In the event you’re creating content material with out an editorial calendar you’re setting your self up for stress, inconsistency, and missed alternatives. Been there, carried out that, acquired the “I meant to do extra” t-shirt.
Whether or not you’re a part of a significant model, a small crew, or it’s simply you sporting the entire hats, with no centralized plan, issues get messy quick.
But when the phrases “editorial calendar” make you itch, hear me out. This doesn’t have so as to add a dozen ranges of complication to your course of.
Whether or not you utilize HubSpot’s built-in advertising calendar or an choice like Google Calendar, spreadsheets, or challenge administration software program — you can create an editorial calendar that matches your targets, wants, and mind with out making your self loopy. And I’m going to indicate you the way.
Desk of Contents
Comply with Alongside With These Free Editorial Calendar Templates
The right way to Create an Editorial Calendar
Earlier than you whip out your paper calendar and begin including dates, let’s take a step again. Your editorial calendar is a schedule, but it surely represents a lot extra.
After I seek the advice of with companies on find out how to develop a content material technique and what to incorporate in an editorial calendar, dates are sometimes the very last thing we contemplate. I like to start out by reviewing upcoming targets and plans:
- What are our huge image targets or initiatives?
- What’s happening that we’ll want content material for?
- What does our viewers know already — and what do they should know?
- Do we now have current content material we will adapt?
- What will we want to create from scratch?
- How can we repurpose something new?
In the event you’re studying this and considering “I simply want a construction that works for me,” or “None of that’s related to me proper now” — completely high-quality.
Most individuals don’t begin with a full-fledged strategy-driven plan. However when you do have something developing or happening, the very last thing you need is a last-minute scramble.
When you’ve thought via the massive image, it’s time to start out occupied with the content material itself. Begin by asking:
- What forms of content material is your viewers occupied with?
- The place do they hang around on-line?
- What forms of content material is your competitors utilizing, and the way usually?
- How usually are you able to decide to creating one thing?
That final one is the clincher. In the event you solely have bandwidth for one high-quality weblog, podcast, or video — plan accordingly. In the event you put 4 on the calendar, you’re setting your self up for failure — and when you’re like me, infinite guilt.
No matter your solutions, they’ll provide you with a strong concept of what is sensible in your viewers and your capability.
Step 1: Select your platforms.
If I ever acquired into the “Dwell. Love. Snort” signal craze, I’d in all probability have one that claims “You don’t need to be in every single place for everybody.”
You solely want to indicate up the place your viewers hangs in and out a approach that you just get pleasure from. In the event you hate creating a particular sort of content material, you’re at all times going to place it off — otherwise you’ll have to rent somebody to do it for you. EIther approach, it’s an enormous think about how you propose content material.
I like to recommend selecting a main content material sort that matches along with your pure strengths:
- Written (weblog)
- Audio (podcast)
- Video (YouTube or Livestreams)
From there, you may repurpose as wanted to completely different platforms. Since I’m most comfy with the written phrase, that’s the place I begin, then adapt to e mail and LinkedIn.
In the event you present up greatest reside, then begin there and adapt to different content material varieties. The one proper approach is the one which is sensible to you. Use that as the premise in your editorial calendar.
Step 2: Decide content material tips and frequency.
That is the place lots of people get caught — as a result of they’re attempting to match another person’s tempo.
Let me be extraordinarily clear: most companies don’t must publish three articles per week, two podcasts, and handle 5 social media platforms.
Bigger ones with full-time content material groups? Certain. However that’s not 90% of the businesses on the market. To not point out that with AI making it simpler to churn out mediocre content material, high quality issues greater than ever.
Right here’s what I ask purchasers (and myself) at this stage:
- What sort of content material are you able to realistically create proper now?
- What cadence feels sustainable for the subsequent 90 days?
- What classes or themes matter most to your viewers?
- What’s the aim behind each bit — consciousness, engagement, gross sales?
For some folks, one publish per week is doable. For others, one monthly or one per quarter feels greatest.
No matter that’s, we will work throughout the bounds of your bandwidth, but it surely’s so vital to be trustworthy with your self right here. In any other case, you’ll simply be overwhelmed.
After you have a cadence in thoughts, take into consideration the big-picture classes you may communicate to, and your content material targets. From there you may prioritize your concepts, specializing in the mission-critical stuff first, and the nice-to-have or decrease precedence content material later.
Listed here are a number of methods you might map out your content material repurposing framework.
Running a blog Weekly
- 1x week: Weblog (Tuesdays).
