And yes, it’s possible.
Table of Content
Yes, a content plan is a good thing, but it’s important not only to plan everything, but also to implement it. You have to sit down and write all the posts, create visuals in time, and prepare material for articles. And, of course, someone gets sick, someone forgot to approve, and someone didn’t write in time. Deadlines slip, content is late, algorithms no longer want to show your accounts to unique users. You need to fix it!
Why does it happen?
Not because everyone’s lazy and doesn’t want anything. It’s just that your processes aren’t aligned!
It only seems that all you have to do is sit down and write a post or article, unfortunately, it’s not always the case. From the inception of an idea to its publication, materials often go through many stages: coordinating ideas, approval of plans and visuals, writing (which is usually divided into several more stages), proofreading, editing. The final product is often made by more than one, two, or even three people, so it’s important to build logical processes, so that everyone knows exactly who needs to write and when, and with whom to approve
Ideally, everything should work like clockwork, on schedule and without any rush. But we’re not robots, we’re humans.
The copywriter defends his or her thesis, doesn’t give materials to the translator and designer in time, therefore, texts’ publication delays. Sudden (or not so) events in one participant’s life of the system and that’s it, nothing works.
So what to do about it?
There are a few simple tips that’ll help to make your life easier and significantly reduce stress level.
Stop doing everything back-to-back.
People involved in the process should have the right to make mistakes and all kinds of unpredictability. If the material has to be done today, it definitely shouldn’t be done today. If everything has to be agreed in a week’s time, it’s better to start several days in advance. Otherwise, you are playing Russian roulette: will it shoot this time or not? And more often it shoots.
If your customer or boss keeps asking you to do something #ASAP, then you can forgive them and complete a task, but only once. But if it happens systematically, you need to change something.
Have a stock of materials.
Have you already understood that ensuring yourself is the most important thing in building processes? Yes, it’s worth having several materials for the future, so that if something goes wrong, you won’t be left with an empty trough. Ideally, if you always have a ready content plan for the next two weeks, and have the peace of mind to prepare materials for a later date.
It’s also a good idea to keep a list of “everlasting topics” that you can pull out of your sleeve at any inopportune moment and quickly write a few materials. In such a list, topics should be for all times, not tied to any occasions, seasons or a specific day.
By the way, in times of crisis, you can still take what was written a long time ago and repackage it. It’s also an option if you don’t have time for anything at all.
Make sure your team’s workload is divided fairly.
Generally, it’s better if you always have several employees who can perform the same task. Then, if something happens to one, there will always be the second one on the way. Of course, they will do more work together.
Each time you start planning the process for the next period of time, check if one of your colleagues is planning a vacation, wedding or other important events. So you may not be in complete control of the situation (surprises are surprises), but at least make the future much more predictable. And that’s a lot.
In brief: think about processes rather than events, always have materials and topics in stock, stop completing tasks back-to-back and distribute the workload evenly between employees. This way, you’ll make your life easier and stop stressing about not getting anything done!
