How to Plan a Month of Content in One Afternoon
If your current content strategy is “I’ll figure it out when I get there,” welcome to the burnout express. Constantly scrambling to post something last-minute isn’t just draining—it’s bad for business. But what if I told you that you could plan a full month of content in a single afternoon?
Let’s make that happen.
Step 1: Start With Your Content Pillars
If you haven’t defined your content pillars yet, stop right here and go do that first (I walk through how to do this here). These are the core themes that represent your brand—think behind-the-scenes, customer testimonials, product education, mission-related encouragement, etc. Your pillars give you direction and help you avoid “blank page syndrome.”
Step 2: Break Down the Month
Pull out your calendar and look at the next 4 weeks. Any big events? Sales? Feast days (for Catholic brands)? Launches? Put those down first so you can build around them. Then aim for 3–5 posts per week, depending on your bandwidth and your audience’s tolerance.
Step 3: Use a Repeating Weekly Rhythm
Make Mondays educational. Wednesdays inspirational. Fridays funny or reflective. This rhythm builds expectations—and trust—with your audience. For example:
Monday: Mini-tutorial or tip
Wednesday: Story or customer experience
Friday: Reel or meme
Now you’ve got structure without rigidity.
Step 4: Repurpose, Don’t Reinvent
Did a podcast go live? Great—use quotes for a post, a video snippet for a Reel, and the theme for a story poll. One idea = multiple posts. (Here’s a guide on how to do that effectively.)
Step 5: Batch Create
Once you’ve mapped out your ideas, open your laptop and start creating. Spend 60–90 minutes writing captions. Then grab photos or record short videos. Don’t aim for perfection—aim for DONE. Schedule as you go (or use a tool like Later or Planoly to help automate that part).
Step 6: Leave Room for Real-Time Content
You don’t have to schedule every single thing. Leave 10–20% of your calendar open for spontaneous or reactive posts. That way, you’re still flexible and human—not a robot churning out pre-approved marketing speak.
You don’t need a full-time content team to show up consistently. You just need a solid plan and a few hours to get it done. Once you build the muscle of batching, it gets faster—and dare I say, even a little bit fun. Your future self (and your audience) will thank you.
