Inside my A5 Imperial Purple Finchley

This binder is an absolutely stunning Filofax which is my main filo during term-time. Seeing as the 1st of September is fast approaching, I am in the process of setting up the filo again for day-to-day use. Although I have thoroughly enjoyed using my Aqua Personal Finsbury over the summer as detailed here, and will be sad to leave it back on the shelf, I'm looking forward to getting my A5 size back again!

The outside of this filo is a beautifully soft and puffy leather, with a gorgeous finish to it.

As you can see from the top view, it's not overly stuffed at the moment, but I'm sure that will change as I add more diary pages and notes into it as the academic year gets going!

Inside I decided to make some of my own dividers to jazz it up a little. I was really inspired by Wandrrlust's recent post about making dividers, but unfortunately I couldn't find any really nice card in our local art shop, and no "smash" tabs or rub-on letters were to be found anywhere. I think I may have to wait for a trip to London to stock up! I did however find some nice printed cards in muted shades which do the job well as an interim solution.

As you can see I have yet to label them up, but I think they look quite nice. Inside I have a nice picture of me and "my boys" (which is quite old now and really should be updated!) and I usually keep stamps, etc, in the card pockets which I need to transfer over. I have to say the layout of the card slots on the Finchley does niggle me a little bit, and I do think it could be better designed. But it's a small niggle and doesn't take away my love for this binder!

I also recently discovered the Filofax Time Management inserts which are tucked away in an unassuming corner of the Filofax website. I use the week to view inserts and find them absolutely brilliant. I work on a weekly schedule as with trying to work my masters 'round a toddler, my day-to-day schedule sometimes (oftentimes!!) gets disrupted. So instead I know what I have to get done by the end of the week and keep track that way.

The picture is of a week from the start of the year as my diary is quite empty at the moment with it being the holidays, but it gives you a good idea of how the insert can be used. The left-hand side of the TM insert has 4 sections - Notes / Action Points, Personal Reminders, Expenses and Delegation Reminders, as well as current and next-month calendars at the top. I keep my weekly reading list in the "Notes / Action Points" section and score it off as I do the reading (as you can see our reading list each week is quite extensive!). Expenses are good for tracking up-coming bills or daily expenditure and the "Personal Reminders" section is used for just that - personal reminders! - usually what I've planned for the week's meals. The right hand page has a "Main goals" section at the top which I use for counting down to important assessment deadlines  and underneath that there's the weekly diary with "Priority Activities" and "Phone, Write, Fax, E-mail"sections to the right of that. There's plenty of room in the diary section for daily appointments and the "Priority Activities" section is good for keeping track of my weekly "To Do" list. Overall the set-up works really well for me.

One of the best things about the A5 size is how easy it is to print your own inserts and find interesting things to put in your filo, like this acetate of the Eiffel Tower which I found in the local art shop:

Or this picture I found which was easy to print on to A5 and keep at the start of my notes section:

I have also made inserts to keep track of restaurants I want to try, photographs and photographic techniques I want to read up on and try, and books I've heard about that I want to read.

It's just so easy to customise the A5 size Filofax and while there is nothing quite as nice as an over-stuffed personal Filofax, the customisability of the A5 definitely gives it an edge.