Are You Using an Editorial Calendar?

Writing Is Easy When You Have a Schedule to Follow

Looking for a way to stay organized and increase your
productivity? Try using an editorial calendar.

Whether you're a veteran writer or just entering the world of online blogging, you may notice that you struggle to find the time or motivation to write, even though you are brimming with ideas. What's up with that? The editors at our personal document editing service think that planning—or lack thereof—might have something to do with it, and thus would like to share a scheduling secret that's designed to get you writing.

Take a page from magazine editors

Want to write more articles, more often? Then follow in the footsteps of magazine editors and utilize an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar is a way to keep track of what you want to write and when you want to write it. Originally, this handy concept was used by magazines and newspapers when planning for future issues; editors needed a way to plan features and keep track of assignments. Today, many magazines publish their calendars online so that advertisers know what is going to be published in upcoming issues and can purchase appropriate ads.

But how is this going to help me?

Though you may not need to worry about advertisers, as a blogger you need to be aware of what topics you're currently writing about, what you've written about in the past, and what you hope to discuss in the future. Creating your own editorial calendar will help you monitor these topics with ease. An editorial calendar can help you plan posts or articles, sort out your ideas, and keep you on track by setting daily and weekly tasks. Sometimes the hardest thing about writing is figuring out how to start! While everyone knows about the dreaded writer's block, many don't realize that procrastination causes bloggers just as much stress. You can ease that stress and find your rhythm as a writer by creating an editorial calendar.

What an editorial calendar looks like

Your editorial calendar can be as simple or as detailed as you'd like, but your first step in creating one should be to brainstorm a list of what you'd like to write about. If you are a blogger or columnist, our personal document editing professionals suggest coming up with topics you'd like to cover. Coming up with a list will help keep you from blogging about topics you've already written about.

Now, figure out how much you'd like to write in a day, a week, or a month, depending on how detailed you'd like your calendar to be. Set a goal for yourself: how many posts or articles do you want to write and in what period of time?

Don't dread deadlines

Once you have your list of ideas and your writing goals, it's time to start setting deadlines for yourself. For example, if you want to write one blog post a week, go through the list of blog topics you want to write about and set a due date for each one. You may find that it helps to also set smaller goals, such as writing for X amount of time every day. It might also be helpful to be as detailed as possible about what you want to write about. Just deciding that you want to write one post a week might not make it any easier for you to do so, but specifying that you want to write one post this week about environmentally friendly cleaning products clarifies what you want to write about and when you want it done by.

Make your calendar right now

You can set up an editorial calendar in a variety of ways. You may choose to use an actual calendar or an online calendar, or even create your own using a spreadsheet. If scheduling a particular time helps you stay focused, then go ahead and mark on your calendar that you will write every day from 5 pm to 8 pm (or whenever the most creative time for you might be). This is your calendar. There is no right or wrong way to do it, so long as it works for you. You can also use your calendar to schedule time for other important aspects of the writing process, such as researching, editing and proofreading, and publishing.

An editorial calendar can keep your writing on track, guard against writer's block, and save you from procrastination. Organize your ideas today and enjoy a more productive blogging experience tomorrow!