07 Apr Time Management and Scheduling for Vacations
Having a lot of control over our own schedules is one of the most alluring ways that being a content creator beats having a normie job. We’re not punching a clock, we typically don’t have a manager breathing down our necks, and we’re really only accountable to the goals we set for ourselves. One caveat, however, is that when we want to take a break or go on vacation, we can’t take any paid time off or get someone to cover our shifts. This is going to be where great time management and scheduling ahead of time are going to be clutch to let you enjoy your holiday without worrying about your income taking a massive hit.
Just to be clear, taking a week or two off of your platforms and socials isn’t going to crumble the foundation of your business. Lots of us go dark for a bit from time to time for one reason or another, and that’s totally okay and you just pick up the slack when you log back on. But nobody wants to risk algorithms kicking our traffic down or having your inbox full of impatient fans, so if at all possible, we can get ahead of things and set ourselves up for success when we get back to the grind.
Planning your content in advance will help you prepare for time off.
Assuming you have some advanced notice of when you’ll be taking your time off, you can pretty easily figure out how much content you’ll need to make to fill the gap. You probably have a pretty good idea of your typical posting schedule, so you can just math at it to figure out how much extra content you need to make in the time you have available before your break. Spread around the work so you’re not trying to churn it out all at once, you could get overwhelmed, and the quality of your content could suffer. Don’t put it off til the last minute, you’re going to need some time to do the actual scheduling before you head out.
When you have all of your content ready to go, it’s time to get to the queue. Thankfully, most clip sites and fan platforms have a schedule tool that lets you get things ready to post well in advance. If you already have a routine you follow, it’ll make this go much more smoothly. If not, at least you have the freedom to fill the space however you’d like. It’s monotonous and far from exciting, so just block off some time away from distractions and bang it all out.
Schedule your social media content, when possible.
Social media is another story, unlike our selling platforms, they don’t always have a great scheduling tool integrated into the apps. There are third party tools you can use to take care of that, but they typically have a price tag that can range from $30 to $200+ per month, depending on which service you go for. If you’re trying to stick to a budget, you can try to organize what you want to post into folders on your phone (a Monday folder with Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky sub folders and so on) and some captions saved to a note or Word document to go along with them. That way, even if you have to do it on the fly, most of the leg work will already be done for you.
It’s good practice to schedule some content out ahead of time regularly. Sometimes, things come up that you can’t plan for, or you just really need to sleep in and bed rot for a day. Keeping yourself ahead of the game as a norm will give your brain a little cushion when it comes to worrying about getting every single thing done every single day. And while you’re planning out your posts, don’t forget to pencil in some self-care.
Riley Cyriis is a New England-based indie content creator and mortician. She owns Cyriis Studios with her partner, Ryan Cyriis. She’s a cult survivor, a heavily-armed liberal, and the enemy of corruption and greed.
