From brainstorming concepts to reserving visitors and outlining present matters, there’s a number of work concerned with planning a podcast episode. Podcast planning templates may also help you retain observe of sponsors, handle your enhancing and manufacturing course of, and even map out promotional content material as soon as your episodes go stay.

These are a few of my favourite choices for learners, seasoned hosts, and everybody in between.

monday.com: A podcast planning template for clean manufacturing

monday.com is one in all my favourite venture administration instruments available on the market. It’s an effective way to plan your podcast as a result of it has every thing it is advisable to keep organized and guarantee none of your manufacturing duties slip by means of the cracks.

It additionally has a fantastic cellular app, permitting you to handle podcast planning from the palm of your hand.

You may join monday.com’s free plan to unlock entry to 200+ templates, as much as three venture boards, eight customized column varieties, and seats for 2 collaborators. It’s a fantastic place to start out or attempt it out however most groups will possible have to improve to a paid plan fairly shortly.

Extra on monday.com: monday.com Overview | monday.com vs Wrike | monday.com vs Airtable.

I actually like how the manufacturing circulate is ready up with this template. As an alternative of a single card for every episode that shows its standing, each episode has its personal listing of devoted duties.

For instance, the preparation section could embody duties associated to getting ready questions for visitors and outlining the episode construction. You may as well have a post-production section for issues like enhancing clips to be promoted on social media earlier than the ultimate episode is polished and able to stay.

This type of setup permits you to get as granular as you’d like with out cluttering every thing up.

The template additionally permits you to estimate how a lot time every job ought to take. From there, you may enter the actuals and examine the distinction.

Total, monday.com and this template are strong choices for any podcaster, whether or not you’re working by your self or with a full crew. It’s straightforward to make use of, and the truth that you’re getting the complete energy of monday.com’s venture administration platform is a bonus that may’t be ignored.

ClickUp: Podcast planning templates for any sort of present

ClickUp is one other all-in-one venture administration and crew collaboration platform. Whereas this may seem to be overkill for podcast planning, there’s a free ceaselessly plan that’s good for organizing nearly every thing.

Every template beneath is extra superior than the one earlier than it.

The appropriate one for you is dependent upon how a lot you wish to lean on the device, how many individuals you’re working with, and the way granular you wish to be with post-production monitoring.

Extra on ClickUp:  ClickUp Overview | ClickUp vs monday.com | ClickUp vs Notion.

Template 1: A beginner-friendly choice for planning episodes

This template is nice for newer podcast hosts who simply want one thing easy to plan upcoming episodes.

It comes with the entire fundamentals it is advisable to keep organized. You may create a backlog of episode concepts, categorize episodes, add audio recordsdata, and fasten hyperlinks to stay episodes so every thing’s centralized in a single place.

My favourite half about this podcast planning template is its simplicity.

It’s organized into 4 sections that comply with a linear circulate — deliberate episodes, recorded episodes, reveals which have been edited, and reveals which have been revealed.

Due to its simplicity, you gained’t should spend a ton of time determining the way it works. It’s only a matter of signing up and including your whole concepts. Inside minutes you’ll be extra organized and have much more perception into the place every thing stands in your manufacturing circulate.

The largest draw back is that it’s lacking performance for brainstorming, managing post-production duties, and scaling past a single channel.

This isn’t essentially a foul factor, particularly for newer reveals. However larger manufacturing groups will possible have to go along with one of many different templates beneath.

Template 2: Added options for managing several types of podcasts

This ClickUp template follows the identical core idea of the earlier one within the sense that each one episodes are organized by stage within the manufacturing course of.

However it takes it up a notch if you’d like extra granular particulars about every episode.

You’ll see the progress standing of every episode up to date in real-time as you or your crew completes duties required to get it stay.

This template comes pre loaded with 17 customized attributes that you should utilize tag episodes and keep organized.

These vary from subject classes to listens, subscriber info, and extra.

You’ll additionally be capable of categorize every merchandise by sort. For every sort, you may outline a set construction that’s utilized if you add a brand new episode, so that you don’t have to stipulate all of the steps each single time you add one thing new.

Say you’re planning an episode that features a visitor. In the event you tag that episode with this attribute, you may have your interview notes and questions obtainable by default on that exact card.

I additionally love the visible parts of this template. If you wish to have a broad vary of matters in your present, the color-coded subject column clearly signifies whether or not you might have mixture of concepts or too many episodes in a single class.

Whereas you should utilize it to handle some post-production duties, like your social media advertising and marketing plans, it’s a bit extra restricted for this use in comparison with the template beneath.

Template 3: Probably the most superior choice for managing all pre and post-production duties

When you’ve got a well-established present with a full crew working collaboratively to file, edit, and promote your present, this template has every thing you’ll want to remain organized earlier than, throughout, and after manufacturing.

