How I Plan a Week of Content

Steal my Monday content checklist

Author

Taylor Loren
April 29, 2024

Happy Monday, Trendspotters!

I shared my monthly content routine a few weeks ago, and this week I’m sharing my Monday Checklist — the exact tasks I do every Monday to plan my content for the week! 👀

But before we get into it: how do you like our new look? Lately I’ve been ruminating a lot about what I want my career to look like, and the only thing I have clarity on is that writing this newsletter each week is the best part of my job.

I’m going to be investing more time and energy into it going forward, so I switched over to Beehiiv so I can offer a paid subscription tier in the future and pack more free content into each newsletter without Gmail clipping it (marketers, I know you can relate!).

I would love to hear what you want to see more or less of in this lil newsletter, so if you have 2 mins to spare, please take my reader survey here! 🫶 

👀 Ok, here’s social news you might have missed:

❤️‍🔥 What I’m loving on social: 

Alex Cooper (aka the host of Call Her Daddy) hard launched her wedding, and I’m obsessed with the social strategy. First there was a collab post with Vogue Weddings:

Then the wedding content rolled out via multiple carousel posts on Alex’s Instagram over 4 days. In a content world that demands video, this was a refreshing throwback to the OG blogging days of pairing thoughtful copy with gorgeous imagery.

But what I thought was really cool was how much she posted each day. On “launch day” she posted FIVE TIMES, a few hours apart, and then another FOUR TIMES the next day.

She used Instagram to create binge-able content that left you wanting more and kept you checking back for when she would drop the next post. I’m into it, and I can totally see this becoming a cool storytelling trend for big events or launches!

Move over Billboard — Instagram debuts Top 50 Chart

Instagram is taking inspiration from the TikTok Viral chart with the launch of their own trending Top 50 chart.

Here's how to find it:

  • Look for an audio track with a trending arrow and give it a tap.

  • Underneath the audio, you'll spot a little "trending" box—tap that.

  • From there, you can scroll through the top 50 trending audio tracks of the moment.

  • Hit the bookmark icon to save any of the audios

Now remember: these charts show the most popular tracks right now, and in the case of new music from Sabrina Carpenter or Taylor Swift, it’s super helpful.

But if you really want to capitalize on the power of trending audios, it’s best to jump on them before they’re at the top of the charts and everyone is sick of seeing it in their feed. Which is why we try to share audios that are just starting to trend! 😉

How I Plan My Weekly Content Calendar

A step-by-step guide to making Mondays better.

The secret to publishing content like clockwork? Creating a Monday content routine.

And believe me, after 15 years of managing content calendars, I've got it down to an (ADHD-approved) science. 👩🏻‍💻

My weekly content routine is the key to not only staying organized, but also preventing the burnout that inevitably comes when you have to churn out content every. single. week.

After seeing my friend Kelsey at Coming Up Roses post her Sunday Checklist (highly recommend if you’re self-employed), I was inspired to make my Monday content routine official with my own checklist.

Make it a ritual: grab your fav beverage (decaf oat latte, anyone?), throw on your blue light glasses, and get down to business:

Step 1: Update Metrics

While your brain is waking up, we’ll start by doing some light  ✨updating.✨

  • ✅ Update metrics for the goals you’re tracking

  • ✅ Update analytics for each platform

  • ✅ Check in on invoices: are any payments late, or waiting to be invoiced?

Step 2: Review Previous Week

Now let's take a moment to reflect on the past week before diving headfirst into the next one.

  • ✅ Review the content you posted last week: what were your wins? What flopped? What can you learn from it? Incorporate into your content plan this week accordingly!

  • ✅ How consistent was posting last week? Was there any content planned that didn’t actually go live? Are there any tasks blocking that content from getting published?

I use this time to check in on my consistency tracker (a feature I built in The Perfect Content Planner template) to check off any days I might have missed, and review my average consistency score. Hopefully it went up!

Step 3: Plan A Week of Content

Now that our brains are warmed up, it’s time for my favorite part: content planning! 🎉

The content framework that I use (and teach) is all about planning the “big” pieces of content on a monthly basis, and then filling in the daily content pieces on a weekly basis. You can read more about it here!

  • ✅ Choose new publish dates for any content that was supposed to go out but didn’t

  • ✅ See what “big” or recurring content pieces are planned this week

  • ✅ Check your content queue to make sure that any upcoming content is on track to meet deadlines, adjust accordingly if needed

  • ✅ Move content out of your backlog and choose publish dates for it on your content calendar

  • ✅ Check to see what audios are trending this week and how you can incorporate them into your content calendar (opening this email is a great start 😉)

  • ✅ Consult your list of “content ideas” to see if there’s anything you want to add to the week

  • ✅ No backlog or content ideas? Scroll through your saved content or take a few minutes to scroll Reels and TikTok to get inspired.✨

And since we want to make sure we actually follow through with our content calendar, there’s more planning to do:

  • ✅ Choose a publish date for each piece of content

  • ✅ List out every task for each piece of content you have in your content cal this week (eg. film XYZ, edit XYZ, post XYZ)

  • ✅ Assign each task a “do” date (at least 1 day before it’s “due”). This is the day you are actually going to do the task!

