Guildford extra slim!

Those of you who have children might have experienced the special feeling when you first meet your older child again just after the new baby has arrived - suddenly the older child is incredibly big! Huge! A giant!

It happened to me today. No, I didn't have a new baby, but I did meet a new filofax! Guildford extra slim came in the mail this afternoon.

First impression: But it's so tiny?! 

Second impression: It's really, really tiny!

Third: It's like an a4, except it's for a doll's house?!

Fourth: It's small even for a wallet...

See for yourself! Here it is, on top of Roxy, my A5 Finsbury:

And here with it's bigger relative, the Guildford slimline:

And here it is again, next to my mini Finsbury:

I bought it used, for just under 10 euros (where's the euro sign on my keyboard?). The rings are 11 mm and in good condition. Only 54g. The leather is the same as in the other Guildfords I own. Smooth and very soft.  No mesh pockets, I'm happy with that... No pen loop.

There's some sign of wear on the outside, but nothing that bothers me. 

I will use it for my action lists, which have so far travelled mostly in the mini Finsbury. The Finsbury has a calendar in it, but I very rarely use it so I think I'll manage with a monthly overview instead. I can put some of my most used cards in the pockets, like my id, bank and credit card, passcard for the office, public transport card. But that's about it. 

See, the action lists have already moved in! There's to much personal stuff in there so I won't show you more than this, sorry... ;-) But I have ten or so sections for actions in context, e.g., at home, at the office, talk to my DH, buy, pay, findout etc. and I use them all the time.

I think I will be very happy with this filofax! But I think it will take me atleast a day or too to look at the others without thinking they're too big and clumsy! 

Writing real estate in Kendal

One of the new arrivals turned out to be a PERSONAL Kendal instead of the POCKET Kendal I thought I was bidding on. Ah well, it's still beautiful!

Very beautiful actually. The leather ages with grace, and I think I'll like it even more with time. And being used to a Guildford slimline I'm completely head over heels in love with the ring size, too! 23 mm instead of 11! I decided I want to use it as a notebook, only the personal paper size is too small for me. And there seemed to be so much space around the edges?

...so I made my own. Slightly bigger than personal. The width at the bottom is 10,5 cm (a6 width) and the length is 18 cm. I got three sheets out of each a4.

 This is how it compares to a personal size sheet.

Punching was a little tricky, but I removed the plastic ends on the puncher so there was no obstacle for the paper.

Filled to the brim and ready to go! I love how much writing real estate there is in here!

Removeable notes

I don't know if there is anyone else out there who doesn't really like opening the rings of you filofax, but I don't! I'm always worried things will fall out or that the mechanism will wear out too soon, and instead I just let things stay where they are, which sort of defeats the purpose of a filofax... And when I eventually muster up enough courage to open the rings I have a lot of reorganising to do.

So I cut out little squares of paper, and punched them with three holes so that they will fit into all my organisers (mini, personal and A5) and made small slits from the punched holes so they can be removed from the organiser without opening the rings. I have blank pieces in all my organisers and keep stacks of them around the house and in my office, too.

I use these mostly for GTD inbox/bucket style notes. Whenever I think of something I need to put in my inbox I jot it down. Later I just pull the notes out from all the organisers (and my pockets!) and put them in my inbox. 

Most of them are torn up when they end up rewritten as items on a next actions list, but this one was added as a reminder in my calender. See? 

Of course I have to be careful and make sure the slits are not too worn if I reuse it, but most of the time they are ok being moved a few times.