Filofaxes

[Pattree]

This post was prompted by
@Paul_B ‘s question about Filofaxes.

I remember the Filofaxes being introduced. You could go on one day courses with a nice lunch at a Holiday Inn to learn how to use them - and buy a supply of specialist pages. I’ve still got them in their packaging.

How many of us here still use them?

I keep notebooks all over the place to catch ideas that I have no hope of remembering. Two of those are my old Filofaxii.

I do not use the specific stationery. I have only known one person who used his Filofax absolutely by the book. He even had the external storage system and could find notes made several years previously.
I use my own blank paper and punch my own holes. I’m not sure what I’ll do when my little plastic six hole punch wears out. Doing it with a generic punch is a faf too far.

Are there any left handed folk who use them? I’m told it’s nearly impossible.

I am amazed how long the idea has persisted.

 

[Toddy]

I still use mine.
It's handy, it's familiar, it's a neat tidy all in one kind of thing.
I actually have three...different sizes, but the wee one gets most use.

I think most folks just use their phones for everything these days though.

 

[MikeDB]

Had my Kensington since er, I was 21, still in use, would not want to be without it, I'd be mortified if it was lost. Bugger, used the same Filofax for 37 years.... (memories of inserts vary however)

 

[Paul_B]

This post was prompted by
@Paul_B ‘s question about Filofaxes.

I remember the Filofaxes being introduced. You could go on one day courses with a nice lunch at a Holiday Inn to learn how to use them - and buy a supply of specialist pages. I’ve still got them in their packaging.

How many of us here still use them?

I keep notebooks all over the place to catch ideas that I have no hope of remembering. Two of those are my old Filofaxii.

I do not use the specific stationery. I have only known one person who used his Filofax absolutely by the book. He even had the external storage system and could find notes made several years previously.
I use my own blank paper and punch my own holes. I’m not sure what I’ll do when my little plastic six hole punch wears out. Doing it with a generic punch is a faf too far.

Are there any left handed folk who use them? I’m told it’s nearly impossible.

I am amazed how long the idea has persisted.

OK that would make you 114/115!! They date from 1910 apparently. LOL!!

It sounds like those courses could have been one of those alternative systems. The Franklin Covey method or the Time Management system (TMI). I am not sure Filofax actually ran courses. Perhaps pedantic there.

Well I use them, in my own way. Don't ask how many I own (6 I think).

It is interesting how you say about lefties using one. Since the pages (especially diary pages) are printed on both sides you use both sides to write on. As such the issues with lefties applies to righies on the back face of pages. I take it you refer to the rings getting in the way of yourhand when writing in the wrong side. For the lefties that is the right hand side but for righties it is the left hand side. I think most users take the page out to write on the wrong side. This is similar to Travellers Notebook users taking out the inserts to write in because they don't lie flat or the elastic closure gets in the way or a few other reasons.

There is a large analogue sector of society who like to actually write and plan on paper. Whilst bound notebooks and diaries can be made to lie flat and there are no rings to get in the way they are not great when you have to remove, replace or reposition pages you have written on. This is why there are a few variations on the loose bound ring binders. For example the filofax style, disc bound, FIlofax notebook, Filofax clipbook, etc, Plus the insert booklet styles like TN or Rotorfaden. They all have their uses and advocates.

For me there is the kineasthetic advantage to memory from hand writing things down. I do not feel that with thiungs I type digitally. Usually anything I put in digital systems get lost or forgotten which means they are less effective. FF use means I write and can review potentially quite some time later.

Handwriting things like brain dumps gets ideas out once you get going (that threshold to the start is my bugbear) really helps at times to work through a problem. It is simply quicker doing it by writing down. Whether that is in a filofax or postits on a whiteboard. The written note really helps more than a digital alternative.

BTW Filofax has had its day as a mass use system but it is hanging on with a consistent user base. What is growing is the likes of Travellers Notebook system and others that are actually starting to be more popular. I have TNs and IME they do not work for me. Layflat notebooks for writing on is more important than you might think, certainly is IMHO. If you have to use one hand to hold it down flat to write in then it is a design issue.

EAch to their own I guess but I am one FF user who will stick with it because it helps me get things done.

