A few months ago, I wrote about my latest work notebook, a vintage Filofax. It’s working so well for me that I wish I had bought a Filofax in this size years ago to use for this purpose. I can’t help regretting all those wasted decades of using random office supply closet notebooks (as well … Continue reading How to Use a Notebook When Your Life Isn’t Busy
In Parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series, I traced the history of “pocket slim” Filofax models– pocket size, with no snap closure, mostly having smaller rings and no pen loops. But after poring over every catalog in the Philofaxy archives to build up my chronology, there are still some “pocket slim” models I … Continue reading The History of the Pocket Slim Filofax, Part 4: Oddities and Alternatives
Part 1 and Part 2 of this series took us through the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s. Now we’ll cover the 2010s to the present. I believe the next pocket slim Filofax made is the Regency, from 2011. This model wasn’t on my radar at all until a member of the Philofaxy Facebook group posted … Continue reading The History of the “Pocket Slim” Filofax Part 3
In Part 1, I covered pocket slim Filofaxes from the 1980s and 1990s, from the birth of the pocket Filofaxes as a small-ringed, no-fastener organizer, through their first few years when they transitioned to a standard configuration having larger rings, pen loops, and snap fasteners. The first official catalog appearance of a pocket slim Filofax … Continue reading The History of the Pocket Slim Filofax, Part 2
In the introduction to this series of posts, I covered some background on Filofax’s rare pocket size offerings from the 1930s to 1970s. With all that history out of the way, let’s look at how the modern pocket size Filofax organizer was first introduced in the 1989 Filofax UK catalog. This year, the ultimate adaptability … Continue reading The History of the “Pocket Slim” Filofax: Part 1
If you’ve read any of my posts about the various pocket Filofax organizers I’ve used over the years, you probably noticed that they were all models that have no pen loop or fastener strap. Snap-closing fasteners have become the more common option for pocket Filofaxes, so I always assumed that having a fastener strap was … Continue reading The History of the Pocket Slim Filofax: Series Introduction
Here’s a gorgeous little antique notebook that I recently added to my collection. At over a century old, it is still in pretty good shape! The cover seems to be some kind of faux leather wrapped around cardboard, with the year stamped in gold. The pages have gilt edges, rather faded now. Another nice little … Continue reading 1912 Diary from France
I’ve been looking forward to reading Roland Allen’s book “The Notebook” ever since I first heard about it. I mean, a book about the history of the notebook, what’s not to like? And yet, when I looked at the table of contents and started flipping through the book, I wondered if I would find it … Continue reading Book Review: “The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper”
This year, I feel like I’ve seen more Instagram and blog posts with this title than ever before. Setting up one’s planner for the coming year means different things to different people– for some, it seems to be an elaborate and labor-intensive process! I admire the creativity and care, and I’m sure beautiful, hand-crafted planner … Continue reading 2025 Planner Set-Up
I’ve recently swapped this little cutie into my daily carry bundle: a sort of basic plastic looseleaf made by Brunnen. I saw it on someone’s Instagram and was intrigued: I have a couple of other Brunnen notebooks in my collection from past trips to Europe, but it’s not a brand you ever see for sale … Continue reading Notebook Review: Brunnen Pocket Looseleaf
