A Friday Morning Checklist for Last-Minute Online Editors

Editorial management strategies for the last-minute editor

Is it just me, or is a “case of the Mondays” an understatement when you’re an online editor with a daily frequency? It’s a little more like a “case of the oh crap what am I posting today“s when you don’t have an established editorial calendar. And it’s as easy to get behind as paying a credit card payment. Miss a month and you’ve got a lot of work to do to make it up for the next month. Miss a day in your editorial calendar and you could be putting yourself in rush mode for the next week or so.

As an editor who has admittedly tried my hand at working every single type of content planning schedule, I can tell you which editorial schedules I’ve seen crash and burn in front of my eyes and for other editors I’ve talked to:

• The last minute posting schedule: You wake up every day, come to work, spend time thinking of a topic for your post, then spend more time writing the post, editing the post, and posting the post. By the time you’re done, it’s past noon and your day is half over.
  • Verdict? Least productive, very stressful.

• The Friday planning schedule: Every Friday, you make a schedule of posts for the next week. This way, you know your topics beforehand and eliminate the hour or so you spend trying to think up a good idea every day. Still, every morning you’re in rush mode to get the blog written, edited and posted.
  • Verdict? Moderately productive, less stressful.

• The month-in-advance schedule: Every month you make an editorial calendar. Unfortunately, a month ahead is not only an unrealistic goal for getting ahead for one daily editor, it’s also a long deadline. Unless you commit to writing a blog every day, you’ll likely be looking at writing five posts a day for the last week of every month. This schedule is manageable when executed properly, but also takes away any breath of news that you want in your blog posts. A month is a long time to hang back on reporting a relevant news topic.
  • Verdict? More productive, more stressful, less useful.

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If you’ve been struggling with your own daily editing schedule, I’m about to break out the Suze Orman of online editorial scheduling advice.

I dub thee, “The Week in Advance Schedule”. Creative, I know. Here’s how it works.

With this schedule you’ll be working a week in advance. The week that you’re working on your posts, you won’t be worrying about writing, editing or scheduling posts in real-time, you’ll be scheduling them for the next week. Let’s set our calendars to this Friday, June 8th.

• Friday, June 8th:
• Create an editorial calendar for next week. Include the title of your post, what category you’re posting in, and what keywords you’re targeting. Include notes when necessary
• Send your editorial calendar to whomever needs to review or approve it. This will give them all day Friday, the weekend and Monday morning to review.
• Look at your editorial schedule and make a checklist of to-do items. If some articles need additional research or an interview, be sure to schedule them today so that next week you can plan accordingly.
  • Time spent: 1-3 hours
  • Time saved: 2-4 hours

• Monday, June 11th – Friday June 15th:
• Choose a post from the editorial calendar that you’re enthusiastic about and write it. With more creative space to choose a topic, you’re likely to be more thoughtful about your article and pay more attention to editing. You also had all of Friday and the weekend to think of some good ideas for your articles, instead of writing them on the fly, to fill a slot in your calendar.
  • Time spent per day: 1-2 hours (x5) = 5-10 hours
  • Time saved per day: 1 hour (x5) = 5 hours

• Friday, June 15th:
• Edit posts, schedule posts to be published, and set up email newsletters when applicable.
  • Time spent: 2-3 hours
  • Time saved: 1 hour per day (5 hours)

You may also choose to write all of your posts on Monday and Tuesday so that the rest of your week is free to work on the abundance of other editorial items on your plate. What this schedule does, is save you a little over ten hours per week. It’s kind of like buying wholesale. Write in bulk and you’ll save time!

It also gives you much needed breathing room. You can take a step back from editing your posts on the fly and wait until the end of the week to put a pair of fresh eyes on them.

This schedule also gives you room to take a day off if you get sick, or work on a last-minute to-do item. It also gives you the endearing Friday deadline which makes everyone want to work harder and faster towards enjoying their weekend with friends and family.

I’d honestly love to hear what type of editorial schedule works for you. Please divulge in the comments!