If my love of jelly shoes and plastic jewellery wasn’t enough of a hint, my love of Filofax should tell you I’m a child of the 80s!  I grew up in an era where business women wore pencil skirts, shiny patent court shoesand huge shoulder padded suit jackets – but there was one accessory all these women couldn’t be without – a Filofax!

I seem to remember it started for me with a Mickey Mouse organiser and I worked my way through the years with a variety of sizes and colours, taking a see-through pink jelly mini organiser with me to University.  When I graduated and set up my business in 2003 I took a trip into London with a friend and we visited the flagship store of Paperchase in Tottenham Court Road.  If you like stationery you will, like us, have hours of fun in this store!  It was there that I spotted an A5 black leather Balmoral Filofax(below) half price in the sale (around £60 from £120).  What a bargain!  As a busy freelance photographer it was the perfect place to store my appointments, client details, job notes, business cards and financial information.  Now, seven years on, it still serves me well in my job as a Marketing Exec and is the perfect place to plan my busy work schedule.  If you have a job that requires planning, a hefty A5 Filofaxwill be a great asset – choose a leather one for longevity.

Over the years I’ve cleared out many of my older Filofaxes but I still have four others that I chop and change year to year as a social life diary.  In the past I’ve favoured the mini and pocket sizes for their compact size in my handbag but more recently I’ve rediscovered the personal size.  This is big enough to use comfortably for notes, diary, and in my case, the odd sketch or two, whilst still fitting into most of my handbags.  I use mine for fun but I think it would be just as well suited to business use.

I’ve tried to use digital planners, like Psion, Palm and iPaq but they just don’t suit me – I like a to-do list that I can satisfactorily scribble out each time I’ve completed a task!  It’s an essential for me to always have a pen and paper to hand – Filofax fills that need!

If you’re like me, or you’d just like to give it a go, grab yourself a Filofax here!

View more pictures of my Filofaxes on Flickr here or read all my Filofax posts here.