Guess who’s gone for years without having an official plan for rolling out content from week to week? Well, that would be yours truly, of course. I’m not stating this fact because I’m proud of it. I’m stating this fact to tell you that content can come out into the world without being properly planned out. But, it’s really an inefficient way (stressful too, sometimes) to maneuver in the content creation world.
And, I’ve functioned like that for years. I don’t know how I managed to do that. Wait, I take that back. Yes, I think I know how I’ve been able to manage this helter-skelter way of content creation. I survived because I happen to have so many content ideas running around in my brain at any one time. My overactive brain has, therefore, saved my rear end a time or two. And surprisingly, my unorganized system thankfully worked for the entirety of my content creation career till this recent point in time.
But, I don’t like the way I’ve managed my content. I’ve outgrown it. I’m downright tired of it. And, I’ve turned over a new creative leaf.
I let my non-method way of putting out content go within this first quarter of 2022. In fact, the month of February marked the official start of my new content creation planning system.
I’m going to share a bit of that new system with you today, if that’s okay.
And let me just start out by stating that there are soooooooooooooooo many Creatives out here who have been gracious enough to share their wisdom and their systems for content planning, their content planners, their content calendars, and the like. But, I’ve never actually focused in on any one of their blog posts, YouTube videos, podcasts, etc.
I purposely avoided them (not because I didn’t think their systems were effective or could be helpful to me, but because I wanted to naturally (organically) come up with a system that catered specifically to my content needs without outside influence). I wanted to develop my own system that developed out of a need to get myself and my content in efficient working order.
The madness had to stop and the organized strategy had to come in.
So, here’s what I did for the months of February and March, and what I plan on continuing to do until I develop a better plan in the future. And, it’s so simple, folks. Remember: my goal this year is to simplify life. Therefore, I designed . . .
A monthly content calendar/planner and I’m sticking to it (for the most part, anyway). Needless to say, flexibility will always be a key player in my strategy of strategies. Therefore, I reserve the right to tweak the contents of my content calendar/planner, if need be. I’m just sayin’.
Weekly content calendars are great, but I like planning my content out a month at a time with the intent to follow the calendar to the “T”, but knowing that changes can arise if more opportune content subject matter comes up and needs to replace what’s originally on the monthly calendar/planner. Monthly planning gives me enough planned content out into the future to where I’m not having to content plan each and every work day. And, it’s not too far out that I’m constantly changing items on the calendar/planner because it’s virtually impossible to perfectly plan way in advance. (Life happens and alters the best-laid plans every time.) So, monthly planning seems to be the right fit for the time being.
And here’s what I do: I take some time out of my schedule one or two days before the first day of the next month to plan out all my content ideas for that upcoming month. It gives me such relief knowing I have a plan laid out for the roll out of my content for the upcoming month. Consequently, I don’t have to waste time thinking each day trying to figure out what in the world I’m going to put out on the Degrees of Maternity blog, podcast, YouTube channel, blogging forums, and social media outlets.
No, I don’t have to think hard about it during the week, because I already did all the heavy lifting in one sit-down session with me, myself, and I. I essentially took time to hash out everything I need to content create for the month (prior to the start of that month).
Now, I can’t help you with the ideas for the content you plan out. That comes from your genius and your readers’ and viewers’ needs and wants, but I can help you with the logistics for the items you might want to include on your content calendar/planner. And I might as well be honest with you when I tell you that I just use a plain piece of blank paper to write out my calendar/planner. Yes, I’m old school. I WRITE it all out. (Haven’t gone so far as to create a nice document for it yet, but I probably will in the future. Or, maybe not if what I’m currently doing does the job and does it well. If I do create something, however, I’ll make sure and share it with you.)
For now, paper works. And whatever you decide to use — blank paper, lined paper, a Word doc, Google docs, Google calendar, etc., do YOU. Use the tool that works best for capturing your content planning the way that makes sense to you. (I just happen to like the hard copy stuff that I can carry around with me as a constant “in your face” reminder. I include the following items on my document:
- the title of the document – at the very top center of the document. (The title is “Monthly Content Calendar/Planner”.)
- the month and year – underneath the title of the document.
- the name of the day of the week – to the very left side of the document underneath “the month and year”. (Here’s where the start of the rows occurs.)
- the numerical day (date) of the month – to the right of “the name of the day of the week”.
- the content type – to the right of “the numerical day (date) of the month”.
- the content title, subject matter, or description to the right of “the content type”. (I like to be as specific here as possible to make sure I have enough info to remind myself what the content will be about. I usually place the titles for my content pieces here if I have them figured out ahead of time.)
Here’s a little depiction of what my calendar/planner looks like (with header and beginning of rows that will go all the way down the page to represent each day for that particular month):
Pretty simple, eh? Simple, and it keeps me on track. And once I’m done with the piece of content for that day, then I simply check it off the list. (Boy, do I love checking items off lists.)
NOTE: I personally like to include the days of the week on the content calendar/planner because they help me to remember which “content types” go to which days of the week, according to my content schedule. For example:
Sundays – I post to this blog, YouTube, Twitter, and the DOMinators News newsletter (every 2nd and 4th Sundays).
Mondays – I post to the “Mom Bloggers Club” forum and Pinterest.
Tuesdays – I post to this blog, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Wednesdays – I post to my podcast and Pinterest.
Thursdays – I post to Pinterest.
Fridays – I post to this blog, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Saturdays – non-work day
This content planning system has been working pretty well for me the past few weeks. I’m not perfect at it (hint. . . hint . . . missing Pinterest postings way too much). But, it’s a comfortable enough strategic tool to help me organize myself and get content out in the most efficient way possible for me at this time.
I hope you can latch on to some take-aways from my humble attempt to content plan and feel free to implement what tips you can in your own planning.
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