- 2x week: E mail (Tuesdays, Thursdays).
- 2x week: Instagram, Fb, YouTube (Wednesdays, Fridays).
Running a blog Month-to-month
- 1x month: Publish Weblog (week 1)
- 1x week: E mail
- 2x week: Instagram, Fb, YouTube (Wednesdays, Fridays)
You may create and flesh out your editorial calendar utilizing the above examples extra simply. The much less incessantly you publish, simply be certain each publish is meaty sufficient tto help repurposing.
Step 3: Select an editorial calendar platform.
Now that you just’ve acquired a way of what you’re creating, how usually you’ll publish, and the place it’s going — it’s time to resolve the place all of this planning will reside.
The reality is, the “greatest” platform is the one you and your crew will really use. Fancy instruments are nice, but when they add friction or require too many clicks to see what’s happening, they gained’t get used persistently. I’ve seen fantastically constructed challenge boards go fully stale as a result of nobody needed to open or handle them.
The most well-liked choices are spreadsheets, on-line calendars, or challenge administration instruments like Trello, Asana, or ClickUp. I’ve tried all of them, and for many purchasers, a easy spreadsheet is the best way to go.
Have in mind: the extra advanced the group and as amount will increase, a extra advanced device could also be wanted.
Irrespective of which format you select, I like to recommend monitoring the next fundamentals:
- Publish date: When it goes reside
- Due date: When the draft must be prepared
- Title or subject: Working title is okay
- Assigned proprietor: Who’s accountable for supply
- Name to motion (CTA): What would you like the reader/viewer to do?
- Key phrases (for search engine marketing): So that you is aware of what phrases to optimize for
- Standing: Concept, drafting, modifying, scheduled, reside
- Hyperlinks: To each the draft and last model for simple reference
You may at all times construct from right here. However maintaining these core parts in your calendar makes it simpler to trace progress, spot bottlenecks, and repurpose content material with out digging via previous folders.
The right way to Create an Editorial Calendar in Google Calendar
I’ve constructed editorial calendars in all the pieces from fancy enterprise platforms to color-coded notebooks. However in the case of simplicity, flexibility, and crew visibility, Google Calendar nonetheless holds up properly.
It’s free, it performs properly with Gmail, and nearly everybody already is aware of find out how to use it. Plus, you may layer it with different calendars (like launch schedules or social campaigns), share it along with your crew, and set reminders to remain on monitor — with out including a brand new device to your stack.
Beneath, I’ll stroll you thru find out how to use Google Calendar to arrange a content material calendar that retains you organized and targeted — whether or not you’re a solo creator or working with a crew.
We’ll be utilizing a downloadable template to make the setup simpler, however be at liberty to start out from scratch when you’d relatively construct your individual.
Step 1: Download HubSpot’s free editorial calendar templates.
Download Now
First, download the calendar templates above (they’re free.) By doing this, you’ll have three editorial calendar templates on your computer (or in your Google Drive).
- Blog Editorial Calendar
- Social Media Calendar
- Content Planning Template
Here I’ll go over how to use the Google spreadsheet with Google Calendar. There are ways to upload the Excel version into Google Calendar — it just requires a few more steps.
Step 2: Customize your template and prepare it for import into Google Calendar.
With your Google Sheets calendar open, it’s time to make it work for your process.
It already includes these columns:
- Publish date: When the content will go live
- Due date: When the draft or final version needs to be ready
- Author: Who’s responsible for creating or finalizing the content
- Topic/Title: A working title or quick summary of the piece
- Content/Details: Notes, links, outlines, or context for the post
- Keywords: SEO phrases to include or focus on
- Target persona(s): Who the content is for (audience segment, buyer type, etc.)
- Offer/CTA: What action you want the reader to take, or what offer this content supports
This gives you a solid mix of strategic clarity and practical execution. You’ll know what’s going out, why it matters, who it’s for, and how it ties back to your larger business goals.
Don’t be afraid to tweak or hide columns you’re not using right now — but I recommend keeping them in your template at least as a “default” tab, so they’re easy to bring back when your content plans get more complex.
Once you’ve filled in a few important dates, it’s time to connect it with Google Calendar.
Step 3: Create a Google Calendar for your content plan.
Before you connect your editorial calendar to Google Calendar, you need a Google Calendar to sync to.
No brainer here, but don’t skip this step. Just go to Google Calendar > Other Calendars > Create New Calendar.
Then find your Calendar ID.
Step 4: One-time upload into Google Calendar (Option A).
