How I Use: DIYFish WO2P

I have been searching for planner peace since I bought my first Filofax in May of 2013. I have tried many different inserts and many different methods of planning. However, I think I have finally found something that just works!

After almost giving up on ever finding the perfect inserts, I stumbled across DIYFish on Etsy. I figured I would download the 3-month trial version and see what I thought. I mean what could be the worst that could happen? ... I wouldn't like them?

After a week of using the V3S1 inserts I fell in love! If you want a full review of these inserts check out my previous blog post here.

I have decided to break up this post up into four parts:

1. Part 1: WO2P
2. Part 2: Monthly Chart
3. Part 3: Weekly Chart
4. Part 4: Life Mapping System/Colour Code

I use the monthly fold out calendar (note this is different from the monthly chart) to write important dates and appointments. My colour coding is used across all sections of these inserts, but I will discuss that in a later post. Also on my monthly calendar I track birthdays and anniversaries by colouring a small triangle in the bottom corner. 

Next to my monthly calendar is a blank column, which I use to write birthdays and anniversaries. I write them there instead of on my monthly calendar because they don't take up valuable space in the small boxes. 

Next to my birthdays/Anniversaries column there is a to do list column. Here I write out all of the items I can complete from my monthly calendar. This includes items such as, appointments, tests, assignments, events, etc. I do not write important dates here (ex: no school) because they are not tasks or errands I can complete. This may seem redundant but it allows me to see what I have accomplished that month in one location. 

The following page is just blank grid paper. For a while I did not have a use for this; however I have decided that for my spring semester at University I am going to use this page to make a master list of all the school related tasks I have to complete that month such as, reading, papers, assignments, exams, forum posts (for online courses), etc. 

After this we get into the week on two pages. Here I write out my to do lists in detail for each day. I will break tasks down into steps if necessary, I list appointments, exams, reading, errands, and even notes on these pages. For school I will take items off the previous master to do list and assign them a date when they need to be completed. I do not keep a separate to do list, everything goes on my weekly pages. 

As always, thank you so much for reading. If you liked this post please follow and share with a friend! 

Stephanie xo

Color Coding... My Favorite Pens!

Hello Everyone!!

Like most people who use a Filofax I love to colour code! I can sometimes go overboard with it so I have limited myself to just a few colours (this saves having a long list of colours to memorize and saves space in my planner!!). 

When I first got a Filofax I used the bic fashion pen that a lot of people rave about. Its a great pen and is really handy for saving space, however I just cannot write neat with them! The barrel of those pens are too big for me... So I decided to try Le Pens (there is also a recollections brand (I think thats the brand) at Michael's that is basically the same). These pens are great because they come in a wide range of colours and are really slim so they don't take up much space. 

Warning:  if you are a person who hates bleed through and are using the Filofax inserts these pens are not for you! I learned this the hard way!! I have inserts from Piaric which are amazing. You can click Here to read my review of these inserts. Piaric inserts are on a thicker paper than the Filofax brand and with Le Pens there is literally no bleed through. 

I love that these pens have a fine tip, are thin so they fix in basically all pen loops. and have large selection of colours. If however, you don't like how thin these are, how fine they write, or just don't have them available near you a nice alternative is the Papermate Flair pens! These pens have a thicker tip and write really nice as well! 

As always thank you for reading. If you like this post please follow and share with friends! Also feel free to share your favourite pens below. I would love to know what you guys use! 

Stephanie xo

Buying Experience: My Personal Ochre Malden

Hey everyone! 

Today I am going to do a review of my new personal Ochre Malden. I had wanted a Malden for a long while and could never find one within my budget as they were all sold out in Canada/US and the only place I could find them were in the UK. Ordering from the UK or buying from a UK seller would have cost a lot more than I wanted to spend. So eventually I found one on the FaceBook page Filofaxes and Pens for Sale. The seller was in Canada and the price was only two dollars more then I would have paid on the Filofax US site with shipping! So of course I bought it immediately. 

When my Malden first arrived I was extremely disappointed in how it was packaged! It was literally wrapped in a brown paper bag no stuffing or padding and I immediately thought "this planner is going to be severely damaged". But to my surprise it was in excellent condition (as in not scratched or dented/broken rings, etc.)! Then when I picked it up it was extremely dry and starting to crack in places. I was not at all happy with the leather or the smell... It was really disappointing. 

I brought it home did some research online and got the idea to use a leather condition (the one that came with my leather sofa) on my Malden. I used that and noticed a significant difference in the feel and smell, but it was still kind of dry. So on the spots that were still dry I tried a small amount of Nivea hand cream. I didn't put it directly on the planner (terrified I would ruin it) but I put a small amount on my hands and lightly rubbed it in leaving my hands with that "greasy" feeling. I then took my Malden and rubbed my hands on the dry spots in circular motions. I let my Malden sit over night and the next morning the difference in the leather was amazing. 

