Sep 4, 2024 - Business

How Iowa TikTok star and planner designer Linda Tong starts her day

Linh Ta

Linda Tong writing in a planner — Photo: Courtesy of Linda Tong

To-do lists and planner upkeep are typically mundane, administrative chores, but TikTok star and entrepreneur Linda Tong has made a viral business out of making organizing fun through Linda Tong Planners.

How it started: In 2017, as a sophomore at Iowa State, Tong bought blank notebooks and created bullet journals for herself. Soon after, her coworkers, friends and family also wanted her handwritten designs.

By her senior year, she was drawing 50 planners a year. Through an entrepreneurship class, she received funding to expand her business and manufacture and print her planners.
When she put her planner-making process on TikTok in 2020, it went viral and her business took off.

Here's how Tong starts her day:

⏰ Wake up: 2pm. She live streams herself packing orders on TikTok late at night and goes to bed at 6am.

🍳 Breakfast: A light pasta from Z'Mariks or Noodles & Company.

📚 What she's reading: Emails.

💡 How Tong stays organized: She uses to-do lists and "brain dumps" in them.

"I am a chaotic, organized person."

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How Iowa TikTok star and planner designer Linda Tong starts her day

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