I’m back with a whimper. So I made it through 2020-2023. Still planning would you believe it.
I’ve consistently been planning in a Hobonichi weeks. In and out of personal and pocket wide rings. Dabbled with a Hobonichi Cousin and pocket Moleskine. I even briefly jumped back to an Erin Condren Life Planner which was a bad move.
So I’m picking this blog back up. I’ve learnt lots over the past few years and settled into a few things I know work for me. I’ve got planners and stationery galore to share.
What is everyone else doing for planning and journaling these days? I’d love to hear where you’ve landed!
In my last post One Malden is Not Enough I shared with you my Filofax Personal Kingfisher. Since then I added a Malden Stone and a Malden Fuchsia both personal size. Both are preloved and both in really nice condition which is lucky. I get jumpy about preloved rings being gappy #plannergirlproblems.
The girls
My theory (justification) is the pink and blue are spring/summer colours and the ochre/stone autumn/winter. I feel happy I have nice options now. I bought some new dashboards that fit each season too, from one of my favourite UK Etsy stores Sort Stuff Out.
I heard a rumour that there might be a navy Malden in the future and the Crimson is a unicorn colour I doubt I will ever see at an affordable price. My lovely husband put up a shelf for me and now I can see all my planners lined up together. Sadly there is no room for any more unless I sell some or put them away.
Do you have a dream planner, if so I would love to hear what it would be.
Quick update. I am still (shock horror) in my personal Filofax rings. I am still in a Malden. I am not currently in the Ochre. I am in the Kingfisher colour I bought a couple of weeks ago. I know that Malden is my happy place in Filofax so I could not resist a bargain on the Filofax UK web site. The 2020 version of the planner was in the sale as it had 2020 inserts. Filofax them mailed out a flash sale of 30% off all sale items. It qualified for free postage so came in under £43.
Notoriously difficult to photograph, it’s a little darker that seen here,
I have transferred in the same inserts, although since last blogging I am using some monthly and weekly inserts from GoodINKpressions on Tamoe river paper which I adore.
Confession, I just purchased a preloved Filofax personal Malden in Stone. I could not resist. I love the planner so much and I love the ability to swap colours so I don’t get planner fatigue and start playing with other format planners. I settled back into personal rings finally and I feel happy here right now.
I have no idea if I will buy any other colour, although the Fuchsia or Orchid one would be a nice summer colour. I need to halt the planner spend really so unless I see a great deal near to Christmas or my birthday it is unlikely right now.
Mind you, the pear green one looks fresh…. 😉
Do you have a favourite planner that you like to collect? I also would love to hear where you like to purchase your inserts from?
Wow 2020 is certainly keeping things interesting. Being active in a community that thrives on planning, organising, controlling (we think) our lives, Covid-19 certainly sent us into a spin! I was happily planning in my on the go combination of a Hobonichi weeks and digital. At home I was using a customised A5 Personal Planner for school/family things and memory keeping in my Vertical coiled planner. Then lockdown happened and I got put onto furlough and suddenly planning took a huge back seat. What even do you plan? So I dropped it for a few weeks whilst I got my head around it. Bearing in mind I was also trying to home school a 7 year old, which I discovered I am not cut out to do at all!
Once I began to get an albeit slippery grip on my days, I found the Personal Planner A5 to be useful. I used it solely to capture everything and track home schooling, meal planning, home tasks and online orders. However I started to become a little frustrated with the lack of note pages and ability to add stuff in. I had already determined that more than one planner was not going to help (my mental capacity is not as it should be in a crisis!) So I had a rummage in my old planner box and pulled out my Filofax Finsbury personal in cherry. She was only used as a Christmas planner every year and deserved a less seasonal trial. So I set her up with what I had, then printed out some daily pages I purchased from Organise With Katie a while ago. It worked really well for me. Even when I return to work it looks likely I will do much more home based working going forward. Therefore the bulkier/heavier Filofax is less of an issue as it will not be carried around as much.
As is always the case with a planner nerd, I took to YouTube to watch various personal Filofax set up videos. I wanted to see what had moved on since I last used one, for example the inbox concept (GTD) (explained here by Rachel at Ellie Beth). I started to see all the lovely Malden’s in Ochre and felt a huge longing to be back in my beloved pocket one. But I know that a pocket size is presently not big enough to suit my needs. After chasing a few on E-bay with little success (those suckers hold their prices well and are in demand,) I popped an appeal out in the UK Planner Addicts selling group. A lovely lady I shared a table with at the The Big Meet 2019 contacted me to say she was selling her Filofax personal Ochre Malden. That my friends is how I came back to a personal sized Filofax Malden in ochre, just a bit bigger.
I did a little poll in UKPA recently asking what planners people were in. Interestingly the personal rings came top! It’s an interesting time for planning and I do wonder if we revert to something we feel safe with in difficult times. There certainly seems to be a resurgence of ringed planners this year. I have also become better at printing and cutting my own inserts. This means I have so much opportunity for a massive variety of insert types now. I’m waiting for dividers to arrive. When I do if there is interest I will share my set up. I’m back browsing Philofaxy too!
That is where I am so far. I’d love to know what your 2020 planner journey has been? Have you reverted, stopped altogether or looked to use something new? Let me know your thoughts.
Plan It Zoe 
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