I think one of the worst parts about being a chronically over-obsessive Type A person is never being satisfied with anything commercially available when it comes to office supplies and organizational tools. Finding planners and apps and tools to track and schedule my day has always been a huge, huge challenge. I’m really picky, and nothing ever really seems to suit my needs.
The other day, I set out to find a social media scheduling tool that I liked… and…
I couldn’t find one.
Color me totally not surprised.
I spent a good amount of time poking around for a template I liked, and after a few wasted hours, I just decided to go ahead and make my own!
When I first designed the scheduler, I was managing about seven Facebook accounts and two Twitter accounts, plus a slew of other accounts on other platforms. Then, a member of my team left and the workload got shifted around a bit, so now I’m down to two Facebook accounts and two Twitter accounts. So, I quickly redesigned the scheduler.
But, now I think it works perfectly for what I need it for!
I used Adobe InDesign to create my template, starting from scratch. For the past year, I’ve either haphazardly jotted down notes onto a legal pad, or into a file in the Notes app on my iPhone. I looked back at some of my scribbles to see what I was writing down and how it could be improved. Then, I sketched out my idea with paper and pen before opening up InDesign.
I ended up dividing the sheet up into five different sections. The top section breaks down the accounts I manage with boxes to check per posting. The Facebook and Twitter sections have numbers in the boxes have subtle numbers to denote the time, which is super useful for scheduling hourly posts. I left the page title slots blank for customization, since our work load shifts around occasionally and the pages I manage change up every so often.
I have a box that breaks down the day into morning, afternoon and evening so I can jot down scheduled meetings. I have a basic “to do” section, and a section for monitoring #trendingtopics, since I (of course) work with them a lot during my shift. There’s also an “other” category for miscellaneous notes I take from emails or during meetings.
Here’s the template. You can click it to open up a PDF and download the file for your own use!
After I had my really talented friend Sara, a designer at RedEye, weigh in with her opinion, I printed out several sheets. I bound them together into a notepad — DIY post coming soon! — and slipped it into a padfolio. (I have this one from Target. Also comes in black! I would love to get this monogrammed Leatherology organizer in the future… as soon as I can decide on a color.) I put a legal pad into the other side for more detailed notes, etc. and used binder clips to keep everything from flopping around.
I really, really like it. It’s much more useful than anything else I’ve found. I kept the original InDesign file on hand, so that way, I can update it and rearrange some things the next time my job responsibilities get switched around. I like the idea of being able to customize the template as I get tasked with more — or less — accounts to manage.
Fellow social media managers, how do you stay organized at work? I’m always interested in learning about new solutions and tools. Let me know in the comments!
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