When I wrote my last Scribbles post, I'd just settled on using the Mini Guildford Filofax. I ended that post with:

> It’s quite possible I’ll be back to the Moleskine within a day or two, or that I’ll try to stretch my jeans pocket to cram in my Pocket Filofax. I have a worrying amount of fun trying them, though, and that’s the important thing.

I was writing that entry in the Filofax at the time, and by time I'd written it, I was feeling cramped on such small paper. It doesn't help that the Mini paper has slightly wider lines than the larger Pocket paper. By the time I was typing that post up, I'd pretty much decided that the Mini was too small. I tried my old Pocket Lyndhurst again. It was good, with a lot more space for my notes, but a bit of a stretch on the pocket. Although they call that size "Pocket", it's only really for quite big pockets.

I did these 'scribbles' posts for a couple of days, then nothing. I didn't stop typing them up - I just didn't write any in the first place. Now that I am scribbling again, I'm doing it in a different place. I'm experimenting with using my Mini Filofax again. It's a bit of a trade-off, as these things so often are. The area of paper to write on is quite a bit smaller than in a Moleskine, so I'm using a lot more pages. On the other hand, though, the paper is better, and I can have separate sections for other things. I'm not keeping a real GTD system at the moment, but it's still useful to have some lists, like a wish list and a shopping list.

It's quite possible I'll be back to the Moleskine within a day or two, or that I'll try to stretch my jeans pocket to cram in my Pocket Filofax. I have a worrying amount of fun trying them, though, and that's the important thing.

I used to take the proverbial out of my husband for the way he'd constantly be fiddling around with his 'system'. He'd scribble his thoughts and ideas into notebooks, various sizes of filofax, various digital devices, but nothing really sticks and he's always changing his mind. It seemed quite hilarious and very odd to me, until a week or so ago. As 2007 prepares for the final curtain and 2008 waits in the wings, I also find myself in need of a comfortable and reliable way of recording my food diaries and other bits and bobs.

I recently switched back to using my Pocket Lyndhurst Filofax. Notebooks were going ok, but for the question of where my 'GTD-style' lists went. I tried putting them on the computer, but I never got around to even putting them there in the first place. I came up with a couple of different ideas for mixing them in with my usual daily notes, or putting them in the back of the same notebook, but neither felt right. It would either take too long to find a list when I needed to quickly check something, or it would take too long to copy the lists over every time I started a new book.

Much like Nan recently, I have had a wobble. Not physically wobbling - I do plenty of that every day. I stopped using my A5 Filofax for a while.

The way I'd been using it had one little hole in my system. I made notes, mixing in ideas, bits of writing, doodles, and tasks, all at random. I just worked forwards through a stack of pages. The idea was to then process those pages, into my GTD system, and archive pages off as they'd been processed.

I've been doing well with my Pocket Filofax. I usually swap 'systems' around quite regularly, and no paper system has really lasted a long time with me yet. My little Pocket Lyndhurst has done nearly five months now, and I'm still enjoying using it. The small size of the paper is a bit of a problem, but anything much bigger is just too much to carry everywhere.

Anyway, GeorgieR has done a bit better. He's posted a picture of his Pocket Filofax, with some pages dating back eighteen years. There's a real charm to the worn page edges, and it's nice to see these things age well.

Latest Update: Just added a link to the fountain pen version review, and a note that the pencil is actually a bit too thin for Filofax loops - holds in ok with the clip, though.

I'd seen pictures of the Pilot Birdie range, but they hadn't really interested me. I don't like pens and pencils that are too thin, and that's the real selling point of the Birdie - thinness.

Our friends at Cult Pens chucked one in with an order for us to try, and I was really quite surprised to find that I liked it. A lot. I don't actually use a pencil much these days, since my current obsession is fountain pens, but I do like to have one available. The Birdie has become the pencil I carry all the time, so when I'm not using a pencil, it's the Birdie I'm specifically not using.

Kevin Hall has written up an excellent detailed history of Filofax - the company more than the products. It's now owned by Phoenix Equity Partners, who bought it in March from Letts for £45 million.

It does seem a shame there's no manufacturing in the UK any more, but very few things are now, and I have to admit, I like the softer leather models.

In my previous posting "How To Temp and Keep Your Sanity", I wrote about the usefulness of taking your own stuff with you to temp bookings. I thought I'd share the contents of my own Temping Kit, to perhaps inspire you to put together your own or to prove that the baggage I lug around every day ain't just emotional...

Pens and Pencils

I carry a black pencil case in which I keep a selection from PigPog's pretty massive pen and pencil collection, along with a few other essentials.

Why should Moleskine users have all the fun? Filofaxes can be drawn in too...

• Nan's First Filofax Sketch.