How to Create an Editorial Calendar {with FREE Printables!}

I’ll be honest. My editorial calendar has saved me on more than one occasion! It’s been the best organizational tool I’ve invested in for my blog. I’m so excited to share with you today about how it can transform your blogging too!

I first heard about the concept of an editorial calendar after reading Abby Lawson’s Building a Framework. However, when I first started blogging I was so overwhelmed by everything I needed to learn, creating an editorial calendar was the last thing on my to-do list! But a few months back that all changed.

I decided to try to get ahead of my content just by a few days to see how it affected my blogging. When that worked out well, I extended that to a week. I’m now about 3 weeks ahead of my blogging content with hopes of being 4 weeks ahead by the end of this month. It’s literally been so freeing!

I love blogging, but I don’t like deadlines. Especially when it means that I might have to miss out on something with my kids in order to get a blog post published.

With my editorial calendar I can blog ahead of time about topics I love. I can spend time researching, creating, and organizing for posts that I’m truly passionate about and that will help others.

So how does an editorial calendar work?


An editorial calendar is a simple schedule of your posts you plan to publish over a given period of time. It’s a way to look ahead at the upcoming week, month, or even year to see what type of content you will need to publish at specific times of the year.

You will first, and foremost, need to nail down your niche. This was hard for me in the beginning. I was writing about a little of everything and it took me quite a long time to nail down my niche. But this is a very important step to take before moving forward with your blog and editorial calendar.

Next, you will want to think of several categories and sub-categories that build off of your niche. My niche is Home: Simplified (at least that’s what I’ve claimed it to be!) My categories and sub-categories are:

• Home Management
  • Organization
  • Cleaning
  • Home Decor
  • DIY
  • Meal Planning
  • Budgeting/Money Saving Tips
• Productivity
  • Time Management
  • Goal Setting
  • Planning
• Blogging
  • Time Management for Bloggers
  • Resources

I want all of my content to fit under one of these headings.

Once you have your content mapped out, you can start to brainstorm post ideas. Since I LOVE printables and I think many of you do too, I created this cute Post Ideas printable to help you in your brainstorming session.

Once you have brainstormed a list of potential post ideas, you will need to decide how many days a week you plan to blog. Be realistic with yourself. It’s better to start small and add more days each week if you think you can manage.

In the beginning I blogged every day Monday-Friday because my thought was that I needed to build up my content. However, I soon discovered that the quality of my content was not good enough so I backed down to 3 days a week, which is what I’m currently doing. I blog Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Once you have your days set, you can use my printable Editorial Calendar to start plugging in your brainstormed post ideas.

Make sure to diversify your content. If you have 4 categories, you will want to try to make sure you have about an equal amount of content for each. If you can’t come up with enough content for each category, you may need to rethink your niche and categories.

Then you use this calendar to plan out your posts and stay ahead of the game! I’ve found it’s best to be ahead by at least a week so that you aren’t overwhelmed.

I’m currently using Google calendar to create my editorial calendar. While for almost everything else, I’m a paper/pencil/planner girl, I really am enjoying digital planning for my blog. It’s more easily adjustable and I can access it as I’m working quickly.

You can see that I color code my posts based on the category they fit into for my blog. Light blue is for my home management posts, green is for budgeting posts, yellow is for blogging posts, and red is for any holiday related posts.

You might think that planning an editorial calendar isn’t for you. They aren’t always the first thing new bloggers want to think about! Here are some common misconceptions I’ve heard concerning editorial calendars for bloggers:

• Editorial Calendars limit creativity. - Just because you have a plan in place doesn’t mean it’s not flexible. If a creative or inspirational post comes to you and you just must get it out as soon as possible, it’s very easy to simply bump back an already planned post.
• Editorial Calendars are only for Type A, super organized people. - Actually it might be disorganized, free-spirits who need editorial calendars the most! Sometimes a little bit of structure can do us a lot of good!

However, editorial calendars provide a lot more benefits than you would imagine. Here are just a few of them:

• Higher productivity - You can work when you have the time throughout the week without have to push deadlines. You still have a set amount of content to create. You just have more freedom and flexibility with which you can actually do the work for it.
• Less stress - You are no longer worried about not getting a post up on time because everything is already prepared in advance and schedule out for you!
• Able to stay ahead of content that is time sensitive (holidays, sponsored posts, etc.) - Did you know that you should start to post for holidays and seasonal events about 3-6 weeks before the actual event? This gives your content time to circulate through social media.
• Helps you to diversify yours posts - You will have the ability to schedule your posts so that your content stays fresh. You won’t feel like you are constantly posting on the same topic because you have systematically organized your content to avoid that.
• Increases audience trust and engagement. - When your readers know that you will always have a post up on certain days each week at specific times, they will be more likely to check your blog and engage in your posts.

An editorial calendar has really helped me to be less overwhelmed by my blog. It has helped me to grow my audience over the past few months. I encourage you to try it out for your blog and see if it’s something that might help you stay a little more organized.

Don’t forget to grab your FREE editorial calendar printables below!

Thinking of starting a blog, but not sure where to start? Get a quick and easy tutorial to start your very own blog here.

How do you keep your blog posting schedule organized?

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