been toying with the idea of setting mine one up from the beginning with monthly spreads at the front and using the rest of the pages afterwards for the daily notes which will allow me to have pages to track future events and tasks.

Paper vs. Digital Planners

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It’s no secret that I love planners. It only takes a quick glimpse at the blogs I read, the pictures I’ve favorited on Flickr, or even this blog to notice.  It’s also no secret that I love technology. I work for an IT department, and have even been referred to as iAndrea for having so many Apple products. {I’m not even joking.}

In high school, I practically lived out of my monthly/weekly planners the school provided. Ever since then though, I’ve been buying planner after planner hoping one would magically solve all my planning needs. Clearly I haven’t come across one yet, because I’m still struggling in the paper planner world, but if I do find one, I’ll be sure to let everyone know.

Before I continue, I want to clear up one thing. I write about planners a lot, and I have a LOT of calendars and a LOT in my calendars for that matter. I have had some people in my life claim they need to book an appointment with me just to hang out after hearing about it. {Think 27 Dresses, where the guy penciled himself in throughout her Filofax.} That’s not me. My Filofax/planner/whatever does NOT rule my life. In fact, I’d say 90% of what I write down with the exception of work related meetings doesn’t even get done. I just like to {pretend to} have a plan about where I’m supposed to be or supposed to be doing. It’s my way of dealing with anxiety, and I also like going back seeing what I’ve done or written down. It is by no means some minute-by-minute guide for my life.

Anyway, with that rant out of the way, I’ve been carrying my Filofax with me everywhere for months even though I rarely even use it anymore. Don’t get me wrong. It makes me feel incredibly fancy when I grab my Osterley out of my bag, and it makes me look crazy organized even though nothing’s written in it, but looking pretty isn’t what an organizer is actually for. Lately, I’ve actually started thinking that maybe I’m not in planner fail at all. {Crazy idea right?!} Maybe I just don’t have a use for a paper planner anymore. Maybe I’m just trying to use it because I’m used to carrying it around. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. I mean, before I got to college, phones weren’t allowed in school, and laptops were almost taboo until senior year. Tablets weren’t even a thing yet. I HAD to use a paper planner. Ever since then, there’s been nothing stopping me from using my phone/iPad/laptop instead.

With that in mind, I started to think about what I gravitate towards when I do need a planner.

  • When I’m at work and have to schedule a meeting with someone, I open up Google Calendar on my computer.
  • When someone wants to schedule a meeting with me, they do it through Google Calendar, and I get an email invitation.
  • When a friend asks me to meet for dinner, I add it to Google Calendar from my phone.
  • All of my recurring tasks are in Things.
  • Anything I think of spur of the moment usually gets put into the inbox in Things.
  • Outside of that, my other to-dos are either in my email or in Pocket/Readkit.
  • And meeting agendas are in Google Drive.

Nothing is on paper. Everything is digital, so it makes sense that I wouldn’t check my Filofax. My Filofax ends up being just another place I have to write things down, and being the efficient person I like to be, why waste time doing that if I’m not getting anything out of it. Even the other things people track like health, books to read, or wishlists are online for me using my Fitbit, Goodreads, and Pinterest.

So here’s what I came up with about why I prefer using a digital calendar instead of a paper planner.

