How I Plan My Content

I mentioned in my 2019 Goals post that I had changed the way I planned my blog content, and in the comments of my January round-up, someone asked to show how I planned it. Planning content is very personal, and what works for one person, might not work for someone else so please read this post with a pinch of salt. My way of planning was really successful in January and I hope this continues for the rest of the year. My planning structure is inspired by The Anna Edit, but if you check out Pinterest, there are many inspirational photos, or digital planning tools to take your fancy.

Bullet Journal

I had initially bought my first bullet journal in place of a traditional diary. I had been watching Amanda Rach Lee’s videos for a while, and decided to give it a go. I have always been a doodler – my hand used to be absolutely covered in pen when I used to come back from school. So Amanda’s videos combined doodling with planning. However as the year went on, I found I was not using the weekly diary aspect as much and as I went into full-time office based work, I kept forgetting to do my weekly spreads. 

So this year, I still wanted to bullet journal but re-focus what I was using it for. Instead of weekly spreads, I now use it only to plan my blog and Instagram. As it is dotted (but it also comes in square), it is great for making lists and checklists. I still draw out the title boxes, just because I still love the doodle side. 

Planning

Overall both my blogging and Instagram planning pages follow the same structure. I have one side for the schedule, and another for me to scribble down ideas. I have the whole month written down one side, this helps me to visualise how much content I need, and what has already gone up or is going up. 

The main differences between the two content spreads are what I need to check off. For my blog (see above), I have P (photos), W (words), S (scheduled), F (Facebook), I (Instagram), T (Twitter) and P (Pinterest). This is also helpful for letting me know if something is already done for a future post, as well as what still needs to be done.

For Instagram, I have three checkboxes, P (Photo), P (Posted), S (Shared).

I do my Ideas pages a little differently, as with my blog posts I will often add in some notes of what is going into the post, whereas for Instagram it is mainly about coming up with ideas about what to create. So I split that up in makeup, fashion and lifestyle.  

Regular Content

One thing that really helped keep me on track with creating content was having regular content that I could share every month, or every week on Instagram. For Instagram, at the moment, I am posting my #MakeupMonday posts, and my outfits on Fridays as well as my blog posts on Wednesdays and Sundays. This gives me only 3 days a week where I have to plan content. 

For my blog, the most regular content I have at the moment are my Birchbox posts. I mentioned in a previous post that I did have monthly goals posts but they fell behind and I just was not meeting them. I did post a monthly round-up but I mentioned that they might not be every month.

So this is how I have been planning my content. It will be interesting to see how this works over the course of the year, if I make any changes. I've given a colour to each month (which you can see as drop shadows) so it will be fun to start seeing it all!

I hope this has been helpful to anyone who is also looking to change the way they plan their content.

How do you plan your content?

Ellyn xx

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