Stop juggling sticky notes and half-finished drafts—grab a content calendar that’s already built, color-coded, and ready to duplicate. Below you’ll find 20 plug-and-play examples for Google Sheets, Excel, Notion, Canva, Airtable, and more, each paired with a one-click download or copy link. Whether you’re wrangling a solo blog, a multi-channel social feed, or an agency pipeline, you can open any template, slot in your dates, and publish with zero guesswork.
Before we jump into the templates, a quick reminder of why a calendar is more than a pretty grid. It keeps posting consistent, prevents those 11 p.m. “what do we publish tomorrow?” panics, aligns writers with designers, and gives managers real numbers to track against goals. In the sections that follow you’ll see spreadsheets that filter by keyword, Kanban boards that move cards through editing stages, visual planners that preview Instagram grids, and database views that roll up performance metrics—plus pro tips for bending each layout to your own workflow.
A classic grid still wins when you need speed and zero onboarding. This template opens in Google Sheets, so anyone who’s ever adjusted a budget can start scheduling content in minutes—no extra log-ins or add-ons.
Column | Purpose | Example |
---|---|---|
Publish Date | Target go-live day | 2025-10-03 |
Working Title | Draft headline | 5 Canva Hacks for Reels |
Target Keyword | SEO focus | canva reels tips |
Status | Dropdown | Drafting |
Owner | Responsible human | Jamie |
URL | Final slug | /canva-reels-hacks |
Conditional formatting drives the traffic-light system:
Set it once with a custom rule (Cell text exactly equals "At Risk" → red fill
) and the sheet updates automatically as the Status dropdown changes.
Keep one tab called “Blog” and duplicate it as “LinkedIn” or “Instagram.” In the social tabs, add a column for Caption and auto-populate it with the blog title:
=CONCATENATE("New post: ",A2," – ",B2)
Need platform-specific copy? Layer a simple IF
statement to trim characters for X/Twitter. The result: one master calendar powering every channel without extra data entry.
If spreadsheets make your eyes glaze over, Trello’s drag-and-drop layout brings instant clarity. This ready-made board turns your workflow into a literal assembly line—ideas enter on the left, assets exit on the right marked “Live.” Everyone sees status at a glance, and advancing a task is as easy as flicking a card one column over.
The template ships with six lists that cover the full content lifecycle:
Drag cards left or right to update progress; the Calendar power-up shows the same data by publish date for quick capacity checks.
Open the board menu → More → Copy Board → choose “Keep cards, clear activity,” then hit Create. Enable the Butler rule “when due date is marked complete, move card to ‘Live’” to automate your victory lap.
Need an all-in-one hub where briefs, drafts, and final URLs sit next to each other? This Notion template turns a single database into a living command center—one of the most flexible content calendar examples you’ll find. Writers can expand a row into a full doc, editors can flip to Kanban to spot bottlenecks, and managers can sort by publish date to check bandwidth.
Property | Type | Why it matters |
---|---|---|
Status | Select | Tracks stage: Idea → Draft → Review → Published |
Publish Date | Date | Powers reminders and calendar view |
Target Keyword | Text | Keeps SEO focus visible at all times |
Word Count | Number | Helps scope workload and spot thin content |
Internal Links | Relation | Connects to existing pages for quick linking |
SERP Position | Number | Manual or automated field for performance trend |
The same database can appear three different ways:
Status ≠ Published AND Assignee = "Me"
to create personalized dashboards in seconds.Click ••• → Duplicate at the top right to copy the entire workspace into your own account—properties, views, and filters intact. Invite freelancers as Guests so they can edit only assigned cards, while core teammates join as Members with full database access. Lock views once set to keep accidental tweaks from derailing the workflow.
Love spreadsheets but crave a quick performance snapshot? This Excel template marries a classic editorial grid with a live Pivot Table dashboard, giving you both the micro “what’s due today?” and the macro “how many posts did email drive last month?” view in one file. Because everything runs on native Excel features—no add-ins or VBA—any teammate with Office 2016+ can open, filter, and refresh it without breaking formulas.
