Month at a Glance... What's the point?!

A lot of people seem to feel one of two ways about month at a glance pages in their planners. Some people think "These are useless! I can't write anything here! The blocks are too small." while others love this view and cram in all of their information. 

Personally, I want these pages in my planner. Before I started using Filofax I would not buy a planner that did not have these pages! I think the important thing with month at a glance pages is that you need to be organized, focused, and consistent with them. 

Here are some tips on how I feel you can use month at a glance pages most efficiently:

1. Colour code - this makes the information easier to distinguish. If you know your colour code really well you can tell what category each thing is in before you read them. 
2. Only put in appointments, and due dates/important dates. Focusing these pages on just these things make them less cluttered and easier to read. 
3. Something I like to do is colour in the blocks at the beginning and the end of each month that represent the previous and next month. This adds some decoration and colour to the page and also makes where the month begins and ends much easier to see. 

Here is a photo of how I make use of my Month at a Glance inserts:

You can see that my appointments are colour coded, and you can see how I coloured in the beginning and ending blocks that show the days of the previous and following month. Also I keep my page to a minimum when writing in dates. 

Hope this was helpful to some of you. Remember if you enjoy my blog please follow me through email or bloglovin' for weekly updates! Also remember to leave some requests for things you'd like me to write about! 

Talk to you next time,

Stephanie xo

Pros and Cons of using a Compact Filofax

Hello Everyone! 

As some of you who read my blog may know, I recently purchased a Black Compact Holborn Filofax. As of right now I am completely in Love with it! 

So I thought today I would talk about what I feel are the pros and cons that go along with having a compact Filofax. Hopefully this will help anyone who is trying to decide whether or not a compact is for them!  

Lets jump in! ...

The Pros:

1. Helps keep you super organized because it limits what you can store in it; therefore, you have to clean it out often! 
2. It helps you really focus on planning without adding a pile of stuff that you never look at. 
3. It is the perfect size to throw in your bag and take with you on the go. Not only is the size convenient, but because the rings are small you are forced to carry less making your planner lighter! 
4. You can switch between a compact and personal on a regular basis without any fuss. Both take the same size refills so if at any point you feel like switching, just take out the pages and may a quick switch. No need for rewriting and reprinting everything on to different sized paper! 
5. They work well as a wallet because of their small thin size. Who wants to carry around a super bulky binder as a wallet. 

The Cons:

1. The small size restricts what you can put in the planner. This may be a bad thing for those who like to keep lists, calendars, cards, etc. in the planner. Basically for those who like to store their whole life in their Filofax :)
2. The writing space is limited as it is in a personal as well. So if you write a lot go with an A5! 

That seems to be all I can come up with! The pros outweigh the cons in my opinion, and I can't imagine not using a compact in the future. I specifically love the Holborn because the leather feels so good! 

Remember these are just my opinions. If you feel differently, I respect that. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Also if anyone can think of any pros or cons that I haven't come up with please leave them in the comments for other to read. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my blog. As always please follow me on bloglovin' or by email for future updates. I try to post once a week sometimes twice. I would really appreciate requests or suggestions for future posts! If you like this blog please share it with others! 

Thanks for reading! 

Stephanie xo

Alternatives to Highlighters!

If you are anything like me, you hate the bleed though that happens when you use highlighters on Filofax paper! 

People will say "why not try the gel highlighters? They work great!". I tried them and I really dislike the waxy feel of them :)

 **I was the kid who hated crayons and loved markers and leads.** 

So I had no idea what to do.. I like to color code my planner to a point, I don't like carrying many things with me, and only thin pens fit in the pen loop. Needless to say I was frustrated and disappointed! 

Then it hit me! Colouring leads!! They can let me "highlight" without bleed through or that waxy feel. 

So I got to work choosing colours to mean different things. For me, I have 3 classes so each have a color (entrepreneurship is green, accounting is blue, and information systems is purple) and then I use pink for any appointments or personal meetings. 

What I do when I want something I stand out like a doctors appointment or an exam I draw a box around it with the appropriate color lead and shade it in lightly. This draws my eye to it when I open the page. 

When I am making a todo list for class such as work on part of an assignment and read certain pages I will write the class number, draw a box around it & shade it in, then make my list underneath. 

So far this method is working for me really well! I am please with it. 

Here is an example from next week! The numbers are pages to read and take notes on for my classes. (The numbers are the the numbers for my classes). You can also see how I color an appointment on Sunday I coloured my dogs training class. 

Hope you all enjoyed reading this! Hope it helps those of you who have struggled with this like me!! 

If you like my blog please follow me on bloglovin' and share it with others. Also feel free to leave me requests! 

