Filofax

[redsturgeon]

Remember those.

For some reason a chap on the news had one, a real big thick black leather job.

I tried to explain to my 17 year old son what it was.

The best I could come up with was it was what people had before smart phones.

John

[bungeejumper]

The smartphone comparison seems good, except that you'd really have to say iPhone instead. Because nothing but the premium brand would ever do (there were plenty of cheap imitations), and it needed to be tastefully gold-blocked with your initials as well. Poser value was everything.

After Filofax came the electronic organiser (remember those?), which had the advantage that you could lose your entire address book if you hit the wrong button while you were changing the battery. Oh, how we laughed.

My wife still uses her Filofax (or rather, her cheapo substitute). That's because she has yet to migrate to a smartphone. Me, I keep all my contact details on a spreadsheet. I haven't even progressed to using an organiser yet.

BJ

[JMN2]

Remember those.

For some reason a chap on the news had one, a real big thick black leather job.

...

It could've been a moleskine, it has a pocket on the inside back cover for maps and papers and stuff, and you can "hack" them like this weirdo (fascinating sub-culture):

https://youtu.be/3Tjp8kJUSS4

[AleisterCrowley]

Moleskines are (or were) a fad a few years back. They are just big, reasonable quality notebooks, cashing in on a dubious Chatwin/Hemingway link.
They have branched out into planners, city guides etc so more Filofax-esque, without the removable pages...

[bungeejumper]

It could've been a moleskine, it has a pocket on the inside back cover for maps and papers and stuff, and you can "hack" them like this weirdo (fascinating sub-culture):

https://youtu.be/3Tjp8kJUSS4

Wow, a pocket on the back for papers and stuff? I wonder how much the design agency charged them for coming up with that idea?

Way back in the 1990s, I had a lucrative little sideline in the production of high-end desk diaries and organisers and so forth for a prestige international newspaper with pink pages. You had to know your moleskine from your calf leather and your (hawk, spit) "bonded" leather (for the masses), and you had to be super-precise about your gold-blocking and the superior quality of your super-thin paper. (You'd be dead if there was any printing ink "show-through" from the other side of the page.) And if anything at all was wrong with the product, you'd get your £900 Chairman's Diary set returned from Singapore in a jiffy bag with a very grumpy letter.

The point of all these products was they were intended to go with your Montblanc solid gold pen, and god forbid that anybody would ever use a biro. We did consider developing an electronic organiser, but the unanimous opinion from the top desk was that only a real cheapo would ever consider committing his records to something as common as an electronic gizmo. How times change.

BJ

[Watis]

It could've been a moleskine, it has a pocket on the inside back cover for maps and papers and stuff, and you can "hack" them like this weirdo (fascinating sub-culture):

https://youtu.be/3Tjp8kJUSS4

Wow, a pocket on the back for papers and stuff? I wonder how much the design agency charged them for coming up with that idea?

Way back in the 1990s, I had a lucrative little sideline in the production of high-end desk diaries and organisers and so forth for a prestige international newspaper with pink pages. You had to know your moleskine from your calf leather and your (hawk, spit) "bonded" leather (for the masses), and you had to be super-precise about your gold-blocking and the superior quality of your super-thin paper. (You'd be dead if there was any printing ink "show-through" from the other side of the page.) And if anything at all was wrong with the product, you'd get your £900 Chairman's Diary set returned from Singapore in a jiffy bag with a very grumpy letter.

The point of all these products was they were intended to go with your Montblanc solid gold pen, and god forbid that anybody would ever use a biro. We did consider developing an electronic organiser, but the unanimous opinion from the top desk was that only a real cheapo would ever consider committing his records to something as common as an electronic gizmo. How times change.

BJ

Back in the day I worked with a guy who took Filofaxing to the nth degree. He did all the usual filofaxy things but his edition came with a second file to hold archived pages. I'm sure he spent more time recording and cross-referencing the entries relating to his work than he did doing the actual work!

Watis

[UncleEbenezer]

Remember those.

They're a myth, surely?

Seriously, I lived through the '80s and never saw one. Actually thought for a long time the name referred to some electronic device, because surely there couldn't be such mystique around an oldfashioned paper diary

[kiloran]

Remember those.

They're a myth, surely?

Seriously, I lived through the '80s and never saw one. Actually thought for a long time the name referred to some electronic device, because surely there couldn't be such mystique around an oldfashioned paper diary

At the company I worked for, just about everyone from finance, sales, marketing and management carried them around everywhere (I would class a good 50% of them as posers/poseurs). Engineers managed very well with simple notebooks.

--kiloran

[AleisterCrowley]

I can remember them well - they seemed to be linked to yuppies, wine bars, Golf GTis and all that guff
I had a 'work issue' organiser made by 'Time/System' which was very swish, but I normally relied on Post-It notes and squared paper, bundled with treasury tags...