A single data tab feeds the Pivot dashboard. Slicers for Blog, Email, Social, and Paid sit above the chart area; click any button and the graphs and tables instantly narrow to that channel. Need to isolate Instagram Reels? Hold Ctrl
and multi-select. The design keeps raw data hidden, so stakeholders only interact with the safe, visual layer.
Late tasks light up automatically. Select the Publish Date column and add a rule:
=AND($D2<TODAY()+3,$E2<>"Published")
Set the fill to orange for “due soon.” A second rule turns cells red when D2<TODAY()
so nothing slips by unnoticed.
Executives love slide-ready reports. Go File → Export → Create PDF/XPS, choose Active Sheet, and tick Ignore print areas so the dashboard scales to one page. Send the PDF ahead of meetings and spend the call discussing insights, not wrangling spreadsheets.
If you already manage tasks in Asana, turning it into a publish-ready editorial calendar takes minutes. This template ships with both Board and Timeline views, so writers can drag cards between stages while managers zoom out to see who’s overloaded next week. Because everything lives inside one project, briefs, subtasks, and approvals stay connected—no more bouncing between docs.
Start with five columns that mirror a typical content flow:
Add three custom fields for fast filtering:
Field | Type | Use case |
---|---|---|
Content Type | Dropdown | Blog, Video, Newsletter |
Priority | Dropdown | Low, Medium, High |
SEO Score | Number (0-100) | Track Surfer or Clearscope grade |
Color-code cards by Priority so urgent pieces pop in Timeline view.
Click Customize → Save layout as template → Use Template. Pick the destination team, tick Include task descriptions, and swap the default assignee to “Unassigned” so new ideas don’t clog anyone’s inbox. Refresh, and your Asana-based content calendar is ready to join the other content calendar examples on your shortlist.
Airtable blends spreadsheet familiarity with database muscle, making it ideal when your social workflow spans copy, creatives, and metrics. Duplicate this base once and you’ll have a living system that scales far beyond a flat sheet.
The Posts table holds one record per update and links to three support tables: Assets, Hashtags, and Campaigns. Lookup fields pull thumbnail previews and approved tag bundles straight into the grid, while single-select columns—Platform, Status, Owner—keep filtering friction-free. Edit a hashtag in its home table and every connected post updates instantly, preventing rogue spellings or brand-new tags from slipping through.
Guard against overlong tweets with
IF(LEN({Caption})>280,"⚠ Over limit","")
.
Need tracking links?
CONCATENATE({Base URL},"?utm_source=",LOWER({Platform}),"&utm_campaign=",SUBSTITUTE({Campaign}," ","_"))
auto-generates UTMs so your analytics stay clean without manual tagging.
Flip the same records into different lenses:
One click in the left sidebar changes the view; no data duplication required, just fresh perspectives on your content calendar example.
Prefer visuals to cells full of formulas? This Canva template turns your calendar into a swipeable storyboard. Because it lives inside Canva’s free editor, you can drag assets, tweak copy, and preview feeds without ever leaving the same browser tab—a welcome break from traditional spreadsheet-style content calendar examples.
The template ships with frame placeholders sized for every major slot:
Drop any photo or clip onto a frame and Canva auto-crops it, so you can see exactly how the post will look before it hits the algorithm.
Swap the default brand kit in seconds:
When a design is ready, hit Share → Schedule. Pick the social platform, set the publish date, and add a caption right inside the pop-up. Canva drops the post onto its built-in calendar; drag to another day to reschedule, or click to edit the creative later. One tool, end-to-end workflow, zero exports.
Some teams only need a tight, seven-day snapshot instead of a sprawling monthly grid. This Hootsuite-style spreadsheet delivers exactly that: a one-week view that aligns with Hootsuite’s own benchmark data for post timing, plus built-in formulas that flag gaps before your feed goes quiet.
Rows are pre-filled for three peak windows Hootsuite cites—8-10 a.m., 12-1 p.m., and 5-6 p.m.—across Monday to Sunday. Each slot carries a suggested frequency (e.g., 1× for LinkedIn, 3× for X/Twitter). Change a platform’s target number and the POSTS_PLANNED/POSTS_GOAL
cell updates, turning red when you’re short.