I am now completely in love with this planner and can't imagine not having it! I am going to be doing a review of this planner soon so stay tuned for that! When buying a Filofax I recommend you be extra careful! If you are going to buy from a seller like I did I would recommend asking about how they are going to package it, or if they can put in padding and something to protect the rings. 

As always thanks for reading! If you liked this post follow and share with friends! Leave your experiences with buying used planners online below!! My post next week will be about how I use my page flags/sticky tags in my diary pages. 

Stephanie xo

Personal Domino Series: Part 3

Hey everyone! 

Today I am going to cover the last three sections of my Filofax. The reason I am doing it this way is because section four and five are really nothing yet... 

Section four was originally a section for lists, such as household cleaning list, shopping list, etc. However, I realized this was pointless since I had a section in notes where I was keeping the same information. So as of right now section four has nothing in it. As of right now I am thinking about using this section for university (and taking that section out of my notes in the back) or maybe us it as a "gratitude journal" basically each day write down three positive things. Not 100% sure on this yet! 

Section five is especially boring as it is being used for extra paper... How exciting haha! I am also thinking about changing this section and maybe switching a note section to there and the blank paper to the back.. Another idea I had was use section four for university and than make section five my expenses or something else. Right now these sections are really useless! 

Section six has become my notes section. Originally I used the A-Z tabs here as a filing system for my notes. If any one is considering doing that it is really useful! I only changed it because I found all the dividers were making my planner unnecessarily bulky. So to save space I replaced the dividers with regular paper and stuck page tabs on them. This significantly reduced the bulk in my planner. I still do a table of contents on each "divider" so I know what is in there and in what order. I find doing this really makes finding information I need quicker. 

My notes section contains nine subsections, which may become smaller if I decide to move some to the other two sections. But as of right now my subsections include: 

1. Important Information  
•  In here I keep things such as the type of ink my printer takes, personal information such as card #, insurance #, doctors # and addresses, vet information for my dogs, etc. 
2. Blog
• Here I keep lists of ideas for my blog, if anyone has any suggestions of other blog related things I can store in here let me know. Haha. I feel it is quite empty. 
3. University
• This category contains information about my professors, my grades for the current courses, the grades for each term, list of courses I need to complete for my degree and any other relevant information. 
4. Household
• In this section I keep a list of the chores we need to complete weekly or monthly, a list of the foods we like so I can jot down shopping lists as we run out, and anything else related to our home. 
5. Shopping 
• Which contains a list of things I have ordered with tracking numbers if they are supplied, things I want to buy or need to buy
6. Health and Fitness
• Here I have exercises, food information, weight tracking, etc. 
7. Lists
• I currently have nothing in here and I am thinking about removing it as I feel it is unnecessary for me
8. Receipts
•  This is where I keep receipts for anything that may need to go back, has warranty, etc. 
9. Other
• This category is designed to catch any notes that don't fit into the other categories! 

That is the conclusion of my setup! As always thanks for reading. If you like this blog please follow and share! I will be doing a review of my Piaric inserts next, as well as an unboxing of my new Patent Nude Original when it arrives! 

Stephanie xo

Personal Domino Setup Series: Part 2

Hello everyone!  

I'm back with section two and three of my planner! This is the most used section of my Domino since it contains my monthly and weekly diary pages! So lets just jump right in. 

Section two is my monthly planning section. For this section I am using the month on two page (SNR) inserts from Piaric. These planner pages are amazing! I will not purchase from anyone other than Piaric from now on. Anyway that is for another post, I plan to do a review of those pages separately! So stay tuned for that :)

Section two is sort of plain. I don't really decorate my pages with washi tape or stickers anymore (don't get me wrong I think it looks amazing but not when I do it haha). I love the look of my inserts and I kind of like how plain they are. My coloured pens and the stamps I use on them definitely make my pages decorative enough for me. 

When you open this section the first page is just the Piaric 2014 Monthly Planner cover page.

I got these inserts the second week into June so the months before are blank. I use these pages for things such as due dates, exams/quizzes, appointments, meetings, and some birthdays.

Basically I check these at the beginning of the week to see what I have coming up for the next two weeks. The colour coding on these pages match the colour coding on my weekly pages. The clear page in between is something that came in a index card box as a divider I just hole punched it and put some washi at the top to make it easier to find the month I am on. I could have used one of my extra Filofax rulers but I found this was much less bulkier.

