If you’ve ever struggled to stay consistent with content, an editorial calendar might be the missing link.
It’s more than just a publishing schedule. It’s your roadmap for planning, organizing, and executing content that actually supports your goals. Whether you’re a solo creator or part of a larger team, having a shared, structured calendar helps you stay focused, avoid last-minute scrambles, and publish with purpose.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through what an editorial calendar is, how to build one from scratch, and share some templates to help you get started right away.
What Is an Editorial Calendar?
An editorial calendar is a planning tool that maps out your content topics, formats, and publishing schedule over time. It helps you organize what you’re creating, when it’s going live, and who’s responsible, all in one place.
You can choose to view your editorial calendar as a spreadsheet list, task list, kanban board or a calendar depending on what tool you use to set it up.
For example, at Crazy Egg, we use a kanban board in Trello to manage our blog editorial calendar:
Why Are Editorial Calendars Important?
Without a plan, content creation can quickly become chaotic. An editorial calendar brings structure to the process, helping you and your team stay consistent, strategic, and aligned with your brand goals.
Editorial calendars are especially helpful because:
- Consistency builds trust. Publishing regularly keeps your audience engaged and signals reliability to search engines.
- Better collaboration. Teams can see what’s coming up, who’s doing what, and avoid stepping on each other’s toes.
- More strategic content. A calendar makes it easier to align content with product launches, campaigns, or seasonal trends.
- Less stress. With deadlines, drafts, and ideas laid out in advance, you can stop scrambling and start creating intentionally.
Whether you’re managing a blog solo or running a content team, an editorial calendar turns reactive publishing into proactive marketing.
Step-By-Step Guide to Create an Editorial Calendar
Creating an editorial calendar doesn’t need to be complicated. The key is to start with your goals, build around your workflow, and keep things flexible enough to adapt as priorities shift.
Below, we’ll walk through each step to help you build a calendar that works for your content, team, and publishing rhythm.
Step 1: Define Your Content Goals
Without clear goals, even the most organized editorial calendar can lead to wasted effort. Your goals give structure to your content, shaping not just what you create, but why it matters and who it’s for.
Ask yourself:
- Are you trying to grow organic traffic through SEO?
- Are you educating existing customers to reduce support inquiries?
- Are you trying to build authority in a niche market?
- Are you supporting a new product or service launch?
Each of these goals will lead to different content decisions, from the types of formats you prioritize (e.g., long-form blogs vs. short videos) to the cadence you choose and metrics you track.
Write down 2–3 clear content goals and keep them visible as you build your calendar.
That way, every piece of content you add serves a purpose, and every deadline helps drive the outcomes that matter to your business.
Step 2: Choose Your Content Channels
Your editorial calendar should reflect the types of content you actually plan to publish and where you will publish them.
That means choosing the right channels (like blog, email, or social) and formats (like videos, articles, or podcasts) based on your goals and audience behavior.
Here are the most common types of editorial calendars and free templates you can use to get started:
Blog Content
A blog editorial calendar tracks article topics, keywords, authors, deadlines, and publish dates.
It’s essential for SEO planning and content consistency, especially if you’re coordinating multiple contributors or building a content cluster strategy.
For example, here’s a blog editorial calendar template you can use from Airtable:
It connects your blog content pipeline to your team and other distribution channels (like social media).
Social Media Posts
A social editorial calendar helps you stay consistent across platforms while aligning messaging with broader campaigns.
You can plan by theme, audience segment, format (e.g., reels, carousels), and even performance insights from previous posts. Notion offers a simple template that you can easily customize to your needs:
Podcast Episodes
Podcast calendars help you manage guests, scripting, recording, editing, and distribution. You can also plan how and when episodes will be promoted across other channels, like email or social media.
Riverside has created a free Trello template you can check out to get you started:
No matter if you’re starting with one channel or multiple, defining your content types now makes it easier to scale later, without breaking your calendar structure.
Step 3: Pick an Editorial Calendar Format
Once you know what content you’re creating and where it’s going, it’s time to choose the format your editorial calendar will live in.
The best format depends on your team size, workflow, and how much visibility and automation you need.
Here are four common options, each with its own strengths, that you can easily set up in most tools:
Spreadsheets
Simple, flexible, and surprisingly powerful. Tools like Google Sheets or Excel let you build a simple yet custom calendar that fits your process. For example, Hubspot has a range of well-renowned editorial calendar templates in spreadsheet format:
You can also use a spreadsheet-as-a-database tool, like Airtable, to unlock more dynamic functionality.
