How to Batch a Month of Content in 5 Days

In this post you'll my 5-day monthly content sprint process that helps you plan, create and schedule a month of content in 5 days of less!

How much I struggled to get my content out each week used to feel like my dirty little secret.

Yes, I was known for helping people get their content ish together. Helping them streamline and come up with systems to achieve content consistency. And basically, helping them never skip publishing something they’d planned simply because they hadn’t had time to write the damn thing, edit the damn thing, design the damn thing or publish the damn thing.

But two years ago between my 9-5 and growing biz — I was the total content mess.

And again last summer between waiting for my new website and honeymooning — I was the total content mess.

Here’s the thing: I’ve always thought of my content as weekly content bundles instead of by-channel breakdowns. But just because I package them this way — doesn’t necessarily mean that this is how I should get them done. Because I’ve realized that creating content weekly (for me) is a recipe for stress, guilt and panic (as well as missing weeks altogether).

Monday morning always carried a heavy dread. The post and weekly content must be scheduled by that date. Or else.

I realized there was a much better, much easier and much more efficient way of operating. And that’s what I’m about to show you.

Now when I take time off content, it’s totally intentional, pre-planned and guilt-free, not because I just couldn’t get my words together.

Crisis-Mode: Executing Your Content Plans Weekly

Do you ever wish you could be half as good at executing your plans as you are at creating them?

I ran a challenge recently and THIS ^^ was one of the things I heard the most.

People felt BURNED and a little RELUCTANT to create plans because they felt there was no point. We overcame this by spending at least half the challenge on what I like to call “fail-proofing the plan.”

So if you’ve ever felt like this, you’re far from alone!

This is one of the problems with weekly content creation. It relies on you following through week after week – even if it’s been a month or more since you created the content plan you’re following.

What can we do to shorten the time between planning and executing? Basically so you’re not relying on someone you haven’t met yet (a.k.a. future-you with commitments and work you haven’t even heard of yet).

Weekly Content Bundles

“Weekly Content Bundle” refers to the package of content you publish on a weekly basis.

Sidenote: It could also be a biweekly or monthly or other frequency instead. The determining factor is how often you’re publishing a blog post. If weekly, then it’s a weekly content bundle. If biweekly, then it’s a biweekly content bundle.

To create your weekly content bundle:

1. For every blog post, what are the major milestones needed to complete it? ie. image suite (pinterest, facebook, instagram), formatting, draft, editing
2. For every blog post, what are the pieces of content you use to drive traffic to it?  ie. email newsletter, facebook page post, facebook live, twitter posts, 3 pinterest images, 1 instagram post
3. What else are you publishing regularly within that timeframe? ie. Promoting a free or paid offer (facebook page post, twitter posts, pinterest, instagram post, blurb in weekly newsletter), sending in a guest post or podcast interview pitch, facebook group prompts and questions
4. Break these into blocks so you know all of the blocks you have to fill each week

The other benefit to creating weekly content bundles is that you can create templates and checklists for each piece that’ll allow you do them in less time or outsource them to someone easily.

Batching those Bundles

For a long time, I thought that having these weekly content bundles was enough. But even with all the checklists broken down the itty bitty detail and a team doing a lot of the heavy lifting, I’d still got overwhelmed with client projects and fall off the content wagon myself.

So coming up with a way to me-proof the process was essential.

That’s where this 5-Day Content Sprint originated from.

An easy 5 day workflow to complete a month’s worth of content from draft to publish to promote.

Doing it this way allows you to:

• Condense a lot of work into a short, simple timeframe

• Group similar tasks together so you’re not jumping from one task type to the next (ie. all of your images, all of your scheduling, etc.)

• Focus fully on other areas of your business for 3 weeks of the month without stressing about your content

• Show up and market your business in real time because all of your basics are taken care of and you’ll have the time, space and energy to show up where and how you want.

The 5-Day Content Sprint Process

I’m so excited to unveil my 5-Day Content Sprint System (process). It’s an efficient and effective way to get your monthly content planned, created and scheduled within 5 days for the entire next month.

DAY 1: 60 MINUTES

1. Create your content plan and settle on titles:

• Decide on 4-5 topics to write about for the upcoming month (depending on how many publish dates are within the month). Sometimes choosing a monthly theme can make this easier (especially when it comes to writing them).
• You’ll also want to come up with titles. This is important so you can create all of your blog images the next day.

2. Free write your posts

You’ll hear me talk a lot about the magic behind free writing your posts before sitting down to actually write them.

Here’s what it looks like: At the planning stage of the content sprint, when you decide on a topic, set a timer for 5-10 minutes to write down all your thoughts about the topic. Here’s a picture of my outlining template that I use for every single blog post before writing.

I fill out:

• The working title

• The purpose for my readers

• The purpose for me

• Questions the post will answer

• Free writing

• Outline for the post

Set the timer for 5-10 minutes to free write each topic for the upcoming month

DAY 2: 90 MINUTES

1. Completely write post 1

• Create your environment in your content sprint. Where do you write best? Somewhere you’re undisturbed? Somewhere with the soft hum of background noise? Your get-to-work beverage? Set the conditions so you can write your first post.
• Set a timer a 10 minute timer for each section.

2. Create all images

Next take your titles, gather any background stock photography and create your image suites for each of your posts.

What’s included in your image suites will depend on your business, but here’s what’s included in mine:

• Pinterest images (3)

• Instagram sized image

• Facebook sized image

• Feature image

DAY 3: 90 MINUTES

1. Completely write post 2

• Set up your ideal writing environment. Is this there anything you’d like to alter from day 2?
• Set a timer a 10 minute timer for each section.

2. Write newsletters

Write a 150-200 word summary or behind-the-scenes story of each blog post that you can use in newsletters to invite your subscribers to read the full post.

Some potential approaches for your newsletters:

• A behind-the-scenes story from your business or life that relates to the topic of the post

• Discuss a current event, news event or piece of pop culture and how it relates to the topic of your post

• Summarize the post and what they’ll get out of reading it

Set a timer for 10 minutes and write a short newsletter for each post (using the outlines for reference).

DAY 4: 90 MINUTES

1. Completely write post 3

• Set up your ideal writing environment. Is this there anything you’d like to alter from day 2 or 3?
• Set a timer a 10 minute timer for each section.

2. Write social media posts

• What’s the simplest version of social media posts needed to promote your posts?
• For me, that’s 1 longer promotional message and 3 short ones.
• I use the longer one on Instagram and Facebook. I use the shorter ones on Twitter and in Facebook groups.
• My weekly social mix includes: 1 long promo message and 3 short ones about my weekly blog post. What does yours look like?
• Set aside 10 minutes to go through each post (or outline) and create your social media content.

DAY 5: 90 MINUTES

1. Completely write post 4

• Set up your ideal writing environment. Is this there anything you’d like to alter from days 2-4?
• Set a timer a 10 minute timer for each section.

2. Schedule everything (Blog Posts, Newsletters, Social)

• Format and schedule your blog posts, then your newsletters and then your social media.
• For formatting blog posts, it can be really helpful to have a blog styling guide and publishing checklist.
• For newsletters, remember to send yourself a test to make sure all links are working!
• For social media, I use Social Pilot for their bulk scheduling feature.

And there you have it, my Monthly Content Sprint. An easy 5 day workflow to complete a month’s worth of content from draft to publish to promote.

Want to get started on your own? Start with my FREE monthly content planning kit!