the zeitgeist of zoe

You know how, if you’re chatting with your friends and someone comments about having…oh, I don’t know…Red Velvet cake or something, and then you can’t get Red Velvet cake out of your head until you break down and have some yourself?

As I had mentioned, a particular blog post about a particular planner got into my head in much the same way after I read it.  The result?

I’m back in my Pocket Malden.

Don’t get me wrong, after doing a certain amount of damage myself blathering about my Franklin Covey inserts, it was not an easy decision to give them up and go back to the Pocket size. Why, oh why, doesn’t someone somewhere make a decent diary insert (with tabbed months pretty please) for Filofax’s Pocket size?!

DayTimer’s Jotter sized inserts will fit in a Filofax Pocket. The holes line up perfectly, however the pages are 2.75″x5″, while Filofax Pocket pages are 3.25″ x 4.75″. I know it doesn’t SEEM that much smaller, for some reason in practical reality, that measly half-inch makes a world of difference. So does the line spacing.  I simply cannot write that small.

Okay, I can write that small…trouble is, I can’t read my own tiny writing after the fact.

Trust me, I tried. I copied one month onto the Jotter pages and when I went back to objectively review my work, it looked like a small bird had trodden through some ink and meandered about the page.

So it seemed standard Filofax refills were the only viable way to go.

I  had success with the Day per Page inserts for my appointments and daily To Do items and a separate section for Month on 2 Pages inserts for an overview the last time I moved into a Pocket binder, but as I have constantly bitched about, seemingly forever now, I despise how they print their pages back to back on all their dairies so that it is virtually impossible to do a tab hack.

As I knew would be the case, about a week after shifting back into the Pocket size, I began to miss all the features of Personal size.

Which, by the way, I kept up on…duplicating entries and still using the right page of the FC 2 Page per Day inserts in the Personal Malden as my gratitude/positivity list.  It just stays at home now, entirely defeating the purpose of integrating the gratitude list into my planner in the first place.

Sigh.

As with most things in life, I can make a case for both of these planners:

The Personal obviously has more writing room, fits my beloved Franklin Covey TABBED monthly & daily pages and allows me to add to my gratitude list throughout my day.

BUT…I can only fit half a year of my chosen inserts, which is less than optimal.

The Pocket is eminently portable, can double as a wallet, fits an entire year of Filofax 1 Page per Day inserts and has that square/fat aesthetic I like.

BUT…provides a clunky interface, requiring me to flip to a separate section for a monthly overview, AND has no room for my gratitude list on each day’s page.

I have messed around with some ideas to attempt to duplicate the FC system I so love in my Personal Malden using Filofax pages in Pocket size.

First I took the Month on 2 Pages insert pack down to my local copy shop and photocopied each month so the pages would lay correctly in my binder and be blank on the back (in other words, they would no longer be printed back to back & therefore be un-tabable), so that I could incorporate them into each month.

Then I took two packs of Filofax 1-6 Numbered Index Tabs, created monthly labels with my label-maker to cover the numbers and attempted to use them, along with the photocopied Monthlies, to tab & delineate each month, just like my FC inserts are in Personal size.

Verdict? Ugly.

Even with what I thought was a nice grade of paper for my photocopies, they were simply not as crisp as the original sheets.  Also, the blocks appeared even smaller…though I am relatively sure that was an optical illusion, as I did not shrink the copy ratio.

The tabs were ugly too.  The whole thing just looked…WRONG to me. Or perhaps to my OCD.  Either way, it was a massive fail.

In hindsight, I wish I had photographed my result to share, but as it is I was so disgusted that I wasted both time & money in this attempt that I tossed everything in the bin before it occurred to me to take photos.

Undaunted, my next idea is to download the Filofax Print to File software and try my hand at…drumroll please…creating my own inserts.

I theorize that, using the PTF software, I should be able to print my Google calendar properly so that it may be tabbed & used as a monthly view, as well as design a day on 2 pages layout that will accommodate my needs, all on Filofax Pocket sized paper, which handily I already have.

I mean…right?!

As for the tabs, I have no idea. I may just have to procure some card stock and make them myself.  All of which will be quite a bit of work no doubt.

Or, I could just shut up and go back to using my Personal Malden.

Thoughts?