Philofaxy All Stars guest post: Femke and her FlyLady Filofax

Many thanks to Femke for this awesome guest post on how she uses her Filofax as her FlyLady Control Journal! I know this is a topic that's been talked about a lot recently, so I really appreciate all the details!!

I’m using my Filofax as a guide for Fly Lady, to clean my house and keep up with everything. I kept our house clean but I still felt like I couldn’t have people over unexpectedly. I’d heard about Fly Lady before, but at one point I decided to just give it a try.

I’m still a Fly Baby but my Control Journal is filled to the brim. If you’re not familiar with Fly Lady, I advise you to check the website, here. Even if you don’t fully use Fly Lady, there are some great tips for keeping your house clean and neat.

When I open my Filofax (an A5 Domino Snake), I see a photo of myself running the 5K last year. This is a motivation photo, because I really want to run another 5K, but haven’t trained in a year.

First off, I start with the emergency contacts. This is the first page when you open my Filofax. I don’t have many of them, just both of our parents, our doorkeeper (very luxurious, since we live in a large building), our insurance advisor (he does all our insurances) and the vet. I advise everyone to keep a list like this in a safe place, because you never know when you need it.

Tab 1 and 2 are my weekly calendar and monthly calendar. In my weekly calendar, I write down the list of house chores, the weekly chores and this week’s zone. In the middle of the week, I keep my to do list for the zones. I mark the things I’ve done with pencil and at the end of the week erase them. I also write down my moods and if I have a migraine or slight headache, as part of my mission 101. In my monthly calendar I write down the birthdays and important days for that month.

Tab 3: my to do lists. Here I keep the lists for the weekly zones but also stuff I still need to do for my control journal, or what I need to buy. I don’t keep my personal to do’s in this Filofax, this is only for things I need to do around the house.

Tab 4: is where I keep all my lists. Daily, weekly, monthly routines, a list of the zones and what needs to be done, and my pantry and master grocery list is what you can find in there.

Tab 5: following that, I keep my “Mission 101” list in there, including my book list and movie list. This is the personal section of my Control Journal.

Tab 6 is my addresses tab. I use the A-Z dividers for that as well. In here I keep every address I may ever need. I don’t cross out, I just add.

Here I also keep a list of the Christmas cards I’ve sent out last year and from whom we received a card. This way I can easily revise our list.

Even if you’re not using the Fly Lady concept, I would really recommend a Filofax, or even a folder in a specific place with an address book (or list) and emergency list. Because it is true, you never know what may happen or when you need a specific phone number. 

Thanks again to Femke for all the great details, and the inspiration to set up my own FlyLady/ Household/ Motivational Filofax!!

WeekDate Restart

Image copyright WeekDate

You may have noticed I've been Tweeting about WeekDate planners a lot recently. It's because I'm pining for mine, which I stupidly put in my sea shipment (which hasn't arrived yet). I remember sadly putting my WeekDate planner on my shelf along with my other planners and notebooks not in current use, for the movers to pack in a box and put on the boat. My WeekDate, with its clever system of managing recurring events, represented my happy, settled life in Scotland. When that fell through, I thought I woudn't have a use for my WeekDate planner here in my new, disrupted life in Indonesia.

But now that I'm starting to settle in a bit and my life is returning to a regular pattern of school and activities, I'm desperate to get my WeekDate back into my hands!

What's even more reason for me to want it is that I've joined a Facebook group to follow the FlyLady system of household management. We're a Filofax group, so the idea is to use our Filofaxes as our FlyLady Control Journals. I will do this, but the main planning of routines and Zone Work will be done in my WeekDate. Kay Odell, the genius designer who created WeekDate planners, Tweeted recently that she has been a Flybaby for years and that the WeekDate is perfect for using with the FlyLady system!

I've been told that our shipment will arrive Monday (but I'll believe it when I see it!).  My office box of planners will be the first box I open!

Once I've got my WeekDate back up and running, I will post photos of how I'm using it to keep track of all our summertime activities (kids in sports and dance), social engagements, and my FlyLady routines and zones! I'm also trying to establish other routines like regular exercise. I don't naturally follow routines, but I think WeekDate's recurring weekly section will be hugely useful in helping me get in the habit of following routines.

The 2012 WeekDate planners are already available for pre-order! Click here to see the selection. I think I'm going to get the Bohemian one, but am trying to decide between that and the Twisted Sistah!

I have already pre-ordered the WeekDate Wall calendar which goes August 2011- December 2012. Click here for more information and to see how it works. This will be a great way of keeping track of everyone without having to re-write things constantly!

WeekDate is giving away two WeekDate Wall calendars through GoodReads! Click here to visit the giveaway entry page. Good luck and happy WeekDating!

Image copyright WeekDate and Sellers Publishing