Talk to you soon. 

Stephanie xo

Compact Holborn Setup!

Hey Everyone! 

Today's post is about how I have my Compact Holborn setup. 

To begin, this is what my Holborn looks like closed:

If you didn't read my Review Post, this planner is made of Buffalo Leather and smells/feels amazing! 

When first opening my compact Holborn you see the six card slots on the left. In these slots I keep two business cards and my Starbucks gold card. 

On the right side you see my fly leaf with  a smash book paper I hole punched. I use this card to keep information that I need more than once (such as the type of ink my printer takes). 

This is just a closer shot of the card slots for anyone who wants to know what they look like. 

Next I have a blank index card that I printed lines on and hold punched for making lists and keeping important information on. 

Following the index card is a divider I made using scrap book paper. This divider is used to mark where my monthly pages begin. 

Within my monthly calendar I use a today ruler from Filofax to mark what month it is. Sometimes, like this month, I decorate with Washi tape around the edges. 

Something I always do with my month pages is color in the days from the previous month that are shown on this month's page. You can see this at the top and bottom of this page. To colour these in I like to use coloured lead pencils!

Since a compact has smaller rings I am only using two dividers so as to take up less space. This second divider marks where my weekly calendar is. 

Like with my monthly calendar I use a today ruler here to mark the week I am on! As you can see there are two smash book cards that I use to put notes on (for things I need to remember). I do this so I don't take up to much space in my planner. 

Finally following my weekly on two page calendar I have two address pages for any important numbers I want just in case my phone was to die! I keep doctors numbers, the vets number, important numbers for school, etc. 

I hope you enjoyed my Compact Holborn setup ! Keep in mind their isn't all that much done with it because I have only had this Filofax since Wednesday. 

Follow me on Bloglovin' or by email so you can see when I post new blogs! I am trying to post every Sunday. Also there is a request form please feel free to leave me requests through there! 

Talk to you soon!

Stephanie xo


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Quick Update about Blog!! :) Please Read!!

Hi everyone!!

I am just getting use to blogging and I am aware that I have not been consistent with posting to this point. I was trying to come up with a solution for this and decided why not make a schedule!

So my plan is to post a blog each Sunday! Once I get use to blogging and come up with more ideas I plan to try to make at least two posts a week. I know this is not much but I really want to try and be consistent and post something that is worth reading rather than posting for the sake of writing a post!

I would love it you all would follow my blog and give me ideas on what you would like to read about.

Thanks!

Talk to you all soon,
Stephanie xo

My Compact Holborn is Here!!

I am so excited after a 3 week wait my Black Compact Holborn has shown up!!!! Needless to say I am in LOVE!!! I will post a picture of it here and give a quick review. Keep in mind I will be making a separate post about my setup, so you won't see that here. That post is coming up next!

So here is my beautiful new baby!!

To begin, the leather on this planner is so soft and amazing! It also smells amazing (this is coming from someone who doesn't even like the smell of leather!). The rings had no defects, and the planner itself had no damage.

The ring size is much smaller than the personal size, however I am fine with this. I bought a compact size for this reason. Keep in mind this is probably not a good size for someone who likes to decorate and keep a lot of things in their Filofax!

The inside has 4 full size pockets two on the front and two on the back, as well as 6 card slots. (I will show all of this in my setup post). The ring size is ½" and the planner is made from natural grain Buffalo leather. It has a button closure that seems quite sturdy on my planner and a single pen loop located on the back cover, which is leather with a little bit of elastic (about a ¼ of the loop). It does not hold thick pens very well, and cannot fit my Bic Multicolour Fashion pen! I am just using a normal blue Bic pen.

I think it is important to note that this planner is not overly stiff. The covers are fairly flexible, however, not as flexible as a Malden. Some people may not like this if they do a lot of writing on their lap or other soft surface, but a quick fix for that is to put some stuff in the pockets to stabilize the covers more!

I found that out of the box the Holborn lies decently flat and I feel that over time it may flatten out even more!

Overall I think this planner is amazing and recommend it to anyone who is looking for a nice compact planner! The regular price for this planner is $85, but at the moment it is on sale for $42.50. If you have wanted this planner for a while I would say take advantage of this sale and get one while you can!! :)

I give this planner a 5 star rating! ☆☆☆☆☆

I have noticed that other Filofax owners like to give their planners names and I am trying to think of one for mine! If you have any suggestions please leave them in a comment below!

Keep an eye out for my setup blog!

I should also give credit to Nadine from Nadine's Mixed Plate on YouTube for inspiring me to buy Filofax! Love her! Check out her channel

Talk to you all later!!
Stephanie xoxo