Filofax - It's a way of life

Every Christmas my sister buys herself a diary. She carries it around with her in her handbag and puts every thing in her life into it. For several years she has brought me one too and I keep it going for a couple of weeks before forgetting about it and it ends up in the bottom of my bag covered in biscuit crumbs and some kind of gloop that I think every handbag must secretly be filled with but only mine leaks. In the end I started keeping all my appointments on an online calendar that I could access from my phone, but secretly coveted something like my sister has.

Filofax Display

Then Filofax sent me a Pink Domino personal organiser to have a play with. I got a lot of ribbing from Daddy who wanted to know if I was going to be putting in a note of our coal deliveries and how were the 80's treating me but I ignored him, slotted in my new Cross Pen that I got from the London Blog Camp and set to work putting in notes of upcoming appointments and details of things that I shouldn't forget. Sure they were in two places now (online which syncs to my phone and to Daddy's too) but I was going to do this properly.

Domino Filofax with Cross Pen

A few days in and all was good, I'd made note of my ever shrinking weight and measurements, I'd made a note of Big Boy's Blood Sugar levels, the days when he had lows, and all the School dates that seem to quickly fill up the emptiest of social schedules. It just didn't seem to be right for me though, I wasn't using the Filofax to the fullest, I wasn't using it to my own advantage. It was handy having a "solid" note book whilst coming back from The MAD Blog Awards I was able to sit on the train and jot down a few ideas for blog posts and names of people that I want to follow on Twitter and those who I want to add to my blog reader. I was slowly making it more personal to me, it has a few goals in for me, my blog, my home and I brought some stickers the other day too. It's because a filofax is so very personal that you can't look at what others have done to their filofax to make it personal for them, and then use the ideas to make it personal for you, but I tried anyway. As predicted it didn't work.

A few days later and whilst sitting in the car waiting for Daddy to finish work I made notes of what the Friday lunches should be for the rest of this year and some notes about future ideas. I found this perfect because I like to keep the ideas secret until the children get them in the morning and I don't have the greatest memory. Then at the weekend I went to Church, I needed to copy some personal information down and when Bishop presented me with this information I didn't have to hunt around for a pen and paper or beg some off someone else, as I had my filofax there.

And suddenly I understood how to use the filofax for me.

I don't have to use it as a diary for my appointments, I can use it to work out menus. I don't have to use it as an address book, I can use it to make notes of Twitter names of people I meet and those who I always forget. I don't have to use the note system for things to do on a daily basis, I can use it for long term goals. As long as I have the Domino with me I can use it for what I want.

Domino Filofax in Handbag

The point is anyone can use the filofax in the way which benefits them the most and having a neat note pad and pen handy in my bag all the time? Well, I think it makes me look a lot more professionally turned out than the battered pieces of paper I'm normally carrying. Take a look at the 2013 diaries and let me know which one you are after!


I was sent a Domino Filofax to review.

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