I researched around and found one which is nearest to what she is holding (i bet she is still using in her current work place). We are of the same type, the old schooled type. When it comes to task to-do and schedules, we prefer to write them down. To me, i like to scribble and doodle (although my doodling level is almost to zero.. hahaha) where i write my notes. I tend to write my thoughts next to the things that i jotted down in the planner.
The first serious planner that i got for myself is Filofax purple malden. Real leather and soft cover (though not as soft as the brown leather filofax that my ex boss holds due to the pockets on the front cover). It costed me $189. I was using it for 2 years.
2 years later, Starbucks had a Christmas promotion whereby customer top up $120 on their Starbucks card and get an A5 planner free. Initially i wanted the brown colour but it was out of stock and i settled for the gold one. Turns out, my sister has a brown one which i cant remember where she got it. She definitely did not top up that $120. She is more careful and calculative when it comes to money. I used the planner for 1 year and then i switched back to my Filofax malden which i used for another 1 year.
I found out about Midori Traveler's Notebook when i joined the FB group for planners. The world of MTN was super! Sadly, before i actually use the MTN as planner, i was introduced to Hobonichi. ANYWAY back to MTN first. I initially bought it because i wanted to use as planner. I was attracted by the grid notebook and squared notebook. I bought the blue edition regular MTN first. Soon after followed by black regular, camel passport and brown passport. I never expect myself to buy so many. The blue edition costs me around S$80. I bought it from online, if my memory serves right, it was ebay. The seller was from Japan which is where the MTN origin from. The black is around S$60 which i asked my colleague, EC, to help my purchase when he travelled to Japan. The brown passport is $49 from Overjoyed.com. I initially ordered a camel passport but was informed that it is out of stocks after i placed my order so i changed to the brown since i did not have a brown MTN yet. The camel passport was from Tokyu Hands (Jurong East). It is around S$58. Yes, i learnt after i bought that Tokyu Hands is around $10 more than Overjoyed! Recently Midori Traveler's Notebook has been renamed to Traveler's Notebook Company.
Before i bought my MTN, i purchased another Filofax, Domino Patent Turquoise. It costs me S$68. I was thinking of making my own inserts and use the Domino but sadly to say, i bought it and leave it aside still in its package together with my malden. I still loves them but I am currently using Hobonichi and MTN.
I saw a few FB people from the group talking about Hobonichi. Initially i ignored them as i just bought my MTN and I want to use my MTN. But my attention was drawn to the word "HOBONICHI" time to time so i decided to look up Hobonichi group in FB and joined them. Bad moves!! I was attracted to Hobonichi straight away that i purchase Year 2016 planners from the site. The Tomoe River paper the Hobonichi uses for its planners are something to die for to write on. I bought both the A6 and A5, planning to use them for work and personal. I fully utilized A6 for work because i used it for To-Do and schedules.
I fully intend to use the A5 (Hobo Cousin) for some writings, personal life schedules and To-Do, but it seems like my life is boring! Nothing much to write in my A5. The To-Do tasks seem to repeat everyday because i always carry forward the tasks to the next day.
Initially, i write in the daily pages of A5 everyday using 365 prompts and "Thoughts of the day". But after my foot op in January, i stopped. Yes, it means i only wrote for 18 days and I stopped. Yikes. There was a whole lot of blank pages and i was discouraged to start writing again. In May, which is this month, i started using the monthly weekly pages. Monthly pages for personal and family schedules. Weekly pages for To-Do and some short Thoughts of the day. I intend to use the daily pages for drawing and journaling though i have not start to do so the daily pages are still blank. Anyway, it doesnt bother me as much anymore.
Recently, I was attracted to Kate Spade Wellesley Planner, a ring bound planner, just like my Filofax. It was not available in Singapore Kate Spade boutique so i bought it from someone in USA. She happened to help someone bought from KS boutique but the person back out at the last minute. Some people's loose is someone else's gain. I was lucky to get it at the time when KS were having 60% so it was US$95. With shipping, it was altogether US$122 (=S$174.88) which is almost the same price as my first Filofax. Now I am waiting for the arrival of my Kate Spade Wellesley.
My uses of the planners:
- Filofax Malden (in storage)
- Filofax Domino (in storage)
- Starbucks A5 (in storage)
- MTN Regular Blue (Journal of special occassions where photos and short description of the occassions are written in it. Includes some travel memories too.)
- MTN Regular Black (in storage)
- MTN Passport Brown (Food and exercise log)
- MTN Passport Camel (in storage)
- Hobonichi A6 (Work planner)
- Hobonichi Cousin (Personal Life planner)
- Kate Spade Wellesley Black (transiting as of now. Intend to use to hold my study notes which i am signing up a Diploma Course soon)
So in total i actually have 10 planners and majority are not in use.
XOXO
Lovakafe
