PERSONAL ORGANIZATION IN YOUR PLANNER...DO I HEAR..."HELP?!"

Hey everyone!

www.mypurpleylife.com

I´m gonna start this post with lots of pretty things so we can put our brain caps on and start thinking, ok?

Take a look at these photos.

You did already?

Did you dream they were yours? 

Yeah, wel.... It´s a lot harder then it looks.

I thought I was gonna by my filo, or generic 6 ring binder and THIS (meaning the cuteness and strucutre in the photos), was gonna happen just like magic. Preferencially without my even being involved, actualy. Just a simple wand waving and WHAM! It doesn´t.

www.papercraftsandsprinkles.com

What you see in those pics takes time. And guess what? TIME is something I DON´T HAVE!

That´s when the dispair sinks in. We walk into this world with an ideal, thousandos of examples to drool on and choose from, but let´s get realistic here, shall we?

I don´t know if you´ve noticed, but I have counted a lot of housewives in this world.

Not that being a house wife will not take up all your life and even drain the life out of you - I know, I tried, I quit by the way. Would much rather work an 8 hour job. Monday is always the worst day for me because I get more tired working at home then I do on the job,

MEU CARRO É MAIS OU MENOS ASSIM, TODOS OS DIAS

But, gettnig back to the subject, I think it´s fair enough to say that if you are an organized person, you´re gonna find a lot more time, as a housewife, with your kids at school all day, then someone who has to work 8 hours, go to school at night, take care of 2 kids and a husband, drive them everywhere and still have time for the house. Oh! Let´s not forget time for the 2 dogs, 2 cats and the turtle. LOL Yes, my house is a zoo.

Just saying.

So finally, after lamenting, I gave up making it pretty in the name of functionality,

I work at 3 different schools, I teach 7 different classes per week, which is equivalent to 14 classes. Each planned and "unique" in that time frame. I pick up and drop off hubby and kids everyday from everwhere, so I loose a lot of time in traffic, besides living about 1 hour away (with no traffic) from my workplace. Enough bickering about life, let´s get down to what matters...

Today I am going to talk about:

PERSONAL ORGANIZATION IN YOUR PLANNER!

By personal organization, what I mean is your "scheduling" section. How do you organize it?

Not only that, but do you also keep important notes in this section? I have a few tips for you!

(If you feel a bit lost, don´t worry, as with almost everything, I´m great in theory, terrible in practice. I am still learning as well).

That little monster? That´s our fear!

If you go to PINTEREST and research"filofax inserts" or "filofax printables", tons of options will pop up on your screen, and they can easily be adapted to your preferences.

But that´s where the mess starts, isn´t it?

Thousands of options a clic away and all you really want to do is run away, petrified.

Too much information can do that to you. That is, when it doesn´t just take you straight to the looney house LOL.

Sorry to be frank, but if you´re a beginner and haven´t become like the lady in the pic below, you soon will.

IT´S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME.

.

Believe it or not, it´s a crucial fase for all beginners.

We observe, get enchanted, try to copy, fail, figure it won´t work for us, go through our morning stage because we´re never gonna have a planner just like those (and that´s when you feel like giving up on the whole planning idea), and then you start to reflect on how to make a system of your own.

Whatever you do, and no matter how you feel, basic advice:

DON´T GIVE UP!!!

If I had given up, I wouldn´t have 1/2 of the good results I do right now.

Not that my system´s perfect, but last week I did a major makeover and guess what? I changed my status from "DESPERATE" to "THERE MAY BE HOPE", and that´s a lot for me.

I have said it to be a miracle, actually.

Nowing that it is possible gave me some super strength to keep going in the right direction.

Believe me, if I, the queen of disorganized can be salvaged, so can you, my friend.

Observing our filofaxian idols, it´s easy to catch on to the fact that many adopt a very simple system, the WEEK ON 2 PAGES, or WO2P.

This is the method I´m talking about:

Words speak more then words, so here it is:

On the left, blank pages. On the right, used pages as an example.

This would never work for me, to much to write down, so I had to search for something else,

Some people use monthly calendar in synchrony with the week on 2 pages, or alone.

www.mypurpleylife.com

Onde more to the left blank pages, to the right used pages as an example.

You can find these calendars with horizontal design as well.

Besides these, there are also daily pages, which are more variable then anything you could imagine. Some people use them solely for fitness, others for finances, homeschooling, work, kids, the sky is the limit.

Due to the very personal nature of these pages, the perfect ones for you will only be known by....well, you of course.

How do you get there? BABY STEPS everyone, baby steps.

