Blog Post Planning

Greetings humans!

Today'll bring with it a quick post regarding how I plan my blog posts with my A5 Paperchase Organiser. If you've been reading my blog since it began, you'll be aware that the frequency with which I post is unreliable to say the least. As a consequence, I have created these inserts to help me plan when I'm going to post (the aim is twice a week), and especially with 2014 coming up and my plan to join in with the lovely Angela-from-paperlovestory.com's "My Week", I know I need to be as organised as ever. 

There are two of these to an A4 page, so when scaled down to A5 and printed double sided, I can get eight of these on one sheet of A4 paper.

The page is fairly self-explanatory. Blog post planning has its own sub-section in the Planner tab of my A5, and I also use Paperchase's monthly pages (well, for 2014 anyway) to schedule my posts, since this is an easy and visual way to make sure I'm staying on track.

(Apologies for the shoddy editing - the natural light is poor at the moment and I'm trying desperately to cover that up)

So, that's how I'm organising my blog posts now. Hopefully they'll be a bit more regular...(she says, posting on a Sunday when she meant to post on a Saturday)

Paper Planning vs. Digital Planning (Sixth Form Edition)

Greetings humans!

So, at the end of half term, I thought I'd try something new. Digital planning. That's right, I considered using my phone to plan my schoolwork. Anyhow, long story short, it didn't happen and I carried on using my Filofax anyway. Here are both of my systems and why I ended up failing miserably in this endeavour:

Filofax

If you follow me on Instagram (*ahem* hannahburley *ahem*) you've probably seen these camper van tabs a million times already - as explained here, I have one for each subject and one for my EPQ.

The first page of each tab is a summary of the A2 specification, just so I know how far I have left to progress through the course and for easy reference when playing the "which topic are we going to be taught next" game. (Note: this is not a real game and it should be made apparent at this stage that I don't get out very much).

The next page is where I record all of my homework set with Task, Completed, Date Set and Date Due. (Just realised that I haven't ticked off an essay that was done over two weeks ago - I should probably do that...). Aside from the aforementioned mistake, this keeps me on track and it's useful to see what I have left to do, not to mention I really enjoy ticking tasks off of to-do lists.

Here's the other side of that list and a graph I've drawn where I track my essay marks. The green line is at 90% - as you can see I'm far off of that (and even more so recently) although I'm aiming towards it; if I get a horrible question in the exam then I should still do well enough to get the grades I'd like. Hopefully.

I use the pages in my WO2P diary to record to-dos for the day. I find I work best in small chunks of various subjects, as opposed to focusing on just one or two solidly for a day.

The only deadlines that I record in my diary pages are my EPQ ones; since it's so self-directed, I often forget about them if they're just left in my EPQ section. Here's the deadline for everything but the presentation - the bit I'm looking forward to the most!

Digital

A good three or so years ago, probably around the time I had just started using Filofaxes again for my social (ha) life, I downloaded an app called iStudiez Pro for around £1.99. I decided to revitalise it and put in all my classes for this year, to see whether it would work for me at school.

A calendar: the coloured dots are for each lesson I have that day.

Assignments: where they all appear. As you can see, this experiment went really, really well.

So, why didn't I use this? Well, here are the reasons:

• Although I'm in sixth form, it's still in a school as opposed to a college, and we're not allowed our phones out in lessons. Therefore, I may end up having to wait around two hours to put an assignment in, since I am the most unsubtle person in the world and would struggle to do so on the sly.
• I'm a creature of habit. Even if I wanted to get my phone out and make a note of my homework, I'd still get my Filofax out without thinking.
• If something is on my phone, it doesn't feel *real*, or like an actual commitment. On the contrary, on paper it feels like some kind of legally binding contract with myself, meaning that I need to get it done.
• Time and effort - it took me about an hour to fill in my timetable on iStudiez Pro. It took me fifteen minutes to make one on Word, print it out and put it in my Filofax. Easy winner.

Which method do you think works best? Paper or pixels?

How I Organise My Filofax Supplies

Greetings humans!

Today I thought I'd share with you how I organise the supplies I use in my Filofax. Even though this isn't a Filo-specific blog, I decided not to show you my folders/refill pads/pens because they're on shelves/in pen pots respectively and I don't do anything spectacular with those. These supplies, however, are in boxes and stretchy folder things (there I go with those technical terms again), which are infinitely more exciting than shelves, right?

