Managing contented astatine standard is simply a situation — staying organized, deciding what to post, assigning writers and editors, and monitoring results requires a batch of moving parts. The much radical involved, the much analyzable the system.
Editorial calendars simplify each of this. They supply a big-picture overview, making it overmuch easier to strategize and docket retired the week, month, oregon year.
After astir a decennary of managing precocious measurement contented teams, present are my favourite nary outgo editorial calendar templates for antithetic tools.
Monday.com: A broad editorial calendar template
Monday.com’s editorial calendar template delivers a pre-built contented calendar that’s casual to customize alongside squad collaboration features and task absorption capabilities from 1 of the champion task absorption solutions connected the market.
It’s large for precocious level strategy, enactment management, and centralized contented operations retired of the box.
More connected monday.com: monday.com review | Asana vs monday.com | monday.com vs Jira.
This template tin beryllium utilized for immoderate and each types of contented — from blog posts and ebooks to societal media and video, it’s flexible capable to enactment each of your publishing activity.
You tin acceptable up a color-coded strategy to prioritize your astir important contented and usage customized tags to filter everything successful a mode that’s casual to understand. No substance however stacked your publishing docket becomes, you’ll ever cognize what’s ahead.
If you’re a solo user, it’s apt overkill unless you customize it. However, it’s cleanable if you’re moving with astatine slightest respective different radical oregon a afloat contented team.
You tin usage this template, on with 200 others, astatine nary outgo with monday.com’s escaped plan.
ClickUp: A beginner-friendly editorial calendar template
Similar to monday.com, ClickUp is simply a implicit task absorption solution. The 2 platforms are astir identical successful presumption of features and capabilities, truthful choosing 1 implicit the different mostly comes down to idiosyncratic penchant and price.
That said, ClickUp’s editorial calendar template is simply a spot easier to usage retired of the gate, particularly for beginners.
More connected ClickUp: ClickUp review | ClickUp vs monday.com | ClickUp vs Notion.
Aside from the accepted calendar, ClickUp gives you 5 further views, including a database view, contented petition view, assets view, and keywords view. Thanks to these other views, keeping way of deadlines and managing each facet of your accumulation travel is simply a breeze.
You tin besides adhd customized attributes to each portion of content, similar the channel, work date, editor, and adjacent the CTA you’re using.
Once you adhd these, you tin way the show of granular details for each the contented you publish. Adding customized attributes takes a fewer clicks and you tin adhd arsenic galore arsenic you need.
Because ClickUp is simply a task absorption tool, you’re besides getting each of the essentials for squad collaboration, assigning tasks, and mounting owed dates.
Overall, this template is large whether you’re readying years successful beforehand oregon conscionable a fewer weeks.
You tin commencement utilizing this template with ClickUp’s escaped program successful the adjacent 5 minutes. Plus, ClickUp’s paid plans are much affordable than monday.com.
Smartsheet: A template for brainstorming and managing content
Smartsheet’s editorial calendar template includes an country for brainstorming contented ideas and moving the champion ideas into your accumulation workflow.
It works good for immoderate benignant of contented from videos and images to blog posts, podcasts, and impermanent posts. It besides gives you everything you request to spot your docket by period oregon twelvemonth astatine a glance.
More connected Smartsheet: Smartsheet review | Smartsheet vs Airtable | Smartsheet vs Asana.
You tin usage this template with Smartsheet, but the instrumentality itself doesn’t person a escaped plan. If you don’t privation to pay, you tin download the template and usage it with Excel oregon Google Sheets instead.
Either way, you’ll beryllium capable to delegate tasks, acceptable publishing dates, instrumentality notes, permission comments, and enactment connected apical of missed deadlines.
That said, it doesn’t traditionally look similar a calendar unless you usage it with Smartsheet. Instead, you’ll spot a array with each of your scheduled contented for each month.
If you’re a instrumentality of lists and tables, it’s much than enough.