From here, you can load it into your Google calendar. There are a few catches:
1. It won’t update automatically and everything must be manual.
2. Google Calendar only supports CSVs with specific column headers, so you’ll need to rename and reorganize your column headers to the following and may not have the level of data you want:
Subject
Start Date
Start Time
End Date
End Time
Description
From here, you’ll need to export the sheet as a CSV then go back to Google Calendar. You’ll then click Settings > Import & Export, select your CSV and then choose the calendar you want to import into.
This is best only if you need quick visibility into your calendar. Otherwise I recommend option B — the auto-magical route 🙂
Step 5: Automatically create calendar events with Google Apps Script (Option B).
Now that your editorial calendar lives in a Google Sheet — and you’ve created a dedicated Google Calendar to map your content dates — it’s time to connect the two.
I’m obsessed with using Apps Scripts to automate things in Google Workspace. This process will help you automatically create a calendar event for each row in your sheet, based on the publish date and title. Keyword: automatically!
And my favorite way to do it is by using ChatGPT to help me create and troubleshoot the scripts.
Here’s the prompt I used:
“I want to connect a Google Sheet to my Google Calendar that automatically updates so I don’t have to manually update calendar with editorial plans. What is the App Script I need? Please walk me through it step by step.”
Then I followed these instructions;
1. Open the Apps Script editor: Extensions → Apps Script
2. Delete any placeholder code and paste this in:
function createCalendarEvents() {
const sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveSheet();
const calendar = CalendarApp.getCalendarById(‘your-calendar-id@group.calendar.google.com’); // ← Replace this
const data = sheet.getDataRange().getValues();
for (let i = 1; i < data.length; i++) {
const publishDate = data[i][0]; // Column A
const title = data[i][3]; // Column D
const details = data[i][4]; // Column E
const keywords = data[i][5]; // Column F
const author = data[i][2]; // Column C
const cta = data[i][7]; // Column H
const posted = data[i][8]; // Column I (Posted to Calendar?)
if (title && publishDate instanceof Date && !posted) {
const description =
`Author: ${author}n` +
`Keywords: ${keywords}nn` +
`Details:n${details}nn` +
`CTA:n${cta}`;
calendar.createEvent (title, new Date(publishDate), new Date(publishDate), {
description: description
});
// Mark the row as posted
sheet.getRange(i + 1, 9).setValue(“✓”);
}
}
}
3. Replace: your-calendar-id@group.calendar.google.com with the calendar ID you just found.
4. Save and run the script by clicking the floppy disk icon to save and clicking the run button. If it prompts you to authorize access, follow the steps.
5. Set it to run automatically using the clock icon “Triggers” by creating a new trigger:
Choose which function to run, select: syncEditorialCalendar
Event source: Time-driven
Type of time-based trigger: Hourly, daily, or custom
Click Save
Once it runs, you should see your content show up in the new calendar you made, complete with title, author, and details. And since mine is set up to run every 2 hours, I’ll see those changes at that frequency. You can make this more or less frequent, as needed.
If you get any error messages, just feed them into ChatGPT and keep updating the script. Sometimes it takes a few tries, but the payoff down the road is awesome!
Step 6: Share your editorial calendar with your team.
Once your editorial calendar is set up — whether you’re using the Google Sheet alone or syncing it with Google Calendar — make sure the right people can see it.
If you’re collaborating with a team, this step is what keeps things moving without endless follow-up messages or missed deadlines.
You’ve probably shared a million Google Sheets and Docs using the blue share button in the top right. However, if you’ve never shared a calendar with someone before, you have a few options. All can be accessed in Calendar, by choosing “Access permissions for events”.
Option 1: Event View Availability
You can control whether the calendar is publicly available, available only to those on your domain, or share the link with anyone you choose. You also control the level of event details. Though, for an ed cal, I’d recommend all event details.
Option 2: Share Calendar with Specific People
This one’s pretty straightforward — just choose a person and share the calendar with their Google address.
And there, you have your editorial calendar on Google Calendar!
How to Use Excel or Google Spreadsheets for Editorial Calendars
If you’re a spreadsheet superfan, oh hi— me too! I’ve built entire editorial calendar content systems in Sheets and Excel. They’re flexible, easy to share, and perfect for tracking all the moving parts of an editorial calendar, especially if you have a small volume.
The best choice is whether your organization uses Google Workspace or Microsoft Teams.
The editorial calendar template bundle you downloaded includes links to Google Sheets editorial calendar files and an Excel blog editorial calendar template you can adapt to your company.