I don’t advocate it for solo podcasters and easy reveals or in the event you’re publishing lower than an episode per week. You’ll find yourself losing time filling in particulars that don’t matter but.

However for groups producing episodes at scale, this template is a no brainer.

You may arrange a number of boards for various elements of the manufacturing circulate. By default, there’s a brainstorming board, backlog of subject lists, and even a spot to arrange requests out of your listeners.

As soon as reveals go stay, you may pull in analytics to see which matters are performing the most effective so you may replicate that success with future episodes.

From managing visitor outreach and relationships with earlier visitors to planning social media posts and placing all episode belongings in a single card, this template has all of it.

There are a number of views, built-in statuses, collaborative paperwork, and a spot to retailer your whole attachments.

Your producers, editors, social crew, and designers will be capable of maintain observe of all their work in a single place, giving managers and supervisors every thing they should observe progress and repair points earlier than they grow to be bigger issues.

Though ClickUp’s free plan is ok to start out, you’ll have to improve to a paid plan to make the most effective use of all of the superior capabilities of this template.

Notion: Podcast planning templates created by skilled podcasters

Notion is a related workspace and productiveness platform that’s nice for taking notes, staying organized, managing duties, and centralizing sources. In the event you work by your self, you should utilize Notion’s free plan for fairly a while. In the event you work with a crew, the free plan is extra of a free trial that permits you to see if it’s proper before you purchase.

The most effective issues about Notion is that third-party creators can submit templates to its market. Two of my favorites had been constructed by an expert podcaster with 10+ years of expertise and 50+ million podcast downloads.

As such, you already know they’ve been examined over time and utilized in real-world situations fairly than created for the sake of including a template to the listing.

Extra on Notion: Notion Overview | Notion vs Asana | Notion vs OneNote.

Template 1: An in depth guidelines for pre and post-production

This podcast template ensures you allow no stone unturned if you’re planning, recording, and advertising and marketing your episodes.

It’s a complete guidelines with roughly 50 gadgets — protecting every thing from outlining your episode to having water close by and transcribing your episodes after they’ve been recorded.

Whereas a few of these issues may appear apparent in the event you’re an skilled podcaster, it doesn’t harm to have this useful everytime you’re engaged on a brand new episode.

Everybody forgets issues sometimes, and it’s particularly useful to reference in the event you’ve just lately taken day without work otherwise you’re recording episodes in a brand new setting. You may re use it again and again, which is one other good function.

Then again, it’s a fantastic choice for brand new podcasters too. There’s lots that goes into every episode and this makes certain you always remember a factor.

Over time, plenty of these duties will grow to be second nature (like ensuring your telephone is silenced and turning off noisy home equipment). However early on, it’s straightforward to miss a few of these small duties that may dramatically influence the standard of your present.

Template 2: A full podcast group hub (paid)

This can be a paid template — it’s $49 and consists of the guidelines above plus a variety of different templates and instruments you’ll want.

In the event you’re critical about your podcast, it’s straightforward to justify the associated fee because it comes with $1,250+ price of perks and reductions on {hardware} you might have considered trying. The associated fee financial savings alongside can greater than make up for the value you pay to get it, particularly in the event you’re eyeing a number of new gear.

Along with the guidelines from earlier, this template makes it straightforward to make sure each episode aligns together with your excessive stage targets. Huge image pondering can usually be misplaced within the shuffle if you’re brainstorming new concepts and attempting to safe visitors, so it’s a pleasant reminder that it forces you give attention to what’s most vital to your present.

In the event you’re struggling to attach together with your viewers, this template additionally comes with a pattern of a super listener profile. Once you’re planning episodes, you should utilize it to try to talk straight with who’s truly going to pay attention.

You’ll additionally get 100+ podcast interview questions and 50+ subject concepts that can assist you maintain issues contemporary.

From outlining your enhancing course of to accumulating listener suggestions and managing manufacturing belongings, this template has all of it.

Coda: Extremely customizable podcast planning templates

Coda is a relational database and doc creation answer with inbuilt venture administration options. In contrast to venture administration instruments, Coda is a clean slate that permits you to construct several types of programs to match your wants.

As your wants change, you may replace it to match your new workflows or add on to attach extra items of your enterprise.

The free plan is great, particularly in the event you’re working by your self. However the most effective half is Coda’s reasonably priced pricing construction that solely makes you pay for doc creators. In the event you’re the one particular person creating and constructing paperwork, you solely should pay for one consumer. All editors and viewers are utterly free.

Extra on Coda: Coda Overview | Coda vs Notion. 

Template 1: A full suite of templates to standardize your processes

Coda’s structure is effectively suited to bringing dispersed knowledge collectively in distinctive and inventive methods. Due to that, one in all its finest practices is separating your programs into a number of areas and connecting them collectively as wanted.

