A Weekly Blog Checklist to Take the Overwhelm out of Your Week

One thing is for sure – if you are trying to grow and build your blog, the number of tasks to master can get overwhelming! Around every corner is one more things that you are supposed to learn, and “do daily from here on out.”

I know I have felt that OVERWHELM along the way.

Especially for those of us who are building our blog WHILE we are still working our full-time job, our part-time job, homeschooling, managing our homes – you name it! There are a LOT of things to wrangle in any given week, and I say HATS OFF to every single one of us.

That being said, I love nothing more than a good cheat sheet.

Sometimes you find those systems or things that come together to make your week so much more simple.

For my blog, that came in the form of an organized checklist. Once I could see in front of me the things that I needed to accomplish, I felt my overwhelm disappearing. I could then see my way through what needed to happen.

Sometimes, the most OVERWHELM comes from simply not being able to figure out which things that need to be done are the most essential.

Well, good news!

I took my own overwhelm, and turned it into a blog checklist for all of YOU.

If you find yourself in the same boat as I was, where I simply couldn’t quickly see what needed to be done, I hope you find this checklist to be a valuable tool for your time, energy and focus.

The truth is, when you know what you are aiming for, it’s much easier to hit it.

Here are some of the highlights of the Weekly Blog Checklist:

Main message

Each week, you get to set a core message that you are sharing with your audience. It may be that you’ve selected a focus for your month, or a certain promotion, or even just around the season you are in. This focus will likely be in at least one of your blog posts for the week, but will also be present in your social media posts and the emails you send to your email list.

I have found that each week, when I write in big letters across the top of the page what message I am communicating with my audience and focusing on, it gives everything I do more clarity.

Top 3 Goals for the week

This is a MAXIMUM of 3 goals for your week. You may be a personality like me who likes to write down 73,909 things that I’d like to accomplish this week, but that’s not what we are doing. If it’s helpful, you can even write down a longer list somewhere else (or on the back of the planner sheet). This is your brainstorming of goals for the week. But then pick your top 3. This is the list of “if I do absolutely nothing else this week, I will at least get THESE 3 things done.”

I even take it a step farther and put a star by the TOP GOAL. This gives my week even more focus. If a certain task is not on this list, it will have to wait until later. This allows me to get some things done well, instead of being in a state of constant distraction where I am doing part of a bunch of tasks, and then frustrated that I don’t see the progress I would like to see.

Things to Research or Learn

Blogging is all about LEARNING. Whether you are just getting your blog up and running, or if you are keeping your business thriving on a weekly basis, you are still a learner.

You could be researching things for posts that you will be writing. You may be working on a skill-set for your blog. Perhaps you are learning about SEO, marketing, or graphic design. Maybe you have signed up for a course related to your blog.

Write down in this section exactly what you will be researching or learning this week. Be as specific as possible, and it will be more likely to happen. For example, saying that you will complete 1 Unit of your course is much more specific than “work on my course.”

Emails to Subscribers

What will you be communicating with your email list this week? Chances are that the topics of these emails will be in line with the main message you are communicating this week. Write the plan down here and be held accountable to make it happen.

Social Media

Consistency is the key to posting on social media for business. Whatever schedule you have decided on for your business, keep track of what you’ve posted right here.

Social media is how your audience gets to know you, like you and trust you. Spend some time creating quality posts to reach your audience. As you schedule your posts for the day, come to this box and check them off. This way you can see at a glance what you’ve accomplished and what you have left to schedule.

Blog Posts

These 3 boxes allow you to keep track of all the little details associated with each post. As we bloggers know, posts involve SO MUCH MORE than writing!

I know I definitely need a place to see exactly where I am at a glance. I do not sit down and do all of these tasks at one time; I am coming back to the post several times throughout the week. Having a checkbox for each post has saved the time of looking through the whole thing and figuring out where in the process I left off last.

Note: You may not be posting 3 blog posts per week. You can still have this checklist apply to your blog. One or two of the boxes could be posts that you are working on for the coming weeks, allowing you to see what you have coming and getting ahead.

Notes

This is a place to put anything else you need to remember or accomplish. You could use it for brainstorming some ideas, reminders about tasks to accomplish, emails to send, calls to make, or assignments for your team.

How to use the Weekly Blog Checklist

Here’s how I use this tool in a given week. Hopefully you can tweak this to meet your needs.

Print out the checklist.

Either one at a time, or print out a bunch and keep them in a binder.

Sit down for 15-20 minutes at the beginning of the week and make your plan.

I like to do this on Sunday nights. If you are a morning blogger (like I am!), it is so helpful to wake up on Monday morning knowing exactly what you need to do.

Keep this checklist next to your work space.

It may in a binder, by your planner, or even on your fridge. Wherever you tend to do your blogging, have this checklist handy.

Work your way through the checklist throughout the week.
Evaluate how it went.

At the end of the week, make a couple of notes. Look at the goals you set. Were they too ambitious? Were they not ambitious enough? What worked well, and what didn’t?

Thinking through these things allows you to regroup before the next week.