  • One device is all you need. At the very least, I have my iPhone with me, and that’s all I need. My events aren’t in a planner while my contacts are in another.
  • I can color code without toting around multi-color pens and highlighters.
  • I don’t need to rewrite things. Whether I check it at home, at work, on my phone, iPad, or computer, it’s the same everywhere.
  • I can switch between daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly views whenever I want without adding any bulk, having to rewrite things, or spending any money on inserts.
  • When plans change or I make a mistake, I don’t need to worry about whether I wrote it in erasable pen or how I can cover up the wrong information if I didn’t. I just have to edit the event. For a perfectionist, this is a huge win for me.
  • When I need to schedule an event well in the future, I never have to worry about where to write it down until I get next year’s inserts.
  • If I want to remember when something happened, I can search for it immediately rather than worrying about whether I removed inserts and if so where to look for them when I get home.
  • On a similar note, there’s no need to worry about where or how to store inserts or planners that you aren’t using. {I usually end up putting them in an old empty Birchbox and then losing the box in the pile of other boxes I did the same thing for the months before that.}
  • I don’t have to keep writing recurring events. When 90% of your life is routine, recurring events, it’s nice to not have to waste time rewriting them every day/week/month. It also keeps me on a regular schedule for appointments with doctors or when I need to get my hair done. {I will forget and it’ll be years before I go otherwise.}
  • Google calendar reminds me of events I might forget. If I have a meeting after lunch, you can bet I’ll forget about it if I don’t have a reminder, even if I wrote it down in my planner that morning and saw it on my calendar about 20 times. With Google Calendar, I get a reminder 15 minutes before my event which is enough time for me to get nearly anywhere on campus in time for the meeting.
  • It allows other people to tell me when they are available or unavailable. My coworkers share when they are leaving early or when they’ll be out. Similarly, my mom shows me when she’ll be away, and I need to watch her dogs. Simple.
  • I can choose which calendars I want to see. Some days I want to see when the Ravens are playing more than my Workout calendar. Some days I may want to check the dates on my university’s academic calendar, and other days I may want to see how my appointments line up with my daily routine. With Google calendar, I can choose to look at one calendar, a few of them, or all of them. I don’t always need or want to see everything, but it’s there if I ever need it. You can’t say that with a Filofax. It’s either there or it isn’t.

I’m sure some of you planner people are cringing at the idea digital could be better than paper, but for me it works. One of the most common things people mention in the digital vs. paper debate is battery life, but for someone who carries a battery pack and a car charger nearly everywhere, I’ve only once or twice been in a dead phone situation, but that was my own fault for not bringing the battery. Even so, I’m never going in a situation when my phone is dying {usually around 10pm} and I have somewhere to go to on foot. Moreover, phone numbers aren’t an issue for me either, because I rarely use the phone, and for those people I do call, I have memorized their numbers.

So for now, I’m actually thinking of leaving my Filofax home, and the thought of it makes me uncomfortable. Even though I’m not using it, I’ve carried a planner for so many years {since I was in elementary school really}, not having one to carry makes me feel like I’m forgetting something.

However, the point that proved I don’t need to be carrying it was that my first concerns were where would I keep my pen and store reward cards – two things I wasn’t carrying it around for. The pen is now going to live in the pen loop of my purse organizer, and I am relocating my cards back into my Vera Bradley wristlet. Problem solved.

I don’t plan on abandoning the planner world. I still very much enjoy reading about and seeing everyone’s lovely planners, but right now, it’s just not for me.

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{Filofax Friday} New Goodies and Yet Another Addition

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Happy Friday everyone!

Since I’ve gotten back into Filofaxing lately, I decided it was time to do a Filofax Friday post again. I’ve managed to get some fun goodies over the past month or two, so I’m going to share them all with you today. It’s a long list, and while I fully admit I have a shopping addiction, this haul was bought over the past two months, so it isn’t too bad… right?

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First up, I picked up two of the Martha Stewart expanding files from Staples. Adam from Adamsfilo on YouTube had shown how he used them to organize his inserts, and had been wanting to get something similar even before seeing his videos. The fact that the aqua color in the Martha Stewart line matches my room’s new color scheme had me sold. I picked up two, but truthfully, I could have used more. Now my unused Filofaxes can go back in their boxes, and my inserts are a bit more organized.

