Back In A Filofax | Personal Malden In Ochre

2016 is fast becoming the year where I try and use as many diaries systems as possible... or so it seems - however I didn't think that I'd be returning to a Filofax but it definitely feels like the right move for the time being.

I'm starting to believe that there is literally no notebook or diary out there that can fully accommodate my needs.  The two that come close are the Marks Colours Diary (I used one of these in 2015) and the Hobonichi Techo (I started with this at the beginning of this year) but for various reasons, I've switched in and out of them.

I need a way to have a diary and a bullet journal working in conjunction with each other. Most of the time, a traditional diary layout doesn't provide the space for bullet journalling without it being too large or too bulky and, from the other end of the scale, the bullet journal system doesn't really have the flexibility for true forward planning without a lot of counting of pages, drawing grids and fashioning your own layout which sort of detracts from the simplicity of it all.  This is why the travelers notebook system was working really well for me but I was struggling to find an actual pocket sized diary that I liked to be part of this set-up.

So I've returned to the Filofax.  The one I'm using is the Personal sized Malden which has been on my wishlist for a long time. It has the perfect amount of pockets and card slots and the traditional size 23mm rings, which makes it functional without it being too large.  It's also a really classic colour - ochre - which definitely isn't going to go out of fashion any time soon. Plus, all my personal items seem to be in this shade of brown at the moment... What has really helped me to settle back into this ring binder is that I have been able to take some of my original inserts and use them straight away and I've used the first part of an academic diary from Dodo Pad which will see me through to the end of the year, at least. 

You can see the full set-up in this video. It's all very new and neat at the moment - and it's definitely not over-stuffed, which feels productive and useful. I'm also using a Cross Tech3+ pen which is a 3-in-1 - a black ballpoint, a red ballpoint and a pencil - and this negates the need to carry different pens to highlight specific points in my diary.

Shall we take bets on how long this will last? It's interesting to see that I always return to the Filofax system at some point but I think I'll have to find a better way to incorporate my bullet journal. I have a couple of ideas - let me know if you'd like to hear about them or see me trying them out! 

(P.S. huge thanks to Philofaxy for featuring this video in their round-up recently)

The Filofax and Cross pen were provided by Pen Heaven.  Both items were eligible for embossing and personalisation and you can see the effect of that more clearly in the video. For more details about review items and collaborations please see my disclosure policy.