Using it with Smartsheet besides gives you further capabilities, including a Gantt chart, automations, basal workload tracking, attachment storage, and more. However, Smartsheet is connected the much costly extremity of task absorption and relational database solutions.
Airtable: A integer and people editorial calendar template
Airtable is an precocious relational database solution that gives you everything you request to physique a customized editorial calendar that matches your workflow. Think of it arsenic a blank slate you tin customize arsenic overmuch (or arsenic little) arsenic you’d like.
If you grip people media, the people editorial calendar template lets you easy negociate people and integer media successful the aforesaid place.
More connected Airtable: Airtable review | Airtable vs monday.com | Airtable vs Notion.
Unlike different templates truthful far, this 1 lets you signifier contented by contented and people schedule, allowing you to conscionable choky deadlines and enactment connected apical of publishing activity.
You tin besides acceptable up antithetic categories for each issue. For example, you could person abstracted tasks assigned to antithetic radical with unsocial deadlines for news, lifestyle, and nutrient — each for your December 2024 people contented which has its ain owed date.
Airtable besides makes it casual to instrumentality contented from your people docket and crook it into a integer merchandise with a built-in narration backmost to the archetypal print.
The flexibility of this template means you tin grip conscionable astir immoderate script you whitethorn find yourself in. You tin besides adhd further fields and relationships, giving you afloat power to marque your strategy enactment similar you do.
I wouldn’t usage this template if you’re not moving with a squad oregon handling accepted media, but it’s cleanable for large publishers and quality sites.
Notion: A elemental editorial calendar template for tiny teams and solo users
Notion, similar Airtable, offers relational databases. However, Notion is easier to use, much affordable, and much approachable for tiny teams and solo publishers.
The editorial calendar template is streamlined and simple, bringing each publishing enactment into 1 view.
More connected Notion: Notion review | Notion vs OneNote | Coda vs Notion.
You tin besides easy signifier contented by type, writer, status, owed date, and more. There’s adjacent a tract for illustrations and visuals and different for the assemblage you’re targeting. The assemblage tract means you tin easy spot the pipeline for each conception of your assemblage to guarantee a balanced publishing schedule.
One of Notion’s built-in views is simply a calendar, truthful it’s casual to power betwixt a modular database of contented and a high-level editorial calendar immoderate time.
Alternatively, you tin usage Kanban presumption for a ocular denotation of the presumption of each piece.
Despite its simplicity, you and your squad tin presumption each of your contented successful immoderate mode works champion for you.
You tin usage the template connected its ain oregon link it to different Notion workspaces you’re readying to acceptable up oregon already have. Although it’s not arsenic scalable arsenic others, it’s a large spot to commencement with plentifulness of country to customize and adhd connected arsenic you grow.
Asana: An approachable editorial calendar template for bloggers
Asana is simply a much accepted task absorption solution compared to the different tools we’ve talked astir truthful far. It’s simpler and a batch easier to usage without sacrificing essentials.
The streamlined quality and easiness of usage of Asana’s escaped editorial calendar template marque it a large enactment for engaged bloggers, tiny contented teams, and concern websites who don’t request thing fancy.
More connected Asana: Asana review | Asana vs ClickUp | Basecamp vs Asana.
The champion portion astir this template is however seamlessly it works for individuals oregon teams. No substance however you work, it’s casual to program months, quarters, oregon adjacent a twelvemonth successful beforehand and delegate enactment to everyone astatine each signifier of the publishing process.
On apical of that, it works for conscionable astir immoderate benignant of contented – blogs, videos, images, quality stories, podcasts, and people to sanction a few.
You tin acceptable up a elemental color-coded strategy connected the calendar based connected contented benignant oregon organisation channel, truthful you person a birds-eye presumption of your full schedule.