That’s precisely what this suite of templates helps you do.

Reasonably than attempting to cram each ingredient of podcast planning and manufacturing into one dashboard, you’ll have separate areas for every section.

It comes with sections for brand new concepts, episode planning, managing manufacturing flows, monitoring launched episodes, and extra. There’s even an area for retaining visitor info organized.

One of many included templates makes it straightforward to create SOPs that outline standardized parts for every stage of your manufacturing course of. This ensures that hosts, editors, social media managers, and everybody in between has clear directions each step of the way in which.

If somebody is sick or leaves, anybody can soar in and comply with the identical SOPs to add a brand new episode to YouTube.

This additionally acts as a guidelines to make sure consistency for each episode — it serves as a reminder for issues like including the constant intro and outro music to every present.

From there, you may brainstorm new concepts, select and plan episodes, observe manufacturing duties, and see a working listing of stay episodes. There’s a full content material calendar and a spot to maintain observe of manufacturing duties by section. You’ll even be capable of add present notes and interview questions so every thing’s able to go.

The weakest a part of this template is the precise manufacturing circulate monitoring. It covers primary job monitoring, but it surely’s primary compared to others.

Nevertheless, you may construct out extra granularity in the event you want it.

Template 2: A collaborative template that turns artistic concepts into new episodes

Just like the primary choice, this free podcast planning template from Coda combines a number of instruments and sources right into a single house. It comes with dozens of templates, together with a content material calendar, a spot to arrange stay episodes, an space for sponsor info, and far more.

However what actually makes this template distinctive is the way in which it’s arrange for brainstorming.

New concepts can come from anyplace, together with whilst you’re out on a stroll, different teammates, your visitors, your listeners, and even different departments in your enterprise.

With this template, everybody has a devoted house to take notes. On high of that, anybody can pitch concepts and work collaboratively to nail down these concepts earlier than transferring ahead to the manufacturing course of.

It permits you to arrange your personal inner approvals course of for episode concepts, and even pull suggestions out of your viewers submitted by way of social media.

By default, the template comes with a guidelines of 20 duties for every episode. Whoever completes a job can merely mark it as carried out, and your complete crew will see it up to date in real-time.

If the default listing doesn’t be just right for you, you may simply replace it by including, eradicating, or enhancing current gadgets primarily based in your processes. When you’ve up to date it, all new episodes could have your new listing included routinely.

The largest draw back is that this template doesn’t have a lot of a project-tracking ingredient past this guidelines and an editorial calendar.

You could want to make use of one other template or construct it out additional to have a full end-to-end answer for planning, producing, and publishing episodes.

Stackby: An entire editorial calendar for podcasting planning and monitoring income

Stackby is a no-code work platform that mixes spreadsheets and databases right into a single device. When you could not routinely affiliate one of these software program with podcast planning, it’s truly an effective way to plan episodes. Particularly in the event you begin with a template.

It’s free for as much as 5 customers per workspace, making it a fantastic selection for smaller groups with no price range or bigger groups needing a versatile platform to work with.

This template features a full editorial calendar that has the entire key info you want, together with the host, concept, episode quantity, standing, launch date, and extra.

You may swap between month, day, and week views, permitting you to zoom in and plan granular duties or zoom out to see a excessive stage launch schedule for the month. The calendar is clear and effectively designed, particularly in comparison with different instruments which have primary calendar views.

SEE: Uncover extra free editorial calendar templates for various platforms. 

This template additionally consists of different venture views, together with listing, pipeline, and Kanban for getting work carried out.

One of many main standout options of this template is the power to trace income from completely different sponsors. You may simply maintain observe of your agreements, tag every episode with which sponsors are included, and import listener knowledge to calculate how a lot income you’re getting.

Say one sponsor’s CPM pays $25 for a 30-second advert. The template routinely calculates the full income primarily based on the variety of listens.

That is significantly useful in the event you’re working quite a few advertisements from completely different sponsors, all with completely different phrases.

The largest draw back of utilizing Stackby is that it limits file add sizes. Many episodes might be too massive, so that you’ll have to maintain these recordsdata elsewhere and hyperlink to the supply as an alternative.

Podcast planning templates for Excel, Google Sheets, Microsoft Phrase, and PDF

Easy manufacturing schedules or solo customers could not want superior software program to remain organized.

In the event you want to maintain issues easy, there’s nothing incorrect with utilizing a spreadsheet or doc as an alternative. These work significantly effectively in the event you don’t have to collaborate with lots of people or care about aesthetically pleasing views of all of your episodes.

Template 1: A primary calendar to handle recording and publishing dates

Smartsheet is a robust app builder. It’s much like Coda and monday.com however constructed extra for energy customers. It doesn’t have a free plan, but it surely does usually publish free spreadsheets you should utilize in Google Sheets or Excel.

