EASY Scheduling Hacks To Support Your Podcasting Life

Stressed? Worried? Forgetful? Rushed? These are all signs of having scheduling conflicts. The good news? We can fix that. Like Superman ripping off his shirt and flying to the rescue. So will these three easy scheduling hacks come to the rescue for your podcast in life.

For this podcast compass series, we have covered the core elements and the important basics. In this episode, we'll zoom in on our podcasting schedule. First through the eyes of creating content and then through the eyes of our audience. Why even bother with a podcasting schedule? Preparation delivers value and rewards...

Jump To It:

00:15 - Signs of having podcasting scheduling conflicts.
01:21 - Scheduling hack number one - theming your week.
02:58 - Flexibility with themes.
03:23 - How themes tap into the habits of your audience.
04:11 - Scheduling hack number two - time blocking.
05:42 - Scheduling hack number three - accountability.
06:07 - Different forms of accountability you can use.
07:33 - A word on batching your podcast production.
07:50 - Next episode teaser.
08:05 - Thank you notes.

Scheduling Hack No. 1 - Theming Your Week

Creating content for our podcast is quite the process, whether you're an independent podcast or you have a team. Can you just hit record and say what you need to say, not at it and publish all within the same day? Yeah, but I'm 99 percent sure that the value and your audience growth is very scarce.

With a podcast to-do list, I realize there are stages when it comes to podcasting. Prepare, record, edit, and publishing. Why try to jam all that into one day? To relieve stress, boost efficiency, and keep my podcast team love alive, I designated one of the podcasting stages to one day of the week. After trial and error, I was able to refine my podcasting production to the following schedule:

Monday = write and schedule.
Tuesdays = publish.
Wednesdays = prepare.
Thursday = record and edit.

This method is known as theming your week. There is a great FREE course by Mike Vardy on this very process. Easy to implement - sign-up today!

"What about all the other things that I have to do or with unexpected things that rise up?"

Consider a theming schedule as the foundation of your podcast process. Themes are designed to be our priority reminder. You'll be aware that whatever happens that day, your number one thing to complete is that theme's task. It's neat because it becomes a filter for the important things. If you have a team, you can easily use this theming method for assignment responsibilities.

Theming For Your Audience

If you're consistent with your scheduled themed days, your audience will subconsciously learn when to expect new content from you. This goes for your podcast, email newsletter, and your social media.

For example, Tuesday is the main trigger for my audience because that's when I publish a new episode and send out a newsletter with a few extras. Thursday's another trigger for my social media audience because most often than not, I'll hop on Instagram and shoot an Instagram story showing the behind the scenes. Then I'll repurpose that video posting on Twitter and Facebook. This is just the tip of having our schedule ironed out and rewarding us with a lot of value for us and our audience.

Scheduling Hack No. 2 - Time Blocking

Continuing from our themed week, we can now assign a specific timeframe to complete the task at hand. There's a popular saying, "If it doesn't get scheduled, it won't get done." But, how many times have you scheduled, "Record episode," into your calendar only to push it off?

When it comes to time blocking, we need to do the following to stick to it:

Pick a time that allows you to be uninterrupted.
Pick a place virtually and physically that you will be less distracted.
Commit to the schedule for the overall plan.

This is the very reason we are building a podcast compass. If we're finding it hard to commit to a schedule and publish our episodes, we have a podcast compass filled with all the reasons WHY we are podcasting. It's motivation and it's inspirational.

You know what I found so amazing as a result of sticking to the plan? Creativity is alive. Humming and it takes over like coffee to my blood and things just become easier to do. If you want to learn more about that, I highly recommend that you listen to episode three of this podcast.

Time Blocking For Your Audience

When we prioritize our content it gets better and it becomes valuable to the listener. They will keep coming back for more.

Now, we have our themed week and time blocked. What else can we do to hack our schedule to support our podcasting life? One word with so many forms...Accountability.

Scheduling Hack No. 3 - Accountability

When we think of accountability, we immediately think it has to be a person to hold us accountable. A friend or business partners one of the great ways to implement accountability. Here other powerful accountability forms you can use:

A calendar, digital and/or print. Mark it in, do the theme level and then do the time block level.
A task management tool like Todoist or Trello to send reminders.
Use a group of podcasters - head over to VIPodcasters.com.
Your business, if your podcast is an asset to your business, this is a great accountability, if it's what drives the sales of your own services and product or even through sponsorships and affiliates.
Your audience. Once your audience is hooked on your content, they'll ask for more if they see you went off schedule.
The podcast planner, I've been told by those who have purchased the planner that the planner itself is an accountability factor. It's on their desk like it's staring at them to do their podcast.

Recapping Hacks

There are three easy scheduling hacks to support your podcast in life.

Theme your podcast production into your week that fits your schedule.
Time block and commit to it.
Add accountability to the mix.

I was going to mention batching as a hack, but you know your strengths better than anyone else. Also, no podcast is ever the same. If he can combine any of the podcasting tasks, do it. Don't force it because you'll drive yourself to burn out...then podfading. We'll continue to build out our podcast compass on the next episode