Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! I love this time of year, and I’m hoping to start the new year mentally fresh and organized. This year I’m determined to get organized and STAY organized, especially in my blogging life.
I’ve been blogging for about a year and a half, and have struggled to find a way to keep my blog post ideas organized. I’ve also struggled with finding an editorial calendar that makes sense to me. I’m doing a happy dance because I think I’ve found a system I’ll stick with!! So, here it is – my blog planner for the new year.
The secret to this whole system is a great set of free printables created and shared by Danielle at Sew Much Crafting. Danielle wrote a blog planner series this past fall, and just posted her updated 2015 calendar. Be sure to check out her great site!
**2016 Calendar Update – Danielle is no longer making her calendars, so I made my own for 2016. You can find a link to the new calendar in my free printable 2016 calendar post.
2015 Blog Planner
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I didn’t end up using all of Danielle’s blog planner printables. I’m just using some of them, and have put them up in a binder in a way that makes sense for me – by month. You may want to set your system up differently. Whatever works best for you.
I have added a clear plastic pencil holder in the front of the binder for my post-it flags and Sharpie markers.
The post-it flags are used to set up blog posts on the monthly calendar. Each post-it flag has a blog post title on it with a Sharpie marker, and is placed on the calendar day that I think I’ll publish that post.
*This is the part that I was most excited about when I read about Danielle’s blog planner!
Last year I would write down a blog post in pencil on my calendar. If I changed my mind about when I was going to publish a blog post, I would erase the post and re-write it on a different day. Now, I can easily move the post-it flags around to different days instead. Love that!
After a post has been published then I take the post-it flag off and write the blog post title in it’s place.
I’m using a different color of post-it flag for each of the categories that I write posts for. This will help me to see at a glance if I have an even mix of blog post categories.
For example – the home renovation category is blue, if I see a lot of blue on the monthly calendar, then I may have too many home renovation posts for the month.
Behind the monthly calendar for each month is Danielle’s post planner printable. This is where I will keep track of the posts for each month. I’ll write down the post title, the date that I would like to publish the post, and check off when I write the post, take the pictures, and schedule it.
I also decided to use Danielle’s post planner in a different way. I have taped several to the wall behind my desk. Each one is titled a category in my blog. Now when I have an idea for a blog post, I will quickly write it down on the appropriate post planner sheet.
This will hopefully keep my desk from having dozens of notes about blog post ideas all over it!
I have three more printables under each month in the binder. I couldn’t find printables that were exactly what I was needing, so I made my own. They aren’t very cute like so many printables that you see, but hopefully they are functional! I think they will work well for me.
You can use them too if you like. There is a link to download each one under each of the pictures of the printables.
The first two printables are a Monthly Income Tracker and a Monthly Expense Tracker. I wanted a place that I could easily keep track of this info.
Download Monthly Income Tracker
Download Monthly Expense Tracker
The last printable that I created is a Monthly Stat Tracker. Again, I wanted one place that I could keep track of this information each month. I can’t wait until the end of the year to see how the stats have changed (hopefully grown) over the year.
Download Monthly Stats Tracker
So, that’s my blog planner for 2015. I’m hoping that posting this for all of you to see will help keep me motivated to stick with it – will hold me accountable! We’ll see how the year goes, and I’ll report back at the end of the year as to whether or not it worked.
Stay tuned, I’ll be sharing more about how I’m getting more organized later this month.
If you loved this blog planner tutorial, you’ll love these blogging tips too:
How I Had More Than 8000 Pageviews My First Month Of Blogging – Part 1
How I Had More Than 8000 Pageviews My First Month Of Blogging – Part 2
How do all of you keep your lives organized?
I love this! This type of planning is exactly the way I think! I just recently worked on our budget and it is simply laid out just like this planner. I am pinning this.
Thanks Kristie! I’m glad it was helpful!
I love the colored post it idea! I’ll try that for February since I wrote on my January calendar already.
I agree, Danielle’s use of the post-it notes was a light bulb moment for me. I think making them different colors for different categories is going to be very helpful.
You make planning fun and colorful! 🙂 I’m gonna try this.
Thanks Lux! I love bright colors.
I use the post it method also, it makes it so much easier to switch around posts. I just recently start color coding them to the category.
I like your planner pages, they won’t eat up my ink.
Natasha, I’m really loving the post-it notes too!
I also use the color per category idea PLUS, I have a file folder of the same category color to contain any stray papers, notes, ideas used/or to be used on that post. I also mark the top of stray notes/papers I’ve made with a colored marker (per category color) Never a question of where things belong. Thank you for your post.
I love the idea of the different colored file folders. Great tip!
Love the idea of the sheets on the walll about your desk. I’d also add the color (with a marker) to each sheet to match colors of that category. Just a thought. Not everything tells me at a glance what category everything is in. I have totally enjoyed this post and thank you for getting me organized even more so.
Kaaren, that’s a GREAT tip! I’m definitely going to get colored markers to match the color of the category.
Sorry, I ment NOW everything tells me at a glance, not NOT everything tells me at a glance. I wrote both the above post and forgot to add my name to the first. Thanks again
Thank you for this article. I have started a blog, but haven’t posted in a while as I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do and how to set things up. These planner pages should be helpful.
Thanks again!
Linda, I’m glad this was helpful!
I just want to say Thank You so very much. Thank you for providing these printables and the link to Danielle’s printables. These were exactly what I have been looking for to organize my blog posts, blog planner, and myself.
I appreciate other blog planners that are cute and colorful, but honestly you can see by the title of my site that I like to be as frugal as possible. Sometimes when the printables have so much color I won’t print them because of the huge amount of colored ink I have to use. I homeschool 3 children so I try to be mindful of how much color printing I do.
You mention that your printables aren’t very cute…….well, they’re perfect for me and I appreciate you making and providing them for free.
Blessings,
Brandy
Thanks Brandy! I’m so glad that the printables are helpful to you! Good luck with your blog planner. It has really helped me stay on track with my blog posts.
How do I print off your calender? I got the monthly expense printed. Thank you so much for your help getting me organazied .
Shirley, this year’s calendar is in this new post – http://www.newtoncustominteriors.com/2016-calendar/
This is what I needed, thank you so much. I have just started blogging about 3 weeks ago so I am setting everything up and trying not to forget anything. These printables will sure come very handy in helping me do that. I agree with the other comments that post its and colorful tabs are going to be help make this easy to track by category.
Thanks Luz! Good luck with your new blogging adventure!