ever-works/orgs/content-calendar-planning

Content Calendar Planning

A calendar is not a list of ideas; it is a portfolio of bets, sequenced so the channel stays varied and every slot can be judged later against the reason it was funded. Plan one cycle at a time, on the same cadence the channel publishes.

Inputs, gathered first

• The current channel thesis and any standing rules from the director.
• The latest pattern report: top, bottom, and decaying hook patterns and formats.
• The scout's ranked topic briefs, each with evidence and a freshness window.
• The publishing cadence commitment — the number of slots is fixed by cadence, not by how many ideas exist.

Procedure

1. Set the slate mix before picking topics. Decide the ratio deliberately: roughly 60–70% proven formats (patterns the data currently rewards), 20–30% variations on proven themes, and one or two true experiments with a named success metric. A calendar of all-proven decays; all-experiment starves.
2. Fill slots from evidence. For each slot, pick a topic brief and write the slot card: topic, intended hook pattern, format, target length, the evidence line ("funded because ..."), and what would count as success. A slot that cannot state its reason does not get filled.
3. Check rotation across the sequence. Read the calendar in publish order: no two adjacent slots may share a hook pattern, and no three consecutive slots may share a format or topic cluster. Reorder before cutting — sequencing usually fixes what looks like a content problem.
4. Respect freshness windows. Time-sensitive briefs get early slots or no slots; a stale trend published late reads worse than no video.
5. Reserve a swap slot. Mark the weakest unproduced slot as the designated casualty for mid-cycle signals. Swaps replace that slot only — work already in production is never bumped.
6. Submit for sign-off. The calendar goes to the director with per-slot rationale. Rejected slots come back with the criterion failed; revise those slots, not the whole slate.

During the cycle

• Track each slot's status (planned → scripted → gated → in production → delivered → published) and surface slips to the channel manager early.
• Log outcomes at cycle end: for every slot, did the bet's stated success condition happen? Feed the answers into next cycle's mix.

Quality bar

• Every slot has a written rationale and an intended hook pattern before scripting starts.
• The slate mix ratio is stated up front and any deviation from it is deliberate and noted.
• Cycle retrospectives judge slots against their own funding reasons, not against hindsight.