Using Your Week-on-One-Page Planner as a Blog Planner
If you’ve ever tried blogging, you know that to stay consistent, you need a plan. Writing when inspiration strikes works for a little while, but what happens when you are in a slump? Planning your content in advance is a great way to avoid the “what do I write about?” panic. Here’s a guide to using a Week-on-One-Page Planner as a blog planner.
Decide how frequently you want to post
Before you start planning your posts, you need to decide how frequently you’ll be writing. Are you going to post once a week? Three times a week? Once you know your post frequency, you can plan your week accordingly. Once you know how often you’ll blog, you can plan to batch tasks to help you save time (for example, creating all of your post graphics for the week on one day).
Note important dates
When you are planning your blog’s schedule, you’ll want to look at upcoming dates. Are there personal obligations that will throw off your schedule? Do you need to work ahead to stay consistent during a busy season? Or is there season-specific content you’d like to be sure you blog about? Keeping an eye on the calendar as you plan will help you plan ahead for seasonal content and stay on track with your schedule.
Brainstorm topics and ideas
The Week-on-One-Page Planner is FULL of space for lists. Every week has a page for lists, plus tons of extra list pages in the back. The pages in the back are perfect for brainstorming a list of ideas to pull from when inspiration is running low. The weekly view list pages are an ideal spot to start jotting down notes on posts you plan to write that week. Taking the time to write down ideas as you plan will make sitting down to write your posts a much smoother experience.
Break down the process
There’s more to blogging than just writing a post. Break the process down into individual tasks ahead of time to keep you from getting overwhelmed (and figure out where you can batch tasks to save yourself time). Individual tasks might include researching, drafting, editing, creating graphics, scheduling, and promoting. Use your planner to write down which tasks will happen on which days. For example, you might spend Monday researching and outlining, Tuesday writing, Wednesday editing and creating graphics, and Thursday finalizing and publishing the post.
Create a social media plan
After all your hard work creating your post, you don’t want to forget to share! Keep track of which platforms you plan to share your posts on which days, and note any helpful details like the graphic you plan to use, hashtags you want to include, or ideas for your captions.
Leave some margin
Leave a little blank space in your planner to jot down any ideas, thoughts, or inspiration that comes to you during the week. This could be a new blog post idea, a great quote, or feedback you received.
Weekly Review
At the end of the week, review your plan and see what worked and what didn’t. Were you able to stick to your schedule? Did you find yourself scrambling to get things done, or did you have extra time? Use your weekly review to adjust your plan for the next week based on what worked and what didn’t.
Remember the goal
Remember, the goal of using a planner is to organize your thoughts and make your blogging process more efficient. Don’t stress if you don’t stick to your schedule perfectly – it’s a trial-and-error process to get your rhythm down.