On my monthly pages I am starting to try using a stamp such as a heart shaped check box or a star shaped one to mark important days. The only other stamps I would use here is to bring my attention to that day such as the no school stamp.

At the end of this section I have a colour code page for my page flags. I write things that the date may change for (like when an assignment is due at school) on these. That way if these things change I can move the flag and not have to mess up my planner pages with scratches and white out, etc. On the back of this page there is a colour code for my Martha Stewart dew drops but I don't find I am using them as much lately. So I need to get back in to doing that.

Section three is my weekly planning pages. This is the section I spend the majority of the time looking at. Sometimes I use the individual check boxes for each item I need to complete (especially on days that are busier because the actual list it stamp would take up too much of the day. However, on a day where I only have five or six things to do I love to use the actually list stamp. All the stamps used in this planner are from Studio L2E. Seriously my favourite stamps ever. I can't figure out how I managed without them haha, since now I reach for them every time I am planning out my day or week.

In this photo you can see how I make use of the sticky flags and the individual to do check box stamps. I also tried out the hydrate stamp, but I didn't get into using this until two weeks later.

For the week of June 16 to 22 I really began to experiment with the stamp set (this was the first full week I had the set). Here you can see that I tried out the individual check boxes, which you can see work well for days like the 16th. On the 20th since I didn't need to write too much I tried out the list stamp, which I love. This is also the week that I really used the hydrate stamp.

This week is mostly a break from school so there is not much done with it yet. I just put a list of things to get done over my break and used my hydrate stamp. Since I am using the personal size I was thinking of maybe putting a journaling card in between the weeks to record my water intake for the week if I find the stamp is getting in the way of writing, but for now I think I will be sticking with this!

Also the Today bookmark is from Daytimer in case anyone was wondering.

So that is all for this post. I will be back with my other sections in a few days. Also I am planning on doing a review of the Piaric inserts, and I will also do an unboxing of my new personal size PATENT NUDE ORIGINAL when it arrives!!! SO EXCITED!!! As always thank you so much for reading, if you liked this post please follow and share with friends!

Also I mentioned my Studio L2E stamps above if you would like to read my post about them click here. If you missed part one of my setup click here.

Stephanie xo

Personal Domino Setup Series: Part 1

Hello Everyone!

Todays post is going to be the first post of my setup series. This series will consist of six parts because I want to be able to give a bit of detail about each section, and if I was to do a post on the entire planner this would be ridiculously long! 

This post is going to look at what I have in the front pockets of my Filofax, my zip pouch, and section one. 

I guess I should get the easy part out of the way first... So below is a photo of my zip pouch (purchased from Filofax) in here I keep my Le Pens. I am going to do a separate post about the Le Pens. These are the pens I use to colour code in my planner, which I will talk more about in a later post as well! I don't clip the pouch into the rings because the pens in it make the domino too bulky. If you have a planner with a soft leather cover this may not be such an issue, however the domino's cover does not give at all so having the pouch in the rings really stretches the elastic closure. 

Next, are the card slots on the front cover. In these I store various items (not all are useful when using my planner. In the top slot I have a business card and some page markers incase I need one. These page markers are from the Smash Book line at Michaels. They are really cute but they don't hold many pages! 

In the second and third slot I keep two tickets. These are from events that I went to and really enjoyed. I keep these in the planner just for safe keeping and because they remind me of fun times with family and friends! 

The fourth pocket is actually useful for my planner. In this slot I keep my Martha Stewart Dew Drops. These are removable stickers that you can write things on and then move them from week to week as needed. You can find this line at Staples (I am not sure if any other companies carry the brand). These are good for reoccurring tasks that you do not want to rewrite each week. Keep in mind the stickiness of these eventually wears off and you will have to make a new one, but this is still less work than rewriting the task each week! 

The Domino comes with a large vertical pocket behind the card slots. This pocket is fairly flexible considering the stiff cover the Domino has. I don't keep much in here, just a few essentials. The first thing I keep in this pocket is a page of sticky tags. I live in Canada and purchased them at a store called Dollarama (not sure if this exists in the U.S). As you will see in a later section I use these on my weekly pages. The only other thing that I keep in that pocket are some journaling cards from the brand Smash Book. I also use these throughout the planner (mainly in the weekly section). 

At the front of my planner I have a flyleaf (from Filofax), and behind this I keep a table of contents. The reason I do this is because I don't have a label maker and my tabs are not labeled. So I made a page that shows me what is behind each section. However, I may change this soon since I now have the tabs memorized. The colours on this page mean nothing, they are purely there to make the page look nice. 

Following the table of contents, I have my registration number incase I ever lose my planner. I depend on this so much! I don't think I could live without it!! Haha kind of sad I guess, but I'm sure all you Filofax lovers understand! Also I put a tab at the bottom that is labeled "If Found..." Hopefully if someone found this they would look there! 

