Steps for using a diary (paper planner) effectively

Diary is a special private book where we record memorable day-to-day activities or important activities that might have taken place at any point in time in our lives. It is a private place where we also pen down our thoughts, feelings and any other memorable events maybe from our workplace, school, homes and other places we might have been.



Most people take their dairy very important because they have some very important and private information written in it which they don’t want any other person to read. There are different diaries for different purposes. There are health diaries which are used to record information about health and nutrition. The food diaries are used to record menu tips, food ingredients and how to cook. Events diaries are used to record everyday events and activities, academic diaries for academic purposes and so on.


Using a diary may sound so simple because it is just a book. All you need to do is to get a pen and write whatever you want but this is not true. You need to clearly outline and write on a dairy in an orderly manner so it will be easy for you to find any information you have written at any certain date without wasting much time. We are going to take you through some guidelines on how to use a diary effectively.

1. How Big should your diary be? – This should be your first thought when getting a dairy. You need to decide on the size of dairy you should get. This depends on the information and activities that you will need to record in the diary. If you record information in a diary every day or every week, you will need to get a big diary but if it is once or twice a month you can get a smaller one.

2. Be Honest – After you have gotten the right kind of diary, the next thing you will want to do is to start writing on it. You need to be honest about anything you want to write. Write down your honest feelings, thoughts, and opinions without thinking twice about it. This way you have succeeded in recording the correct information about any events or happenings.

3. Title Each Record – After deciding on honesty, the next step is to Title each record or events. Give it a befitting heading or title so you can easily know what that particular record is all about at just a glance. The title should correspond with what the record is all about but shouldn’t be too long. Give it a precise and straightforward title.

4. Date – This is very important when writing in a diary. Every event happens on different date. Make sure you date every events or record as it will enable you to easily check or sought out any record you may be looking for. The date should be preferably at the top left corner of your record. Maybe an event occurred five days ago and you want to record it today, write today’s date on the top-left corner then include the date the event occurred in your write up. This is the perfect way to date a diary.

5. Be Detailed – When writing an event on a dairy try as much as possible to be detailed. Include the exact date and time the event occurred as it may be used for future references. Pen down everything that happened and everything you can remember. This will give you a detailed picture of that particular event anytime you may want to remember it in future. For example, you are walking down the road and you saw an accident just happened, it is best to keep a record of the exact time and date the accident happened.

6. Clear and Correct spellings – Always write in a clear manner and let your spellings be correct. Dairy is private but a dairy can assist in investigative purposes. People may want to read your diary in case of an event that happened years ago which they need to know about. Make your spelling and writings very clear and easy to understand. Punctuations, spellings and grammar usage should be perfect without errors.

7. Write Each Event/Record on a separate page – To have a well written orderly dairy, it is best to write each event or record on a separate page. For example, if you have written an event or recorded something on page one, turn to the next page to record the next event. If you record two different events on a single page you might get confused with dates and it will not look orderly.

8. Create a schedule – This is important if you record repeated patterns of events like if you are a student and you have an academic dairy where you record event that happens every day in school. You can create a schedule to record events maybe every day, once or twice a week. It totally depends on you and the extent in which you record events or any other thing you write in the diary.

9. Keep your diary safe but easily assessable by you – After you have successfully written on your diary in an orderly manner, the next thing for you to do is to keep it in a safe place so it will not fall into the wrong hands. Make sure it is perfectly safe but easily assessable by you. Don’t keep it in a place you will find difficult to remember. You can keep it in the drawer close to your bed and lock it up with a key. This way it is very safe and easily assessable by you.

These are the steps you need to follow in order to have a perfect and well-ordered written dairy. Your diary is part of you so make sure it is safe because it can cause you a great harm if it falls on the wrong hands because every private and important information you might have written on it can be used negatively by a wrong person.

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