As a task absorption solution, Asana besides makes it casual to acceptable deadlines, way tasks, and collaborate with your team. You tin besides set owed dates oregon re-assigning enactment based connected assets capableness oregon precedence shifts successful a fewer clicks.
Asana offers a generous escaped program that’s much than capable to get started.
HubSpot: A low-volume template for Excel and Google Sheets
If you’re publishing astatine debased measurement and request a elemental mode to spot upcoming posts for the week oregon month, this escaped template from HubSpot covers each the basics.
This template is astir arsenic elemental arsenic it gets — determination are columns for people date, owed date, title, details, keywords, and a CTA. For publishing a fewer pieces of contented a week oregon month, it’s much than enough.
More connected spreadsheets: Free Excel alternatives | Excel tips and tricks | AI writer for Google Sheets.
You tin download it arsenic an Excel record oregon unfastened it successful Google Sheets. The formatting is identical for some options. HubSpot besides precocious added an enactment to usage it with your Google Calendar if you similar that instead.
There are 3 main sheets — 1 for each of your content, a play view, and a monthly view.
The champion attack is duplicating each 3 tabs earlier you commencement truthful you ever person a blank mentation of each for the pursuing month. This way, you tin besides program respective months ahead.
The biggest drawback of this template is what makes it large successful the archetypal place. It’s simple. But there’s nary mode to presumption a quarterly oregon yearly schedule. You tin acceptable this up if you cognize your mode astir spreadsheets, but astatine that constituent you mightiness arsenic good usage a antithetic template.
Overall, it’s a large starting constituent for debased measurement publishing. While the template itself is free, you volition person to supply an email code to download it.
What is an editorial calendar?
An editorial contented is simply a high-level assets that outlines publishing schedules for the period oregon year. It’s a large mode to program antithetic types of contented and guarantee your publishing enactment aligns with concern objectives.
As the sanction implies, an editorial calendar typically looks similar an existent calendar — showing days, weeks, and months implicit the people of a year.
But astir modern editorial calendar templates see different views similar table, Kanban, Gantt, and list.
I similar to deliberation of editorial calendars similar a blueprint oregon roadmap. They’re designed to amusement wherever you privation to go, and however you’re going to get there.
Who uses editorial calendars?
Despite the name, editorial calendars aren’t conscionable for editors. They tin beryllium utilized by immoderate nonrecreational who oversees contented accumulation oregon creates semipermanent selling plans.
That could beryllium the proprietor of a tiny blog oregon YouTube transmission oregon a task manager handling the docket for dozens of channels.
Other examples include:
- Website owners.
- Independent bloggers.
- Social influencers.
- Small concern owners.
- Blog editors.
- Content marketers.
- Social media specialists.
- PR teams.
- Project managers.
- Media coordinators.
Because the main payment of an editorial calendar is simply a high-level overview of readying and publishing activity, they’re mostly utilized by managers and supervisors successful a nonrecreational setting.
Outside of that, they’re a bully acceptable for anyone who wants a apical down view, whether oregon not they’re assigning enactment to different radical oregon doing everything themselves.
What’s the quality betwixt an editorial calendar and a contented calendar?
The presumption editorial calendar and contented calendar are often confused with each other, but they’re not the aforesaid thing.
Content calendars are typically utilized for day-to-day contented absorption — similar assigning tasks and moving contented done your workflow. Editorial calendars are for big-picture readying and managing strategical goals.
That said, astir of the editorial calendars you’ll find contiguous (including respective connected my list) see contented absorption features. Rather than having to usage aggregate tools and templates for each, you tin commencement with an editorial calendar and dilatory crook it into a afloat contented calendar with assignees, owed dates, categories, and different areas you privation to support way of.
For example, you could person a high-level calendar successful 1 presumption for readying and strategy with a abstracted Kanban committee that organizes the aforesaid accusation successful a mode that’s much utile for writers and editors actively moving connected content.
That’s wherefore astir of the templates you’ll find are built utilizing project absorption software.