In which we discuss Planner Fail and Downsizing

only a month ago i was telling you how much i loved my current set-up... and then what Laurie was talking about happened: it's Planner Fail Season.
i really really love my A5 Aqua Chameleon. it's perfect in so many ways: it's pretty, it looks durable [hope it is!], it smells good, it holds my whole life, it's easy to write in, it has a bunch of pockets [but never enough for me...], it's just awesome. and i'm truly a one life one binder kinda girl at heart, so having a very big binder makes sense, right? and it does fit in a lot of my handbags, which is great. well sure, it does break my back. but who cares?? except i saw my doc last week, and he was horrified by the state of my back and joints and, wait for it... i actually 'displaced' [no idea what the word might be in English] some ribs and bones from my back! so, how crazy is that?
now, i'm sure you see, it's really not a planner fail on my part... more on my back's part. but i do have some smaller handbags i would love to use...
so of course now i find myself considering a personal. i explained here why i thought i wouldn't like the personal size: i really like staying with the ISO proportions of A5, A6... and personal looks plain weird. But i've now been using a filofax consistently for a year, and i really don't see myself changing that and going back to using only google cal or a small notebook type of planner. i would miss the flexibility, ease of use, and pockets of the filofaxes too much. so here i am, looking at personal binders. and finding them prettier and prettier, more and more attractive every time i lift my handbag. i may or may not have a personal binder coming my way as you read this... watch this space.
i'm trying to wrap my mind around the idea of downsizing. i have not regretted my pocket once since switching to my A5 [except... why yes when my back hurts!]. as you may remember from my last set-up post, i have a lot of 'reference' info stored at the back of my binder, using the A-Z tabs. i love having all of that with me, it's so useful... but not necessarily used every day. so i guess this part will stay in my A5 at home. i will also only copy my most important contacts to my personal. i'll keep all my projects in the A5 and only copy their 'planning' part to my personal. in the personal i'll use note paper to write down any ideas about projects and such and transfer those to the A5 in the evening. i played around today with Steve and Ray's inserts to create my own week on one page + notes [using the dot paper ^^] and printed it out in personal size. i then proceeded to copy over last week's content from the A5 to the personal paper and it worked out pretty well! of course i think i'll need to take the pages out of the binder to write on them, but oh well i can live with that :)
i would also like to use the personal binder as a wallet, further reducing my handbag's weight... and i think it will work out, i may add a small purse on the side for coins, that's all...
i'll stop my ramblings here, not sure anyone stuck with me until the end of this post :) it's very nice to have a blog where i can just lay down my thoughts on this very important topic, without annoying my boyfriend, and maybe even interesting some readers ?
i'll let you know how this downsizing works out for me!