My Filofax Deco A5

So I thought it time to show off my Deco A5. Granted it's probably not far different to most other Filofax users out there but I'm hoping to pick up some extra ideas along my journey.
It's a Black Deco (was hoping for the Brown but I was unable to find one at a reasonably reduced price).

Nothing exciting from this view, although the Deco isn't leather I like the elasticised closure system. The normal flap and button closure usually gets in my way when it comes to writing in my Filofax. As yet it's part-full despite the fact that the only part I'm fully using is the diary.

The 4 colour Bic pen brought me back to my youth whilst proving to be 4 times more useful but only taking up 1 pen loop. The second pen loop is occupied by a mechanical pencil, I've had an obsession with mechanical pencils for as long as I remember and for me proved the perfect foil alongside the Bic in my arson on the paper-based world that is the Filofax.

Inside I have 2011 Horizontal Year planner which I have found useful for denoting my wife's holidays at a quick glance. Does anybody else use a year planner in this way. For denoting birthdays perhaps?

So far the Month on two pages is my diary type of choice as I like to see an overview of my month at a glance. In my job I carry out a variety of different shifts without any structured shift pattern so being able to glance at my month allows me to note what I'm working and more importantly the weekends I'm available to go camping. On my internet trawls I've not picked up on many (if any) folk using this diary style. Anyone out there?
One of my first purchases after the diary inserts were some pockets by Avery. I trawled up and down every isle in Staples in the search for ANYTHING with potential in my new Filofax world. They have an adhesive backing and I've attached them to particular tab pages where I felt they would prove useful for smaller items. From what I can tell they are removable.

As well as the Avery pockets I couldn't help but buy the official Filofax Zip Pocket which is currently holding items I'm too torn to allocate an official home somewhere else in the Filofax.

You can just about make out on one of the earlier pictures the A-Z tabs near the back. I have no intentions of using this for addresses, instead I intend on using it to file literature pertinent to my job.

Working in a medical profession I intend on allocating certain colours to different disciplines. I invested in extra White ruled paper along with a pack of orange and blue paper.

   White - Anatomy, Medical terminology, and anything remotely interesting.

   Orange - Notes on Magnetic Resonance Imaging; mostly physics related but also general information

                  necessary sequences Vs. Pathology.

   Blue - Notes on CT. Again Physics related but more about the radiation: Policies and dose reduction.

I'm hoping I can commit to really doing this Filofax justice as I have a phobia of writing on neat paper. I'm too proud to make it look scruffy although the problem being I'll never annotate my ideas for fear of ruining it. What is there to ruin? lol. Am I the only person to have this fear that inhibits them actually making any progress? It always proves a backwards step. I have a vast number of pocket-sized notebooks that I have thought looked perfect over the years but sadly they're resident on a bookshelf upstairs unused and as new because of my fear.

Well that's enough rambling for another night. Note to self... start writing!

The beginning...

If I was a woman I'd have a ginormous handbag full to the brim. As it is I'm male nor do I have a handbag at my disposal so I endeavour to accessorise my life with as little as possible whilst having all I can possibly need at hand. Basically I'm an "everything but the kitchen sink" kind of guy yet I dream of being minimalist. I'm conflicted!

Pair my enthusiasm to be prepared for everything whilst carrying almost nothing with an obsession with all things orange and you're starting to understand how my wage packet gets eaten away at on eBay, Amazon, and in Poundstores all across blighty in search of something that 'fits', that's dual-purpose (better still multifunctional) or even more dangerous for me 'that'll come in useful one day'.

All this in an effort to get my life more organised whilst quite often failing miserably.
Recently I stumbled across the good folk at http://philofaxy.blogspot.com/ and upon perusing their blogs I was persuaded to dig out an old Filofax my mum bought me for Uni. I'll be honest here and tell you I never used it. Who in their right mind is going to whap out some leather binder in front of their fellow peers as a young male in their 21st year of life. Not I. Firsly it was too stiff and cumbersome for my liking plus I felt seriously uncool so... in a box under the bed it went. And when I left Uni? Of course, in a box in the attic.

Fast forward 5 years and the stiff and cumbersome leather Filofax is understood to have its advantages but combined with the knowledge of the Philofaxy followers I am now in possession of an A5 Deco.
It's larger ring size, lack of fastening buckle and user friendly half-A4-size allows me to organise my day-to-day life and work papers with relative ease compared to the difficulties I used to face.

Part of me has come to a rather large hurdle now, I TRY to organise myself that much that I carry out research, google things I'd like to read into and such like. At this point my old disorganised self clashes with my organised self. I make the effort to do the research yet it then sits in the download folded on my computer for months on end lying there latently until I get a spark. This spark is converted into an urge. Not an urge to organise and act upon my findings but simply search some more, research even deeper only for this seemingly useful information to lie side by side with the old musings in some sort of dormant homage to life and times before Melvil Dewey came along and organised the library system. Oh how I could do with a Mini Melvil to carry round in my pocket and pop out when I come to a crossroads of organisational turmoil.

All in all I'm hoping that blogging may help unravel my conflicts and bring me to a long stretch of road bereft of traffic lights, crossroads and possibly roundabouts.

Good night, Monkey