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I also picked up some goodies from Michaels. I finally bought some of the stickers that were prepunched to fit in personal sized binders, some stamp ink pads, some fun pen-style ink pads from K & Company (perfect for stamping on the go…), and some other fun bits and bobs. In the picture above the closest ink colors look to be purple, orange, and gold. The colors are actually pink, orange, and yellow. There’s a bit of a shadow in the picture, but the labels on the inks are also really off, so it’s not just my camera. Figured I’d point that out in case you’re interested in picking them up.

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When I saw Nadine’s video on the new StudioL2E Plan It stamps, I had to have them. They arrived about a week ago, and I can say that I adore them already. They are going to get so much use it’s not even funny.

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Now on to the Amazon goodies. I ordered some stamping blocks for my stamps. I also ordered some stickers and flags, and one of the Cosmos Passport Organizers everyone seems to be toting around with their Filos. You can see them all above.

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Next up are some fun things from JetPens. My Frixion highlighters were running dry so I ordered a new set along with a snazzy Frixion retractable pen and some black refills. Earlier in the month, before I decided to go back to black pens and highlighters, I had also picked up a complete set of retractable Frixions pens, and the Frixion markers in all the lovely colors as well. I may not have needed so many, but I fully stand by the statement that you can never have too many Frixions, and I’m sure I’ll find a use for them.

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While we’re on the subject of pens, I ordered a Swarovski pen off of Ebay. I have no idea whether or not this pen is a real Swarovski pen, but it’s still gorgeous. It adds just the right amount of sparkle to my Osterley, and it writes nicely.

Almost done… I promise. I just couldn’t help myself with these last two purchases.

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I ended up ordering the Life is Crafted Wo2P inserts for Personal size. They were pricey which is why I kept putting it off, but I kept coming back to them. I can say they were totally worth it. I honestly squealed with excitement as I opened the package. Arienne sent them along with some lovely extras like things from Kikki.K which we don’t have here in the US, a funny little post card, and even a cute handwritten note! The inserts are adorable as I had expected. My poor Osterley is a bit stuffed now, but by far, my favorite part has to be the dividers for the months. They put any other dividers I’ve ever seen to shame in terms of quality and design. I’m so happy I got them.

And last but not least… the unexpected addition.

I have quite a few saved searches on Ebay for random binders I’m on the look out for. You know for the ones that are discontinued, you can’t find anywhere, and you’re just patiently waiting for someone to decide to sell theirs… For me, one of those was a personal ochre Malden. I’m not sure if anyone else noticed, but the supply of ochre Maldens for some reason just exploded on Ebay quite recently.  Of course, I didn’t jump on any until I realized the only one left was starting at $120 or Buy It Now for $156 PLUS shipping! Crazy!

Of course the little voice in my head started saying “STUPID! YOU WAITED TOO LONG!” and then, like I did with my Osterley, I went to Google frantically searching away. I found one at Pen Boutique thankfully not for $156+shipping but for $79 with an additional $5 discount and free shipping. Into my cart it went, and I’m awaiting it’s arrival.

And that’s not all… For years, I’ve been ordering my Filofaxes online, thinking there weren’t any local retailers around me. I know you can check on the Filofax site, but I just never bothered because there really aren’t any boutique-like stationary places just big chains like Staples. So imagine my surprise when I realized the place I ordered it from was actually 9 miles… NINE!!!… away from my house! I checked Filofax’s site and it turns out I have not one but TWO retailers within 9 miles of my house! My mom’s response was, “Now you can buy all the Filofax supplies in the world!” I’m not sure whether she was being sarcastic or what, but as much as I’d love to be able to, I’m not sure my wallet would enjoy it, nor would my closets.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my haul. Let me know if you have any questions.
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My {Filofax} Week 33

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Paper Lovestory's My Week

And I’m back… for now. I tend to blog in spurts if you haven’t noticed. {I’m working on becoming more consistent with my posts!} Anyway, it’s nice to be back, and according to my posts, the last time, I did an official “My Week” post was way back in May for Week 19! Holy cow! Well summer’s winding down, and in my life that means things are picking up.

