Monthly Archives: September 2012

September, 30/30: Review of the Month

At the beginning of the month I posted my goals as:

1. Blogging goal – Work on the 365/30 lists challenge

2. Career goal – Organise my next 6 month seat (placement)

3. Financial goal – make pack lunches – save, save, save.

4. Me time goal – Continue my reading list (post-holiday)

5. Life goal – Move house

1. Well I am still here doing the blogging challenge even though I had a few late days.

2. My next placement is sorted.

3. I made the odd lunch, bought a couple, and did not eat for a few days. This goal needs a bit of smoothing over.

4. Since returning from holiday I have not opened a book. Dead goal.

5. I am currently living in a pile of boxes, but officially all moved out of my last flat (but still between houses)

On day four I listed my reasons to start golf… This has not happened yet. But I have been busy with the house move. So starting a new hobby is on hold (as has blogging for the large part).

On day 5 I wanted to kick the TV habit, but I never added it to my habit tracker. Next month I will.

Overall view: good month, busy.

September, 29/30: Events I would like to attend…

I usually write in my Filofax events that are on in my local area, including free events I might like to attend (usually arty, cultural or geeky), paid events for networking//clubs/organisations I belong to particularly if I don’t know whether I will be able to attend, events and webinars that are taking place online that I want to remember about – usually events I get emails/newsletters about etc.

This is why I find monthly planning quite useful: so far for next month I have –

Q&A session, a week long course, various talks, a ball, a pub quiz, an engagement party, a networking meeting and exams.

I don’t tend to keep an “events” list in my Filofax, rather I write everything in the diary (regardless of whether I am attending as sometimes i simply use it to remind myself that traffic might be bad, or that I should follow up the event with someone else or simply”pass it on” ).

There is much more to events than simply attending them.

September, 27/30: Diary formats tried… diary formats to try…

Diary formats for my filofaxes I have tried are:

– day on one page; and

– week on two pages.

My mini Malden is a week on two pages – but the 4 days of the week on the first of the two pages keeps confusing me as my personal metropol week on 2 pages only has three days on the first page and I am much more used to using that.

At the moment I am sticking to the metropol as my daily planner – need to come up with a new use for the mini Malden – might use it for budgeting/expenses.


Day on one page gives plenty of space – and great for when I am incorporating my to do list into my diary – otherwise I don’t need a whole page for the day as I do not keep any work appointments in my filofax.

I would like to try:


– two day per page (as some days I need just a little extra space – at the moment I use a post-it when I have this problem)

– or a day per page with action/ to do list rather than a schedule.

– I currently use a notebook for my month per page so… I might also need to get an insert for my monthly planning too depending on how things go.

September, 26/30: ideal inserts you wish were made…

I love inserts for everything. Every project should have an insert.

The set of (homemade) inserts I use most relate to menu planning, recipes, shopping list and food budgeting.

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However, even more key is colour. Filofax need to do a nice colourful/ creative range of inserts… That end up looking a bit more professional (and a lot less time consuming) than making your own.

September, 25/30: Music I have bought…

I buy very little music.

My first LP was Blondie: Heart of Glass


My first CD was Beautiful South: Don’t Marry Her

and…


I have yet to make a (music) iTunes purchase – all my downloads are the free “song of the week” or equivalent promotions.

I really don’t listen to music much other than the radio/ CDs in my car.


Ooh… This reminds me I picked up the starbucks song of the week last week… Must remember to redeem.

Giving up the blogging?

I am sure everyone has moments when they are like “argh, I don’t want to write” and feel slightly overwhelmed. I have been feeling like that at the moment. So much is going on with major changes at home, changes at work and lots of commitments taking up my time. I like to try and keep everyone happy. It is usually me to ends up not as happy.

Last week, or maybe the week before I was like – I am not blogging any more. That put me in a bad mood and since then I have not been relaxed enough to write anything. I am hoping that in a few weeks my life will be calmer and I will be able to relax and write again. However, looking at my schedule for the next three months…. I am not so sure.

Until calmer times…