Blog Planner Reveal

If you caught my last post on planning blog posts, you'll know that I've been putting a blog planner together! When I started blogging my natural instinct was to use Microsoft Excel to create a fancy spreadsheet which would track my blogging diary, post ideas, link parties and everything else that goes with the territory:

And yes, it has kept me organised for the last 9 months. But I couldn't shake the feeling that there was a better way for me to do it, because when I'm planning blog content, brainstorming ideas or writing reminders for things I need/want to do my natural instinct is to reach for a notebook and a pen. When it comes to being creative - which blogging is in a way - digital just doesn't fit my personal working style. 

Obviously I haven't been using my new blog planner to organise myself for very long, but so far it seems to be working better for me and I like having everything in one place (it's easy to forget some of your grand plans and ideas for your blog when your notes are split between a spreadsheet, multiple notebooks and post it notes). 

So let's get onto the bit you actually want to see; what's in my blog planner?

Here's the virtual flick through:

At the front is a pouch for keeping stationary in. And behind that I have post it notes, because having note paper in my Filofax probably won't stop me scribbling out post it notes too. 

When I started assembling my blog planner the first thing I did was get out my label maker and decide what categories would work for me.

The first category is "diary" and it's where you'll find my perpetual monthly calendar, which I included so that I can see at a glance what posts I have coming up that month. (Apologies for a lack of photos of my printables - I haven't mastered taking crisp photos of shiny, laminated sheets!) Behind this are the diary pages which came with the Filofax. I'm mostly using these to plan what day I'm writing the posts (if you read my Planning Blog Posts topic you'll know that the day I write the post and the day it's published are rarely the same). But I also put in other blog reminders and daily life stuff.

I fill in my post planner on Mondays so I know what posts I'm writing that week, which is kind of a follow on from how I use the Filofax diary but it gives me more space to write down information like what I'm including in the post and when I need to schedule it for once it's done. 

I have an ideas list for home projects, organisation, creative pursuits and printables (this is one of the things I included in the spreadsheet but never used because I like pen and paper).

Blogging isn't all writing posts - there are maintenance issues and enhancement ideas to consider. I'm hoping having this list in my blog planner will keep me on track for getting things done now, as before I had a tendency to write random lists then forget about them. I'm particularly bad for adding posts to my project galleries so I expect this list will be used primarily for that.

Self explanatory. I cannot remember passwords without a list, there are too many random letter and numbers involved.

Have I mentioned I like writing down notes ;-)

Really wish I'd had this blog planner right from when I started blogging. Anyone else got a planner they want to share? Or perhaps you're feeling inspired to start one? I really do appreciate everyone who takes the time to comment!

(Printables used in my blog planner are available in the previous posts shown beneath my signature, and in the upcoming Freebie Thursday post).

You might also be interested in:

Blogging Printables (week one)

Blogging Printables (week two)

Planning Blog Posts

Making Time for Blogging