Daily foot habits are extras you add yourself, so the useful question is what each one is meant to catch. Readers in Schaumburg, Illinois can hold every habit on this page to that question.
Which habits earn a place in the day
The decision is which habits to keep, and the claim attached to each is that it protects the foot. A PubMed Central paper on the system of care for the diabetic foot looks at foot care as a whole system, which is a useful backdrop for judging one habit at a time.
What the daily foot check is meant to deliver
A recommendation on PubMed Central (NIH) calls for general preventive foot self-care education for all people with diabetes, including those with loss of protective sensation. It names two ways to examine the feet: palpation, or visual inspection with an unbreakable mirror, for daily surveillance of early foot problems. The stated window is daily, and the stated target is early problems.
The fine print behind a nail rule
The American Diabetes Association advises that you be sure to trim toenails straight across, since cutting into the corners of the nail can cause ingrown toenails. The reason given is narrow. It addresses ingrown toenails and makes no wider promise, so read it as exactly that. The CDC's Tips for Healthy Feet graphic is another list to compare, and each tip on it deserves the same test of a stated reason.
Habits against doing nothing extra
Doing nothing extra leaves the looking to appointments. A daily check adds your own look in between, and the recommendation describes it as surveillance of early problems. A trimming rule is a smaller step with a smaller stated aim.
The verdict on foot habits
Keep both habits. Each comes with a stated reason from a named publisher, and the tool named for a visual check is an unbreakable mirror. Hold any other foot-care add-on to that same standard: a plain reason, from a source you can name.