Here’s my week:

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So what’s happened? Based on the looks of my pages, it looks like I didn’t do anything, but I was actually so busy I didn’t have time to write anything.

Monday, I was out sick. Sadly, sick for me means doesn’t mean resting. It means cleaning the whole house. I suppose I feel so guilty for staying at home, I have to do something, and it usually results in cleaning. On this particular day, cleaning went along with singing Christmas songs which still perplexes me. Maybe I was a bit out of it.

On Tuesday, I met with my boss and a coworker to finalize our presentation of numbers relating to the last fiscal year. To summarize our 30 some slides, usage of our online support knowledge base, which I now manage, has more than doubled in the past year, and online support requests and phone requests have both decreased, which we’d like to believe is due to users using our knowledge base rather than picking up the phone or emailing us. The big one for my office is that the number of tickets our student staff resolve has gone from an average of 2% to nearly 56%.

Wednesday, we presented the presentation we made for the first time to our own group, and I also barely made it to a meeting to discuss the possibilities of online tutoring. I almost never have meetings after my lunch break which is at 2pm, but on this day, I had one at 3:30pm with the CIO of our department. At 3:30, I got a notification reminding me of the meeting, so I raced half way across campus in around 3 minutes, in 5″ heels. I was out of breath to say the least.

We presented our presentation for the final time on Thursday. This time it was to the managers and assistant VPs. Now, I regularly attend these meetings as I’m unofficially a manager, but every time, I feel so out of place. Not only am I the youngest in the room, but everyone else in my area that attends sits in the back of the room while I sit at the table. Part of me wonders if they know something I don’t, like maybe we aren’t supposed to sit there, but then I think about Sheryl Sandberg’s book and one of the only things that resonated with me  was when she discussed how women should feel comfortable sitting at the table. So as the youngest in the room, and one of the few women, I’m going to keep my seat at the table until someone tells me not to.

On Friday, I got to leave work early for a doctor’s appointment. It was a lovely day so that was nice, but I also had a tree removal company at my house that day, so I couldn’t exactly go back home right away. Instead, I treated myself to Starbucks and some pita crackers, which I ate while reading at our local plane observation area. I live near an airport, and we have an area where you can park and watch planes take off or land. It also has a play ground and some bike trails, so it’s usually pretty busy, but every once in a while, I like to go there and just chill.

Saturday was oh so fun. I got to spend it cleaning and grocery shopping. The joys of being an adult. To be fair, I didn’t do much cleaning. I hula hooped half the day away while drinking coffee. I did put away some of the nail polish I’ve left sitting out all over the dining room though.

And then there’s Sunday… Do you ever have one of those days where you’re just insanely productive. This was one of them. By 9am, breakfast was made (my first successful cheese omelet… and toast). Three loads of laundry were done and put away by 2pm. Trash and recycle was taken out. Carpets were steam cleaned and vacuumed. Makeup brushes were cleaned. Dinner was cooked and piña coladas were enjoyed. I even picked out outfits for the whole week before going to bed! It was lovely.

How was your week?

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{Filofax Friday} The Latest Addition to the Family

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I wasn’t planning on buying another Filofax. Then again, I don’t know many people that do actually plan to buy a Filofax. They just seem to jump into your cart and appear at your door a couple days later.

I own a personal-sized Osterley in Plum already, and while I’m not crazy about the layout on the inside, I do love the 2 pen loops and I also love the look which is a shock in itself. When they first came out, I hated them. I actually said, that’s one line I will never buy… {I guess I was wrong.} I’m not sure what it is about it, it just makes me feel fancy. And for anyone who thinks they look a bit hard and not nice to touch at all, they are just lovely and oh so smooth.

Anyway, the grey Osterley had been calling my name. It kept popping up in videos, and all I could think was “Grey is one of my favorite colors and I love my plum Osterley, so I’ll have to get one one day.”

