REVIEW – Confessions of a Homeschooler Blog Planner

“What do you do for a living?”

“Me? Oh, well, I blog!”

Blogs have been “a thing” for years but what started out as an anonymous way to air your grievances has turned into a full-fledged job for hundreds of thousands of people. Blogs are a wonderful and inexpensive way to share your knowledge & passions with the world. Blogs exist today for every topic imaginable and behind each blog is a writer driving it all.

I’m not a novice blogger but while I’ve been in the game for about 8 years I’ve only been serious about it as a job for the last two years or so. It became painfully obvious late last year that I needed a new method for keeping track of planned posts and due dates. My previous method of waking up at 7am and willing something magical from my fingers just wasn’t cutting it anymore. My blog posts were haphazard and ill-timed, not to mention that great idea I had for a Valentine’s Day gift had to wait an entire year because I forgot to write about it in February.

When I joined the Mosaics Review team I knew that I could no longer postpone the inevitable, I needed a blog planner. I also didn’t want to spend the $30 or $40 that many popular planners cost. I did a quick search online for a calendar that would help me plan and track my posts, but I just couldn’t find one that fit the bill. Ultimately I decided that I needed a planner I could hold in my hands, something I could carry with me and something I could edit when I was in a place without wifi access.

And then I received my first review assignment; I was to pick, use and review a blog planner.

Perfect!

I chose to use the free blog planner that was created by Confessions of a Homeschooler . This blog planner is beautifully designed, and honestly, that is what caught my eye first. The blog planner is a free printable, definitely a plus.

Check out this shot of my February post schedule:

Instead of a block calendar there is one line for each day, this is great because it lets you see a large amount of information in a neat manner (well, neat if you don’t write in pen!) Another major bonus are the little boxes to help you track giveaways, chosen winners and the social media outlets you’ve linked your post to. I found this feature to be the most useful in the whole planner as I’m well known for writing a post and forgetting to tell people about it.

Additional features include a space for recording the details of any review & giveaway posts, and another place to record ideas for future posts.

The only thing that would make this planner more perfect is if I could remember to write in pencil because my plans change frequently. I’d also like a place where I could write my personal appointments to facilitate scheduling writing days.

This blog planner has really helped to streamline my planning. I still have issues, there’s a reason I skipped Valentines Day this year, but this planner helps me stay one step ahead.