Tag Archives: Filofax

Man Bag..

OK it’s a very French thing I realise, but I also don’t like carrying ‘stuff’ in my pockets, fine in winter when you are wearing a jacket, but in summer I find my shorts are weighed down with ‘stuff’

Well what sort of ‘stuff’ are we talking about….

Car keys, house keys, magnifier (my close in eyesight is terrible these days), mobile phone, Filofax – which is also my wallet, a pen and a torch (for night time!)

I also carry a small compact camera a lot of the time too.

So I found I already had a bag that I wasn’t using, it was used for my portable CD player…. infact this one…

I now use an iPod… ah add that to the list of ‘stuff’, the above fitted in to the bag like this:

It has a nice soft lining for both compartments and it’s quite discreet and compact. So I gathered all my ‘stuff’ together and tried it in the bag:

Wonderful, except the Filofax is a little too tall… ah but I have a Pocket Filofax, a quick try and that converted ok to my Wallet/Filofax, gather my ‘stuff’ together again:

And this looked more promising…. and in the bag it all fits including the compact camera:

Sorted…. it’s also fairly shower proof as I discovered the other day in Niort!!

Filofax Focus Group



Are any of you a member of the Filofax Focus Group? See: http://www.filofax.co.uk/signup/ although the same page appears on the US site.

Get the Filofax products YOU want – Join our Focus Group The views and opinions of our customers are extremely important and the Filofax Focus Group allows you to directly influence future products/advertising. You will be asked to complete occasional questionnaires via the web which are simple to complete and you can unsubscribe at any time. In return for your time we offer discounts on website purchases and the chance to win £100 worth of vouchers! To join the Filofax Focus Group, please complete the information requested below and click the Submit button.

I’ve tried to sign-up but on submitting, the page is not found. I’ve reported this and I got a response from Filofax HQ in UK (bows his head in honour!) to say thank you for making them aware of the fault and it is being looked in to.

I will go back to the lady who emailed me to let her know it’s not fixed yet. I’m sure there will be a few people that would appreciate contributing ideas to ‘the maker’!!

Filofax – My Own Story



In a previous post last year, I briefly outlined the history of Filofax. As I said then I started using a Filofax back in about 1986. My old Winchester binder is still in use, but not everyday use. It sits between a pair of Finsbury’s, an A5 and Pocket binders.


The Winchester binder was very popular back then, I forget how much it cost in 1986. I was not aware of the Filofax until I read an article in the Sunday Times about how popular they had become!! What I liked and still like is the flexibility offered by the loose leaf binder. The ability to just fit a new diary, whilst retaining your contacts in another section.

Filofax back then offered a large variety of pages that you could fit in to your binder. Some of these pages and accessories dated back to the very early days of Filofax. For instance in my personal size Winchester I have a page for holding postage stamps.

I rediscovered some of my old Filofax pages still in their packets in an old briefcase, but sadly they are no longer sold, such as the Photo Exposure Record ref 404. I’ve recreated this sheet and others in A4/5 format. Whilst I don’t use film much these days. I like to record the details of each shot.

In the days of Inter-City, they used to supply their timetable twice a year in Filofax format, as a bonus with the winter timetable they also sent you a free diary insert for your Filofax as well. I still have the index dividers from Inter City.

After a few years I went over to using electronic PDA’s starting with a Casio Digital Dairy, then a Psion 5MX finally a HP iPaq 5550. After I changed job, I wasn’t able to use an electronic PDA at work. So I dug out my Filofax in 2005 and rediscovered the joy of using a Filofax.

I bought the A5 Finsbury because of the ease of being able to create your pages on the PC and printing out contact and diary pages in MS Outlook.

I use the A5 binder as my desk diary and journal, it’s not the best solution for most people if you want to carry something around with you a lot. So to overcome this I added the Finsbury Pocket to the collection. I now add my appointments to this one. I also use it for collecting notes and to-do lists. As yet I’ve not added my contact lists to this one. Although I need to do this sometime. This size Filofax is a lot easier to carry around with you on a daily basis.

Since rediscovering Filofax I’ve been surprised at the number of on line resources there are for people using Filofax. I’m a regular contributor to the Philofaxy blog I had time to read through all the previous posts in the past week, which in some ways inspired me to write this post.

There is also a Filofax Yahoo Group that I look after. It’s a growing group of people and although not a hugely active group, but lots of good ideas are exchanged.

I’ve also been contributing to D*i*Y Planner has a large number of page templates and also a forum. It’s not exclusive to Filofax, but it’s a great site for sharing ideas.

Here is a list of the pages I’ve created on the DiY Planner website:

Here is a sample page in my A5 Finsbury:

And finally I thought I would share with you this picture, true porn for Filofax lovers!

Filofax



I’ve been a user of Filofax since the mid 1980’s, I wasn’t a yuppie!! but that era made them more popular than ever. At the time I liked the flexibility (and still do) of the format.

The history of Filofax started in 1921 when the company Norman & Hill introduced for the first time the simple but extremely effective concept of mobile pages maintained together into a leather sorter of great quality
During the Second World War, the buildings of the company were destroyed by the bombs during the “Blitz” Filofax would not have survived without the perspicacity of a remarkable woman: Scurr Grace
Grace had entered to Norman & Hill as a temporary secretary and had created his own file of information (file of facts)
Each evening, it brought back to it this sorter which contained all the co-ordinates of the suppliers and the customers. With this information, its competences and its determination, it contributed to the rebirth of the company which exists today under the name of Filofax, the name which it chose then imposed in the whole world
Today, Filofax helps people in more than 40 countries organizing their professional and personal life

I started off with a classic personal size Filofax I still have that original binder, sure it looks old and well used, but the leather is nice and supple now and I use this binder for my French language notes.

Like a lot of people I moved over to electronic organisers of various kinds, but following a change of job in 2005 I was forced in to giving up my HP iPaq and I went back to my Filofax. But to make life a bit easier I went up in size to an A5 filofax, printing from Outlook on to A4 paper in booklet mode gives me an easy to produce calendar and contacts pages.

However, recently I’ve also bought a Pocket size Filofax which is a more convenient size to carry around in a jacket pocket.