Well it just so happened that one day I decided to just look at them on Pens & Leather. I was just planning on checking out the prices, factoring in any discounts… you know the whole deal. So on to the site I went, and on the grey Osterley’s page, I saw two words, “SOLD OUT.” Then I saw “DISCONTINUED.”

I basically went into full on panic mode. {Yes, I realize that seems crazy.} Here I was wanting one, and I was too late. Filofax was sold out. Amazon didn’t have them either. There weren’t any on Ebay. I turned to Google Shopping and found them still available at Goldspot. Into my cart one went, and without thinking twice, it was ordered and on it’s way to my house.

I’m happy to say, it has arrived without any damage. The rings are perfect, and I can sleep a little bit easier knowing I didn’t let my Osterley get away.

So without further ado, I introduce to you, my new grey Osterley.

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I’m still playing around with the inserts and the set up. I’ve also acquired a few new goodies so I’ll likely be back with an updated set up, and maybe something about all the fun bits and bobs I’ve gotten. The My Week feature may even make a comeback. We shall see.

Until then, thanks for reading. Happy Filofaxing, and have a great weekend!

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What’s Wrong with Erin?

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I bought an Erin Condren Life Planner for the second time this year, and let me say I adore it. It screams everything Andrea. I mean it even matches my room! There’s just that something about it that I’m not liking, and for the longest time, I really had no idea what it was. I think now I’m finally starting to put things together and figure it out, and it really has NOTHING to do with the planner.

So what’s wrong with it if it’s not the planner?

Years ago when I was browsing Flickr, I stumbled on some Moleskines which led me to Filofaxes which led me to Philofaxy, and then I found all the people in the community. I fell in love with the blogs, the videos, the pictures, everything. Now I’m always reading up on the latest Filofax gossip. It’s fun to see how the community’s grown and evolved over time. With every new person, we get new ideas and things like washi tape or Martha Stewart dew drops go viral and then you see them in everyone’s planners.

That’s when I started to realize something in the back of my crazy mind has always been screaming Filofax even when I’ve had a different planner, and I think that thing has been the community.

Erin Condren’s Life Planner definitely has a following online. I’d say to some extent it has a bit of a cult status in the blogging world, but what it doesn’t have is a community of people that are constantly sharing updates and stories about them like Filofax does. That’s what brings me back to Filofax every single time. And, hey, maybe that’s weird to some people, but we’re all weird in our own ways. My way happens to be planners and stationary. Whether I use what I buy or not, I like having it. I like reading about it. I like looking at it.

So while I tried to jump into my Erin Condren planner whole heartedly, I had this nagging thought always screaming “But what about Filofax?!” Maybe I should have watched a ton of Life Planner videos instead of Filofax ones, who knows, but as usual Filofax won me over. And of course, as we all know, how can you resist buying a new Filofax?!

I certainly couldn’t, and so my next post will be about my latest addition to the family.Signature

Current State of Planning

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Since many of you have found me through Angela of PaperLovestory’s My Week posts or Philofaxy’s Web Finds, if you’re still here, you’ve likely noticed a major lack of anything Filofax related, so what’s going on?

{Be prepared for a picture heavy post.}

A couple of months ago I mentioned that right after posting about how I got out of planner fail, I started to think I jynxed myself. Well today, I’m here to say, I did. I’m sure if I took my own advice in that post about planner fail, I probably wouldn’t be in planner fail, but for the life of me I couldn’t even get myself to open my Filofax for like the past few months. The only reason I’ve opened it recently has been to retrieve store credit cards. Thankfully, life hasn’t been too chaotic, but towards the end of this past semester, I felt like I was all over the place, and not having a planner certainly didn’t help.

I’d imagine many of you can relate that planner fail makes us go crazy {if we aren’t already}, and my wallet is certainly not appreciating it now, but here’s what’s been happening.