I’m not going to lie, planning out do dates for each task will take some time, but it’s SO worth it (especially if you have ADHD like me).

The reason it’s important to list out each task is because it helps fight time blindness.

Seeing every little task in front of you can help you better estimate how long something is actually going to take you to complete, and it will help you plan a realistic content calendar that you can actually stick to.

If you’re overwhelmed at the thought of creating tasks for every piece of content, let me plug The Perfect Content Planner again.

I created the template with 25 content creation templates so you can plan a post and every task that goes with it in just one click! All you have to do is assign a ‘do’ date.

Now it’s time to review everything you planned - this is the most important part if you want to prevent burnout!!

The only way you’ll be able to be consistent is if you’re realistic. If you’re too ambitious with your planning, you’ll get frustrated when you start to get behind on tasks and miss deadlines.

This can cause you to enter a shame spiral and feel like a failure, so you just give up because you’re frustrated at how far behind you are. But you’re not a failure!!

  • ✅ Review the task workload for each day. Do you have way too much planned for each day? Are some days really full and others light?

  • ✅ Adjust your “do” dates and publish dates accordingly!

Step 4: Schedule Your Week

Congrats — the hard part is over! Now it’s time to pull up your work and life calendars and schedule in time to do everything you’ve planned.

  • ✅ Schedule in time to complete your tasks for the week

  • ✅ Block out time to get ready for filming on your calendar - this is a work task and part of your job!

  • ✅ Book any appointments you might need for filming or your content (for me that’s my nails and weekly blowout).

You don’t have to plan every task by the minute in your calendar (that’s my personal nightmare), but you want to block out time in your calendar for the big things like:

  • Prep for filming: do you need to find a recipe and go grocery shopping to film a cooking video? Are you planning to film a day in the life vlog? Schedule it.

  • Filming: what days are you going to film? Is there enough time before you film to finish writing your scripts and other prep?

  • Editing: I’ll usually assign the least busy day in my calendar to do all of my admin tasks and editing.

 🧠 Mental Health Tip: If assigning tasks ‘do’ dates isn’t working for you, you could also list out your tasks and divide them into high/low energy tasks so you can choose which tasks to work on based on your energy level.

Step 5: Review…*Again*

Now that every task is planned and you have scheduled time in your calendar for everything you need to do…how’s it looking?

  • ✅ Review your tasks and calendars again: do you have enough time to realistically complete all the content and work you have planned? Spoiler alert: It’s probably too much.

  • ✅ Are there any blockers for your content that is planned that you need to remove?

  • ✅ Creators and freelancers: do you have a project or partnership due that you need to ask for an extension? Be pro-active in your communication: bad news should travel faster than good news.

My rule of thumb is to remove 25% of the content you have planned to make your content calendar attainable. If you have 4 posts scheduled, remove 1.

This way you will be motivated to actually achieve it…while reducing burnout and stress.

Want to bookmark this to come back to every Monday?

Here's a link to my blog post where I go Into even more detail about each step. It’s an exhaustive checklist, what can I say. 🤣

Happy Planning! 🗓


Get organized and get sh!t done with my Notion template:

A clean, simple-to-use content calendar with features that scale with you as you produce more content.

Trending Audios 🎶

More Tay Tay Trends

We obviously have to circle back to the new Taylor album because, big shocker, there are more new trends from TTPD.

‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me' is officially a meme thanks to the lyrics “you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me” and the video concept is super easy to create.

‘Florida!!!’ (feat. Florence + The Machine) is obviously made for Florida content, and a reminder from last week that “I cry a lot but I am so productive” from ‘I Can Do It with a Broken Heart’ continues to trend (here’s a CapCut template).

Do you wanna go grab matcha?

Coffee's been hogging all the audio attention lately, so it's matcha's turn to shine. Use this audio to show off a matcha menu item or matcha outing!

Too Sweet by Hozier

The new Hozier song is perfect as a background track to a talking head video, or you can sync clips to the funky beat.

Who’s That Girl? by Eve

Is this the new bad b!tch audio for 2024?? This is the song to show yourself being THAT girl (and if you’re a fan of the Who Weekly? podcast…you’ll be shook this is trending).

If You Don’t Want My Love by Jaden Ngonda

This soulful and smooth beat sets the perfect backdrop for your videos.

✨🚊🎀🪩👜✨ 'It Girl' Audios: ✨🚊🎀🪩👜✨

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