By skyforbes 
I’m in charge of creating content, tracking my income and expenses, managing a membership, planning and following through with affiliate and cross-promotions, creating new offers and products… just to name a few.
Trust me, it’s enough to drive anyone crazy!
Which means, a great calendar and productivity suite is an absolute must-have.
Better yet? A platform that combines the calendar and the task organization system in a single interface.
Earlier in 2021, I was starting to lose my mind when I decided it was time to retire my hand-written notes on index cards and journals, and opt for a digital organizer that I’d be able to access and use across multiple devices.
There are plenty of options to choose from, of course. I tried Asana, Trello, and a few others, too, and while those were fine, they just weren’t as user-friendly (and my ADHD scatterbrain-friendly) as I would’ve liked them to be.
But there was one other option I had yet to try. And once I did, I was an instant convert!
Enter: CoSchedule Marketing Calendar.
CoSchedule is an app that helps you streamline your business and marketing tasks. You can create projects, plan tasks within projects, schedule content on various platforms, and even map out ideas that are not yet ready to be converted to tasks, all within a beautiful calendar.
But don’t get fooled by the words “calendar” or “marketing.”
CoSchedule is, by all means, an all-in-one organizer for pretty much anyone. I use it to plan out all of my blogging, planning, and associated business-related tasks, and life has never been this streamlined, and my day-to-day schedule this easy to keep track of, since I started working for myself.
As I said, my life before CoSchedule was all over the place.
Having an app I can access from multiple devices is a must for me.
But by all means, CoSchedule is not the only software/app you can access across devices.
So, what makes it so special?
Well, that probably has to do with the layout of the calendar, its user interface, and my favorite, the unscheduled ideas panel. But more about that in a minute.
Let’s look at some of my favorite features of CoSchedule:
There’s an unscheduled ideas panel
See, my ADHD brain is constantly brimming with ideas.
Unless I jot them down, I forget them as quickly as I get them.
But not all ideas are implementable right when I get them, so storing them in the unscheduled ideas panel as soon as I get them has been a lifesaver (see the screenshot below). Now I can just add my ideas as a new project in the unscheduled panel, and then go about my day with ease and assurance that my ideas will be waiting for me when I’m ready.
Then, when I’m ready, I can convert these ideas into actual projects with separate tasks and add them to the calendar.
Or, if an idea seems too far-fetched, I can trash it or save it in Notion to review at a later time.
The ability to group tasks based on projects
CoSchedule allows you to create projects and tasks.
I find this extremely useful as a solopreneur.
See, I have a bazillion different things I have to do at any given week.
Some of them are admin tasks, some of them are content creation, and even within content creation, some are for the blog, some for the membership Vault, some for affiliate or cross-promotions… You get the picture.
By creating different projects for these different types of tasks, and then color-coding them (yep, you can do that!), I can manage my days and weeks a lot more easily.
A beautiful calendar
I love the look and feel of the CoSchedule calendar. It’s so easy to use and looks so pretty!
And it’s great that the ideas panel is right next to the calendar, so whenever I’m on the app (which I mostly use on my desktop), I can see both my scheduled deadlines, as well as ideas and projects yet to be scheduled.
And of course, the color-coding capability for different types of projects is such a nice visual touch! It tells me right away which tasks belong in which category (or project), so I know what I’m supposed to be working on.
And of course, there’s social media scheduling
Personally, I use CoSchedule for managing my tasks and not so much for social scheduling. (And psst! You can actually just use CoSchedule’s free-forever calendar to manage all our tasks and projects.)
But if you want to use CoSchedule for managing your social media, you may also choose to do so.
The free-forever plan, however, only allows you to use one social profile. If you’re on multiple platforms, you’ll need to upgrade to a social or an agency calendar, priced at $19 and $59 per month, respectively, depending on how many social profiles you want to connect.
CoSchedule integrates with a bunch of other apps
CoSchedule integrates with a bunch of different kinds of apps like WordPress, Zapier, YouTube, Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, Shopify, and more.
I have only tried the WordPress integration so far with the CoSchedule plugin, but decided against using it because the calendar inside the WordPress dashboard is exactly the same as the calendar on a browser. Now, some may like having it inside their WordPress dashboard, but I like a cleaner interface in my WordPress. Also, if I do not absolutely require a plugin, then I’d rather not use it.
I’m a solopreneur, so I keep my planning as simple as possible.
