Filofax or not.

Mick,

I can't help feeling that you're a filofax man through and through. Stick with your gut feeling on this.

do you use a fountain pen too ?

If so, it'd be the perfect retro-chic!

Peter

Yes I always use a fountain pen. The ball point is just disgusting.

Regards

Mick

Mick,

I have to say, I prefer a deluxe ball point, but I take your point.

Congtrats on being recruited!

Pencil sharpeners, are good, but sharpened pencils on American planes are lethal terrorist weapons of choice, far more dangerous than the sword !

Fritz Von Mick I hope you'll be very happy over there

Mick,

Not a single doubt, stick to your filofax and fountain pen. This company has recruited you for who you are, and the way you do your work is part of that, including trivial aspects like personal organisers.

Cheers,

Edo

quote:

Originally posted by Edo Engel:
Mick,

Not a single doubt, stick to your filofax and fountain pen. This company has recruited you for who you are, and the way you do your work is part of that, including trivial aspects like personal organisers.

Cheers,

Edo

Yes, Halliburton's always been a stickler for results rather than thrills, innit

Stick with the filofax. The batteries do not run out. They don't break down. They are not fiddly to use. They will not become obsolescent overnight. I could go on.

Personally I use a lovely A4 sized leather wallet in which I keep meeting notes, short term diary and errr that's it. Contact details are on my phone. If I need anything else all I need is access to a computer. Simple.

Regards

Mike

Coloured crayons are very good too, that new Silicon Valley in Wales swears by them.


Fritz Von Plyd Cumru for Swindon

quote:

Originally posted by Mick Parry:
I must confess to liking the paper based Filofax because it is safe. I have an inbuilt fear of the circuits breaking down and losing all the information in the electronic ones

Mick - I would be afraid of losing the Filofax. With all your important dates and contacts in there it may be too huge a risk. The electronic versions are only an interface, and the important stuff - the info - is backed up safely in your PC, laptop, backup CD's etc. You have no backup with a Filofax. If you lose the PDA or it breaks, it won't matter much. You dash out, buy another, use someone's laptop to get your data off the CD you always carry, and you are up to speed again within the hour. This is for a professional business; I would think your team could be very worried about this aspect, and in Silicon Valley, loss of info would be inexcusable.
Just my opinion.

On the mac, but no doubt available on the PC is software which syncs all your addresses and schedules with a server somewhere. You log in with a password and update it with your calander programme.

That way when you click sync your PDA is automatically updated and so is the server side so that if you do lose your PDA all you need is access to a computer.

Of course a filofax is a lot nicer and what did people do before PDAs? Well I expect they looked after their filofax.

Rasher is spot on. Complete loss of this type of information may well expose you to your clients as being unprofessional and more importantly relect poorly on your employer.

I suggest that you speak to your prospective employer about this issue before making any decision. Given the specified mobile nature of your role, I would be amazed if any serious large business wouldn't be providing you with an electronic organiser either networked or to be backed up to the laptop that they would also be providing you with.

I have vivid flashbacks of filofax thefts, the subsequent days or weeks of attempted reconstruction and I learned the lesson. Any of my people whose job role involves leaving the offices are provided with an pre-configured ipaq and they must diarize all appointments, meetings, timelines, deadlines, summary attendance notes and billing time on these machines. It is child's play to operate, foolproof in terms of backup to the servers and gives them instant access to online resources. I'm not too concerned if an employee loses their personal memoirs, birthdays and anniversaries when their filofax gets lifted or left on the train, but if anything concerning the business was in there and hadn't been backed up then someone would be getting a bollocking. Touch wood, it hasn't been necessary.

Run your fingers over the patina, slide it into your bottom drawer and then have a word with your employer's IT dept.

BTW, coming out with stuff like "high flyers tend to use electronic organisors" will make you sound like a relic or an oik, and that's anywhere, never mind in silicon valley. If you're not actively seeking to cultivate this image, I'd recommend you desist.

Bigmick

You made some good points. Thank you.

Regards

Mick

Many congratulations on your new position, Mick. Why ever retire if you're able to work and if you can do some work that you enjoy?

Myself, I prefer a printed version of the address book held on my laptop PC, allied with a page-a-day (paper) diary. I've never fancied an electronic organizer.