This is the main box in which I keep my bits and bobs - I believe it was bought in a pack of many from Costco. A couple of weeks ago, it was almost empty...and now it's almost full. Oops?

Here's the inside. As you can see, some items are stored loosely, and some are stored in more boxes. Regardless of anything, it's all packed in some kind of warped, 3D, stationery tetris. The loose items include packs of sticky notes and to-do lists, craft papers (for making dividers) and some magnetic bookmarks. 

One of the first storage containers that I use is this Cath Kidston tin. Inside, I keep some mini paper tapes from Paperchase and fashion paperclips from Wilkinson and Tiger.

Then, I have this Really Useful Box. In here are sticky notes, stickers and mini-notepads, sourced from a variety of stores. I used to use a couple of these to store my pens (until my collection went out of control) and they're stackable, which is handy for saving desk space.

Another Box! This was bought in a pack of three from Family Bargains (think 99p stores, Poundland etc), and the lid barely stays on, which is not ideal, even though it sits in a box most of the time. Here are just sticky notes, memo pads and notelets (which I got from The Range's clearance isle - always worth a check). 

I also use Filofaxes and other ring-bound organisers to store stuff. I bought a first edition Flex from Homsense for £7.99 in which I keep stickers and a record of the washi tape I have. In my Paperchase organiser I keep spare inserts, since it was starting to get a bit worn and I don't want it to break with constant use!

Now, not everything fits in my Pink Box of Wonder. I keep sticker sheets and washi tape in separate containers.

Tape! This is a box, about half the size of a shoebox, which I was given for my birthday (it's from Tiger). I just put a bit of washi on the lid to let me know what was in it, just in case I forget(?!)

This is an expanding sticker folder. An expanding folder for my stickers. (Really not much else to say, right?) There is the potential to customise the tabs, but my sticker supply is in constant rotation so it would probably be a waste of time.

I hope you found this post vaguely interesting, and that it may have given you some inspiration as to how to store anything paper-y.

A Filofax...for EVERYTHING?

Greetings humans!

Many members of the Filofax (and other similar planners) community use their organiser for absolutely everything, from diaries to shopping lists and from internet passwords to keeping track of their finances. Incredibly convenient, you know where everything is, you won’t leave the house and then kick yourself for forgetting something in your other organiser (which has happened to me more than once), and it’s considerably cheaper to run. It’s great to have everything in one place - apparently.

The thing is, I’m not really sure if this is something that I would be willing to do. In terms of practicality, it wouldn’t work for me because there’d be hardly enough room for EVERYTHING I’d need/want in there, since an A4 probably wouldn’t cover it and I’m not carrying one of those everywhere with me if I don’t have to! But there’s another reason as to why I’m sceptical - security.

I’m sure you’ve probably heard of the 1990 film ‘Taking Care of Business’, where an advertising executive’s Filofax is found by a crook who then manages to steal his identity and live his life, all with great comic effect (apparently). Although this is very unlikely to happen in reality, if you keep absolutely everything in your Filofax, and then lose it, how much of your private information may be compromised? The chances are that if someone found it they’d try and return it to you (even if it is just for the free gift that Filofax offers upon the return of registered organisers) but not all humans are nice creatures and not everyone can be trusted.

Furthermore, what about you in the meantime? If I mislaid my main Filofax, which is used to plan my school/social life (since that’s how I spend most of my time), I could probably cope by asking my friends what homework was set and when we were next meeting up outside of school. If I lost my finance Filo, I’d probably be a bit more worried, but I have online banking and if any personal data was in there, I could simply call the bank and explain my situation. If my internet planning organiser went missing, then I could probably pull from my memory what was on there, and most of the ideas would probably be duff anyway. If, however, all of this was in a single Filofax and I lost that, I’m not sure how well I’d be able to cope. Yes, if I did lose an ‘everything’ Filofax, I could do all of the above simultaneously and I doubt there would be much of a problem. However, that would mean that the school I go to, my place of work (if I can find a job!), my personal details, my financial details, my thought processes, the exact locations of my appointments, my health details and much more could fall into the hands of someone else. As I said, not all humans are nice creatures and not everyone can be trusted.

I appreciate that I have an incredibly cynical view of humanity. Losing my Filofax would be very unlikely to happen (I’d like to think!), and identity fraud even more so, but isn’t it better to be safe rather than sorry? What do you reckon?