Planning Plans

How to not should on yourself

Hi Cringers,

This week’s question comes from friend and author(!) of Everybody Be Cool, the lovely Hanan Harb Sahourhieh.

Before jumping in, can we take a moment to appreciate the phrase “should all over ourselves”?

As a recovering content marketer, I SHOULD tell you YES, have a plan. Plans are good. Plans help you achieve your goals and give you direction.

BUT plans are only as good as your ability to follow them, which is why my caveat to all this is, yes, plan, but plan for your way of operating.

Before sitting down to plan, ask yourself the following questions:

• What are your goals?

• How much time do you have to dedicate to planning?

• Are you someone who works well with plans?

• How do you write best?

• What level of detail do you want in your plan?

Get really honest with yourself about how you work. 

I’ve worked with some clients who want to plan their content down to every period and schedule it all in their calendar three months in advance.

Others hate plans and wouldn’t be caught dead writing a post months in advance.

Truth be told I fall into camp two. I always wanted to be one of those people who planned my content ahead of time and stuck to a tight schedule.

I once even tried to plan my day in 30-minute increments. Let’s just say that didn’t last long...

So I had to get real with myself about myself. As much as I wanted to be a detailed planner, I knew I didn’t work like that. 

I am motivated by novelty and write best when I’m in the moment and inspired by an idea.

So I replanned my plan.

I created a list of goals, content buckets, and a schedule I knew I could follow.

I decided to post on LinkedIn daily (it didn’t matter the time) to grow my account, make new connections, and explore my voice. 

I committed to keeping my content to the following categories:

• Testimonials (for leads)

• Jokes (for fun and connection)

• Insights (to demonstrate my expertise)

• Descriptions of my services (so people know what I do)

• Promotions (to grow my mailing lists)

It didn’t matter what I posted and when so long as I rotated categories regularly.

Having a loose plan of what I wanted to achieve and the topics I wanted to cover helped give me a sense of direction without making me feel boxed in or uninspired. 

The other benefits include:

• It keeps things fresh for people who follow me. They never know when or what I’m going to post. There’s a surprise element to my content.

• It gives me space to address more topical events.

• It gives me room to incorporate community feedback regularly.

• It allows my content to evolve with me. If I had written and scheduled a post three months ago, there’s a good chance I would no longer identify with it. 

Would this approach work for everyone? Probably not, but it works for me.

So as you consider how to plan your content, think about how you operate and what you want to achieve.

If you thrive on a tight schedule, create a tight schedule. If you’re more loosey-goosey, focus more on overarching goals and categories.

Your best plan is the one you can stick to. 

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