As for pens, I was influenced by a teacher at my school who had an array of Parker 51s in his inside jacket pocket - one red, one black, one blue and one green. I thought that was very classy at the time.

I like the big Mont Blancs myself. When I lived in Paris there was a specialist shop between my apartment and the Champs Elysee in the 16th Arondissement. I'd often look through the window and drool.

Regards
Steve M

My God, you talk more old bollocks than I do Micky me old tosh, if yee cannie commnad a PA, cum Secretary, then yee might as well stay on the bloody retirement gravy train, innit.


Fritz Von Benedctine's more Conservative than you are

Paper filofax every time.

It always amuses me in a meeting when someone says 'Let's set a review date in a few weeks time..."

I have the filofax page open in 0.5 of a second, the technobillies haven't even got the little pokey thing out to prod the screen.

Can't be arsed with the fountain pen though - our boss uses one, and his hands are always covered in ink!

DS

If it were my business involved I'd prefer good old memory.

Fritz Von Only one way to keep a secret, innit

I'd go filo

Use a diary

Looks like 7 -v- 3 in favour of filofax.

And David Slater's comments are spot on!

Given that none of us know Mick's work patterns and specific needs in this regard, any number of people from disparate backgrounds baldly asserting that they do or do not use a filo or electronic device is rather futile and doesn't actually help Mick.

As I see it Mick, you need to ask yourself a few questions.

Firstly, is the filo simply going to be somewhere to record low value data, the odd telephone number, dates, times of meetings, review dates? If so, then then reconstruction will be merely an inconvenience, potentially embarrasing but not severely distressing and a filo will suffice or indeed be overkill in that a slim pocket diary would suffice and be less bulky. Sorted

If you are going to commit valuable information to your filo and you are likely to add to this information as you go along, possibly in the field, then both options will do the job to a greater or lesser extent, but if your filo goes missing you and the business are in trouble in the immediate term and the reconstruction, to the extent that it's possible, might well be time-consuming and professionally embarrassing in the medium term.

So, if the data is valuable and comprehensive, the clincher has to be the risk of loss or theft of that filo. If one is generally driving from one office to another then the risk of loss/theft would be significantly lower and so the filo may well suffice. Since you are likely to be using using taxis and planes to get to the US I would say that the risk is high. I personally would be extremely unimpressed and concerned to discover that any of my employees valued a marginal head start in the recording of even a date above the security and value of data from the meeting.

I've got a long flight this evening and meetings through Thursday and Friday. If at any stage between my front door and my meetings my ipaq disappears I can still access all my data remotely from the client's server or a cafe or restore the data to a new device. IMO for me to rely totally on a filo in this situation would be needlessly irresponsible and unprofessional.

When I read people sneering at the use of such technology I'm reminded of those who poured scorn on use of the filo as they shuffled their loose pages of notes into their manilla folders and committed dates to the back of ciggy packets. They too would crow at how they could scribble down something on a paper scrap whilst the filobillies were still leafing through to the right filo section. Funny guys. Funnier still when their clerks called up to ask for a copy of our attendance notes when they had mislaid theirs.

As I've said, a quick initial enquiry with the prospective employer would seem prudent and if they don't have a data policy then look at what you need it to do, the value of the data particularly when you're in the field and go with your gut. Pocket PCs are so cheap and small that you could easily keep one and the filo and run in them tandem to see if it's for you or not.

Mick
There are those who are always going to be employers. There are those who are always going to be employees. You know what I mean - leave it there. You haven't got the time.

Chaps

Thanks for the replies, I must admit my preference is for the Filofax but Bigmicks point about having a chat with the new boss is a valid one and I shall do just that.

Thanks to all.

Mick

I hope he roasts his own beans as well Jack ?

To be effective in today's globalised workplace you must have all the information readily and instantly accessable. The only practical way to do this is to memorise everything immediately upon encountering a new fact.

This may sound hard -- you may like to check the back of the Daily Mail for one of thouse "Improve Your Memory" small ads -- but you must do it to compete. If you don't you can bet your life that there will be some little chap in India or China who will not only do this but, but will do it for rather less money.

Matthew
Who switched to backs of envelopes after giving up smoking and losing access to fag packets

Very good Our Mat


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