If you’re a blogger and you own a bullet journal, chances are you’ve at least contemplated blog planning in your bujo, if you’re not doing it already. Today I thought I’d give you some tips on using your bullet journal to help with blog planning. Around three years ago I wrote a similar post entitled ‘Blogger’s guide to bullet journalling‘ but I’ve moved my planning on a lot since then so I thought it made sense to do an updated version.
Stats tracking
I touched on stats tracking in my guide to bullet journalling post and I also dedicated a whole blog post to how I track my stats in my bullet journal, so this isn’t anything new really. My process has still evolved in the last year though, and now I basically just have two pages dedicated to tracking my blog stats. The first is just a tracker for my overall blog pageviews and my Instagram and Twitter following, and the second is my monthly pageviews and sessions tracker. The latter is by far my favourite page in my bullet journal, and there’s something really satisfying about seeing the completed year’s stats in December.
Not sure what to track or where to begin? Here’s 5 simple steps to track your stats.
Whilst I used to monitor and compare a few of the same key stats every month, it was pretty time consuming and something I only ever referred to once. I think it’s good to test what works for you and keep evolving your spreads until you’re happy with them.
Blog post ideas
This is such an important page if you’re the sort of person who likes to plan their content in advance of writing it. I have a note on my phone where I collect ideas when I’m out and about, and then periodically I update the list of ideas I keep in my bujo.
I like to write these in the same way I would a normal to-do list in my bullet journal, so that I can easily tell which ideas I’ve already used or disregard certain ones completely.
Editorial calendar
Another good blogging spread for your bullet journal is an editorial calendar. Here you can plan all your posts in advance, including when they need to be written and when you might be able to take photos for them. I find this particularly useful if I’ve got any sponsored content coming up as I can plan better what sorts of posts are going to be published next to each other and move them around if need be. This is also useful if you’ve got multiple niches, so you can spot when you might be putting too much focus on one niche at a time.
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To-do lists
This goes for any sort of bullet journal you have, but it’s a good idea to keep yourself a rolling to-do list of any blog jobs that need to happen. For example, you could add ‘take photos for x post’ or ‘create Pinterest graphics for last 5 posts’.
This list could also include emails that need replying to or brand pitches you need to make – whatever your blogging day-to-day looks like, this list should help you keep on top of things!
‘When did I last..?’
I saw this recently for a household chores spread but think it could be really effective for a blog-based journal.
Essentially you’ll create a grid or table, fill in the left column with something like ‘fix broken links’ and then use the other columns to fill in the date of when you last completed the task. Depending on what the task is, you might be filling this in twice a month or twice a year, but I’m definitely going to draw this out in the near future and I think it’ll really help me stay on top of those odd blogging jobs I often forget about – like replying to comments or updating old links. I think this could be particularly useful for keeping track of things like your hosting renewals or SSL certificate expiry date too, though these likely happen yearly for a lot of people.
Let me know what your much-needed blogging spreads are in your bullet journal. Don’t forget to check out the rest of my bullet journal posts if you’re still looking for some inspiration!