This may or may not work for you, but this is how I did it, bare with me:

1st STEP: write down every activity involved in yout life. Personal, work, kids, pets, etc. etc. etc. Make a giant brainstorm. This means it will be mixed up, but that doesn´t matter at the moment..

2nd STEP:

Look at everything you´ve written down and slowly categorize. Children under on column with the activities, blogging, homeschooling, and so forth. 

3rd STEP:

Now, looking at the categories, pick 2 for emergency repare. The ones that are in the biggest distress.

4th STEP:

Imagine what would be necessary to jot down about this category, repeatedly and methodically so that your organizational needs were met.

5th STEP:

Research layouts that fit your needs or DIY,

...................................................................................................................................................................

TIP: If you don´t know how to make your own, there are plenty of people who take custom orders,  that could help you with it. If you can´t print, you can have it done by someone else too.

If you don´t want to spend the money just yet, I suggest GRID paper. You can make your designs with a pen for the time being and have them done later.

You can use grid for anything, actually, so just fill up your planner with grid paper and get started cause there´s no time like NOW!

After you notice you have an estabilished "ritual", you can have your sheets done cause you´ll know exactly what u want.

Getting back to my own experience, I tried to adapt to the models I saw online, even bought a few. To NO avail.

That´s when I met my saviour!

DIY FISH LIFE MAPPING SYSTEM

...................................................................................................................................................................

DIY FISH LIFE MAPPING SYSTEM 

Here´s something that gets everyone confused. But in the end it made a HUGE difference for me.


I do want to get into the detail of it´s use, but there´s a lot to be put into a post about that, so I´m going to do it in a future entry.

This is what my filofax life looks like now. So much better! 1 for personal and one for my work life. Before I had all in one, but I´ll tell you about the makeover in another post




Below, I´m going to leave you with some recomendations of different systems, ok? Hope I was of some help to you.

1. Miz Lebowe

2. POLKADOT POSIE

3. PRETTY PLANNR

4. PEMBROKE PAPERS

5. PHILOFAXY (these are free, yippie!!!).

xoxo

FILOFAX AND ME....WE´RE FAMILY!

So, several months after I officially bought my first filofax, I finally got her in the mail.

MY ORIGINAL PATENT FUCHSIA!!!!

Can´t even believe when I look at her that she´s actually here.

SO HAPPY!!!

Anyhow, it was lost by the post office for a looooooooooooong time, and I had really just given up on her. Then, out of the blue, she was at my door step! Yippie!!!

So, now that I have her....guess what?

I´m completely blank. HELP!

I´m all like: "what did I want this for really?" 

Truth is, I´m not much of a planner. Everything in my life is more intuition driven then anything else.

But, I recognize I need to change my ways, specially if I want my finances in order. 

I did get DIY FISH inserts, but I don´t really know what to do with them. 

I see a lot of people meal planning - but I don´t cook during the week, I see others writing down all these kids activities - which mine don´t have, appointments with doctors and whatnot - which we rarely go to, only 1 or 2x a year, so basically I´m thinkin I got it for nothing and feeling really over whelmed.

I´m a teacher, and I´ve been searching for ways to use it for that, but it´s still really confusing for me. I´m being led to think my life isn´t active enought for her system maybe? I don´t know. I´m not loosing hope though.

I did set it up o hold everything together, but then I noticed I was only using the daily inserts 2x a week: monday and wednesday, the 2 days where I have to give homework and stuff.

The one thing I am loving are the dividers I made! UNICORNS!!!!

Matched perfectly with the lovely color.

Anyway, if anyone wants to comment, please feel free to, I´m SO open to sugestions.

Thanks for following, talk to you later!

GETTING ORGANIZED!

So...this was me before having any kind of organization in my life!

Yep. Not that I´m much better off, because I´ve just started the process, but seeing a light at the end of the tunnel all ready gives me some kind of inner peace.

I don´t know what it is with us woman, but generally spealing, I think planners remind us of adolescence

When we turned 18, we all of a sudden decided we were way to "mature" for some things, and people (whether family or not) agreed with us and gave us that assurance.

One of those things would be decorating your diary. You have not had an adolescence if you haven´t filled at least one page with cutouts from magazines and drawings that represent that place, song, feeling or someone who you stupidly thought was special.

Now we´re all grown up. In fact, there is little time to be "filosofical" about life as we were back then.


What you have in your diary, or in an adult term, PLANNER is different. Meetings, things to do, things to buy, childrens errands, husbands reminders, amongst other responsabilities, will now be your basic text.

But isn´t life easier when taken on light heartedly?

