A week of arranging

Its half term which means lots of lesson planning, studying, arranging the study again as it looks a tip, ebaying my items and hopefully back to the gym.

First I have a gym fail, I was booked for a training session but I had a bad night and my back and head were hurting this morning so I cancelled and will go later this week, a shame but I have to listen to what this (failing) body is telling me.

I have reorganised my study and hopefully made it more streamlined, meaning I have my OU study books nearer to hand, books for work elsewhere but not too far for lesson planning.
I decided to use my A5 red domino as my book review and blog ideas filo. I have to submit book reviews for work to help the students decide what to read. My school actively encourages the students to read and us adults have to lead by example. Not that I have a problem with that as absolutely love reading but the issue I have is keeping tabs on what I have read, views on what I have read and what I want to read. So using the kindness of Philofaxy I printed off some of their files, if you are interested in some of their templates please click here these pages have now been added to my Domino, the reviews will be filed there to help me with keeping my views updated.
As much as I love the A5 size I find the inserts from Filofax sadly lacking by A5 is a good size to print out and therefore customisation is an option.  As a result I have also designed my own study planner page to fit my daily A5 that will sit alongside my week on 2 pages diary within my filofax.  I am seriously considering getting a zipped Holborn A5, there are not many about now in the colour I want but I love the Holborn range so much I will investigate my options there.
I have split my current set up between work and personal under their respective tabs.  Right now I have the following tabs:-
To do Personal
To do Work
Diary
Projects Personal
Projects Work
Information Personal
Information Work
Financial
Notes
Contacts

The tabs are currently blank whilst I consider this set up, if I am happy I will ink the tabs.

With the clocks going back and the cold weather settling in my thoughts turn to the next year and goals and aspirations that I may have for 2013.  I hope that my degree will be complete in 2013 and I can turn to some different study that isn't against the clock.  Tomorrow is a big study day and as I don't want to get distracted with things around the home I am camping it out at the local library, I hope its warm in there.

Back off

It's all gone slightly wrong.  I was getting back into the gym session when suddenly right at the beginning of BOKWA yesterday I put my back out.  I wouldn't mind but I only did about 2 minutes of actual exercise and spend the rest of the hour having first aid applied and being completely embarrassed by the whole thing.
Problem being that the back is a huge part of the body and we never think much of it until it hurts.  My job today has been a total chore, I can't help the kids as I would have liked, it takes me about 5 minutes to sit down and another 15 for the spasms to stop once seated.  Even stopping at red lights caused pain.
I am hoping with lots of heat and painkillers I am on the road to recovery by the morning, I can't cope with the lack of sleep for much longer and I will end up getting high (or addicted) to the painkillers.

On another note half term is just a week away. Never has a half term been so looked forward to as this one has.  I love my job, absolutely love it and I really like the staff and kids I work with but it has been so full on for 8 weeks.  Need to recharge the batteries ready for the run up to Christmas and help the students climb the levels they need to climb.
I need to also study during the weeks break and catch up on some module reading that I have let slide whilst drafting my first TMA.

On a final note, kindle bah! A few months ago I purchased the touch only to see a new version paper white has been released this week, how annoying, is it worth the upgrade?? I love my kindle its a great little item so the fact there is a better version coming out is annoying.  I will have to check the reviews and decide.

My Pennybridge

My red A5 Pennybridge was finally collected from the Post Office, I was so excited to get it home and set it up.

Out of the box first impressions are that it is a nice filofax/ipad combo but there are a few little niggles with it.
Firstly, although the filofax part comes apart from the rest of the cover the back cover to the filofax is ugly and for that reason I would not want to carry it around on its own.  The front is lovely as is the rest of the case but this back part is just too unsightly.  It is like a black glossy card that does not blend well with the red on the front and spine.
Secondly, the pen loop is attached to the case not to the filofax so if you did want to carry around the filofax on its own you need to carry a pen separately.
Two niggles so far.

I like the idea that it can be separated out and have the filofax on its own when needed and if there are other models that do not look so ugly when separated I would be interested.
When the ipad is in, the whole thing is big and heavy but I guessed that would be the case anyway.  I don't always want to carry the ipad everywhere but to be honest because of the back cover issue and lack of pen loop I am not happy about using the filofax on its own when I don't need the ipad.
The ipad sits in it very nicely and feels very secure and it is nice to have it alongside a paper diary.  So I may have to change the usage of it to being desk based permanently and think of another carry round filofax that is A5.

After next week I hope to update how I have finally set up my new friend and will be able to post some pictures (I hope).

I like the A5 size, to me it means I can now join together my study diary and personal diary and not have to carry to personal sized filofaxes around, means I haven't got to write things out twice either.  I like the space you get with an A5, plenty of diary room and the note pages are a great size.  I have even been able to slot in a Livescribe pad into the set up and use that for study.  I am concerned that there isn't as much available refill wise for the A5 filofaxes, but being A5 it is easier to print things out and keep them unlike the personal.  The A5 is great for multi tasking and to be honest it isn't much heavier than my personal when the ipad is at home.

I just need to look at the other A5 filofax styles to see if there is something that suits.  I love my personal Holborn (wine colour zipped) and Holborn (personal black slim) so maybe another Holborn but in A5.

