I've been promising this post over and over again and now it's finally here - an introduction to my A5 Filofax Saffiano in Pear! I was eyeing this beauty for a couple months in the spring, but I felt badly buying a new Filofax when I had just purchased one in the fall. In May, however, when I clicked onto the US Filofax site, I saw that it was sold out. Because Filofax retires its models, I knew I had to make the purchase before it was gone from every store out there. I found my Saffiano on Amazon and snagged it right away. (Plus, it was May, and I could justify the purchase as a birthday/graduation gift to myself! :P) I almost immediate moved into the Saffiano because I had been dying for an A5 ever since I realized how small a Personal size really is. I've been loving the upgrade ever since!
With the end of graduate school and the start of my new job, I feel like I've already developed a pretty good system for how I like to organize my Saffiano. Click "read more" for closeups and details of this awesome planner, and for a walkthrough video!
Cover
The cover is very clearly a gorgeous lime green color called "Pear". I fell in love with the bold color and it just makes me so happy every time I look at it! The Filofax website says that the fabric used to make this planner is called "pu" which I had literally never heard of before, but it's kind of like a faux-leather that's a bit squishy (awesome description, Riley). This planner has a snap-closure which I'm a fan of, and of course the signature Filofax "F" on the spine.
Dashboard
The interior has several slot pockets which I wasn't sure if I'd like at first, but they fit my post-its, paper clips, and decorations perfectly! It also has a larger folder pocket that I use for larger documents that I need to carry with me. The elastic pen loop is on the front cover, which I thought was an interesting design choice, but I really like it, and I house a Target dollar spot pen there for a little bit of flair.
On the other side is my dashboard! I use the flyleaf as just that - a dashboard with important info. I usually keep sticky notes with long term to-do's that either don't exactly have a specific due-date, or have a very important due-date that I don't want to miss. This way I see them every time I open my planner.
Behind the flyleaf is the top-loading pocket that comes with the Filofax, where I store a variety of stickers and page flags. I keep both the flyleaf and the top loading pocket held together with a paperclip. I love having all my supplies right in the front - for whatever reason, it's much easier to flip to than when they're huddled in the back.
Personal & Planner Info
My first divider is just dedicated to my Color Code key and my personal information page, in case my planner gets lost. I also have a couple of emergency contacts listed on my personal information page as well. It's handy to just have these in the front, though by now I have my color code memorized and don't really need to reference it! It goes as follows:
Black: Any personal events that may be coming up, like parties, trips, visits with friends, etc., or personal tasks that need to get done, like chores, errands, appointments, etc.Calendar & To-Do's
Red: YouTube videos I have planned.
Orange: Anything that has to do with running.
Lime Green: Blog posts that I have planned.
Light Blue: Anything that has to do with my job.Dark Blue: Bills, bills, bills.
Purple: Yoga practice.
Pink: Headache tracking... yayyy....
Dark Green: Anything that has to do with Brett's job that I should be aware of (Though I know it's helpful for some to write down their partner's schedule in their planner, I definitely don't track his whole life in mine, haha!).
My second section is my calendar section - aka the entire reason why I have a planner. The first page is the Filofax year-at-a-glance spread. I saw so many planner people put stickers on the months that had passed on these sheets which I thought was a really cute idea, so I started to do the same.
This planner came with week on two pages inserts, which I was a bit apprehensive about. I'm coming from using day on a page inserts that had an appointments section and another section that I used for to-do's. Without an extra section for to-do's I wasn't sure how I was going to stay on top of things. So I came up with the idea to take the lined notepad sheets that came with the planner and put one right in the middle of each week, and used one side for to-do's for Monday-Wednesday, and the other side for to-do's for Friday-Saturday. I LOVE how it turned out - it's been working famously for me! Seeing both my appointments and my to-do's in the same spread is an absolute must for me as a planner. You'll also notice that the to-do's are in line to my color code so I know what needs to be done in what aspect of my life - YAY color coding!
