Note: Free download below!
When it comes to cooking, writing and blogging, I go through constant ups and downs.
Some days, I go on a cooking spree and have enough recipes lined up for a week and a half.
And then I hit a few days where I don’t particularly want to cook, or want to make something from another blog or that I’ve already posted. Sometimes we all need a little comfort food!
Some days, the words come easily, and my fingers fly across my keyboard (or my pen flies across the paper, depending on the day).
And other days, I’m stuck and can’t find a story to go with my latest recipe.
Naturally, those are the days when I most need to write. The days where I need something to publish that very afternoon or the next morning.
All these vacillations don’t sit well with my organized engineering mindset. So this month, I’m trying something new: an editorial calendar.
Here’s the plan:
1. I obviously don’t know what recipe I’m going to publish on September 15 or September 27. I plan ahead, but not that much. Plus, you never know when inspiration will hit for a new flavor combination! So I’m going to write in the category of recipes I’d like to feature on each day in pencil (entree, cookie, soup, chai-flavored, etc). When I come up with an actual recipe, I’ll erase the category and write in the real title. At the very least, this should help keep my recipe index balanced!
2. I’ll also be working some home projects into the calendar. If they aren’t already done, this will give me a deadline and keep me from posting all my DIY projects at once.
3. General dates of Little Things posts will also be written into the calendar. I love these posts and want to make sure I keep them coming consistently.
PS: I will always publish your submissions to the Little Things series within a few days of receiving them, no matter what the calendar says!
Hopefully, this plan will keep my blogging on track. When inspiration to write strikes, I’ll know what needs to be written. And on days when I’m stuck, I’ll have a recipe or two on deck for publishing!
Want to join me in this little blogging experiment? Will using an editorial calendar really make my blogging stronger?
If you do want to join me (or just want a cute calendar to print), here’s what I’ll be printing, filling out, and hanging above my desk!
Click here to download the September 2011 editorial calendar!
I just read someone’s guest post where he suggested getting an “editorial calendar” set up. Great idea! Seriously sometimes I have time for two posts in a day and then I don’t post the second one and a couple of days later…forget about it. I love being organized but it has never translated into my blogging world…yet. But I’m working on it!
Maybe the calendar would help
I sort of keep an unofficial calendar just as part of my to-do list but I rarely stick to it anyways, especially when I’m feeling lazy or like you mention, can’t think of a story for a recipe. I think calendars are a great way to keep yourself organized but they also do add extra pressure to follow through (can be good or bad, depending on your attitude
)
Yeah, i was worried about the extra pressure. Hopefully leaving spots open or just “pencilled” in will help with that!
I’ve recently started keeping a computer on my calendar (Google Docs has some great templates) where I put in my planned posts. I’ve also started always publishing on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. These 2 things have made me feel so much more organized and less stressed about the quantity and quality of my posts. I hope it works well for you!
I love this!! I am pretty obsessed with organization and task management and designing systems that work. I’m giving this calendar a try along with you! Best of luck!
Over the summer, I planned my posts using a Google doc spreadsheet and kept track of whether each post had been photogrpahed, the recipe written up, the story written up, and scheduled for posting. I pre-palnned a month’s worth of posts that way and I’m going to keep it going in the autumn. It made me post at more regular intervals and kept the variety high. Good luck with your calendar.