Creating a Content Calendar Template in Notion

Katelyn Dekle
111 steps
6 minutes

Notion

Gist

Create an inline database to get started

Click this icon to add a new element to the page.

Type "inline" to filter the block options. You're looking for "inline database."

Click "Database - Inline" to add a new inline database to this page.

Give the database a title, then hit [[enter]]

Click the "Table" tab to access the settings for this view.

Click "Rename"

Type "Posts To Do" (or something similar) then hit [[enter]]

Add properties (columns) in the table

Click "Properties" in the same menu to add some new column fields to the table

Click on the "Tags" property to change its name & add some options.

Change the name to "Categories." This will create a dropdown where you can select the different topics you will cover in your content.

Click "Sort" to change how the list will be organized.

Click "Alphabetical" to organize the list alphabetically, making it easier to find the option you want from the list, later.

Click "Add an option" to start adding your different topics (categories)

Type in your first category name, then hit [[enter]]. Repeat until you have all the categories you need. *(Don't worry you can edit these any time, later!)*

Click the back arrow to go back to the main Properties menu to add another column.

Click "New property"

Type "date" to filter the list & find the Date property type.

Click "Date"

Change the name of that date field to "Publish Date"

Check the settings (date format + time format), then click "Duplicate property" to add another date field.

Click the "Property name" field to rename it, and type "Do Date" (or due date) for the date you need to start working on this content.

Click "Date format" to change it

Click "Relative" if you'd like to see the relevant day of the week instead of the date *(ie: "Monday" vs Monday's actual calendar date)*

Click the back arrow to go back to the main Properties menu again.

If you accidentally get out of that pop-out menu, you can add more columns from the plus sign at the end of the columns list in the table, here.

Now let's add a new "URL" property to add the published content link when it's done.

Type "Post URL" to name it.

Click this checkbox to turn on/off the toggle if you want to see the whole link in this column. It may be "on" by default, so I clicked it to turn it "off."

Go back to the main Properties menu again.

Add a "Text" property and call it "Notes" for a quick/easy place to jot down short thoughts/updates for each post

Turn on/off the "Wrap in view" option by clicking this toggle if you want.

Create post statuses

Add another property for statuses

Click "Status" for the property type.

Click any existing status to rename it & change its color. I suggest changing "Not Started" to "Idea" instead for this one.

Click any of these ➕ plus signs to add/edit more statuses in each of the sections for to do, in progress, and complete status groups.

Click this six-dot icon to click & drag the statuses to rearrange them if needed.

At the top of each status option's settings, you can choose to set any of them as the default, otherwise it will be the first option in the To-Do group.

From that same panel, you can change the color options for each status.

Resize & rearrange your columns

Hover over the divider between column titles, then click & drag when you see the blue bar to resize the column widths. You can also click on any column header and drag to move the column to a new place, left or right.

Add automatic calculations at the bottom of each column

Click "Calculate" at the bottom of any column to set up percent or calculations for that column.

To set up a percentage of complete statuses, for example, click "Percent" then "Percent per group" then click "Complete"

To set up an automatic count of all rows in the database, click "Calculate" then "Count" then "Count all"

Add some content to the database

All new databases will have 3 rows by default.

You can use these rows to add your first 3 post titles.

If you need more, click the "➕ New" button at the bottom to add 1 new row with each click.

How to make bulk edits to multiple posts at the same time

Hover over the far left side of the database to access to multi-row selection checkboxes, if you want to make bulk changes to the row's properties.

After selecting the first checkbox, click the checkbox next to however many more rows you want to edit at the same time.

Once they're all selected, use the popup menu to select the property you want to edit for all of the selected rows. For example, to change categories for all of them, click the "Categories" button here

Then choose the category you want to apply to all 3 rows.

Click on the "x selected' text here to deselect the group when you're done making bulk edits to your selection.

Click inside the box for each row, in each column to individually edit properties for each row.

Assign dates to the posts

Next, let's assign a couple of "Publish Dates"

Choose a date from the date picker popup menu.

Click off of the popup menu to close it.

Next, let's assign some deadlines in the "Do Date" property.

Hide the table's title (optional)

Click this icon to access the view's title settings.

Then click "Hide database title" if you don't want to see it.

Add a filter for this view to hide completed posts

Next, click this filter icon to set up a data filter for this view.

Click "Status" to filter in/out by their status.

