Sunday 29 September 2013

Still available: my Kindle books

If you own a Kindle, a tablet or a smartphone with the Kindle app, please consider buying one of my books. Each of them will cost you just a pound or two, or your local currency equivalent. Here they are:

Journalling School


Journalling School: A Short Course in Personal Journalling provides a straightforward and insightful guide to those wishing to start a journal or those who wish to return to or reinvigorate their journalling. Covering a wide range of aspects and including exercises and questions to ponder, this will inspire any journal keeper or would-be journal keeper.

View on your local Amazon site









12 Easy Life Upgrades



It is hard to find time for personal development. This book recognises this and presents twelve life upgrades. Quick to read, easy to understand and implement, each has the potential to make your life better.

View on your local Amazon site









Very Short Shorts


What can be achieved in as few as fifty words? Perhaps there might be an impression of character or place. There is room for a surprising twist, sometimes.

The right fifty words can be as good as fifty thousand. Read these stories. See if you agree.

(Fifty words, including these.)

View on your local Amazon site

Saturday 28 September 2013

How to use a diary

If you've ever wondered how you would use a particular diary layout, Carie Harling has the answer for you in this excellent video tutorial in which she demonstrates a whole range of different layouts from the range Steve Morton and I put together.


All the layouts featured (and some others) are available on this site. Just click on the 'Free Diary Pages' link at the top of the page.

Saturday 21 September 2013

Make a photo album for the Midori Traveler's Notebook

My friend Zara suggested this. It's a TN-sized photograph album. I interleaved pieces of coloured A4 card with A4 tracing paper, bound them into a booklet which I then cut down to 110mm wide.


Why not make your own?

Monday 16 September 2013

Free Filofax diary inserts to print on Letter paper - week on two pages

As promised, here are some more sets for you; this time they are all week on two pages layouts.

These diary sets have been available for some time now for people to download and print on A4 paper. Steve and I have posted them here and on Philofaxy and they've proved popular. Now I am making available versions that will print on Letter paper, the North American standard. You can download whichever of these you want to try - or all of them if you like.

Each prints out on Letter paper, double sided. Each Letter sheet will contain two double-sided Personal Filofax pages, with crop marks showing you where to cut using a craft knife and ruler to release the individual pages. The templates are set up with mirrored gutters to accommodate the holes.

If all you want is a full year of diary pages, then you can download the 2014 diary sets. These come as Word documents or PDFs. If using the PDF be sure to set it to print at full size as explained here.

But if you want to use these layouts as a starting point for your own personalised creation, then you'll need to download the base Word file and the Excel data source. When you've made all the changes you like to the template, you can perform a mail merge to create your own insert for any period you like. Check out my Free Diary Pages link if you want more information on how to do this, including videos. 

So, here are today's layouts.

1. Week on two pages - TM


This is one of our most popular layouts, based on Filofax's Time Management inserts.

Download as a full 2014 set: Word file or PDF file

Download source files: Word file and Excel file (you'll need both)


2. Week on two pages - CC


This version is based on Filofax's Cotton Cream layout and doesn't give weekends the usual short shrift.

Download as a full 2014 set: Word file or PDF file

Download source files: Word file and Excel file (you'll need both)


3. Week on two pages - Vertical


For people whose weeks contain a lot of scheduled appointments, this layout helps you see it all.

Download as a full 2014 set: Word file or PDF file

Download source files: Word file and Excel file (you'll need both)


4. Week on two pages - Landscape


Something a little different this time. Filofax's landscape layout is rather discourteous to the weekends, so this version treats them more generously..

Download as a full 2014 set: Word file or PDF file

Download source files: Word file and Excel file (you'll need both)

Saturday 14 September 2013

How to make a credit card insert for your notebook cover

If you own a Midori Traveler's Notebook or a similar notebook cover (perhaps, like me, you have made your own) you might like to carry credit cards or membership cards with your notebook. It's pretty easy to make your own insert.


This tutorial will show you how to make such an insert in Field Notes size, but the principles apply to any size.

