How To Create a Content Calendar Using Asana

Business

Dec 29

Today I'm going to show you how to create and manage your content calendar using a project management system called Asana.

By following these simple steps you'll have a content calendar that makes it so easy for you to create content consistently for your business!

How to create a content calendar in Asana:

Step #1: Create a project in Asana for your content calendar.

The first step is to create a new project in Asana for your content calendar. You could just name it content calendar, or if you want to get more specific feel free.

Since I do YouTube videos every Thursday, mine is called YouTube Videos. I have a podcast one and that's called Podcasts. It could say Blog Posts or you can just leave it at Content Calendar. Whatever works for you, just go ahead and and make that project and name it.

Then Asana will ask you to choose between a board or a list. Now this is a new feature at the time I'm recording this. Asana just rolled out the boards feature where you can either have your projects as lists, which is what Asana used to only offer, or now you can have boards, which are more visual columns. It's really great for those processes where a visual element is helpful. Make sure you choose board instead of list, because that's what I'm going to be showing you through this process.

Now that you have your project created, create 5 columns within this board:

To Write / Record
To Edit
To Schedule / Publish
To Promote
Published

Step #2: Create a new task in Asana to act as your template.

Step number two is to create a new task, and it will be your template. We're going to build out a template for every piece of content.

For me, I do YouTube videos, so I have a process that I go through for every single video I create. If you have a blog or you do a podcast, I'm sure you have your own process as well. We're going to go ahead and build that out. Create a new task, call it Template, and make sure you put this new task in the first column on your board. You're going to use this over and over again so you want to make sure it stands out and it's right at the beginning of your process.

Now go in and flush out all of the steps that go into your process. I like doing this in the subtasks of this template. Go ahead and really flush this out. Copy and paste if you already have this document in somewhere else. Don't forget to fill out the description and anything else that you need to help make this process as easy as possible.

In case you aren't sure how to get started with a content process, maybe you don't have anything documented or you don't have a process down, don't worry. I've got you covered. I actually have a free content process template that you can download and start with this, and then customize it for you, your business, your team, and your content.

Step #3: Make a copy of the template task for each new piece of content.

Now you have your template task created, we're going to use this as a template for every piece of content you want to create.

Just go ahead and open up that template task. Click the three dots in the right corner, and then select make a copy.

This is how you're going to use something as a template over and over again.

Now name the new task the name of your piece of content. Maybe it's the title of your blog post or the name of your video, or the podcast episode, whatever it is helpful, even just a topic if that is all you know so far.

Then go ahead and make the due date the date this piece of content gets published. This is just a really great reference point so at a glance you can see when it really needs to be done by.

Then go ahead and assign the task to yourself or assign it to your content manager. I am my business's content manager so it's totally fine if this is all just you. You don't have to assign it to other people, but by still assigning these things to you, it's going to be really top of mind. It's going to be in your task list every day, so definitely go through the step of assigning it to you or whoever is managing your content process.

Don't forget to give the subtasks due dates and assignees as well based on your process. I know for my team I have a video editor and I have a virtual assistant, so most of the tasks are on me to write the script, record, upload, schedule the blog post, all that good stuff. But I do have a team that is helping me along the way. Make sure you're assigning content and tasks to whoever is supposed to do them on your team.

Bonus pro-tips:

Now you have your content calendar built out in Asana. Way to go, you! I do have a few pro tips to help make this process even easier and seamless.

PRO-TIP #1: Keep it updated.

Make sure you keep it up to date, especially if you are the only person on your team or you are your content manager.

If you let these tasks go out of date and you're not updating them or marking them complete, this process will fall apart. That goes with any project management system in any process, but specifically for this we want this process to work for you, so make sure you're checking in every day, marking tasks complete as you've done them, changing due dates if you need to give yourself a little extension. All that's totally fine, but just make the effort to go in and keep it updated.

PRO-TIP #2: Get detailed.

Another tip is to get detailed. Write out all of the information that you and your team need within these tasks. I think mine always has the actual ... in the description it will have the time things are getting published. I will put the full title. I'll put what the content upgrade is. Any important information I put that into the description. I'm always attaching files. Part of my process is updating a spreadsheet with certain links, whether it's the YouTube link or the blog post link or the content upgrade landing page. I actually attach that Google Drive spreadsheet into the relevant task. Then it's just really easy for us to do it. You can just click it right from within Asana. You don't have to open up Google drive separately.

Get detailed. It's okay if this process evolves as you're doing it. That's great. That's really actually ideal. This will evolve with you and your process. But go ahead and get as specific as you can right now.

PRO-TIP #3: Communicate within Asana.

You also want to make sure that you and your team are communicating within Asana.

Now if you have a system like Slack set up, I understand it's sometimes easier to communicate in there. That's okay. But for task-related questions, we have a really good policy about communicating in the task. It's just a great reference point. We can always go back and see what that conversation was. It's stored in a more permanent way than slack, where unless you're paying, which I always do the free version, some of those messages will go away. I think you have 10,000 messages in slack. You get the point.

Keeping it in Asana is just a great way to always have a reference point of what the answer was and to update the process, and just keep it all within Asana. We want to avoid using emails for internal communication as much as possible.

PRO-TIP #4: Designate a content manager.

The last tip I have for you is to designate a content manager. I kind of touched on this earlier, but even if it's just you, making that official designation that you are the content manager or your virtual assistant is your content manager, or you have hired a content manager, whoever it is, designate it. Because that person is the one who's going to move the task throughout this workflow. We made those original columns, and someone needs to be making sure that they're moving to record, to edit, to publish. Someone needs to move through that process. That's the person who the task has probably been assigned to.

Then also, just making sure things are getting done, holding your team accountable for due dates, holding you accountable for your due dates. I totally get how easy it is to forget about them sometimes. But designating a content manager, even if it's just you, will give you new authority and new ownership over your content process.