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→
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 was recently helping a friend with some decluttering, and you can imagine my joy when we unearthed this: This was her Filofax from around 1988 or so, which she used for many years until switching to a Palm Pilot. (The Palm Pilot didn’t last long– after letting the battery die and losing all her … Continue reading Filofax Winchester from the Late 1980s→
Sterling Ink is a brand I spotted on Instagram, thanks to the algorithms working as intended! I saw several posts mentioning their planners, and when I saw that they had a nice range of notebooks too, I couldn’t resist giving them a try. I bought two Sterling Ink notebooks in my favorite 3.5 x 5.5″ … Continue reading Sterling Ink Notebook Review→
In my trawling of various websites that sell Japanese notebooks, I’d often noticed a lot of listings for “household account books.” I figured using a notebook to track household finances must be common or traditional in Japan, but I never knew the full story behind it until I finally decided to do some research and … Continue reading Kakeibo: Japanese Household Account Books→
Back in July 2021, I wrote about how I’d just transitioned to a new work notebook, a Mnemosyne notebook from Maruman. When I wrote that post, I wasn’t happy with the size and dot grid and how those were working vs. my desktop space and the size of my handwriting. But I ended up sticking … Continue reading Finishing a Work Notebook→
Head on over to Philofaxy to read my guest post about an oddity from my collection of Filofax inserts: pocket size Lefax cash tracking pages. I was hoping someone from the Philofaxy community would have more information, and sure enough, they did!
Not exactly recent news, but I came across a 2020 series of articles on a Japanese lifestyle website where various fashion industry professionals talk about their use of paper planners. The auto-translated text wasn’t that exciting, but I always love seeing pictures of other people’s notebooks! See more at Begin, including part 2 here, part … Continue reading Japanese Fashion Professionals’ Planners→
Notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, diaries: in search of the perfect page…