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My first attempt to avoid planner fail was washi tape. {Over $50 worth to be exact.} I see everyone’s pretty pages, and then there’s mine, so plain and boring. I put a sticker or two on a page to make it cute, but it ends up looking stupid instead. I really tried with the washi tape, and my weekly pages were cute, don’t get me wrong. I loved creating and seeing every one of them, but it just took way too much of my time, and I just didn’t keep up with it.

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Around the same time I ordered the washi tape, I also preordered a Day Designer from Whitney English. This thing was pricey, so I had high hopes for it. It’s a monthly/daily planner with pages to really iron out your goals. I finally got it at the end of May, just in time for it to start in June. The daily pages have plenty of room to right down your schedule, your to-dos, dinners, expenses, due dates, reminders, and most important tasks. In theory it should have worked out fantastically, but it didn’t. I opened it up, wrote down the first couple days worth of tasks {only to realize I wrote them all down on the wrong week! – ultimate way to ruin that “brand-new notebook” high.} and never opened it again. From a product standpoint, it’s an outstanding planner quality-wise, and if you’re an entrepreneur with “clients”, I assume the planning pages at the beginning really would help you put things together. For my lifestyle though, it wasn’t much help. There were a couple downsides to consider aside from just the price though. It doesn’t play well with Frixion pens, and I’d assume any type of erasable writing instrument. The lines on the page started to smear, and the ink came off totally when I tried to reposition washi tape. I also wish it had tabs on the months as this is quite a large planner and there’s no way to locate where you are.

Anyway enough rambling. So I had two planners, neither of which I wanted to use. The obvious solution was to buy a third!

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I caved and bought a new Erin Condren planner! I bought one 2 years ago and loved the fun colors {instant cuteness rather than spending time with washi-tape}. Sadly three weeks into using it, I sort of ruined a lot of the pages by sweeping snow off my car right into my purse all over my planner. {Note to self: put purse in car before brushing the car off, and ALWAYS close your planner, don’t leave it folded open to the current week in your bag.} With the wrinkly pages and struggling to make the layout fit my lifestyle, I gave up on it for a while. I was actually using my A5 Malden successfully for a while so I didn’t repurchase one for 2012.

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Since my last Erin Condren planner, a lot of things have changed. I love the month on 2 page spread, and from knowing how badly the plain cardstock tabs held up, I’m glad they decided to laminate them. Tweaks in this year’s layout with the lines for random tracking at the bottom and goals on each week are nice as well. Overall, the quality of this planner has only gone up, and this year I actually felt the price was more justified than it was two years ago. I also splurged for some elastic bands to hold the book closed, pens, extra stickers, and a pen loop. I hacked mine a bit too. I took apart my old Erin Condren planner and added the pocket, left over stickers and folder to my new planner. I had initially planned on taking apart my new one to add everything, but the new metal spiral is a lot stronger than the plastic and I didn’t want to damage the pages. I trimmed down the sticker pages and stuck them in a folder pocket, and just snipped a slot into each of the tiny holes on the folder and pocket. Now I have an extra removable folder and pocket in my planner which is a little nicer in my opinion because I can move them around.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’m seriously excited to be finally using my planner today. So much space, and it’s going to match my room once it’s all done!

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My {Filofax} Week 19

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Paper Lovestory's My Week

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all have been lucky enough to have had at least some of the gorgeous weather we’ve had here lately.

Here’s my week:

 

 

I prettied up my pages with some washi tape. I picked up a total of 13 rolls from PrettyTape and another 16 from the SewingPost on Etsy. I also finally got some of the cute magnetic bookmarks everyone’s been putting on their pages. Design-wise, you may notice a lot more sticky notes than usual. I had this bright idea to use only black ink for a cleaner look, but I ended up forgetting halfway through and used color anyway. Having half in color and the other half in black bugged me. Turns out I like seeing a mix of colors on my pages because I can see a mix of thing going on in my life. Anyway, I decided to use sticky notes to cover up most of the black ink.

So what did I do this past week?