 

[Paul_B]

Had my Kensington since er, I was 21, still in use, would not want to be without it, I'd be mortified if it was lost. Bugger, used the same Filofax for 37 years.... (memories of inserts vary however)

Late 90s / early 00s model. The cogniscenti seem to say anything after about 1993 / 1994 is potentially a bit iffy on quality. That was when they moved production for most binders to overseas factories. The same people tend to sing the praises of the Winchester which was made from 1984 to 1994. The best leather, basic construction. lightweight for the size, ring protector leather flaps to prevent the rings digging into the cover, etc. They are some of the most expensive to buy used on ebay and elswhere. AIUI they can go for $500 in USA and not necessarily in a good state too!!

I got given a filofax clone in pocket size zipped 34 or so years ago. I was too young and not in the right place to use such a planner. I was still at school!! I came back to them in about 2012/2013.

 

[Pattree]

OK - @Paul_B
So very few people had heard of Filofax until the 1980’s when the circuit consultants started introducing them to us. That’s when they were massively promoted to industry along with “Time management” and “Focus management” courses. I even recommended them myself in my events and introduced them in African interventions.


I’m right handed (for writing) and I never do use the left hand side. I only know what left handers have told me, that the clips get in the way and that pushing against the page can wrinkle it. (Right handers pull across the page.) The same cuddy told me that some used a Filofax sideways which makes sense.

Except for my friend Mark, I don’t know anyone who used that special stationary other than the pages that were headed with the single word “Notes” (which didn’t really seem necessary). The other pages, “To Do”, “Projects” and a dozen others were just used as more note pages. Now I use my own plain paper.

Does anyone buy Filofax brand replacement pages? Some of the most expensive stationery around on a ‘per square centimetre’ basis. Perhaps that’s why they lost popularity. Maybe there are more people like me who see them as a jotter.

I don’t carry mine any more it’s a table top tool. As people have said, the phone has taken over that function. Quicker, more accessible, one handed and of course communicable. I am dyslexic and write with a sliding thumb, a system that is totally dependent upon predictive text - Predictive text is either the cure for dyslexia or a deep encryption “write only memory.” but then the handwriting in my Filofax can do that too. . I use the iPhone Notes a LOT and where possible I write my notes in the cloud. The Filofax works much better for quick sketches and diagrams. I will often scribble out a block diagram or a flow when I’m thinking in pencil.

I agree that handwriting helps memory. So did my teachers as I wrote out “corrections” fifty times over. No one had invented dyslexia when I was at school, it was called “thick” or “careless”

I do enjoy handwriting anyway and the Filofax has a great feel to it.

 

[Paul_B]

Yeah! Sorry I got pedantic with my post. Technically filofax was not 1910 as that was Lefax but fikllofax took over lefax quite some time ago. I think I read that lefax being the first is a case of american centred history and IIRC filofax had such a product years before lefax perhaps as another company name. I seem to recall reading about a 6 ring binder system in the 1800s!!

I buyh the FF inserts only because alternatives seem to be focussed on personal use and less business relative styles. I also do not get on with printing my own using existing free templates. For a start I have not found a decent A5 paper for my A5 binder and personal size is a hassle to print and trim for (I only have scissors and can't justify spending on a good trimmer right now). So for me it is cheaper to buy FF or WHSmith inserts as they suit me. Currently using the professional FF day to a view business insert. That is mostly for work.

I am too tight ot only write on one side. so I take the page out to write on the back face. Among the lefties on FF social media groups that is what lefties do for writing on the right side. It is a drawback you work with or around.

FF has as many systems of use as there are people using them. So very much personal as to how you use them. I know of ppl who use them to hold workfield manuals for their job for example.

 

[Toddy]

Rymans made their own version, and the pages fitted filofax, and were iirc about a third of the price.

I make my own mostly these days. The punches are still available.

To use the other side of the page is easy, you just turn the ff upside down. It works fine

 

[Danceswithhelicopters]

I remember lusting after a leather Filofax in Jenners, Edinburgh that made from preserved reindeer hides found on a sunken Russian freighter in the Baltic

Or was that a Bezique fuelled dream?

 

[Tengu]

I lusted after them too.

 

[MikeLA]

I did have one, now I use loads of notebooks to store information.

 

[oldtimer]

I've used a pocket filofax everyday this century since it took over from the personal filofax I used for work in the later years of the last century. I'd be lost without it.It is used as a diary, address book and notebook. The note book is in sections. These include personal information , notes with long-term relevance, notes culled from reading or observations, to do lists and reminders. The pockets hold family photos, medications lists, a few passport approved mug shots and visiting cards.?

I keep all the past diary sections which I find necessary to check when significant events occurred such as medical treatments and births of grandchildren. At my age, have a lot of past to remember.