Well, I decided that I will decorate my planner. Why not? The secret to staying young is keeping your joviality, right? Right! So at least when I open up my planner I´ll have something beautiful and fun to look at instead of just seing a plain piece of paper with regular pen writing all over it.

Thinking of that, I began the process.

First thing to do was to decide what practical things I wanted to include in my planner.

My failed financial life came to mind, of course, as the first. Then came my kids, who have weekly testings and I need to be able to know what they´re seeing in school in order to help. third place came work and my own appointments.

This last is probably the most important because I work at 3 different schools. Each has it´s own methos, proceedures, students, grades, classes, resources, meetings, ideas.....sheesh! Made my tired just typing it!

I HAVE CAOTIC DAYS AND SOMETIMES DON´T EVEN KNOW WHICH SCHOOL TO DRIVE TO OR WHAT DAY OF THE WEEK IT IS.

Therefore, it´s evident to my I need to be on top of things ASAP. Something I haven´t been coping with doing the last semester.

Having decided what I wanted in the planner, I began to think of tabs. I found TONS of them on etsy, but of course if you live in Brazil, you have a BIG PROBLEM CALLED CUSTOMS. Most order, even the cheapest dollar ones can take up to 4 months to reach your house.

So I went to one of my favorite local stores. But, as all stores here, there biggest mistake is not having a lot of variety.

So here I am lost on the second floor, which is miniscule and is supposed to be scrap book dedicated, and I ran into the cutest paper!!!!

All of a sudden: WHAM! The thought came to me that I could make my own! Yes sir!

The result of that were the four dividers I needed and that I think came out pretty darn good and cute! And the colors match the planner completely :)

I actually messed up the order on the 3rd and 4th. It was supposed to be:

PINK - BEIGE - PINK - BEIGE

But all is well when it ends well and I´m using them anyway.

Well...if you followed my last post, which was all about China, the planner, you know that all she came with was lined paper.

In order to actually start putting my idea to work, I would need more then that.

I am a woman on a mission, so I went over to the PC and started making my own inserts.

I used Microsoft PUBLISHER, because I just love it´s practicity. It´s a lot better then word for these sorts of things.

Ironically I can´t get myself to make my tests on publisher, though. Each to it´s own, I guess.

FOR SECTIONS, I MADE:

1. Monthly calendars that go from June to December of this year, all in the following format:

      2.      week on 2 pages or WO2P. These I do by hand using the lined paper that came with her.

             

                 3   My daily schedule:

                                               

                            4.     Last but not least, my hyperdex. This one I made myself as well. If you don´t know this system yet, you should, and will. In a future post we´ll be having a guest blogger, Carla Gondim, that will explain all the bits and pieces to you!

FOR MY FINANCIAL SECTION, THERE IS:

1. A payment calendar. Actually, is was the same calendar I made for the agenda, but of course, instead of appointments, I´ll have my bills on it.
2. Monthly payment list with 3 payment methods to check on it: credit card, debit from ckecking account and wallet.
3. A daily expenditure table to controle what you spend, in this case me, and where from
   

After a full day and night without being able to sleep because I was agonizing over this organization thing, I still have my work and my sons section to get to.

And here´s my favorite part! Decorations!!!! I decided to do the decorations on my WO2P, so here are the 2 weeks I have so far:

And now I´m giving it a brake cause I have to buy some ink for my printer. Got that silly warning we all know too well:

For now, I´ll leave you all with the video of my progress: XOXOXOXO

FILOFAX IN BRAZIL!

So...a lot of people in Brazil have not yet heard of FILOFAX, or even an agenda/diary system with rings. I think that is SO NOT FAIR! It should be a system supported by the Government, free of cost, used not only to organize the internal aspects of Government itself, but also to help poor citizens like me who can´t even remember where the car keys are if their life depended on it. Just saying!

If you are one of those people who do not yet know the system, I´ll explain. Filofax is an English brand of diaries/planners/organizers which use an anular system of 6 rings and has become a global trademark.

Usually, when you think "global trademark", it translates into "EXPENSIVE", right? Sorry, I´m not gonna dissapoint you there, they are pretty expensive! But, I can bring you relief by telling you that these planners are the créme brulé of the planner world. Carefully made of real leather, they can be used through decades in a constant manner.

That means that the price you first saw as hefty is going to become nothing when you consider it´s something that lasts almost forever! In my calculations (please beware, I am an English teacher and chose the profession to get as far away from math as possible, but this time I think I may have invented the wheel!), it´s extremely worth it!

By the way, they come in many sizes and colors, from an itsy bitsy MINI, up to a wooping A5!

If you´re looking at this picture here on the left and thinking: "Why so many?!", you´re gonna have to buy you´re first to understand that there will never, ever, ever, ever be enough in your life!