When the calendar is green across the board, download the sheet as CSV → open Hootsuite → Publisher → Bulk Composer. Map columns (Date, Time, Caption, URL, Image) and hit Schedule. Forty posts, live in one upload—proof that spreadsheet-driven content calendar examples still rule.
If you’re the “plan a month at a time” type, this Google Sheets template mimics Sprout Social’s recommended cadence so you never scramble for ideas on day 28. One master tab serves as your schedule while two helper tabs—Themes and KPIs—feed data back into it, giving you a clear read on both variety and performance.
The sheet comes pre-filled with a simple pattern:
A data-validation dropdown locks each day to its theme, and conditional formatting shades the row green when the slot is filled. Need more variety? Add new themes in the Themes tab and they’ll appear in the dropdown automatically.
Copy engagement data from Sprout’s export, paste into the KPI Tracker tab, and a VLOOKUP
matches each post by URL. Calculated columns surface Engagement Rate, CTR, and Followers Gained, turning cells red if they dip below your targets.
Toggle the Boosted? checkbox; when TRUE, an adjacent Budget cell unlocks. Pivot charts then split results so you can show bosses exactly how paid lifts organic reach without muddying the numbers.
If you live inside HubSpot for email and CRM, you’ll appreciate a calendar that speaks the same language. This dual-format template (Excel and Sheets) mirrors the columns HubSpot’s bulk upload expects, so moving from plan to post is mostly copy-paste. It also includes formulas that crank out perfectly tagged links, letting you trace every click back to a campaign without extra work.
The first 10 rows are sample posts—one per major network—so you can see ideal character counts, image ratios, and tone. Each URL runs through an on-sheet builder:
=CONCATENATE(B2,"?utm_source=",LOWER(C2),
"&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=",SUBSTITUTE(D2," ","_"))
Change the Campaign cell once and every associated link inherits the correct UTM string.
Must-haves for smooth import:
Feel free to ditch “Persona” or “Campaign Goal” if you’re light on strategy fields; the formulas won’t break.
When the calendar is green across the board, download as CSV ➜ HubSpot Marketing ➜ Social ➜ Import. Map each column, hit Schedule, and HubSpot queues everything with thumbnails and UTMs intact. Because you built inside their preferred schema, no rows error out—proof that even big-platform content calendar examples can stay lightweight.
Buffer fans who prefer to work in Google Sheets will appreciate this lightweight planner. It mirrors Buffer’s bulk uploader, so you can brainstorm, approve, and schedule without hopping between tools—yet another of the content calendar examples that saves clicks and sanity.
The template’s first row already matches Buffer’s CSV spec: Date, Time, Platform, Image URL, Text, and First Comment. Validation rules block weekend dates for platforms that under-perform on Saturdays and Sundays, and a character-counter next to Text flashes orange when you pass Twitter’s 280-character limit.
Two helper tabs act as pick-lists. Select a cell in Text and choose from a data-validation dropdown of pre-grouped hashtags (e.g., #SEO, #Startups). Need flair? A second dropdown inserts frequently used emojis so your tone stays consistent across campaigns.
Connect the sheet to Zapier: New Row in Google Sheets → Create Scheduled Post in Buffer. Map columns one-to-one, add a step to shorten URLs with Bitly, and every approved row jumps straight into Buffer’s queue—no CSV exports required.
ClickUp mixes project-management muscle with editorial finesse, giving you List, Board, and Calendar views in one project. Duplicate this template once and your writers, designers, and SEOs update the same task instead of ping-ponging across apps.
Linearly capture progress with five statuses—Idea, Drafting, Editing, Scheduled, Published—each color-coded for scanning. Next, spin up three custom task types to filter capacity by format:
Now you can sort reports by stage and medium without extra columns.
Every task includes a rich-text Doc panel. Click + Add Page inside the task, paste your outline, keyword list, and design specs—no outside Google Doc required. Teammates comment inline; approvals resolve threads, automatically nudging the task to Editing.
