Content Calendar

Editorial Calendar Planning

Before You Start

1. Check for brand context: Read brand/VOICE.md if it exists. Calendar planning should align content themes with brand pillars. If the user has already run the content-strategy skill, reference the content pillars and briefs from that output.

2. Determine the calendar type: Ask the user (or infer from their prompt) what kind of planning they need:

   • Monthly Calendar -- a full month of content planned across platforms (templates/monthly-calendar.md.template)
   • Campaign Plan -- a focused burst of content around a single theme, launch, or event (templates/campaign-plan.md.template)
   • Content Series -- a connected sequence of content pieces published over time (templates/content-series.md.template)

3. Gather inputs: Platforms the user publishes on, existing content pillars, any fixed dates (launches, events, holidays), production capacity (how much content per week is realistic), and current content pipeline.

Planning Flow

Stage 1: Context Gathering

Understand the constraints before scheduling anything:

• Platforms: Which platforms does the user publish on? Each has different cadence norms. See cadence-guide.md.
• Capacity: How many pieces per week can the team realistically produce? Be honest -- overplanning leads to burnout and abandoned calendars.
• Pillars: What content pillars exist? Reference brand/BRAND.md or the output of the content-strategy skill if available. If no pillars are defined, suggest 3-5 based on the user's context.
• Fixed dates: Product launches, conferences, holidays, seasonal events, industry milestones.
• Existing pipeline: Content already in progress, scheduled, or published recently. Avoid redundancy.

Stage 2: Cadence Design

Set the publishing cadence for each platform based on:

1. Platform norms: See cadence-guide.md for recommended frequencies.
2. Team capacity: Never exceed what the team can sustain. A calendar that collapses after two weeks is worse than a modest calendar maintained for six months.
3. Content quality threshold: Reduce cadence before reducing quality. One great post per week beats five mediocre posts.
4. Audience expectations: If you have trained your audience to expect a weekly newsletter, do not suddenly go monthly.

Recommended starting cadences for a solo creator or small team:

Stage 3: Topic Mapping

Assign topics to calendar slots:

1. Map pillars to weeks: Rotate through content pillars so no single pillar dominates. A simple rotation (Pillar A, B, C, A, B, C...) works for three pillars.
2. Assign formats per platform: The same topic can appear on multiple platforms in different formats. A blog post might become a thread, a LinkedIn post, and a newsletter section.
3. Anchor content first: Schedule your highest-effort content first (blog posts, videos, newsletter features). Then fill in lighter formats (threads, LinkedIn posts) that can be derived from or complement the anchor content.
4. Leave buffer slots: Mark 10-20% of calendar slots as "flex" for reactive content (responding to news, trends, or community conversations).

Stage 4: Calendar Assembly

Build the calendar using the appropriate template:

• Monthly calendar: Use templates/monthly-calendar.md.template. Week-by-week view with columns for date, platform, format, topic, pillar, status, and notes.
• Campaign plan: Use templates/campaign-plan.md.template. Timeline view with phases, content pieces per phase, and coordinated multi-platform execution.
• Content series: Use templates/content-series.md.template. Sequential view showing how individual pieces connect, with consistent cadence and a connecting thread.

Stage 5: Review and Adjust

Review the assembled calendar for:

• Pillar balance: Is any pillar over- or under-represented?
• Format variety: Are you using the same format too often? Mix blog posts, threads, videos, images.
• Pacing: Is there a natural rhythm? Avoid publishing three heavy pieces in a row followed by nothing.
• Dependencies: If a LinkedIn post references a blog post, is the blog scheduled first?
• Realistic workload: Can the team actually produce this? Be ruthlessly honest.

Multi-Platform Coordination

When the same theme appears across platforms, adapt it for each platform's norms:

The key principle: Same theme, different treatment. Never copy-paste the same text across platforms. Each platform's audience expects content that feels native.

Calendar Statuses

Use these status labels for tracking:

Integration with Other Skills

This skill coordinates with the broader content system:

Output Checklist

Before delivering the calendar, verify:

• Calendar format matches the user's need (monthly, campaign, or series)
• Publishing cadence is realistic for the team's capacity
• Content pillars are balanced across the calendar period
• Formats are varied (not all blog posts or all threads)
• Fixed dates (launches, events) are accounted for
• Multi-platform content is adapted per platform, not copy-pasted
• 10-20% of slots are reserved as flex for reactive content
• Dependencies between pieces are sequenced correctly
• Every slot has enough detail (topic, format, pillar, platform) for someone to write a brief
• Calendar is deliverable as a clean markdown table or structured document