3 Tips for finding the best diary for you

Finding your perfect diary or planner is very personal. What works best for you depends on your lifestyle, preferences and taste, and there are of course lots of different ways to use a diary. Although we also use digital planning solutions, a paper diary is a must-have organisation and time-management tool for us. To help you find the right one, to help give you clarity and up your productivity, we have put together our top three tips for finding the right one for you.

1. Diary Layout

Consider the layout. If you’re the type of person who likes to plan your day down to the hour, you might want a page-a-day layout or you choose to use a weekly layout diary in combination with a daily planner desk pad. A week-to-view layout will give you a bit more of a bird’s eye view of the week and allow you to see what’s coming up. If you just want a top level, month-to-view planner for appointments, birthdays or planning holidays, you might be better off with a monthly calendar, a birthday calendar or a wall planner.

It’s also worth considering how much writing space you might need. Do you tend to make a lot of notes in your planner? The Once Upon a Tuesday diaries come with a weekly layout that shows the days on the left and a full page for to-do lists, notes and priorities on the right - we need ALL the space for notes!

To give you the zoomed-out overview as well, there is a month-to-view double page spread at the start of each month as well as full year overviews for the current and following year.

2. The little extras

Apart from keeping track of the dates and commitments, what else do you want from your diary? Some people prefer a minimal ‘dates and that’s it’ one, whereas some want extra everything including contacts, time zones and area codes for the whole world. Personally, I would rather use my phone on the odd occasion that I might need something like that, rather than carrying it around with me all year in my diary. 

We poured over every detail when designing these diaries and thought long and hard about what ‘extras’ were actually useful. The things that would make planning and organising a little easier and more fun.

The first thing we knew we wanted in there was a period tracker. Tracking our cycles has been a game changer for a lot of our team and although you can use an app, we have found paper can offer more flexibility. Many people also have privacy concerns for using digital tools to track their menstrual cycle.

The Once Upon a Tuesday diaries also have:

• A ribbon place-hold
• Sturdy hardback cover
• List of Celebrations & Observances, UK & US holidays
• A lunar calendar
• Password log
• Page for important info
• And - extra notes pages

3. Environmental impact

Unless you’re living under a rock (actually, especially if you’re living under a rock), you’ll be aware that the things we buy and use have an environmental impact. 

Most of us want to do right by the planet, given the information, budget and time.

The cover

Plastic details and covers may be durable but they’re so durable that they’ll be around for hundreds of years. A bit unnecessary for a one year diary.

The paper

Virgin paper means more trees being cut down, more pollution, energy usage and waste water. While some products may need a small percentage of virgin fibre, recycled is almost always better. We only ever use 100% recycled paper.

And be sure to recycle your diary when the year is over!

The footprint

It can be hard to calculate the exact footprint of a product and there are a lot of factors to consider. But if it was made and shipped from the other side of the world, that would certainly bump up the environmental impact. The packaging can also add a lot of plastic and wasted material which is why we keep ours plastic free, recycled and minimal.

Interestingly, digital tools are not without a footprint either, the internet as a whole has a larger carbon footprint than the entire airline industry. 

The environment is in crisis and it is top of our priorities in everything we do. As a company that makes paper products, we're very aware that we want to make items that add value to the world and take as little away from it as possible. We’re not perfect but we try to constantly question and improve how we operate in the world.

Final thoughts on finding the best diary for you

Yes, there’s a lot to consider when choosing your perfect diary or year planner - the layout and how you will use it, the added extras and the environmental impact.

If you would like to have a look through ours, you can find the whole 2023 Diary collection here.
And give us a shout if you have any questions - studio@onceuponatuesday.co.uk