Missed deadlines happen. Switch to List view, shift-click a week of tasks, then open the sidebar ➜ Reschedule. Pick a new publish date or offset everything +7 days; ClickUp cascades the change across start, due, and subtask dates in seconds.
For teams flirting with CoSchedule but still married to Excel, this spreadsheet gives you the best of both worlds. Plan campaigns offline, share a lightweight file with clients, and later push the data into CoSchedule’s cloud calendar without re-typing. It’s one of those content calendar examples that scales from “scrappy” to “sophisticated” in a single import.
Stick to three high-contrast shades so stakeholders spot deliverables fast:
Apply conditional formatting: =$C2="Blog"
→ blue fill, and so on. A legend in Row 1 keeps newcomers oriented.
Tab 1 gives a 12-month, big-picture roadmap. Tab 2 breaks the year into four quarters for resource planning, while Tab 3 zooms to a classic month grid for day-to-day scheduling. Freeze the header row in each tab so dates stay visible when you scroll.
When dates and colors look good, Save As → CSV. Inside CoSchedule, open Settings → Import → CSV, map columns (Title, Publish Date, Campaign Type, Status), and click Validate. The wizard flags duplicates, then drops every row onto your live CoSchedule calendar—colors intact, deadlines preserved.
Monday.com’s board view gives you the clarity of a spreadsheet with the momentum of a Kanban. Duplicate this template and you’ll see every asset rolling across the page, deadlines glowing when they creep too close, and Slack pings firing the minute something slips. It’s one of the more visual content calendar examples, but still data-rich enough for serious reporting.
Instead of piling everything into one long list, the board is split into Groups:
Groups act as horizontal “swim lanes,” while Status is a column inside each item (e.g., Draft, Review, Scheduled). That means you can archive an entire month’s Done group without touching next month’s pipeline.
Add two formula columns:
WORDS({Article Draft})
auto-tallies rough length so you can guess editing load.DAYS({Due Date}, TODAY())
turns orange under 3, red at 0, thanks to conditional coloring.Download the spreadsheet if you’re an offline die-hard, or hit “Import → Excel” inside Smartsheet to pull the same structure into the cloud. Either way you keep formulas, color rules, and column types intact—so you can start planning in seconds and graduate to real-time collaboration whenever you’re ready.
Inside Smartsheet, look at the toolbar just above Row 1. Click the tiny Gantt chart icon to display timeline bars beside your grid; hit the Calendar icon to flip the same data into a drag-and-drop month view. Because the underlying rows stay put, edits in one view instantly show up in the other—no copy-paste, no version forks.
Use the Indent button (Tab key) to nest rows: the top-level “Parent” row represents a full campaign, while indented “Child” rows track each deliverable—blog post, reel, email, ad. Collapse parents to declutter your sheet, or expand to see asset-level due dates, owners, and status colors at a glance.
Click Share in the upper-right, add teammates, and pick a role: Viewer (read-only), Editor (can update rows), or Admin (can tweak columns and automation rules). Need formal sign-off? Attach a proof or PDF to any row → right-click → Set Approval Workflow so stakeholders can approve or request changes without leaving the sheet.
Most content calendar examples focus on blogs or social posts, but podcasters need their own rhythm—pitch, record, edit, promote. Duplicate this Google Sheet and you’ll see every episode move left-to-right like a conveyor belt, so nothing stalls between outreach and release.
Six columns keep production crystal clear: Idea, Outreach, Recording, Editing, Scheduled, Published. Use a dropdown for each status and a simple rule:
=IF($F2="Published", "✅", "")
to drop a green check in the final column. Conditional formatting shades “Recording” yellow and “Editing” orange, letting hosts spot bottlenecks at a glance.
A second tab called Guests stores names, emails, socials, and a link to headshots or bios in Drive. A third tab, Legal & Assets, tracks signed release forms and artwork approvals, so marketing can grab collateral without pinging the producer.
Add a Show Notes column with a pre-filled outline:
00:00 Intro
02:15 Main Topic A
15:40 Audience Q&A
28:00 CTA & Outro
As you edit, update timestamps so the final notes copy-paste straight into your podcast host or YouTube description—no last-minute scrubbing through audio.
