Hold the calendar

I have been talking with a friend about my content calendar. They thought that I had an elaborate digital system set up to help me write blog posts. I loved seeing their jaw drop when they saw my paper notebook!

I use a Traveler’s Notebook for lists and short notes. Each insert has its own designation. One of them is my content calendar and it really is just a list of ideas written in there with pen/fountain pen.

Advantage: simple, cheap, no learning curve. Just list whatever idea for blog content pops up in your head.

Disadvantage: you need to pick an idea to write about for a post on a certain date e.g. set the calendar.

I tried to do what many other bloggers online have written about and that is setting it up a digital calendar for a whole month. Some even go out as far as three months. Every time that I tried that, I deleted the whole thing, and started fresh. Only to delete it again.

Why?

Life gets in the way, breaking news demands another tone of writing, cases finally going to trial take up all my time, and we haven’t even touched upon that precious thing called selfcare e.g. my mental health.

Every time that I see a blog post about content calendars, I check. I can’t help myself, I gotta see what others do and hope they have pictures, not video clips, pictures. And after that, I go back to my lists.

I scan my ideas, pick one, write a draft, and after editing, I post that. A simple check mark denotes that I am done with that idea.

After Bloganuary, I was tired of posting daily. And, as many things can change drastically in a very short period of time, I have decided against setting a posting schedule. I don’t have a posting schedule for my professional website either and it works well. So, I am going to use the same strategy here.

Do you plan your blog posts? If so, digitally or on paper?