Simple Planner for Bloggers/Writers using Google Sheets: Video Demonstration

Keeping track of all your work tasks and personal tasks as a freelancer is a real struggle. I shared my tips on How to Plan a Week in my last post. In the post, I talked about how I use both digital and handwritten planners for my work. In this particular blog, I am going to share how to create a simple planner/ tracker for bloggers using Google sheets.

Bloggers, who have a lot of ideas about the blogs they want to publish, should definitely use a simple scheduling planner. I came up with this google sheets tracker when I actually forgot about one of my blogs and couldn’t publish it on time. So, I am going to teach you how to keep your work tracker/planner clean. Not just ‘CLEAN’ but “MONICA-CLEAN’!

Without further ado, let’s start a step wise guide to create a planner along with a video demonstration at the end of the blog post. You can request a copy of my tracker at the end of the blog.

 

Steps to create a Planner/Tracker using Google Sheets

Creating a Base of the Planner

1. Open a new Google Sheets file, preferably in your blogging folder on a Google drive.
2. We just need a few columns to create a tracker, So go ahead and delete Columns H-to-Z.
3. Now, Merge first row’s middle 3 column cells to write a title. Write ‘BlogPosts Tracker’ or anything that you want to call this particular tracker.
4. Skip one row and start naming columns with fields for the blog tracking. Start naming the rows from the first column 4th row: Blog type, Blog Title, Status, Start Date, End Date, Notes(if any).

 

Adding Tags and Rules (Data Validation)

1. Once you are done naming each column, use your favorite font color, font size, and style to decorate a little bit.
2. Now, we are going to add data validations to some of the columns. Starting with the very first column named Blog type. I usually tag my blogs as New Blog, Blog Update (When I am changing a lot in the already published blog), Content Add (when I am adding a paragraph to the already published blog). Likewise, you can create tags of your own tasks. We are going to create drop-down options for these tags.
3. So, Select column: Blog Type,  from row 5 to row 50(or more)  
   1. Go to Data from the option to the top left corner of Google Sheets.
   2. From Data, go to Data Validation.
   3. Select ‘List of items’ from the dropdown.
   4. Add items to the list separated by a comma. Like this- New Blog, Blog Update, Content Add.
4. Moving on to the next Column: Blog Title. You need to create enough space for the title. So go ahead and select 2-3 adjacent columns including the title column and merge them horizontally. This will give you enough space to write the title of the blog without messing up your Main title and rest of column arrangements.
5. The next column is about the Status of the blog.  Follow steps 6 and 7 again. This time add these options to the ‘List of items’ to create dropdown options – In Progress, Not Started, Published, Reviewing. Save changes.
6. For the Start Date column, select rows 5 to 50, go to Data->Data validation. Choose ‘DATE’ type from the options and save changes.
7. Repeat step 10 for the column End Date. 

Adding color codes to each tag (Conditional Formatting)

Steps to add color tags for your planner.

1. Select rows 5 to 50 of column Blog Type. Right, click-> Go to Conditional Formatting->from the formatting rules select ‘Text is exactly-> Type New Blog as it is. Choose your favorite color tag and click on Done. Click on ‘Add Another Rule’. Repeat for Blog Update, Content Add. Now you have three different color tags for three different blog types.
2. For the status column, repeat the above steps to add color tags formatting rules for – In Progress, Not Started, Published, Reviewing. 

Now your entire panner is ready. You can add color tags for the Start Date and End Date as well.

watch the video demonstration of the above planner creation steps.

 

I hope this planner will be helpful for you to keep track of your blogs. If you want a copy of my Google Sheets blog tracker-> Request it below.

I hope you liked the video and the blog. I am soon going to share my weekly planner.

Stay Tuned on my Instagram.

Cheers!