Shortly after our daughter was born, my husband and I were walking with her (baby securely wrapped on me in the sling) around our neighborhood on Capitol Hill in DC. We lived in an apartment the size of a shoebox just so we could be in that beautiful neighborhood with the big expensive houses and historic buildings. As we strolled along, we came up to two city worker men who were repairing the sidewalk. Just then, a very fit woman jogged by pushing her baby in a jogging stroller. Clearly impressed with her multi-tasking, one of the men said, "She's running WITH the baby." And the other man said, "Gettin' it DONE."
Ever since, this has been my and my husband's favorite phrase for accomplishing what we need to, even in less than ideal circumstances. Well my friends, I am happy to report that I am Gettin' It DONE.
You may have seen my comment on Yvotchka's excellent article What's A Girl TO DO about my recent planner "crash-and-burn Epic Fail crap-tastrophe." I had been using my Moleskine weekly notebook as my planner, because I needed the notes page for my weekly lists. As my move gets closer, I have certain things I need to do each week to prepare.
But to be honest, I've hardly been using my Mole WN at all, and barely even looking at it (which we all know is Planner Death). The day spaces are too small to write in everything I need to do each day. The weekly notes pages were the only useful thing about it, but that wasn't enough for me.
But then, other situations made me realize I really need to be using my Filofax. Perfect example: earlier this week we all had our leaving-post medical exams. I brought my Mole. Big mistake. The entire time, I needed my Filofax over and over again. Filling out paperwork: when did this happen? What were these dates? Since my Mole just started at the beginning of this month, I don't have a record of any previous months. It took some major remembering and back-counting to figure out dates. Then during the exams I had to jot notes, weights, and follow-up questions randomly on my weekly notes page. If only I'd had my Filofax, I could have created a new Medical page for each of us, with all of this information instantly consolidated and filed in the correct tabbed section for future reference. As it is, I have to re-copy my scrawled notes and hope I get it right.
So, fed up with the whole thing, I started over. I opened up a new page in my large Noteletts notebook and used an entire two-page spread to write every single thing I need to do before our move. Big tasks and small, timed and untimed. I did a Brain Dump and got it all out there in front of me. Now with this information to work with, I can figure out what needs to be done and when, and write it into my day spaces accordingly. In my Filofax.
Will this system work for me in the long run? I don't know and honestly I don't care. I switch my system around so often I can't be bothered to think about what will work for me long-term. And after I've moved, my circumstances will be different anyway, so who knows what will work for me best then? Right now I need to do what works for me right now.
You go girl! Sending out strong hand mojo as you re-copy...
ReplyDeleteI'm confused ... are you back to your Personal Deco then? I was under the impression that you had been using the A5 Domino with DodoPad this entire time ;-)
ReplyDeleteRegarding your post: it's a good thing that planner systems are not carved in stone, I mean the whole point of having a planner is the flexibility and the freedom to change, should it be needed. Different times and different life circumstances call for different planner solutions.
Plus, we get to hear all about it on this blog. If you ask me, that's a clear WIN-WIN!!!!
you are not married to your systems, continue flirting with as many systems as you like. but know that your heart belongs to the filofax so you'll always come home to it.
ReplyDeleteI do think that familiarity has a lot to do with it too. I've been using Filofaxes for a decade now, and for most of that time (with the past 2 years as the exception) I've been using the Personal size Filofax as my planner/ diary. So, there is a comfort factor in going back to what I know.
ReplyDeleteJotje, I do still use my A5 Domino as my blogs planner! But that size turned out to be too big to carry around with me every day after all.
Oh dear, I know exactly what you're going through! When our move was finally certain, my Filofax had to do double work! Coincidentally, I had also just received the QuoVadis Business Planner (A6), so I started using that one to keep track of all things related to our move. I was also actively working on a project during that month, so my Filofax was getting filled up with that. Now that I recall I also used an A6 lined, spiral notebook (Clairefontaine) that Karen sent to me along the QuoVadis. So I was literally schleppin' my Pocket Filo, my QuoVadis business planner and the Clairefontaine Notebook, plus my Rhodia nº11 Pad wherever I'd go.
ReplyDeleteOnce the move was finally over and we were starting to settle into our new life, I stopped using the Filo and the QuoVadis quite abruptly. I guess I had a sort of planning overdose.
One suggestion I can give you though is to make sure you have loads of post its and jot paper, so you can write your daily chores and shopping etc in those and then simply throw them away when you've used them. It's quicker and it won't let your Filo overflow, keeping the most important tasks uncluttered.
Looking forward to reading more about it!!
Oni, thank you so much for your moving advice!!
ReplyDelete