For example, you can dynamically connect data from one view to another which you cannot easily do in a traditional spreadsheet.
A spreadsheet view generally lets you track publish dates, titles, owners, status, keywords, channels, and more, all in one view. Great for individuals or small teams who don’t need a lot of complexity.
Calendar View
A calendar view is a very common way teams view their content plan. It’s a visual layout that maps your content across days, weeks, or months, just like a traditional calendar.
For example, here’s the calendar view from Airtable’s blog calendar template:
You can generate a view like this in other tools including project management apps (like Asana), productivity apps (like Notion), or in specialist content managing apps (like CoSchedule).
Most of the time, such a view will be automatically generated based on the data you put into the app. For example, Aitrable can switch from a spreadsheet view to a calendar view, displaying the same data in two different ways. Most project management tools can do the same.
If you prefer this format for managing your content calendar, make sure you confirm the tool you’re thinking of using offers it as a view.
Task (or List) View
Project management platforms like Asana, ClickUp, or Notion offer more robust task and project planning features.
The default view in these apps tends to be a task list, like this view from Asana’s editorial calendar template:
You can assign tasks, track status through different content stages (drafting, editing, published), and collaborate with other team members in real time.
This feature is ideal for content teams juggling multiple pieces, channels, and contributors.
Board View (Kanban Style)
Inspired by kanban boards, this view lets you move content through different stages in your editorial process:
Trello is well-known (and well-liked) for its simplicity. You can create a simple board or get started with a pre-built editorial calendar template.
Board views offer a drag-and-drop dream for teams who like visual workflows and quick status updates. Ideal for managing editorial pipelines or agile content production.
If you like flexibility, you can also look for tools that let you toggle between views, so you can brainstorm in a board view, manage your tasks in a list, and check your publishing rhythm in a calendar layout. Start with the view that makes the most sense to you, then evolve your setup as your process grows.
Step 4: Map Out Your Content Themes or Pillars
Before you fill your calendar with individual ideas, take a step back and define a few key themes or “content pillars” that support your brand, goals, or audience needs. These are the broad categories your content will consistently focus on.
For example, if your company sells costumes, some key content pillars might be events, characters and audience segments:
Having clear themes helps you stay strategic, avoid repetition, and create balanced coverage across topics.
It also makes brainstorming easier. Instead of starting from scratch, you’re just slotting ideas into your pillars.
Aim for 3–6 themes to start with, and use them as a filter for what belongs in your editorial calendar (and what doesn’t).
Step 5: Plan Specific Content Pieces
Once your themes are mapped out, it’s time to start populating your calendar with actual content ideas. As you do, think holistically.
Go beyond what you’ll publish, and think about how often, who’s responsible, and how you’ll stay adaptable.
Start by setting a realistic publishing cadence for each channel.
- Weekly blog posts?
- Daily social updates?
- Monthly newsletters?
Choose a rhythm you can maintain without sacrificing quality, and make space for both evergreen pieces and timely content.
As you plan each item, assign clear ownership and deadlines (especially if you’re a team of one). It’s what holds you accountable and getting things done.
If you work in a team, it’s crucial to know who’s creating, reviewing, and hitting publish. This helps prevent bottlenecks and keeps your calendar actionable, not aspirational.
Finally, treat your calendar as a living document. Check in regularly, adjust priorities as needed, and be willing to shift gears if a certain format, topic, or frequency isn’t working.
The most effective editorial calendars are equal parts structure and flexibility.
What to Do Next
You don’t need to build a perfect editorial calendar from day one, just a usable one. Here’s how to turn this guide into action:
- Start simple. Choose one content format or one platform and build a basic calendar around it, even a spreadsheet will do.
- Brainstorm 10–15 ideas that align with your content pillars and goals. Don’t overthink them since you can refine as you go.
- Block time to review your calendar weekly or monthly. Look for what’s working, what’s falling behind, and where you can improve.
- Repurpose wisely. One blog post can become a newsletter, a LinkedIn post, and a short video; your editorial calendar can help you plan for that from the start and save you time down the line.
The key is consistency, not perfection. The more you use your editorial calendar, the more powerful it becomes.