Now we come to section one. For this divider I ran it through the printer and put a cute quote on it (I have this done with all my tabs). This section is "Frequently Used Information". In this section you will find personal information, summer class schedule (for university), a list of birthdays, 2014 - 2016 year at a glance calendar (some of these pages are daytime), a 2014 fold out year page, and professors information. 

This section wasn't very interesting but I promise they get better!! I hope you enjoyed this post. Thanks for reading!  If you liked this please follow and share with friends. Section two will be out sometime next week. 

Stephanie xo

An Overview of my Personal Orange Domino

Hey Everyone! 

Finally! I have moved back into my orange personal size Domino. It has taken me a little while to get settled in, but I think I have figured out what I want to do with my set up! Todays blog will just be an overview of how I have my planner set up. Over the next little while I am going to go through a more detailed view of each section. I am thinking I will make a blog post about each individual section, how I have set it up, what type of system I use to organize it, etc. So keep an eye out for those! 

Also before I begin, I should mention that I have ordered some inserts from Piaric, some stamps from Studio L2E, and some masking stickers from Etsy and I am waiting for those to arrive. That is the main reason this is only going to be a brief overview. I want to get my pages in and my organization system perfected when those items arrive. Then I promise to go in depth with how I use my personal size Domino! 

Let jump right in... 

This is the front cover for those of you who are new to my blog and haven't seen it before. 

Considering I have had this planner for a year and throw it in my bag I take to University and into my purse the minimal number of scratches is impressive. This is definitely a good option for people who don't want to worry about taking care of a real leather planner. 

When my planner is open you will notice I make use of the card slots. In the top slot I have a business card and some cute smash book page markers, in the second slot I have my gold Starbucks card (I'm addicted to Starbucks :) ), in the third and fourth slot I have ticket stubs for things I like to remember, and in the last slot I have my Martha Stewart dew drops for easy access to them. 

In the long pocket behind the card slots I keep my zippered pouch because I don't like having it in the very front of my planner, but at the same time I find the zipper makes an uneven writing surface if I put it in the back. So I store it in the front pocket. 

I have a fly leaf with a table of contents page directly behind it. I like keeping a fly leaf in the front to keep the pages from wrinkling. My table of contents page isn't colour coded I just wanted it to be bright and pretty. The numbers listed next to the section refer to the numbered tabs that come with the Filofax. 

Directly behind the table of contents page I have a piece of thick coloured card stock that I have attached my extra pen loop to. I did this because the card stock is much thicker than any of the other pages and that keeps it from folding over. 

You will notice that all of my dividers have a motivational or inspirational quote on them. If anyone is interested in how I did this please comment below and I can do a post about how I did that. 

Section one is just some information that I may want quicker access to, so rather than having to flip through my notes section I can just have it on hand in the front. This section is also where I keep my year at a glance page that I printed from the blog My Life All In One Place. 

Section two contains my monthly calendar. The way I organize these pages may change when my Piaric inserts arrive. But I will keep you updated on that! Behinf this I have a colour code page, this is for the flags I use. The colour code page for my Martha Stewart dew drops is on the back. As I said earlier I will go more in depth with this in an upcoming post! 

Section Three is my weekly calendar. I use this to write my appointments, and to-do lists. I don't have a separate section for To Do's. In this section I am using a ruler from a daytime planner I had. I like that it was clear rather than black. 

Section four contains lists. In here you can find things such as household cleaning list, shopping lists, routines list, etc. This section will mainly contain things that I want to reference when I am planning out my week. 

Section five is currently being used to hold my blank lined paper. I feel like this section may stay like this as I like having a specific section to go to and I don't have to flip through all my sections looking for a piece of paper. 

Last is section six, in this section I have my A-Z tabs and I use them like a filing system for my notes. I keep things in here that don't fit in any of the other sections! I file each note based on the first letter of what it is. For example, I have my BBA Program filed under C because it is the list of courses I need to take for my business degree, so I think C for Courses. 

At the end of the note section I have another fly leaf to protect the papers in the back from getting wrinkled! I am a little OCD about wrinkled pages... 

In the back pocket I just keep my sticky To Do lists (which I will explain how I use them in another post) and a top opening pocket that has some family photos. In the pen loop I keep a bic fashion pen.

That is all for this overview post, however shortly I will begin posting about each section in depth. Hopefully I won't have a long wait on the new pages so I can get these posts to you. As always I hope you enjoyed this post. If you did please follow and share! Thank you so much for reading and feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or requests! I would love some input from you all! 

Stephanie xo