My anti-FOMO trend system for marketers

_{Day 76/100 (Final stretch now)}

Hey—It's Tim. 

I just moved my ass outta Vancouver and into the mountains above Osoyoos.
Thought I was trading clouds for sunshine.

It’s May. It snowed yesterday.
Absolutely blew my little brain.

So I’m standing there, frost on the windows, refreshing Google Trends like it’s a slot machine -
watching “OpenAI” spike
“TikTok Notes” drop
“Marketing’s dead” rise from the grave again.

And I realised:
This habit is insane.
Refreshing trends daily with no system is how your brain gets turned into scroll soup.

So here’s how I fixed it.
A simple, pragmatic way to monitor trends - without frying your brain.

1. Set up your radar (once)

Create a system that tells you what’s popping off — without you having to go dig.

Here’s my stack:

Google Trends → Explore → Trending Now

• Bookmark this: https://trends.google.com/trending

• Use filters: pick your country, category (e.g. Business, Tech), and check “Real-time” trends.

X (Twitter) → Search → “trending in” + your niche

• Use advanced search with filters like min_faves:50 or min_retweets:20

• Or follow @unusual_whales, @sweatystartup, @every for noise-free signal.

• Or head over to https://getdaytrends.com/ to see an overview of everything on Twitter

Reddit → r/popular

• Great for spotting early waves (like “niche idea goes mainstream” stuff).

• This is my fav tool for this - https://reddstats.com/

  • Like legit, no one knows about this site.

Exploding Topics → Weekly Email

• Free version gives 3–5 hot topics with actual velocity data

• If you’ve got budget, Pro has historical growth charts and SEO insights

2. Put it on autopilot

Instead of checking 10 sites, get the web to come to you.

Here’s how:

Google Alerts

• Set alerts for keywords like:
  "[niche] trend", "new [tool] for [job]", "[your industry] is dead"

• Make them weekly (not daily) to avoid burnout.

Use Mailbrew / Feedly / Stoop

• Curate your own “trends feed” from blogs, subreddits, YouTube channels, newsletters.

• Takes 10 mins to set up. Saves you hours.

Calendar block: 1x/week trend scan

• Pick a 30-min window. That’s it.

• No scrolling. No FOMO. Just check your dashboards, note anything interesting, and move on.

3. Build a “Trend Vault”

Most trends aren’t useful today. But they might be next month.

That’s why you want a dead-simple tracking vault.
Here’s mine:

Notion or Coda table with:

• Trend name

• Source / link

• Why it matters

• Content idea / angle

Optional: Add columns like “spiking,” “simmering,” “dead” if you’re feeling spicy.

Every Monday, scan your vault → pick 1 trend → ship something.
A post, a meme, a blog, a quick email. That’s the game.

TL;DR for people who scroll like me:

• Set up radar tools (Google Trends, Reddit, Twitter, Exploding Topics)

• Automate info intake (alerts, newsletters, feeds)

• Save trends to a vault you check weekly

• Stop scrolling. Start shipping

See you tomorrow.

✌️ Tim “Refresh Button Addict” Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.

P.S. It’s Monday. The to-do list is already side-eyeing you. Pretend you don’t see it.

Penfriend.ai
Made by content marketers. Used by better ones.