It´s true, many people collect these little babies, and believe it or not, 99% of the time, they find use for ALL of them!

They can be used for personal finance control, business meeting, teaching binders, medical professional, teenage diaries (adult diaries too, for that matter), day to day control of your menus and grocery, you name it! The options are endless!

That´s what makes them so practical! Because they have rings and you use perfurated paper, you can buy your inserts, make your own according to your needs, or whatever. The sky is the limit! And this little baby will always be PERSONALIZED! <3<3<3

Well, Filo is English, but there are national offers here in Brazil to be considered. Here in Brazil, there is REDFAX, with HQ in São Paulo. It´s also made of leather, although from what I researched the structure seems to be on the stiffer side, but it does recieve ravaging reviews. In terms of price, it´s similar to most models of Filofax, but a bit on the cheaper side, considering you won´t be paying import taxes, and there is no way it can get lost on an international trip.

OH!!!! Of course, we can´t not talk about COLORS! If it´s colors you´re after, Filofax is UNBEATABLE! There are colors for those who are more business like, and others for people like me who can´t resist a neon (yes, neon, you can die now LOL).

In that aspect, REDFAX is a bit limited. Although they have a few options of color, they´re not that diverse. Here´s an example pic of them!

 What´s really cool about REDFAX is that the ring system is the same as the FILOFAX, 6 rings, and the space in between as well.

            

ONE HUUUUUGE MISTAKE that I found was REDFAX DOES NOT sell the 6 hole punch which we desperatly need! (OMG, right?). That leaves you with the soul option of buying one abroad (sorry!). I tried google for more then a day and could not find a single 6 hole punch available in Brazil! :(

Well, at least my search was not in vain. I found yet another Brazilian planner maker which has the same ring system as Filofax. So there! I can be very efficient! :)

My addicted friend started fearing me when she noticed that in less then 1 day I had gathered more information then she had in a month, plus started making inserts for a future Filofax of my own! LOL

Unfortunately, all I could do was dream about them at that moment, because I was so broke I was breaking my credit cards in half trying to avoid declaring bankrupcy (ok, so I am joking, but I was pretty broke).      

Anyhow, Carla thereby declared me a monster, but I´m a very happy monster in this beautiful world!

Back to the subject. MAIOFAX was the name of the planner. The main model of the brand is actually an exact "rip off" of one of filofaxes models (the one with the cross?). Of course the quality is not comparible, but the poor guys try.

Filofax is maleable, MAIOFAX is not.....like, at all. All you have to do is see one picture to see the thing looks like it has a cover made out of wood, but of course it depends on your taste, and if they´re in business, some people appreciate the trait (not me, though). Sorry, but I´m a Filo girl, and one day I too will have a big collection! LOL

Here she is! The MAIO! Is it just me, or does everyone get a stiff impression of them?

Another argument against them is the lack of color options, once again.

Oh! I almost forgot! At the end of the post, I´m going to add links to all of the brands I speak of here, so keep reading to the end to find them!






The last Brazilian brand I´m going to be speaking of today is TILIBRA (the T here is pronounced as CH in chile). They´re planner is not leather, it´s faux leather, and believe it or not, I know people who bought one for about 80 american dollars, which to me is a stick up. Although I do understand, because the options are slim and the offers even slimmer.

I think the TILIFAX comes in only 2 sizes, either PERSONAL and A4 or A5, not quite sure.to).

   

So, me figuratively bankrupt, was still in search of comething I could afford, but all the other I found were GRINGAS (that means foreign in Portuguese). There were some waaaaay cheaper then FILOFAX or REDFAX,  but I´d still have to import them.

Here are some of the names:

• Day Planner
• Day Timer
• Paper Chase
• YES (eu cheguei a apelar para pastas de 2 ou 4 furos comuns, depois eu conto).

There are others sold in department stores (and of course, if you´re a foreigner and from the filoworld and reading this, you´ll know), and places you would never imagine. For those who don´t know yet, some examples would be:

• target
• walmart
• goodwill
• salvation army

AND OTHERS! Of course it´s harder to get to those because you need to book a flight from Brazil to a foreign country, pay hotels, and then return, but hey, I´m so crazy I would have done it already if I had the cash ;)

Well, if you´re curious enough by now, I´m going to give you the links that I promissed (the ones to the stores, remember? YEY!!!!)

REDFAX

TILIBRA

MAIOFAX

FILOFAX

EBAY  (You can find any foreign planner, here. Take a look!)

Well, I tearfully bid you goodbye for now, and hopefully I´ll be seeing you again with my next post!