Google Sheets
To use the Google Sheets option, open the link in the included pdf and select “Make a Copy.”
This will automatically save to your Drive. From there, you can adapt to your schedule/needs and share with team members for easy collaboration.
Excel
Save the Excel file to your Teams folder and share it with the appropriate team members.
Pro tip: Regardless of which spreadsheet you use, only provide “edit” access to people who need it.
How to Use Online Calendars for Editorial Calendars
Whether you’re using Google Calendar, Outlook, or iCal to manage your personal and work schedules, you can easily use your online calendar as an editorial calendar . It’s simple, visual, and a great way to stay on top of content without adding another tool to your tech stack.
Here’s how to make it work:
Step 1: Create a new calendar.
Start by creating a separate calendar just for content planning. This keeps your editorial schedule from getting lost among meetings and personal reminders.
- Google Calendar: Go to the left-hand sidebar, click the + next to “Other calendars,” and select Create new calendar. I shared the steps for that above.
- Outlook: Select Add calendar → Create blank calendar
- iCal (Apple Calendar): Click File → New Calendar, and choose iCloud if you want it to sync across devices
Step 2: Rename your calendar.
Regardless of which app, you can name your calendar “Editorial Calendar” and add events.
Step 3: Set up your calendar.
Choose a date and time on the calendar, name the event “Blog Title,” “Email,” “Instagram Post,” etc., and choose how often you want it to recur.
Then you can go into each instance and fill out details like Title, Content Outline, and any other information.
You can then also share that calendar with other people on your team so they can plan accordingly.
How to Use a Project Management Platform for Editorial Calendars
My background in project management is coming out here because I LOVE a good workflow. Apps like Asana, Monday, or ClickUp make great editorial calendars because you can view the content in multiple ways and can get all the visibility you want..
Each content item becomes a “card” or task that can hold everything you need:
- Deadlines and assignees
- Content goals and assets
- Draft links and status updates
- Notes, checklists, subtasks, and even review stages
I’ve found that most allow you to toggle between List, Board, or Calendar views. You can also assign a variety of tasks and subtasks with different deadlines.
And because they’re usually drag and drop, updating your editorial calendar as things change is easy.
Of all the tools out there, I personally love ClickUp and Monday the most because of how much I can customize.
I’m sure others can do similar things, but these work best with my brain and can flex around my process instead of forcing me into something rigid.
And if you’re not sure what’s possible? ChatGPT is your best friend. I’ve used it more times than I can count to build workflows, clean up data fields, and write automations that save me hours.
My point isn’t to use the fanciest tool out there or over-engineer your process. In fact, I’d consider all the potential touchpoints and combine as many as you can to keep things simple.
That said, my biggest goal here is to share some of the best options and then turn you loose to choose one that actually makes your life easier and helps you avoid a million Slack messages asking, “Hey, what’s the status on this?”
Regardless of which option you choose, it’s a good idea to ensure your team understands your content calendar and how to use it to keep your process moving smoothly.
Why Using Google Calendar as an Editorial Calendar Works
There are a lot of ways to manage an editorial calendar. If it really works for you, it’s good.
In case your crew already lives in Gmail, it’s one much less device to undertake—or pay for. Plus, it’s simple to loop folks in or transfer issues round as your plans evolve. As a result of they will evolve.
I at all times inform purchasers — we’ll lay out the perfect plan, however know that even factoring in a conservative estimate of your bandwidth, what really occurs is at all times completely different.
That’s why I like that you could stack a number of calendars — so your content material plans can reside alongside launch schedules, product pushes, or the rest your crew is juggling. Everybody sees what’s taking place, what’s coming, and the place the gaps are.
Higher but, once you outgrow it, you may join your Google Calendar to extra superior instruments and workflows, making solely minor tweaks to the strong editorial system you’ve constructed.
Create your editorial calendar at the moment.
Over time, I’ve used all the pieces to handle editorial calendars — from sticky notes plastered throughout my display screen to Monday.com builds with six layers of automation.
And I firmly consider that there’s a spot for all the pieces. (Besides possibly for that stack of sticky notes that now not persist with something.)
What issues most is that you’ve got a system to maintain you and your content material on monitor and targeted on shifting your small business ahead..
My recommendation is threefold:
- Begin the place you are actually
- Use these templates to check what works
- Make the method your individual
Your subsequent launch, marketing campaign, or killer piece of content material deserves a house in your calendar — not misplaced in a torrent of Slack messages or buried in a pocket book.
Editor’s be aware: This publish was initially revealed in January 2019 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.
