Facebook Feed & Day Planners…Oh My! (FF-022)

Originally Published: February 1, 2022

Revised: January 1, 2026

This may come as no surprise. Whatever you last looked at (or thought about) will show up in your social media feed.  That’s social media “active listening.”  

What is your feed often filled with?

Amongst the shoes, random household gadgets, and t-shirts about punctation preferences, my Facebook feed is also filled with Day Planners. Yes. Day Planners. 

There are so many to choose from with different shapes, sizes, colors, feel, and content. The pages are filled with everything from a basic schedule to a page that helps you design and reflect your Perfectly Productive Day. 

So how do you pick one?  Buying a day planner that has all of the bells and whistles is like buying a bakery when you really just need a birthday cake. Depending on how you plan to use the day planner, there are really only a few basic needs to consider. Everything else is just icing on the cake…or potentially inedible decorations on the cake when they are just “extras” that you don’t really need to use.   The day planner I use for personal usage is the At-a-Glance daily journal (similar to this one) and I rarely actually write in the planner. Why? Because I use it to ensure the basic needs and habits regarding use of a planner are met. Those basic needs and habits are:

• Scheduling Appointments and Meetings.  

Day Planners are perfect for scheduling your time. It is necessary for a good planner will have a place to put scheduled appointments and meetings. Yes, I realize by the very nature of what a Day Planner is, this box can be checked. However, be aware of your own personal preferences on how much space you want to write things in. Are you ok with hourly blocks? Do you need quarter-hour blocks? Are you find with a weekly planner?

• Future Plans.  

In many cases, a Day Planner is a great way to park things that you will need or want to do in the future. This is why I prefer a Daily Day Planner for my personal use. My habit is to paper-clip things to specific days depending on the activity or triggering event. 

For example, a dentist appointment would go into my digital Outlook calendar, and I would paper-clip the card reminder to the day in my day planner. Sometimes I have action items that will be an approximate date. I will paper-clip a reminder to the day I think the event will happen. I can also paper-clip bills to be paid on the date that I will mail out the bill. 

• Never leaving anything in the past.

On a related note, and speaking of habits, never leave anything in the past. Whatever Day Planner you use, I recommend clipping past days shut as a visual cue that that time is behind you. It is impossible to do any of the actions that were scheduled in the past. This means that anything undone – any meetings, tasks, pieces of paper that are triggers for something you need to do --- must be moved in time forward. By clipping your planner shut for any past dates, it will help reinforce this habit. Your future self with thank you for not leaving anything behind.

• Daily Checking.  

Finally, the last habit when using a Day Planner of any type: You must get into the habit of checking it every day. In fact, I recommend checking tomorrow before the end of today. Whatever is scheduled or paper-clipped or assigned should conform to your understanding of what tomorrow looks like. In the event something cannot happen, remember rule # 3 (Never leave anything in the past) and schedule it for a better time in the future

Ok, go off and enjoy your Day Planner shopping. If you still struggle with scheduling an intentional day, and you feel like you have don't have control over your outcomes, let’s schedule a time for a complimentary and no-pressure chat regarding your habits and productivity.