Click the checkbox for this "To-Do" group, or individual options inside it, to make sure we WILL see all of the posts with these statuses.

Next, click the checkbox for this "In progress" group, or individual options inside it, to make sure we WILL see all of the posts with these statuses too.

Once the first two status groups are selected, click somewhere outside the pop-out menu to close it. *(We don't want to select the Complete status group too, in this case.)*

Sort posts in the table by their date

To sort the rows by any property, select this icon.

To sort the rows by "Do Date" & keep your next deadlines at the top, select it from the drop-down menu here.

Click anywhere outside of the sorting dropdown to close it.

Create a Completed Posts View

Click on the "Posts To Do" tab, then click "Duplicate" to make an exact copy of the first view.

Once you have a copy, name it "Completed," then click the "Filter" icon to change the filter options in this view.

Click the current filter in blue, "Status: To-do, In progress"

Click their checkboxes to deselect the ones that had been selected before & turn them OFF in this view.

Click the "Complete" status group option to select the checkbox for all of your Complete statuses in this view. This tab will now ONLY show posts with completed statuses.

Click the "Sort" icon to change the settings, or access it from the ••• icon in the pop-up menu.

Click "Do Date" to change the property you're sorting completed posts by.

Click the "Publish Date" property to sort completed posts by that instead, since there are no deadlines in this tab's view.

Click "Ascending" to change it to "Descending" to put the latest publish date at the top.

Click the X icon to close the popup.

Create a Board View

Click the "Posts To Do" tab again

Click "Duplicate" again

Type "Board by Status" to rename this view, then click "Layout" to change the layout from table to something else.

Select "Board" to create a Trello-like kanban board view of your table.

Click this checkbox to turn OFF/ON property wrapping if you want the cards in each status column to all be the same size.

Click this checkbox to color the background of each column based on its status color.

Go back to the "Properties" menu

Click this 👁️ icon to turn ON/OFF any of the properties, making them visible/hidden on their cards in the kanban view.

Go back again, then click "Group" to edit how the cards will be grouped in each column

Click this toggle to show or hide empty groups. I like to keep it on for kanban views so I can see each status as a column, even if it's empty.

Removing or changing a filter

Now click this icon to change the filters in this view, so we can see all the posts you want to see.

Click "To-do, In progress" in blue to change the filter options.

Click the checkboxes to select or deselect the options you want. I'll just click "Complete" to turn on those statuses too.

Or, remove the filter entirely by clicking this ••• icon from the filter menu

Then selecting "Delete filter" from the pop-out.

Create a Calendar view

Click "Board by Status" to duplicate this view without the filter.

Click "Duplicate"

Type "Calendar" to rename it. Then click "Layout" to change the layout type.

Click "Calendar," then in the bottom half choose your calendar settings.

The "Show calendar by" setting allows you to choose which date property ("Do Date" or "Publish Date") it will use to display your posts on the calendar.

Go back to the view's "Properties" panel

Click the 👁️ icon to turn ON/OFF any properties you want to show/hide in the calendar view.

I'll turn on the "Status" and "Post URL" and "Do Date" properties, since the card will be on the calendar day for the "Publish Date"

Click the X to close the menu.

100

Click the "No date (X)" button to see the remaining posts that have not been assigned a "Publish Date" yet (and so aren't showing on the calendar).

101

Click on one and drag it onto the calendar date you want to assign it to.

102

Repeat for any others you want to assign "Publish Dates"

103

If you accidentally put one on the wrong date, click & drag it to a new date; they're very easy to move around!

Open any page to add its content

104

Click on any post to open its own page view.

105

To edit its properties, click any "Empty" or filled property values.

106

Click on any property name to click & drag it in the list, up or down, to rearrange them in a different order. For example, you can move "Status" to the top of the list to see it first. *(This will be applied globally within this database, not specific to this post's page.)*

107

Next, click "Do Date" and drag it upward to move it under the "Status" property.

108

Next, click "Publish Date" and drag it upward to move it under the "Do Date" property.

109

Next, click "Post URL" and drag it upward to move it under the "Publish Date" property.

110

Then click in the empty white space below the "Add a comment" section, to start adding your content to this post's page.

111

Here you can create an outline of the post, write the whole post, paste a video transcript, add images, videos, graphics, and more!

Creating a Content Calendar Template in Notion

Katelyn Dekle
111 steps
6 minutes