Hey friends! Ready for more free stuff? ;)

I’ve finally nailed down a design for an editorial calendar for blogging that I love so of course I’m going to share it with you! It’s the newest item in the CLC resource shop; you can grab it there for free. In this post I’m going to share a few tips on editorial calendars and how I use mine.

The layout is very open for easy customization since every blog is different. I’ll show you how I use mine but feel free to use it in whatever way works best for you.

There is also a black + white design in the download package ( in the CLC resource shop ) in case the colors aren’t working for you.

Like I said earlier, I tried countless ways of doing editorial calendars to plan out CLC’s content. I tried all of the online options. Although, I do still have a google calendar to keep track of reoccurring posts. It’s especially helpful for contributors column because it has the option to send an email reminder. But when planning out posts that will fill the empty spaces, I really love going back to pen and paper.

Here’s how I use mine:

• month in the upper left box
• dates of each week breaking up the middle left box
• new content ideas + brainstorming in the bottom box

For the content scheduling section, I plan out posts in pencil and then write them in pen when they are finished and scheduled. This has made it easy for me to see if there are posts I need to work on ( or days that still need a post idea ) with a quick glance. I change up the schedule frequently so planning things out in pencil is a must for me.

In an effort to clean up my walls, I’ve started organizing papers I use often in the top drawer of my filing cabinet that sits right beside my chair. The editorial calendar is the first paper in the first folder, making it super easy to find but not cluttering my desk!

Making an editorial content calendar work for you

You might be worried about feeling constricted by using a calendar to plan out your content. If you make it work for you it will be freeing instead! Here are a few tips to do just that:

• Print out a few months at a time so you can make sure your content is spaced out evenly and flows nicely from week to week and month to month.
• Start a post series that will be posted on a certain day of the week ( could be weekly, biweekly or monthly ) and go ahead and fill in that slot so you can plan around it.
• Planning ahead usually results in less stress ( no more midnight freak outs about what you’re going to post the next day ) and higher quality content but spontaneous posts are important too! Plan out posts for days when you know you’ll be busy and won’t have the time to put towards creating a great post and leave a few spots open on days that you think you might be able to.

Remember, it’s okay to miss a day or two. I need a poster reminding me of this! Personally, I’d rather follow a blog with less frequent but amazing, helpful content than one that posts fluff three times a day.

What about you? How will you use your editorial calendar?

►   grab your free editorial content calendar from the CLC resource shop