Start with a piece of thin card, and mark it out ready to cut:


Your piece will be 140mm high, the same as a Field Notes booklet. Each of the two main panels (the front and back cover, if you like) will be 90mm wide, again to match the notebook. Also, allow a 5mm spine, because this insert will sit between the notebook cover and the notebooks and will need to accommodate all teh notebooks in your cover when closed. If you have a particularly stuffed cover, you might want to expand this spine accordingly to - say - 10 or 12mm.

Cut out the piece, and gently score and then fold along the two lines of the spine. You'll have a piece now that looks like this:


If you want, you can now round the four corners to match the Field Notes profile.

Next, you'll need some self-adhesive, side opening business card pockets, like these ones from Amazon:

Check that the dimension of the pockets matches those of a credit card. Credit cards measure 86mm x 54mm, so these pockets, which measure 95mm x 60mm offer a good, tight fit.

Peel the backing away and stick two pockets on the insert, one above the other with the open edge facing outward. At the inward edge, make sure the closed edge of the pockets sit right up against the spine.


You'll notice that the open edge of the pockets protrudes beyond the edge of the insert. Trim this off with a sharp knife.

Next, you can cut out the little half-moon finger gaps that allow you to grip the cards. You can use a knife for this, too, but if you have a circular punch, this works very effectively.


You are cutting through both the front and back or the pocket as well as the card layer.


Here is what the finished piece looks like, with credit cards in place:


And here it is tucked into the notebook cover.


If you add pockets to all four of the insert's main surfaces (front and back of the front cover, front and back of the back cover) you can accommodate eight cards. With a full-size Midori cover you'll be able to get three on each surface, or twelve in all.

Tuesday 10 September 2013

When did you last ask, "What's on my plate?"

I do it all the time. I get all sorts of things I have to do, things I have to think about, conversations I have to have whizzing around in my head. At the start of a work day, I can cope with that; at the end of one, it can stop me properly enjoying my evening or even inhibit good sleep.

When I get in that situation, I've found a way to calm down the noise and relax. It's simply to get a piece of paper and write it all down - just as single words or short phrases. Once I've noted down everything that's on my plate I can put the list where I will see it tomorrow morning and instantly a weight seems to lift from me. Because now I know it will all be attended to and it doesn't have to keep flying around in my head, bothering me all night.

Now, you can do this with any old piece of paper, but I like the idea of visual metaphors. The trouble is, I'm no artist. Fortunately, though, I know a really talented one: Raine, who maintains the wonderful Lime Tree Fruits blog. I shared my concept with her and she got it straight away.

Raine's perfect design - this is the A5 version

Raine has produced a printable in a range of sizes that you can download for free and start using right away. I hope you will.

Handy Task Tabs for your A5 Filofax

You may remember the Handy Task Tabs I made available for the Filofax in personal size and later in pocket size:


Well, I've no idea why it has taken this long, but I have now produced versions for you to use with your A5 Filofax.

Print these templates onto A4 or Letter card and cut out using the usual crop marks. Then you can punch the holes and add slits from the holes to the left edge so you can move your tab around in your Filofax without opening the rings.

Download the Word template now: A4 version or Letter version

If you want your 'today' ruler to work harder, this could be just the thing.

Sunday 8 September 2013

Make your own information booklets for your Midori Traveler's Notebook

One of the benefits of owning a notebook system that accommodates multiple booklets is that not all of them have to be notebooks.

With the templates I am releasing today it is a simple matter to use your own content to print and bind information booklets on any topics of your choice.


My templates are set up ready for you to paste in your own material, which could be text, pictures or anything you want.

There are three different templates for you to choose from:

Information booklet template - full size - this produces a booklet measuring 210mm x 110mm, compatible with the regular Midori Traveler's Notebook

Information booklet template - FN size - this produces a booklet measuring 140mm x 90mm, the same as a Field Notes book or a Moleskine Pocket Cahier.

Information booklet template - passport size  - this produces a booklet measuring 124mm x 89mm, compatible with the Passport size Midori Traveler's Ntebook

Once you have added your own content, print the file double-sided on A4 paper in booklet mode. You can then bind the sheets into a cover and trim. This post will show you how.

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