[rivershiven]

I can remember them well - they seemed to be linked to yuppies, wine bars,..

...... Reliant Robins?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=63rcdLeXiU8

[rabbit]

Remember those.

They're a myth, surely?

Seriously, I lived through the '80s and never saw one. Actually thought for a long time the name referred to some electronic device, because surely there couldn't be such mystique around an oldfashioned paper diary

Still got one, and I use it as my planner diary. Technologically it fits nicely between the smartphone and the pieces of recycled paper that I use for everyday organisational and note-keeping purposes!

[melonfool]

I loved mine, I kind of miss it - only got rid of it recently.

I had all sorts of inserts, like a London A-Z, a hole punch and rule, graph paper, different colour paper, a special thing to put business cards in, a recipe organising section.... It had a pocket in the back cover and in the front it had one of those clear windows for a photograph and I had a picture of a clown in that was drawn by one of my charges at the time. Mine was a 'Windsor' and I got it for my 18th birthday I think.

Exactly like this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FILOFAX-WIND ... rmvSB=true

And like AC, I had the Time Management System (TMS?) from work, that was a lot bigger and quite annoying, I generally only used the year planner so in the end I just took that page out and carried it with me.

Mel

[Watis]

I loved mine, I kind of miss it - only got rid of it recently.

I had all sorts of inserts, like a London A-Z, a hole punch and rule, graph paper, different colour paper, a special thing to put business cards in, a recipe organising section.... It had a pocket in the back cover and in the front it had one of those clear windows for a photograph and I had a picture of a clown in that was drawn by one of my charges at the time. Mine was a 'Windsor' and I got it for my 18th birthday I think.

Exactly like this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FILOFAX-WIND ... rmvSB=true

And like AC, I had the Time Management System (TMS?) from work, that was a lot bigger and quite annoying, I generally only used the year planner so in the end I just took that page out and carried it with me.

Mel

Ah, yes, the old TMS. A friend was given one of these by his employer - and with it a course on how to use it, and time management generally.

Watis

[JMN2]

I was given a blackberry by my new employer once when I thought I might still be able to work in an office, hundreds of emails a day non-stop, everyone cc:ed on everything, after 8 days on Friday afternoon I left it on the desk and told them to stuff it.

[UncleEbenezer]

hundreds of emails a day non-stop, everyone cc:ed on everything

procmail is your friend.

(If you can't fix that kind of problem at source.)

[AleisterCrowley]

...
And like AC, I had the Time Management System (TMS?) from work, that was a lot bigger and quite annoying, I generally only used the year planner so in the end I just took that page out and carried it with me.

Mel

If we are talking about the same one;

http://www.timesystem.co.uk/index.php?page=21

I did try to use mine 'correctly' but ended up using the blank paper for meeting notes, and little else. I think the year planner was used for birthdays and leave... Still got it somewhere at work.

[ten0rman]

I still have one, at least I think that's what it is - it's actually called a Personal Organiser, by WHSmith and bound in "real leather".

I use it for names, addresses, birthdays & telephone numbers plus misc info such as userid's etc. I only use it at home and I find it far faster when looking up something than trying to find something electronically, or when trying to remember something. Plus, of course, it always works!

ten0rman

[DiamondEcho]

Similar to some others above, I've had one since the late 80s and routinely used it until perhaps 7-10yrs ago. It becomes difficult when you live somewhere where the inserts are not readily available. When I move back to the UK I'll probably look at updating it. The beauty is it's small and portable, perfect for when away from home or on holiday. No passwords. No viruses, spyware etc. Works even during a power cut. Doesn't need recharging. Doesn't force you into $$ or complex upgrades. I (phone-wise an Android user) could hand it to my wife (an iPhone user) and it's so simple and intuitive to use I wouldn't have to coach her in how to use it - 'Aunt Betty's address? It's in the Filofax darling!'. It's never going to start ringing at 4am when I'm off on some remote holiday trip

Inserts I used [from distant memory] included:
A diary
pages to keep track of my spending and hence overall accounts and financial status [having a simple way of doing this certainly encouraged the discipline to start keeping close track of my finances, something I continue to the current day].
address book
fold-out map of inner-London and another of the underground
A mini Time-Out guide perhaps for rated London pubs
Pages that held business cards
Blank pages for notes, drawings etc.
A thin plastic insert that was a solar-powered calculator, with the markings on the side as per a ruler.

I expect I could use the above functions more quickly, economically and reliably than most people could the equivalent on their smartphones.

[kiloran]

....The beauty is it's small and portable, perfect for when away from home or on holiday. No passwords. No viruses, spyware etc.

No backup either

--kiloran

[Watis]

....The beauty is it's small and portable, perfect for when away from home or on holiday. No passwords. No viruses, spyware etc.

No backup either

--kiloran

And no backlight, so unusable in a night-time power cut.

Watis