When the ’Gram is your main stage, you need a planner that thinks in squares, not rows and columns. This Canva template exports as a polished PDF for client review, but lives online for real-time tweaks. Duplicate it, set your brand kit, and you’ll see a full month of posts laid out exactly as followers will—nine at a time—so you can stop guessing whether that quote card clashes with Tuesday’s Reel cover.
Use corner ribbons: purple for Reels, teal for carousels, white for singles. An on-canvas legend keeps interns on brand, while Canva’s Comments
tag the video editor when a tile switches to Reel mode.
Every square is a frame. Drop a JPEG or MP4 and Canva auto-masks it to 1080×1080. Need a quick swap? Click Replace —the caption and ribbon stay put, preserving your carefully crafted visual rhythm.
For long-form, SEO-driven content, thinking in 90-day blocks keeps your roadmap tight yet flexible. This Excel planner breaks the quarter into weekly publishing slots and layers in all the data you need to hit search intent, internal-link quotas, and category balance—no fancy add-ins, just native sheets and charts.
The first tab, Clusters, organizes ideas around a parent pillar. Columns A-C read Pillar, Cluster Post, Supporting FAQ, so you can see the full hub-and-spoke layout at a glance. A COUNTIF
in Column D shows how many drafts each pillar already owns, flagging gaps before you over-index on a single topic.
In the Schedule tab, add three must-fill fields next to the working title:
Conditional formatting turns the intent cell blue for Informational, green for Transactional, making skim reviews painless.
Select the full quarter and insert a Pivot: Rows → Pillar, Values → Post Count. Add a 100% stacked bar chart above the sheet; it updates automatically, so you can spot when “Product Tutorials” begins to dwarf “Thought Leadership” and course-correct in seconds.
When your boss asks, “What’s launching in Q3?” you don’t want to scroll through twelve tabs. This Google Sheets Gantt template puts the whole year on one horizontal bar chart so stakeholders grasp timing, overlap, and capacity in a single glance—proof that even high-level campaign planning can live inside the same ecosystem as your other content calendar examples.
List each initiative in Column A, add Start and End dates, then open Insert → Timeline. Split the chart into three preset phases—Awareness → Consideration → Conversion—by adding a single-select column and grouping by it. Drag arrows between tasks to create dependencies; Google Sheets auto-shifts downstream dates when something slips. Turn on Critical Path to highlight must-hit milestones in bright red.
Add a helper column that returns the quarter (=ROUNDUP(MONTH(B2)/3,0)
). Apply custom background colors: Q1 = light blue, Q2 = mint, Q3 = yellow, Q4 = lavender. The hue carries into the Gantt bars, giving execs instant context without reading labels.
In the Docs column, paste Drive or Dropbox URLs for briefs, ad copy, and creative files. Sheets displays a clickable icon right on the timeline bar, so the media team can jump to assets straight from the calendar—no Slack fishing required.
When one tweet can spark a blog update, ad variant, and email teaser, you need a calendar that keeps every channel—and every owner—synced. This Airtable base does exactly that. One master grid powers multiple views, while no-code automations push real-time pings to the apps your team already lives in.
Set a rule: When Status changes to “Ready for Review,” → send a Slack DM to {Owner Slack}. Another: If Publish Date is in 2 days and Status ≠ Scheduled → post alert in #content-alerts. Both fire from Airtable’s native automation panel—no external Zap needed.
Group records by Campaign, then add a roll-up field ARRAYUNIQUE(Status)
with a formula that counts how many posts sit in each stage. A second roll-up divides Scheduled + Published by Total to surface a % Complete
bar, giving managers a live progress score without opening another report.
You’ve now got 20 proven content calendar examples—spreadsheets, Kanban boards, visual planners, and Airtable bases—plus direct download or “duplicate” links for each one. Pick the template that fits your tech stack, drop in your publish dates, and let the color-coding guide your workflow. Don’t overthink the choice; consistency beats complexity every time. Start small, track what works, and iterate.
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