I worked out a lot. I’m talking 40 minutes twice a day some of the days. I practically lived in workout clothes which didn’t bug me one bit because they are incredibly comfortable and quite cute. Each week, I try to write down the Tone It Up schedule, but I have to be honest, I don’t always follow it. Most of their online workouts are designed to be repeated about 3 times, but I have a tendency to not repeat them. Sticking with the 10 workouts I have on DVD keeps me on track more.

I was able to write a ton of blog posts for last week. I think I had a post just about every day.

I had a few meetings one of which included my performance evaluation. One of the only negatives is my lack of enthusiasm for public speaking. The whole department seems perplexed by it. I assume that seeing as my mom (who also works on campus) is so incredibly outgoing, the idea that I might be incredibly introverted doesn’t make sense, but in any event, that’s who I am, and I don’t see that changing. I do see value in pushing yourself to try new things, and I do. However, I’m happy with who I am as a person. It’s taken a long time to be comfortable with being an introvert, and I don’t feel like I should be forced to change that.

Somewhere during the week, I managed to find time to watch a few movies and finish 3 books:

  • The Summer I Learned to Fly by Dana Reinhardt – I honestly expected more from this book. I didn’t feel like the story every really picked up enough. It was like I was stuck always reading the first few pages of a book where the story builds and then it just ended.
  • Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxnreider – This was one of those books I started and never got around to finishing. I’m trying to finish those books, so I picked this one up. It wasn’t any different than any other organizing book I’ve read. Actually a lot of it was just the author saying  something like “Well this is what I did, and you should too.” Maybe I would have gotten more out of it if I had 2 weeks to devote to clearing everything out of my house room by room, staging it in the backyard, cleaning everything top to bottom, and replacing only the necessities, but let’s face it, I have a life.
  • Drive by Daniel Pink – I found this book difficult to read which is saying something because I love Psychology and self-help books and this is a bit of both. If I didn’t have to return this book, I likely wouldn’t have pushed myself to finish it so soon. It was pretty dry with one study after another. Do I think it would be nice to work in some Motivation 3.0 world? Sure. Is it realistic to hope my office will some day get rid of their vacation policies or let me work from wherever I want? No, because my office is based on the fact that people are in the office. I don’t work in a retail environment, but imagine if you went to a store and no one was there because they were working from a coffee shop down the street… His theories have science to back them up, but unless I’m working in some fancy office job that doesn’t involve interacting with the public, it just isn’t feasible, and that was the extent of a large portion of the work.

Moving on to the weekend…

Cartilage piercing + sneak peak of the new room color.

Saturday, I met up with a friend for piercings. I wanted to get my cartilage pierced. I had gotten my right ear done a few years ago, and wanted to get the other side done to balance it out. Total count now is at 7. I’d love to get more, but I have to stay professional. We followed piercings up with drinks and dinner at Chevy’s. {Oh, and I found my friend’s lost cat. She hadn’t come home, but with my “Cat Whisperer” abilities, of course she came back and I spotted her in the yard.}

Sunday was Mother’s Day. I made my mom a cute card out of washi tape and scrapbook paper. I’m not normally one to make cards, but I didn’t pick one up ahead of time because I didn’t plan on being out most of the day on Saturday. I worried that it’d come off tacky and look like I forgot Mother’s Day, but  in the end, it turned out really cute, and I went into super creative mode. The card even had slits in it to hold the check I gave her. {I offered to buy her something fun, but she asked for money.}

School-wise, I turned in all my assignments on time. I am actually really happy for the work I did. We had to post our evaluation instruments for the course we’ve designed. I was really scared that I wouldn’t have time to finish it {I really should stop waiting until the last minute.}, but I actually enjoyed this assignment and I got into a groove and worked away. Of course I’m not sure whether the groove was due to actually enjoying the assignment, watching tv, or wine. All I know is it got done, and for once I’m proud of my work this semester.

Well, that was my wonderful week. How was yours?

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