The Grounded and Intuitive Approach to Content Planning
If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that even the best plan can go out the window. And even into the dumpster fire.
The intuitive writing approach (which is also my approach): Look ahead to the whole year and loosely plan, then plan a quarter at a time and a month at a time.
Use the plan as a creative container. Create within the container as it works for you and your life. Then, when the container isn’t working, build a new one, or take a chainsaw and build yourselves some french doors.
What happened to my loose plan for 2020? Tossed out the window in March when I wrote what people needed — Entrepreneur Crisis Communications Swipe Copy — simple take + tweak messages
I went into 2020 with a plan to blog each week and looking back; I came really close to that goal with 44 blog posts.
I wrote a lot and when I looked back during the content planning sessions I hosted in The Intuitive Writing School Community, I had some insights:
I stopped tracking all my blog KPIs (key performance indicators) in March 2020 — I invested some time in December to go back and review
Blogs that I was nervous to publish got the most traction and were the easiest to write
As a Generator in Human Design, my strategy is to "respond" — if someone asks a question inside the writing community or on social media, the answer became my content — either for my blog or social media.
In 2020, I loosely planned my topics based on astrology — this felt intuitive and easy — definitely doing this again
I blogged A LOT in 2020 — 44 posts in total. For 2021 and 2022, I decided to publish less, and go deeper into fewer topics.
I’m going to continue to follow astrology — the seasons of each astrological sign, moon phases, and my cycle with timing each post’s writing.
Here’s the process I use to do my content planning.
Content Planning Process:
Each month, quarter, and year, I review the content I created and then look ahead to what I’ll create next.
Feel free to use this content planning guide as a starting place and then adapt it to make it work for you and revisit it throughout the year.
How far ahead should you plan?
If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that even the best plan can go out the window. The intuitive approach: Look ahead to the whole year and loosely plan, then plan a quarter at a time and a month at a time.
Step 1. Look back + celebrate
One month at a time, review the content you created. Consider gathering:
Stats: which blogs/podcasts/social posts had the most engagement, views, comments? If you have time in advance, consider tracking this information in a Google Sheet with relevant stats and links
Review each title and consider:
What topics resonated most with readers?
Which felt easy to write?
What topics could you write 5 more articles about?
Could any of these topics turn into a small book? PDF? Workshop (paid or free)?
List 1 topic a month / quarter that stands out to you — whether from engagement or your inner excitement. Feel free to skip months/quarters where the content felt uninspiring.
If your content naturally falls into categories or buckets, which categories were the most fun to write about? Which ones felt like a slog?
Write 3-5 things that worked well for the past content — did batch writing help? Did focusing on certain topics help? Did writing at a particular time of day and day of the week make it feel easier?
Celebrate! First, look at how much you created and put out in the world! This is a great starting point!
Step 2. Decide your purpose
What format do you enjoy? Blogging, podcasting, video? In what order?
What’s your purpose for creating content?
Growing your audience
Establishing your expertise
Getting more eyeballs on your website and offers (SEO)
All of the above?
Are you writing about topics your ideal audience wants to read?
Are there things you enjoy writing about more than others?
Step 3. Intention-Setting
Do you like a word of the year? Or a few words? Or a feeling?
What are your 1-3 big business goals for the year?
Fast forward to the end of the quarter or year — what do you want to say about that time?
Whatever you choose — you can refine as you move throughout the year. Write it on a sticky note, write the word at the front of your planner, or design a desktop wallpaper.
Step 4. Look at the year / quarter / month ahead
Print out monthly pages, use your planner, a Google Doc or Google Sheet
Paper planner I personally use: Plum Paper (here’s 10% off) (affiliate links)
Step 5. Blank space FIRST
Review your personal schedule, time off, busy times of the year at home, busy times in your business, holidays
How much time do you want to take off this year? Block those times first. You can always open it back up later.
Step 6. Plan your sales cycles
Your promotion schedule, launches, upcoming offers — plot these on your calendar and then work backward in your content leading up to your offers or sales cycles
Answer the question: what does my ideal client need to know or believe to sign up/work with me?
Holidays and theme months
Review the moon cycle (you can add it to your Google calendar):
Click “Other calendars”, “Browse calendars of interest” then select the calendars to add to yours (Moon is at the bottom). Keep reading for how to write with your cycle, season, and/or the moon.
Busy and slower months
Once you decide what you’ll promote, you can rearrange your sales schedule to fit your personal schedule and any other relevant times
Step 7. Theme brainstorming
Consider all your content like a charcuterie board. Each of your blog posts is inspiring and helpful on its own. When enjoyed one after another with a small taste from all the other accompanying content — the experience is even better.
