Tag Archives: filofax

A Challenge.

19 Tuesday Nov 2019

Posted by in Time Management, Uncategorized

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Yesterday I promoted the idea of designing or buying a systemised personal organiser so that instead of living moment to moment ‘as it comes’ you can live moment to moment ‘by design’. I’d gamble a lot of readers would have resisted the idea for any number of reasons (which are all covered in my book, Police Time Management).

We all live by ‘forms’. We’re constantly filling out applications, invoices, receipts, requests and other things because someone else wants them. I would wager that, right now (American for ‘now’, by the way), you have some forms in front of you for completion, or from which you will elicit some specific data pertinent to your current role. Am I right? I am.

So why not have your own forms which suit your situation and make your life better?

Although I currently use a purchased system, I did design my own system and use it in the same way. I designed forms on Word, printed them on A4 (Folio) paper, punched the pages using a 4-hole punch from a stationers, and kept them all – along with records, documents, receipts, booking confirmations and reference materials in a Wenger document case, although I also managed to find a leather A4 Filofax* binder in perfect condition for £2 in a charity shop, once. Bargain! (Remember, how to do all of that is downloadable HERE for free and at no risk.)

Everything I needed could be carried in that case, and anything that came into my possession could go into it, too. It cost me about £30, but here’s a BIG clue to saving on binders – use EBay. I’ve bought some £100+ binders there for a tenner, including the one I use at the moment. But go for the best quality you can, and Wenger is high quality at a ‘sensible’ price. That said, if you don’t need additional pockets, pen-loops or rain-proofing, any 4-ring binder can do the job.

Size is important.

A5/Statement size with 7-ring binders are available from Franklinplanner.com or daytimers.com (or co.uk) and form availability is excellent. I find them a teeny bit pricey but the quality is good and the size is probably the smallest most users should go. The diary pages address most needs.

BUT

If you are in any doubt about using a system like this, get an A4 binder and a 4-ring paper punch, print 30-31 of the below page back-to-back, read the free book so you know how to prepare and use it, and try it for a month. If you find it does serve you, consider whether to continue using it (adapting it as you feel suits you) or buying a posh system for Christmas. (You do NOT need another digital device or another jumper.)

I dare you.

1 day page diary page link

*£2!!

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Begin with the End in Mind – ALL the Time.

05 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by in General, Time Management

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In the book First Things First, Stephen Covey wrote about how we should begin our lives with our legacy in mind, and he went further by writing in this (mainly but not exclusively) time management book that we should plan each week with the same objective – a plan that we would execute during the week to ensure that by the end of that week we had achieved what we’d set out to do.

Stated within those pages but not as clearly to me as he had intended – my fault, not his – was the idea that Begin(ning) with the End in Mind applied to everything we do, not just life-, work- or daily-plans, but even the most routine stuff.

This was brought home to me last week when I went for a long run and limped home afterwards because I had neglected to consider the condition of my feet, specifically a ruddy great toenail that decided towards the end of my run to incise the adjacent toe and cause a rush of blood into my sock.

I consider this concept to be the reason why I love using my personal planning system. It does look nice and it is exceptionally convenient to use, but the most practical benefit for me is that when I put something down in it, whether it be a task or an appointment, I am immediately pushed to thinking about what preparation is needed for that item.

If it’s an appointment, what paperwork will I need, what travel plans are necessary (maps, then satnav – always!), what else can I be doing while I am travelling/waiting/in the area, etc. If it’s a task there are similar considerations, like have I got the tools/equipment/skills/money that I need and, if not, where can I get it and what else can I get/do while I’m collecting it. (That’s a skill developed after a day where I visited a hardware store 5 times in one day – that’s another story.) If the plan involves other people I can look towards deciding what they can or could bring to the party, what their needs are and what I can do about them.

The final, practical benefit of a paper planning system is that when these thoughts arise I am already sat in front of the very thing I need to make the plans and plan the actions that have arisen just out of the one, original intention. Of course you can do all that on a tablet, although the jumping between programmes can be a nightmare for the slightly less e-inclined.

(I know, Samsung S-Memo, Evernote and the undoubted i-equivalent do have their uses but pen and paper is a lot quicker unless and until you’re used to them. What’s more, paper’s batteries never run out and paper never crashes. And you can file paper for EVER when your hardware gets full or old.)

Since everything we do has an objective (or we shouldn’t be doing it – what is the objective for watching soap operas?), then everything we do has an End in Mind towards which we should plan, and in respect of which we should execute that plan. Many generals have said “Planning is everything, but plans are nothing”, reflecting the older adage, “No plan survives initial contact with the enemy”, but their point is always – planning is a necessary and fundamental part of success. Once you know the End I Mind you can change the plan. But if you don’t know the End, or you don’t have a Plan, you haven’t started yet.

The only sad part about getting good at this? Is that you get so good that you don’t notice you’re doing it.

Weekly Challenge

Consider obtaining some sort of planning system – electronic or paper, it’s up to you and you don’t have to take my absolutely true, effective and unarguable word that paper is better. Take your time and really consider investing in a quality system (Daytimer, Daytimer UK, Franklin Covey or FranklinCovey UK, TimeSystem US or UK, or Filofax, the bigger you can manage, the better) Then learn how to best use it in your own situation, and commit to doing so for at least 31 days. By which time you’ll probably be a lot better at doing what you want to do, when it needs to be done, and at the level of execution excellence you seek.

Which is the end you have in mind, surely?

 Blog Part

Last week I said my weight loss for the previous 7 days had been disappointing. This week I ‘only’ lost 2.5lbs but as long as that carries on I’ll be at my target weight at around the intended point. I’ve also discovered that I can no longer eat heavy meals (and not THAT heavy) without feeling bloated and uncomfortable afterwards, which will pay dividends. Tony Robins opines that eating poorly is one of the causes of ‘the common cold’ because the symptoms of a ‘common cold’ are only the body trying to divest itself of all the rubbish we tend to eat around Thanksgiving (USA) and Christmas (everywhere). It may be true – the last two weeks, after eating a heavy meal, my nose has been blocked for the next 24 hours, whereas the rest of the week it feels fine. Food for thought. (See what I did there?)

For some reason running has been feeling harder but the times are sound. This suggests that I am running faster at first, so getting puffed out, then slowing down to reach the distance in the same time. Logical, but does it mean I’m hitting my maximum speed? I hope not because it means that no matter how far I run I’ll run at 8 and a bit mph! Which means a sub-2 hour half marathon if/when I get there, but never any better.

I’ve focused a lot of attention on spreading the word via social media (like this site, Facebook, and Twitter – @3resolutionsguy). I’ve also started readying myself for some more goals, because after I lose weight and assuming I stay where I get I will have to have something more to focus on. Like a new job……..

The Importance of LIVING Your Personal Mission Statement (PMS)

28 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by in Character and Competence, Discipline, General, Purpose and Service

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As the weeks have passed on my efforts to be more compliant with the Three Resolutions I have become more and more convinced of the power of the PMS, and therefore the importance of the PMS.

Some sceptics would argued that a PMS isn’t necessary. Many of those who so argue miss the point. They may be successful; they may produce results at a high level of excellence; and they may have great relationships. I know people who fit those descriptions, at least as far as I can tell, and no, they don’t to the best of my knowledge ‘have’ a PMS. They don’t seem to have a written down constitution and set of value statements. (Or they won’t admit to having one because that’s seen to reveal a character flaw in this world of self-standard judging.)

What these nice, pleasant, successful and productive people have is an unwritten PMS and/or set of unwritten value statements. They know what they want and how they’re going to get it in a principled fashion, and they set about doing that. Good on them, and may that continue.

Some of us, though, like the idea of having these things written down as (a) a reminder of what we are doing, why and how we will do it and (b) as a public declaration of those things so that we can be held to account when we wander off course.

In the context of (a) we recognise that there will be occasions when, through fatigue, overwhelm, stress or even danger we might not quite act in accordance with our values and we want to remind ourselves that those are the very times when we MUST so act. In the case of (b) we recognise that sometimes we are not strong enough in ourselves to act in accordance with our PMS and it would be nice if, just IF, our friends, family, colleagues and others would support us in getting us back on track instead of either pulling us off track or taking the mick because we have ‘failed’.

The public declaration of my PMS on this website, on my t-shirts (5, not 4 as I said a while ago) and all the other visible ‘declarations’ in terms of the edited highlights (7H-3R) have those motives. Some people who I respect, like and even love think it’s fun to take the p**s. So be it. It gives me a chance to exercise its stated intent on character to an even higher level. (But look to yourselves for your own intent and see if you want your actions to reflect your character.)

But even the simple act of putting my PMS on my laptop as the main screen wallpaper has caused me to execute in its regard. I’ll be surfing away or working on something routine when I see the PMS glaring at me, and despite my fatigue and (slowly wavering!) dislike for running I will change and go out there and do what I have declared I will do, because it addresses all Three Resolutions – Discipline (Resolution1), Character (Resolution 2) and Service (I’m preparing for a sponsored event and to support a team effort). The same applied to the hours I’ve put in the last two weeks on the Professional Investigator’s Manual and a colleague’s PowerPoint presentation – it’s about the Mission, and the Mission serves me and makes me better, while also serving others.

Eventually the PMS will be emotionally tattooed on my sub-conscious but for now, and even after that happens, the words I wrote – no-one wrote them for me, they are my words, my intent and my focus – will remain where I place them. In public, both pictorially and (I intend) visually in what I do and how I do it.

Now go and write yours. Then live it!

Weekly Challenge

I just told you! Go and write yours. You have 7 days, and I’d love to see them in the Comments section when you’ve finished. If you’re stuck, try http://www.franklincovey.com/msb .

Blog Part

Hit the wall on a run this week but ran through it. I say run, more of a struggle. My weight loss was only half a pound but the (ahem) waste disposal system is a bit slow and I expect next week’s results will compensate. I mean the weight, not the other thing. I am but 5lbs behind schedule, now.

But I was so productive and positive it hurt, so the concepts of Discipline-Character-Competence really are working for me.

I’m also developing next year’s A4 (letter sized) personal planning system, creating DIY forms and all the paper I’ll need to manage myself for the 12 months after my current Daytimer expires. (Dear FranklinCovey/Daytimer/Filofax – you need to go A4, 2 pages to a day with a 4 ring binder for us Brits.) I’ve prepared my planning diaries up to 2017 so I’ll not be buying an industry-designed planner until at least then. Unless their pretty catalogues start tempting me as they tend to do whenever they plop on the hallway mat…….

My 2015 Planning System, courtesy of do-it-yourself forms, a Dymo printer and a Filofax leather binder that cost £2 in a charity shop. You’ll note my PMS behind the plastic divider…..

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