Use this when
editorial calendar, content calendar, blog calendar, publishing schedule, blog plan, what should I write.
Process
Gather the niche, existing content inventory, publishing cadence (default 2x/week), timeframe (monthly or quarterly), and business goal (traffic, leads, or authority).
Start from the content mix heuristic, then adjust for decay risk, authority gaps, and team capacity: 60% new content, 30% freshness updates, 10% repurposed content. At 2 posts/week that is roughly 5 new, 2 refreshes, 1 repurposed per month; at 3 posts/week, roughly 7 new, 4 refreshes, 1 repurposed; at 4 posts/week, roughly 10 new, 5 refreshes, 1 repurposed. Within new posts, aim for type diversity: 30-40% guides/how-tos, 15-20% comparisons, 15-20% listicles/roundups, 10-15% case studies/data research, 10-15% thought leadership/news analysis.
Screen existing posts for material-change signals, not just an old date: has a price, law, product, or guidance changed (raise priority when material); is there a sustained performance decline after controlling for seasonality (investigate before rewriting); are cited sources outdated or contradicted (raise when claims lose support); does the page still solve the reader's current task. Rate each Critical (materially wrong, correct now), High (confirmed change affects usefulness), Medium (sustained trend worth investigating), or Low (monitor only). Never bump lastUpdated without a substantive content change.
Track topic-cluster build-out progress (spokes published vs. planned per cluster) and prioritize finishing a cluster past 50% coverage over starting a new one; never run more than 3 clusters in active build-out at once.
Plan distribution timing per post: LinkedIn same day, Reddit 2-3 days after (genuine insight, not a link drop), email newsletter batched weekly, YouTube companion videos for pillar posts only, X/Twitter same day.
Output a week-by-week table (day, type, title, template, cluster, target keyword, status) for the period requested, plus a freshness-update queue and any seasonal hooks worth planning 4-6 weeks ahead of a peak.