Create a YouTube Planner with Google Sheets

In this video I’m going to show you how to create a content planner with Google Sheets and by the end of the video you can use this brain dump, plan, and track your ideas and content for your YouTube channel, your blog, email, and social media.

Watch this video here (don’t forget to like and share): https://youtu.be/RZbdicOVWcw

Create a YouTube Planner with Google Sheets

What we’re creating is a mix of Meghan Minns’ and Catherin Manning’s Google Sheets planners.

And to save time I have everything typed up and ready to customize. We’ll go over the basics then some Advanced tips and shortcuts.

Stick around till the end and I’ll share a YouTube workflow you can use in Asana, Trello, or any other project management tool to organize your content.

To get started, if you’re logged into your Google account, type sheets.new in the address bar to create a new sheet.

If you want this sheet to match your brand, go to Format in the menu then Theme to pick a theme and customize it.

Choose a font and add your brand colors. Custom and paste hex code here and save.

First add your text in the first row. Click the top-left to customize the whole sheet. Pick a font style, font size, text color background color, align to Center, and a add a border.

You can widen the columns by hovering over the right side of the column and double tap to fit the text.

This reference sheet is where you can add your marketing tools affiliate links freebies blog posts or any resources for easy access.

And once you’re done customizing, right-click tab at the bottom and duplicate it, then rename.

The next sheet is the Ideas sheet. Use this sheet to list all of your ideas under a theme or bucket.

For example, if you’re an WordPress expert, this column would be for WP myths, struggles, tips, and how-tos.

If you want to get rid of the extra rows and columns, click the row then hold Ctrl + Shift and down arrow, right click and delete rows below. Or, Ctrl + shift + right arrow then right click and delete columns on the right.

After you’re done brainstorming, add your topic to the next sheet. This is where you’ll map out your content for YouTube or your podcast plus your blog and email for the next quarter.

Add a publish date any events like launches and holidays post your topic/title here, After it’s published post a link to the video.

Add your link to Asana or Google Drive. If there’s a blog post that goes with this, add the title and link to the post. Add your email subject line and the link to the campaign.

You can add a date picker here by clicking the cell,  Control shift and down arrow to highlight the column. Click 123 from the menu then pick Date.

You can pick from these date formats or go to more formats to customize.

After that you can double-click the cell for the calendar to pop up. If you’re posting weekly, click the cell below the publish date then type the equal sign. Click the cell right above it then the plus sign and 7, then press enter.

The little blue box on the bottom right, press and hold and drag down to copy this formula.

Now you have the whole quarter ready to be filled in. Or you can keep dragging this down if you want to plan for the year. Just add a row above to add each quarter.

To make it easy and know which column is which, go to View in the menu then Freeze and freeze row. So when you scroll down, this row stays in place.

Next sheet is the social media planner. You can have a column for your tools + resources for easy access.

Under week this is the week of, you could add another date picker for this column.

Under Platforms, add your social media channels. And under days of the week, you can use this calendar to map out your theme days.

If you post your main content on Wednesdays, you can post a teaser video on Monday and then turn those tips from the video into slides or a carousel.

Your goal here is to repurpose or cross-promote your blog post or YouTube video and then share on all your channels. Avoid the stress that comes with creating new account every single time.

You can search Pinterest for captions or use social media prompt generator like On Course Social.

Here you can add hashtags and notes for the week.

Next sheet is the video tracker where you can add all your videos and links here.

And instead of copying and pasting from the YouTube planner sheet, click this cell and type the equal sign, then head over to the YouTube planner sheet. Click the first title, then enter.

Drag the blue box to pull the data from that sheet to here. You would do the same for the links.

This is optional but you can add checkboxes where you can check it if it’s published on your site.

To add a checkbox, click the cell, then click Insert from the menu, then click  checkbox. Then drag it down to the cells below.

You can also add your focus keyword or phrase here.

Now back to your YouTube planner, if you want to save time and skip typing the same thing over and over, you can add a dropdown and pick from a list.

For example, you can list your products and services and lead magnets under call-to-action.

So from the sheet you want to add the dropdown, click the cells or CTRL + Shift + down arrow to add the drop-down to the whole column, right click, scroll to Data Validation.

Pick list of items, then add your items here. Leave this checked then Save.

To add to the list, CTRL + Shift + down arrow again, right click, Data Validation, then add or remove items from the list then Save.

Now you can click to pick from the list of call-to-actions.

To recap, list your resources here for easy access, braindump ideas here, map out your content for the quarter or year for YouTube, blog, and email, add your prompts or themes for social media, and track all of your videos here.

Use this spreadsheet as a template that you can re-use every year so you don’t have to start from scratch or delete content from the previous year.

Name it Template – Planner. Then File, Make a Copy, and Name this 2021 Planner.

Some extra tips – use the add-ons on the right. You can view your Google Calendar or quickly add a date. Download the Google Keep app so you can add your notes here from your phone. And with Google Tasks, you can add your tasks and subtasks, plus due dates.

If you want to use a project management tool instead, create a new project or board and add your sections.

Create a template and add all your steps for each phase. Meaning everything you need to do when researching, outlining, recording, editing, publishing and promoting.

When you’re ready, you’ll come in here, duplicate the template, add your title of the video in task name, and create new task.

Add an assignee and a due date, fill in the info and move the card after you’re done to the next phase.

Then from Calendar view, you can see what’s coming up.

About

Hi, I’m Marjy! Digital Creator and Content Manager for creatives and online service providers. If you’re enjoying this post, here are other ways you can connect with me: