Welcome to the second part of my series on blog organization. The first part of the series was on the plugins I use and this post will be on scheduling.
I used to use exclusively Google Calendar to help me schedule my posts. It was great because I was able to sync between computer and my phone. However, I had some problems with it. I was forgetting to look at it or update it as often as I should.
Now, I use a May Designs planner. I have a months + dots agenda and I will show you how I use it. The months are, obviously, for scheduling and I use the dots to help keep track of reading challenges.
The first thing I did when I got my planner was add a key to each month’s page. My key is as follows:
- red for Monthy Wrap-Ups
- green for Reviews
- purple for Discussions
- blue for Memes
- orange for Catholic Liturgical Calendar
- pencil for personal things or tentative posts
I then went through with my orange pen to add the feasts of the liturgical calendar. I took this step because I will sometimes align certain posts with certain feast days. Most of you probably don’t do anything like this, but I did.
Next, I went through the year with my pencil to print in personal events such as days I’m going to be traveling or days when I have something going on.
Then, I went through the year again with my red pen to add Monthly Wrap-Ups. This was easy since I usually pick the last day of the month unless I have a good reason not to. One month’s wrap-up had to be moved since I wasn’t going to be in the country when I would usually have posted it.
Next, I write Memes in blue as I schedule them. However, until they are scheduled on the blog, I keep them in pencil in case I decide not to do them. This has happened quite a bit recently as I haven’t been feeling well and, subsequently, I haven’t spent as much time prepping posts.
Discussion posts are scheduled in my planner in pencil until they are ready to be scheduled on the blog. Then I switch to purple for them. Discussion posts tend to move around a bit depending on my mood and if I actually wrote the post I wanted to write on time.
Reviews are entered in my planner in green once they are written and scheduled. I enter the reviews in pencil when I begin to read a book or accept a review copy. Pencil is so much easier to move around than colored pen.
So that is basically how I plan and schedule posts. Usually, there are reviews on Mondays, Thursdays, and some Saturdays. Memes are usually Tuesdays and Fridays, if I have them written in time. Discussion posts are typically Wednesdays though there isn’t a discussion every Wednesday.
The following pictures were taken in late January and help to show how I use my planner.
This is how I schedule. Let me know if this helped you at all and please feel free to share how you schedule in the comments.
This is–wow. I am always so awed by people who’s brains work this way. My posting schedule works like this: I think of something to write, then I write it. If I have some free time, I write a few posts and stagger them over the next few days. If I don’t have a lot of time but haven’t posted in several days, I make myself think of something to write and post in a slap-dash manner. I’m actually okay with my method, since it works for me and my brain, but your method is lovely.
Thank you. It is always interesting to see the methods different people use. I need the schedule or else I would be completely lost.
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Awww schedules. While yours are on point (amazingly so, if I may say!) mine are more like…. a napkin sitting next to my laptop. Written in like, a pink crayola marker saying “CRAP, POST X REVIEW!!”. Otherwise, it’s all on a whim. (Technically I am exaggerating a tiny bit- I do put tour dates in a Google calendar so I don’t forget!) This is seriously amazing. I wish I had your organization skills!
Thanks. I need the organization or my brain hurts too much. Some might call it my weakness. 🙂
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Wow is awesome and so detailed! 😀 GO YOU for being so onboard with organisation and scheduling. How do I do it? Hhahahah…. ahem. Basically 4 hours before I want the post to go up. xD No really! I do schedule everything because I always post at exactly the same time each day I want to blog. But I’m really flexible about what goes up. I just know that I want a review and a discussion and a fun post and possibly a meme (like TTT) up per week, but the order (except the meme, because, ya know, that has rules for when it needs to be up) is just up to whenever I feel like it. XD So I’m very not organised in that respect. But I totally admire you for being so amazing at it!!
Sometimes I wish I could be a bit more spontaneous with blogging but when I try to be, I just end up stressing myself out. Basically, my schedule is just saving me from a panic attack and a nervous breakdown all at once. My blog is the one place where I can, with almost absolute certainty, control what happens when. Real life, especially adult life, sadly, does not have this reassurance. It would be absolutely beautiful if I could schedule all the things but that is not the way the world works.
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omg how super organized! and the planner is CUTE!!! with all the colors and all 🙂 I so wish I could be this organized. Great job Amanda
Thanks! It has taken me a year to solidify my system and I love that it works for me.
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I do this, too, but I use Google Calendar! I like Google Calendar because you can actually have a repeat button for events such as memes and wrap-ups instead of having to write it out every time. However, writing it out seems like it could be soothing and it’d be a great activity to do while reading an audiobook or listening to a podcast. That’s good that you keep track of your books for review. More often than not I forget release dates and when I should post them, haha!
I have tried using Google Calendar and still do to some extent. However, I find I actually remember to update the physical planner much more frequently than the online calendar. That might just be me, though.
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Ha! We are like polar opposites. First of all, anything that I write down on paper is promptly forgotten. I’ve tried about a thousand planners in my lifetime and I can’t stick to them – at all. The only planning I do for my blog is for tours – I put the dates in my Google calendar along with the rest of my schedule (things I have to drive the kids around to, etc.) If I try to keep it separate, I just inevitably forget to check the calendar. Everything else is just written on a whim when I get to it, though I try to post one discussion a week, in general. Glad you found a system that works for you!!
It is so interesting how different systems work for different people. I don’t have children to chase around (unless you count teaching) so I really only have my own schedule to worry about. I’m glad there is something that works for you even though I know it wouldn’t work for me.
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