Over these past few weeks I have realised how essential it is to be organised, I don't just mean with study and personal life but with work too as it is so full on.  I still like the flex system for work and I love the A5 size for that.  It is slim to carry about and it is so versatile.

I will be ebaying some of my filofaxes soon, Cuban zipped personal size and a personal size Malden are to go I will post when they are up.

I am back in the gym again tonight, spin class and I am hoping now work has calmed a bit I can get back in even more.

Flexing my organisational skills

It’s been a manic few weeks hence the silence on blog.

The new job although absolutely amazing is also full on and very tiring and as a result I had been left with little time to do much else.

The school is what I had hoped it would be, fully supportive to the students and staff alike and if I had a child I would want them to go there as the system is so great, everyone gets a chance and no labels! I felt very strongly in the past about a child being labelled throughout their school life, sometimes a student cannot help themselves and will always be off track but others make one mistake and they are labelled for the next 5 or so years.

My penultimate Open University course is now over and I am on the final module with a big sigh of relief as its back to literature now. I have finished reading Harry Potter today and ready to write my first TMA for EA300 and I hope now I have made this good start I can keep it up for the whole course.  I have looked at what to study in the future, fingers crossed this time next year I will have  degree in English Language and Literature but I want to progress on and make sure I don't become stale.  I will want to study for another degree that holds professional interest as well as private like Psychology

I went back to the gym for the first time in a few weeks too, it was hard work and I am so aware (if I wasn’t before) on how I have let things slip so much there. I was slightly annoyed with my gym, nobody’s fault really as such but it has led me to stop my personal training sessions. I liked training with Mike and my stopping my sessions is no reflection on him but a reflection on the expenses heaped on by my gym. The gym without PT sessions is expensive enough and the price increased greatly this year for nothing extra, in fact some things had been taken away from my membership. When I got a text to say that Mikes fees were going to increase I knew I couldn’t go on any more paying these sums of money out. On reflection I did like having a personal training but I can achieve the same results by classes and focus myself. I just need to make sure I factor my gym sessions in with study and work and everything else.

I feel that I have not had a great balance for the last month and I have also allowed other negative things to creep in, but now that stops. These last few weeks I have had numerous headaches and migraines, some so crippling all I can do is crawl to bed. This was a wakeup call to my mental and physical health and has put me back on the right path. I hope that I now become mentally strong and able to hold down my lovely job whilst continuing my studying and physically strong to cope with the day to day trauma my job can bring whilst getting back to the gym.

With everything that’s been going on I have had to review my organisation. I used to use an A5 Domino filofax for work, I have found this to be slightly impractical on a day to day basis in my new role but I have found a saviour, an A5 filofax flex. Who would have thought it?? I was anti flex when it first came out, but looking around for organisation ideas I revisited the flex system and wondered if this could be the answer. Found one in a sale a pink one (although they call it magenta) and I have not looked back since, used daily I make notes with regards to the students or lessons I am in, I slot the lesson plans for the day inside the note book and the calendar is there for the daily briefing. Then once a week if I want to, I move what I need to my Domino. The jot pad is my to do list as well as other things I need to focus on, e.g. book recommendations from the students or ideas for merit giving. It’s slim enough to pop into my resource folder (as I don’t carry my handbag around anymore) but easy to get to when I need it.

I had a major organisational issue with my personal diaries/work diaries/study diaries that cause many an issue for me that took ages to resolve. It was down to an electronic organisation; thank goodness I had my personal Holborn to fall back on. Basically in a nut shell I started to use Google calendar for study as that’s what the OU used for a study diary and decided to use that for the work diary when desk based with the flex as a carry round. Trying to link my Blackberry to the Google diary meant I lost everything everywhere, I was in bits and it took hours to get back. It meant that I realised that no matter what the humble filofax can never be replaced. However, I wanted to embrace new technology, after all I love my Blackberry and Ipad, how to amalgamate them all I wondered? Luckily for me the filofax website had the answer, I saw the Pennybridge A5 it’s the best of all worlds. I collect the parcel from the post office tomorrow so I can’t blog about the set up yet but I have high hopes. At this point I would like to thank Parcelforce for the limited ways of getting my parcel from Filofax. Parcelforce tried to deliver during the week, I wasn’t in (at work) so they took it away instead of trying a neighbour like my postman or yodel do. Parcelforce don’t redeliver if they have taken the parcel at a local post office and the local post office isn’t work hour friendly. It has been rather frustrating getting my parcel and for me to get it tomorrow means I have to leave work early just so I can get there before the post office closes. Annoying and not my fault but I have to take the time out to get something I have paid a lot for. Maybe Parcelforce need to review their delivery options or Filofax UK need to try other methods of delivery.

Back to the Pennybridge, I will have the option of just having the filofax or having the filofax with the Ipad and my phone is always with me anyway, so the best of everything. I cannot wait to set it up properly tomorrow evening. I will be moving from personal size to A5 and I am not sure who that pans out and I love my Holborn and I am very sad that won’t be in action. However, upon reflection the Pennybridge although used day to day could be left at home a fair bit so the Holborn will still be used on the days when I don’t need the Pennybridge. Maybe Filofax need to make a Holborn version that also takes the Ipad, if they every do I will be first in the queue!! I am keen to know of anyone else who has successfully switched from a personal size Filofax to A5 and if it was worth the extra weight and size.