Down at the bottom of my weekly pages I have yellow page flags counting down the weeks until the Maine Marathon. No particular reason why they're yellow - I put these in before I established that the color for running was orange - but I figured they would stand out if they were a bright color. I did switch to using orange flags for important running things to be aware of (like registering for the BAA Half Marathon) and will, of course, use orange from here on out.
You'll see there's a few little star stickers scattered throughout my planner as well. I like to put start stickers next to the training runs that I complete as a little reward! I put frown faces next to the runs I miss, just to make myself a bit more guilty and make sure I don't skip too many training runs. ;)
I also put my blog and YouTube schedule down on the bottom of each day. I've mentioned several times in the past that it's really helpful for me to schedule out my blog posts in advance, and so I've just been writing ideas down on the days that I'd like to publish each post. I'll also make sure that I put time to write each post and edit each video in my to-do section as well. It's really helped me to be a more consistent blogger!
A new thing that I'm trying out, now that I have more time in my schedule, is planning out my dinners in advance and then buying the groceries that go along with my meal plan. It's like I'm an actual adult or something. Anyway, I'll go into detail about that later on in this post, but I'll put the flag with the meal I want to have for dinner underneath the specific day during the week. It's working pretty well so far, and it feels like I'm actually taking care of myself for a change - haha!
Important Info
The third section is really just a reference section of all of my really important personal information, like due dates for my bills, account information for various things, passwords, and contact sheets. I keep this section clipped together because I often don't need to reference these pages and I can quickly flip by them if I want to, but it's nice to just have at my fingertips if needed.
Reference
Section number four is also a reference section, but for more day-to-day things. The first page is where I keep all of my dinner flags. These flags are moveable to I can reuse them often, which is nice, and easily change my plans if I feel like it. I also have a color code for these, because I'm crazy and color codes are my jam. Yellow is for meals to cook at home, blue is for sides to go with home-cooked meals, and green is for going out to eat or ordering take-out. I'm loving this new addition to my planning!
The next page is tracking any purchases I made online. I used a Filofax to-do sheet to create this (super simple) and write the product and the place I ordered it from in black, and when it ships I'll write the shipping date in red. Once I pick up the package from the post office I'll give it a check mark. Super easy way to make sure I'm getting what I ordered!
The last page of this section is my headache tracking page (yaaayyyy....) which is fairly similar to the way I have it set up in previous planners. On this page I'll track the day, the intensity (using the star system I've used in the past), and what "type" of headache (tension, cluster, etc.), and on the day of the headache in the calendar section I'll write my symptoms down. It's good for me to see when I'm getting headaches, how intense they are, and how I'm feeling because I can usually figure out from that information what might have caused it.
**Empty Section**
My fifth section is completely empty right now because I didn't have anything else that I felt like I needed to add in! I left the diver in because a.) it's pretty and b.) if I think of a use for this section while I'm not at home and away from my planner supplies, I can just start it on the go!
Spare Filofax Sheets
I just keep all of the spare Filofax sheets that came with the planner in the last section. I have found myself on multiple occasions coming up with a new page I'd like to add to one of my sections, and having the pre-punched, A5 size pages available for use right in my planner makes doing this so much easier than if I had to go into an extra drawer or cabinet to find the spare sheets, or make some of my own.
Notepad
For similar reasons, I keep the notepad that comes with every Filofax right in the back sleeve. I used this paper to create my to-do sheets in my calendar section, so if I were to ever want to "re-do" one of the pages, I can just use the notepad in the back! It would also be useful to have if I need to take notes in a meeting that I know I'll want to keep in my planner as well.
Overall Thoughts
I am just really starting to hit my stride with this planner and I am in LOVE. There's really nothing that I would change about it at this point! The size is perfect, my set-up is perfect, the functionality is perfect... it's really everything I could ask for in a planner at this point in my life. I know that when the school year starts and my schedule gets busier things might start to change and my feeling son this planner might change as well, but for now I am very happy with my A5 Saffiano!
If you'd like to see this planner in all of it's glory, check out my set-up video below! :)
What planner are you using right now? I would love to see pictures and set-up
videos, so leave me your links in the comments!
No comments:
Post a Comment