This is why organizing your content into buckets or a few key themes will help your work appear as a charcuterie board. You wouldn’t drop an oatmeal cookie, spaghetti, or falafel on your board. It wouldn’t fit.
Typically 1-5 themes or topics will naturally emerge.
Scan existing content. If you had to put them into categories, where would they naturally fit? Then, consider your list of groups and think about combining some or removing if there are too many. And if you notice you have a single theme, that’s great too. You can absolutely stick to one subject or add more if you feel inspired.
Consider what you want to be known for. Do you help people with a specific challenge? How do you want people to remember you? Do you want them to remember you for your ability to take a personal story and apply a business lesson? Do you want to be known for your straight, no-BS talk?
Consider what you could talk about all dang day. When you talk about something, and it brings you energy, life, and light, that right there is content gold. What feels good to create — feels good to your readers to read. List out all the topics that make you feel giddy with excitement. Subjects so good to talk about that you simply have to get them out. When you write about what lights your fire, you’ll feel good. When you feel good, your readers feel good, and isn’t this the whole dang point?
What do people always ask for your advice on? If people are always asking for recipes and you’re a business coach, you may want to keep those topics out of your regular content rotation. When you notice you’re giving the same advice to different people, you’ve got a gift right there and is something you can help your audience with, that right there is service. And when you serve your audience, they will appreciate it.
What does your ideal client need to know or understand before they buy? Back into this by filling in the blanks of what people need to know and believe before they’ll sign up for each step along your customer journey.
Decide on themes for the coming year/quarter/month
Now, write out your list of themes — maybe you have 1, 3, or even 6.
Review each topic on the list. Do you enjoy and want to continue talking about these topics? If not, go ahead and strike some. And if you do love these topics, now you have some boundaries to help you with your brainstorming. Having boundaries for your brainstorming and creative projects will help you create.
While many assume that creative people need wide-open spaces to create, what I can tell you from working with many kinds of makers and being creative myself, is that without a container to create in, I spin in circles, or I do nothing.
Give me a nice charcuterie board, and I’ll know what to put on it. Give me a wine glass, and I know what to put inside. Pass me a giant bowl, and I’m going to fill it with guacamole.
Step 8. Topic inspiration
List-makers rejoice! Now, you’re going to create a big list. There are over 100 topics ideas on my content list — I look to this list as a menu of things I can potentially write about — NOT as a to-do list.
Revisit any existing lists of topics you have from the previous year — are there any topics you want to tackle next?
Revisit your previous year/quarter’s content highlights — what topics do you want to rewrite, update, or go deeper on?
Look outside your industry
Look at images with your keywords
Step 9. Map it out
Based on your schedule, sales planning, and themes in your business, start plotting specific topics to happen in certain weeks/months, depending on your publishing frequency
You can plot on your Google calendar, in a Google Sheet, or on pen and paper
Know that the plan is there to guide you. You have full control to reorder any topics as you see fit
If you need to change your content plan
It’s okay! We're all constantly changing. A plan is there to support you and make your life easier, not harder. It’s there to guide you when you need it — not shove you into a too-tight, too-small, constrictive box.
Keep creating, keep writing, and keep going. Build that body of work!
Great, so you have a plan, you loosely mapped it out, now what?
When to batch:
When your energy is high and you can get into a flow of writing. You can time this with your menstrual cycle if you have one, or you can time it with the moon.
Here’s what content creation with the moon (or your menstrual cycle) might look like…
new moon / menstruation:
Journal, free-write, morning pages
Reflect and stay open for intuitive insights
Make decisions (a great time to do this planning process!)
waxing moon / follicular phase:
Add new topic ideas to a list of content
Add ideas to go deeper into content
Schedule shitty first draft (SFD) writing time and plan to write quickly without editing
full moon / ovulation:
Be visible and start conversations around what you’ve been creating
Connect with your audience
Pitch workshops, podcasts
Record videos or schedule live videos for this time
waning moon / luteal:
Focus and complete
You’ll be good at details during this time. If you batched your writing earlier, you’ll be able to quickly go through, edit and polish your piece and publish
When you go through this process, you might want to take a quick and light touch the first time, and then later go back and go deeper.
As you create, keep in mind that the more you tap into your creativity, the more you’ll discover. Keep going — you’ll unlock more possibilities than you could ever imagine.
Bookmark this article for your annual or quarterly content planning process!
You can do it at the end of each year or at the beginning. You can also revisit this at any time — plan a quarter, a season, or a month at a time.
Once I’m finished with my content plan, next, I create my 12-week plan to make the writing happen.
Like this practical planning advice? There’s more where this came from. Check these out:
