pinterest, but make it intentional
how to beat everyone's favorite app's algorithm
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I love Pinterest.
Some may say I am a veteran user—I’ve been using it since 2017 or 2018, when WeHeartIt died and I needed to find a place to make moodboards for my novels and their characters.
Pinterest is an amazing tool for writers—it has helped me visualize characters, inspired plotlines and lent me a hand with countless descriptions. I still have entire boards inspired by stories that I haven’t written yet, waiting for me to revisit them and face the blank page again.
(If you are interested in learning how to use Pinterest as a writer, you can also let me know in the comments—I have been thinking about writing a long-form piece about it for a long time).
Everything changed when the app went viral on TikTok, though. Before, it was mostly links to articles, self-care tips and travel destinations. However, after the Big Pinterest Wave in 2020, the way everyone was using the app kind of switched.
Suddenly, Pinterest became the place of worship for fashion lovers and for those who wanted to manifest their dream life.
If you were stylish, you were no longer a ‘Tumblr girl’. Even now, almost five years later, becoming a ‘Pinterest girl’ is the goal.
After recently quitting most of my social media, I realized that my Pinterest has become nothing but clutter: the countless unfinished boards. The messed-up algorithm. The infinite ads that I accidentally click on because I mistake them for pins.
I realized it was no longer about me saving pins that inspired me. It was an algorithm feeding me ideas, and me believing they were my own. After more than seven years of using this site, I was no longer shaping the algorithm—the algorithm was shaping me.
Algorithms can make your experience on the Internet more personal, but they can also put you in a box and limit your opportunities to grow.
When I realized this, I decided it was time to take action. Again, I love Pinterest—everyone does. We love the instant inspiration, we love to build our little boards and fill them with images of the person we want to become.
But, lately, it just feels like ads fill half of our feeds and unfinished boards. Even for us fashion lovers, it feels like microtrends are being constantly shoved in our faces, erasing our individual identity and making us buy things that we don’t even know if we want.
I don’t want an algorithm to tell me what I want—I want to decide that for myself. And if you are tired of opening the app and not even remembering what brought you there in the first place, I have the perfect formula for you.
I use this formula, mostly, to be more intentional about my fashion, the things I want to buy, the things I want to achieve, and the places I want to visit—but you can adapt it as you wish so it fits your own personal goals.
How to use Pinterest more intentionally
STEP 1: Create a new account. We are starting from scratch, so the algorithm can’t tell us who we are anymore. We get to decide this time.
STEP 2: Create your first board, and call it ‘2025’. This will be your main—or only, even—board.
STEP 3: Don’t go straight to the homepage for inspiration. Instead, open the Notes app or get off your phone and sit with a notebook.
STEP 4: Write this month’s name. Is it February? Great. Since February has only 28 days, you will write down from 0 to 28 things you want to focus on this month. (For months that have 30 days, for instance, it will be 30 things).
This could be anything—from fashion items you have been wanting to get for the longest time, to places you would like to visit this month, things you want to do with your friends, or habits you want to implement in your life, like going to the gym or reading more.
The important thing is that you make it tangible.
The important thing is that you make it realistic.
It’s about setting intentions for the month. However, I recommend you don’t write the 28 intentions straight away. Write maybe 10, or 15, and let the others come as the month progresses.
STEP 5: Go back to Pinterest. Inside your ‘2025’ board, create a section—meaning a smaller board—with the name of this month. In this case, it will be called ‘February’.
STEP 6: Go through the list you just wrote and start searching for images that represent your intentions. It’s important that you use the search bar instead of the algorithmic recommended images—and that you save them in your monthly section. For example:
Do you want to buy a big red scarf, or do you have one and you don’t know how to style it?
Easy. Search for ‘big red scarf outfits’.
Do you want to go more to the gym?
‘Gym aesthetic’.
Do you want to host a dinner party for your friends?
‘Dinner party aesthetic’. You get the idea, right? The images don’t have to be literal if you don’t want them to, though. They can represent the intention. They can be metaphors. As long as you understand them, that’s fine.
Just for inspiration, this is how my January section looked like. And I achieved about 85% of it!
STEP 7: It’s very important that you don’t save more pictures than days of the month. In February, you can only save up to 28 pictures. In March, up to 31.
This way, we are more intentional about what we want. We focus on just a handful of things and we set our minds to it, instead of being constantly bombarded with ideas of what we should be doing/wearing/who we should become.
As the month progresses, though, you will be doing these three things:
STEP 8: Check your board from time to time, to remind yourself of this month’s goals. Avoid the homepage and the recommended pins as much as you can.
STEP 9: Mark the pictures with the ‘favorites’ star every time you achieve something in your board. So, did you finally get the red scarf you wanted? Great. Star. Did you finally host that dinner party for your friends? Perfect. Star.
STEP 10: You might have noticed that a couple of images from my January section are also in my February one. Well, that’s because if you haven’t achieved some things by the end of the month—maybe you didn’t go to the gym, or you couldn’t style your hair in the way that you wanted—, you should remind yourself that’s fine.
When a new month starts, ask yourself: ‘Do I still want this?,’ and, if you do, add the same picture to that month’s section. This way, we don’t forget about our goals.
This formula has worked wonders for me in January, and it’s starting to work for February as well—especially when it comes to being more experimental with my style. I feel like I was so bombarded with different aesthetics and micro-trends that I got stuck…, and I didn’t even know what my personal style was.
I am finally starting to find out.
It’s also incredibly helpful to avoid mindless shopping. The other day I was in the best thrift shop I have ever visited, but I didn’t buy a thing. I knew exactly what I wanted to get, and, since I didn’t find it, that was enough for me. Two months ago, I would have probably bought something that I wouldn’t even know how to fit into my closet.
Same with making plans or setting intentions for the month. Of course, you can still use the typical to-do list in your journal. But, for some reason—Internet addiction, maybe? Or years and years of creating vision boards?—, it’s more meaningful to me if I have a visual representation of them.
For the visual inspiration girlies—don’t panic. You can still create other Pinterest boards.
I have another board in this new account, for example, which is called ‘inspiration’. I try to keep it very small. And I try to avoid the algorithmic recommendations as much as I can, but I let myself use them from time to time. My homepage is not that curated right now—I didn’t give the algorithm the chance to know me that well—and I plan on keeping it that way.
I don’t want to be inside of an algorithmic bubble. I am a human being. I want to discover what I like. I want to engage with the world, and experiment by myself.
Even if this board is filled with images that I still don’t know how to fit in my monthly sections, you can still see there’s some kind of correlation in all the pictures. This is how I know I am starting to build a personal style.
The black and red, that bag being everywhere. The glasses. The lace and the leather. It feels like me, this time for real. And even if I don’t know when I will get these items, who knows? Maybe I set my mind to buy the red bag in April, if I still want it.
I have another board with art pieces that I really like—and that inspire me somehow. I love art, I love photography, I love fashion. And even if I don’t want to miss the practical benefits of having the monthly sections mentioned above, sometimes it’s fun to just look at pictures. In this board, for example, you can also see a collection of things I really like:
What I am trying to say with this is that, even if this formula is helpful, you can still have fun with Pinterest. You just need to be mindful, avoid the algorithmic recommendations, and keep it short. Keep it tangible. Keep it real.
Fighting the algorithmic nature of social media is difficult. However, we need to stay mindful and consider how it might be impacting us every day, and how we can work towards using technology in a more intentional way.
Don’t forget. The Internet was meant to be a tool, not a prison.
loved this!! as a writer as well i’d love to see a post on how to utilise it for that as well 💌
Love this! Absolutely stellar ideas, especially the limitations.