They don’t supply podcast particular templates, however there are a number of generic choices you may simply adapt to work in your wants.

My favourite Smartsheet template for podcasts is a common content material calendar template that works for publishing any sort of content material, together with podcast episodes. It’s totally free and appropriate with Excel, Phrase, Google Sheets, and as a printable or digital PDF file.

It’s a fantastic choice in the event you don’t want a lot other than visualizing your publishing schedule and planning at a excessive stage.

Whereas most content material calendars are for monitoring publish dates, you may simply use inbuilt colour coded tags to schedule recording dates and even social media posts to advertise revealed episodes as effectively.

The primary draw back of this template is that it’ll ultimately begin to really feel cluttered, particularly in the event you begin including a ton of things.

It additionally doesn’t have any job monitoring capabilities for managing manufacturing work.

Nevertheless, it’s place to start out in the event you don’t publish usually.

Template 2: A printer-friendly choice for jotting present notes

This template, additionally from Smartsheet, affords a easy approach to manage handwritten present notes to make use of throughout recording. You may open it with Microsoft Phrase or Google Docs and print out as many copies as you’d like.

There are a number of methods you should utilize this template, from mapping out content material pillars to noting completely different speaking factors for various segments of your present.

You may additionally write down questions, plan episode construction, sponsorship info, or key factors you don’t wish to overlook. Certain, it’s extremely easy. However that’s what makes it so versatile for individuals who take pleasure in writing issues by hand.

It may also be tremendous useful throughout recording because you gained’t want a pc.

The right way to create your personal podcast planning template

In the event you can’t discover something that matches precisely what you’re in search of, you may modify an current template or create your personal. Relying on how detailed you wish to get, there are dozens of parts you may think about including.

At a minimal, I like to recommend the next.

An space for brainstorming

New concepts can come up any time. It’s vital to have a simple approach to notice them down and maintain observe of them with out an excessive amount of trouble.

It’s additionally a good suggestion to have some approach to flip these into full plans so you may observe every concept by means of to completion, mark them for later, or write them off as concepts you aren’t going to file for some motive or one other.

Episode particulars

Every episode possible has a ton of particular info it is advisable to maintain observe of, together with the subject, audio system, questions, construction, sponsors, backtracks, and extra.

Ideally, your template has an space to maintain observe of every thing. This must be hyper-specific to the forms of info you care about. For instance, you could wish to even have a subject for the season or theme in the event you manage that method.

Lastly, you may arrange a listing of duties, a top level view, or different notes for various episode buildings so that you don’t have to start out each from scratch.

Manufacturing workflow

Other than episode info, it’s useful to know the place every episode is in manufacturing. That is significantly vital in the event you’re working with a crew, however even solo customers have lots to achieve from staying organized like this.

Your setup will be as easy or advanced as you’d like. For some, a easy circulate with a backlog, in progress, recorded, enhancing, and revealed is greater than sufficient.

Others might want extra in-depth venture administration capabilities like due dates, job assignments, progress monitoring, and extra.

Monetization and sponsorship particulars

Whether or not working advertisements, mentioning sponsors, or promoting your personal services and products, it’s a good suggestion to resolve this up entrance earlier than you begin recording.

You may additionally plan to pre-record snippets and add them in throughout enhancing. Nevertheless you resolve to do it, retaining observe of all these particulars alongside your episodes and different recordsdata may also help maintain every thing organized.

Put up-production advertising and marketing

What occurs as soon as an episode airs? Do you publish a number of social media posts, ship out an e mail, or publish about it in your weblog?

Publishing these forms of content material isn’t any completely different than publishing a podcast so it shouldn’t be too difficult to determine learn how to maintain observe of different parts in the identical place. You may do the identical in the event you publish the identical episode on a number of platforms.

Podcast planning finest practices

Planning a podcast is lots simpler stated than carried out.

Listed below are some professional ideas to remember in the event you’re struggling, working by means of your first few episodes, or in search of a little bit of steerage:

• Keep organized and constant.
• Don’t overcomplicate the artistic course of.
• Brainstorm as many matters as attainable.
• Get comfy throwing out concepts you don’t like.
• Define the circulate of an episode, however don’t write a script.
• Resolve on episode size earlier than you begin.
• Schedule visitors prematurely and at all times have a backup.
• Give your self loads of time for enhancing and post-production.
• Doc every thing.

The primary purpose is staying organized and retaining observe of all of the transferring items. If you are able to do that, you’ll study the remainder as you go.

Your first 20+ episodes gained’t be good and you could really feel utterly scattered — each are totally regular. Over time, you’ll discover important enhancements in your supply, banter, concepts, sponsorship plugs, workflows, and enhancing capabilities.