 

[Danceswithhelicopters]

Reindeer hide Filofax

 

[Pattree]

You don’t mention a price.

@oldtimer
Yes but I need a diary that reminds me to look at my diary. Luckily I’ve got one

 

[Paul_B]

If that is your phone then it is also very eaasy to ignore. I get phone stuff on my garmin watch I also ignore. In fact I have beeen known to turn off a an alarm on my watch inmy sleep. I ignore or skim read a message and move on meaning to go back, but I do not go back. However I found that a paper diary in my filofax I go back to often, but even if I don't the very act of writing something in the filofax actually gets it into my head in a way tech can't. That is from a real teech fan. I grew up drolling over Psion PDAs for example. I go the first good Samsung galaxy the S2. That was the first phone to really compete with the iphone I reckon and made Samsung. That was the first phone I bought, the only one before it was donated

 

[Toddy]

I had (well, I still have) a psion and I had....can't mind the name of it now, the wee phone sized tablet thing that you used a kind of shorthand to write on. That was pretty nifty at the time.

 

[Paul_B]

In US films you used to see something called the Newton, a PDA that you wrote on to enter stuff. IF films are to be believed!!

Over here you had the palm pilot and palm tungsten. Loads of others around apparently.

BTW were PSions before the newton and palm pilot PDAs or after? IIRC the Psions were keyboard entry but the others were stylus entry either writing or tapping a screen based keyboard like modern phones only not so strict.

 

[demented dale]

This post was prompted by
@Paul_B ‘s question about Filofaxes.

I remember the Filofaxes being introduced. You could go on one day courses with a nice lunch at a Holiday Inn to learn how to use them - and buy a supply of specialist pages. I’ve still got them in their packaging.

How many of us here still use them?

I keep notebooks all over the place to catch ideas that I have no hope of remembering. Two of those are my old Filofaxii.

I do not use the specific stationery. I have only known one person who used his Filofax absolutely by the book. He even had the external storage system and could find notes made several years previously.
I use my own blank paper and punch my own holes. I’m not sure what I’ll do when my little plastic six hole punch wears out. Doing it with a generic punch is a faf too far.

Are there any left handed folk who use them? I’m told it’s nearly impossible.

I am amazed how long the idea has persisted.

Funny you should ask that on here. My bush craft notes and ideas are all kept in my filofax. I use it everyday. x

 

[Keith_Beef]

In US films you used to see something called the Newton, a PDA that you wrote on to enter stuff. IF films are to be believed!!

Over here you had the palm pilot and palm tungsten. Loads of others around apparently.

BTW were PSions before the newton and palm pilot PDAs or after? IIRC the Psions were keyboard entry but the others were stylus entry either writing or tapping a screen based keyboard like modern phones only not so strict.

My uncle have me his Psion Organizer II when he upgraded to some other thing; it had a memory expansion cartridge. I wrote a program to calculate depth of field.

In the year of graduating from uni I was looking at getting a Psion Series 3 but it was too expensive at the time and support for writing systems other than Latin was non-existent (until the 3aR Russian version).

Years later, a friend gave me his Palm Pilot when he upgraded. That was pretty good. The handwriting recognition worked well, but was based on letter shapes that were specific to the machine... It took a bit of time to get used to it, but not too long.

My boss refuses to use a shared calendar on the networked computers at work, and insists on writing everything in a Filofax-type diary. And because he keeps changing his meetings and discussions he often can't read what he's crossed out, changed, added, crossed out again etc. I have to keep a close eye on him when I warn him that I'll be coming in an hour later or leaving an hour earlier on such and such a day in in three week's time, and check up the next day to make sure he's noted the details correctly and can read what he's written.

 

[Pattree]

@Keith_Beef
You’re not a colleague, you’re a nurse!

I used to have a PDA. We were going through a crisis with adhesion failing. The government has decreed that pvc construction materials must not contain lead right at the same time that they decreed that Dichloromethane could no longer be used as a primer for urethane adhesives. We hired a warehouse referred to as Area 51 and stillage after six metres stillage of useless window and door frame were stored there.

My little PDA without any internet capability was the only record of what was in there and supposedly the only record of the combination lock on the door.

I’ve just dug it out and powered it up prompted by these posts. I’m amazed that the thing still works.

A total of 43.5 miles of failed windows frames, who did it, who sent it and which poor bugger was told to stick a veneer to it using what production line!

No one ever asked to see it. I held my breath for three months as 43 miles of window frame slowly evaporated.