Is there a plan for July? It’s no good asking me, I haven’t a clue; indeed, from what I can see, getting through July is going to be a case of approaching anything that comes up with a mildly surprised expression and a can-do attitude.
For most of July my days look like this, though I’m managing to find some odd bits and pieces to pad them out – reminders to watch the Tour de France on the TV, some odd item that floats from day to day suggesting there is something called “ironing” to be done, a command to “ink a pen”. Inking a pen happens, ironing tends not to, what can I say?
I have worked a little more on the set-up of the Filofax Holborn this month, moving notes about creative writing into their own section which feels like a positive step. I’m keeping up with the practise of archiving the information from the Filofax Personal into the William Hannah weekly pages, though I’ll be glad to get to the end of year and have this archive finished.
Overall, I’m a bit sad that the refinements I’ve made over the past six months haven’t resolved the main problem I have with the Personal size, which is that I simply don’t find the page size a natural fit for my preferences. Where this page size does work admirably is as a traditional diary (well, what English people of a certain age would refer to as a diary and others may know as an appointment book). Somewhere to capture the outline of your year and anything you need to attend – appointments, parties, seminars – often those things which require you to be in a set time and place. Let’s call them the unmoveable items in the year. Depending on our schedule, we may need a page a day diary, though a week to view would be enough for me if there was somewhere else to capture tasks.
This is one of the many pieces of information that I’m bearing in mind when I think about how I’m going to approach my analogue “planning” system for 2025. When I think beyond 2025, moving into an A5 Filofax becomes so compelling that I can’t help wondering whether I can make it work straight away. Of course, the answer is that I can’t; 2024 and 2025 are never going to be anything but awkward years which confound any attempts to plan them into submission. We shall have to see whether I decide to stick with the slightly inconvenient Personal size for the next 18 months, or choose to move to A5 and take the hit on portability. I have considered other options at great length, but knowing I want to use an A5 Filofax from 2026, and am using Filofax now, it makes sense to stay within the ecosystem for the bridging year.
All of which has me pondering F. Scott Fitzgerald’s green light at the end of the pier, and planning to watch the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby before the weekend finishes and another work week starts.
Pam Alison Knits 