Tim Smith is managing director of Prescience Film Finance, a London-based production, financing and international sales company. Since its 2005 launch, the company has raised more than £200m to finance films such as Conviction and The Edge of Love. Its latest, The King’s Speech, about George VI’s struggle to lose his stutter, is released this month amid much Oscar buzz. The drama, starring Colin Firth, won the People’s Choice Award at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival and recently cleaned up at the British Independent Film Awards.

You will always find inside…

A great big red A4 daybook Because I’m a compulsive list-maker. I make lists for absolutely everything, especially the things that control my working day. Just give me a pen and paper and I’ll start making a list.

An iPad This is actually all I need to work on now when I’m out of the offce. It has completely replaced the need for a laptop.

A Filofax I know this sounds very old-fashioned but I simply hate electronic diaries. I like to spread out my week across two pages and then fill in all my appointments and meetings by hand. It is easier to see.

A showreel I always carry a showreel of clips of all the films we’ve currently got on the go. You never know who you’ll meet. These days, of course, a showreel is a DVD.

Presentation documents I always have one or two fund presentations on me because almost every day I’m talking to diff erent investors about them backing some project or other.

The Daily Telegraph I don’t always carry a copy of the paper with me, but I get it delivered to my home every day because my son works as a journalist there.