Please note that while you can schedule social media posts with CoSchedule, I personally don’t since I’m not big into social media to begin with. Every now and again, I may schedule a LinkedIn post with CoSchedule (it allows me to schedule the first comment, too!), but it’s rare for me to do so.
My primary use of the platform is to plan my biz tasks.
Here’s what the process looks like:
Step 1: Month at a Glance
Typically, I go into a new month with a rough idea of what I’ll need to do that month. And based on the different types of tasks, I’ll create a project for each type.
For example, I may create a project for The Side Blogger posts, another project for Membership Vault content, another for cross promotions for that month, etc.
The projects stay under the “Unscheduled” panel within CoSchedule (I made a video if that helps).
I also color-code each project. Not necessary, but a nice touch, and my scatterbrain likes it 😉
Step 2: Create project-specific tasks
Once I create the projects, I add tasks to each project (again, the video shows you how to do that).
I then schedule each task (which moves them into the calendar). However, the projects themselves remain unscheduled and thus under the “Unscheduled” panel. It helps me see all the projects I’m working on in one place. Which is nice.
Step 3: Easy drag-and-drop scheduling
I like how easy it is to move tasks and projects around the calendar in CoSchedule.
I can easily reschedule a task simply by dragging it to a different day.
As for the projects, I only move them into the calendar after I’ve finished all the tasks in that project.
It’s not necessary to do it this way, but because I’m a one-person business, keeping all projects under the “Unscheduled” panel helps me see which projects are still ongoing.
Once a project is done, I move it to the calendar, and I don’t have to worry about it again.
Here’s a video of how I use the CoSchedule Marketing Calendar:
Honestly? As a creator-solopreneur, the free plan is fine for most folks.
I’ve used the free plan for a very long time, before I upgraded to a paid plan simply so I could duplicate recurring tasks (something you cannot do with a free plan, and so you have to recreate them each at a time, even when they’re exactly the same thing… such as my monthly member-only workshops, or weekly YouTube videos).
So, if you’re like me and you only use the CoSchedule calendar to manage your tasks, a free plan is fine.
If you want the ability to duplicate tasks or add recurring tasks, then upgrade to any paid plan.
The “Social” plan gives you three social profile slots, but you can add more for $5/month per profile.
If you want fancy stuff, Kanban or table views, for example, then you’ll need a “Content” plan. Sadly, CoSchedule doesn’t even include the price for the “Content” plan. You have to call them to get a quote, and I have no idea why. Of course, it comes with many other perks, but I’ll leave it up to you to do your due diligence and check them out.
If you ask me?
The “Social” plan is fine for most solopreneurs. It was fine for me.
These days, I have an “Agency” plan; not because I need it, but because it came as a perk for being a CoSchedule affiliate partner and ambassador.
Yep, you read that right!
You can, potentially, get up to 100% off your CoSchedule paid plan.
There are two ways to get these discounts:
Take 50% off by writing a review (or recording):
Writing (or recording) one review can get you 50% off CoSchedule Marketing Calendar (and also CoSchedule’s Headline Studio) by writing a review of the tool in your blog (or creating a YouTube video) 🙂
Cool, right?
Anyone with a CoSchedule plan is automatically eligible to make use of this opportunity.
Here’s how the CoSchedule Review program works:
- Sign up and pay for a paid plan
- Write a review in your blog that is at least 500 words long and has at least two screenshots or videos of the tool
- Your post must include what the tool is, how it works, and how you use it
- The title must have “Social Calendar by CoSchedule” in it
- It must have a link to CoSchedule.com (you can use your referral link for an additional discount; more on that below)
- If you make a YouTube video review, the topics and title restrictions apply to that, too
- Submit your review via email to [email protected]
- Do your due diligence and read the most current review requirements here.
Take 10% off with the CoSchedule Referral Program with each successful paid referral:
All CoSchedule users are automatically eligible for the referral program, and you can access your referral links here.
Each successful [paid] referral gives you 10% off your CoSchedule marketing calendar subscription or the Headline Studio subscription. You can use the referral links with your reviews, too, for additional discounts.
Imagine if you write a review and drive 5 paid CoSchedule users with your referral link… You will potentially get 100% off your paid plan.
Again, make sure to read the full guidelines here.
And that’s all for the review.
As I said, the CoSchedule Marketing Calendar has a free-forever plan, so you should definitely give it a go and see if you like it or not.
If not, nothing is lost 🙂
But if you do like it, well then, consider upgrading to a social plan for a few additional perks, such as adding recurring tasks or duplicating similar tasks you have to do often.
And don’t forget to sign up using my affiliate link!