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Checklists are amazing.
They’re so simple and yet, so effective.
In fact, I’m not exaggerating at all when I say, using checklists will help you make better content faster with fewer mistakes.
It’s obvious how a checklist will keep you from forgetting steps, but there’s another significant advantage.
After you create your checklist, you’ll refine it with each post you create. Thus, your content creation process will steadily improve, leading you to make better and better content.
And if you’ve got a team, it will elevate the quality of content across the entire site since the checklists are shared for all authors.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create custom checklists and add them directly into the post editor, so you can take advantage of the magic of checklists.
Let’s take a look at precisely what you’ll add to your site before we get to the how-to.
What you’ll be adding
Following the steps in this tutorial, you’ll create a checklist inside your post editor that looks like this:
It’s easily accessible via the sidebar, so you can check off items while you work.
That’s how it looks if you’re using the Gutenberg editor, but the checklist works if you have the Classic Editor plugin installed too.
The checklist items you create show up on all posts and for all authors on the site. And any time you edit the master checklist, the changes show up instantly for every post.
I’m sure you’re excited to give it a shot, so let’s cover the steps to set this up on your site now.
How to add a custom post checklist
To add custom post checklists, we’ll be using the Strive plugin.
Strive is a plugin that I developed to make content management inside WordPress easier.
It includes the following features:
- Content calendar for visualizing your schedule
- Post statuses for tracking progress
- Post checklists so you never forget a step
- Post revisions for republishing outdated content
- Pipeline view so you don’t miss any posts
I know you’re only reading this article for the post checklists, but as someone interested in improving their content creation process, I think you might appreciate the other features in Strive too.
Installing Strive is a simple process that takes about one minute from start to finish.
How to install Strive
You can signup for the 30-day free trial and you’ll receive an email like this with your download link:
Once you download Strive, you’ll upload it through the Plugins menu, just like any other plugin.
After activating it, you’ll be redirected to this page, where you can enter the license key from the email you received.
Once you enter your license key, you’ll be redirected to the success page, letting you know Strive is ready to go.
Strive’s main feature is its content calendar, and you can read this post if you want to learn more about how to use a content calendar for your blog:
How to Create a Content Calendar for Your Blog
In this tutorial, we’ll stay focused strictly on checklists.
Speaking of which, let’s cover how to create your post checklist now.
How to customize your checklist
To create the checklist, visit the Posts > Content Calendar page and click on the Checklists tab at the top.
Strive adds post statuses to your site to help you track the progress of each post. The checklists are grouped into four sections based on these statuses.
To create a new checklist item, type the step into one of the inputs.
You can add as many steps to each section as you want. If you want to rearrange them, use the drag handle on the left to move any task.
Once you save your checklist, it will become available instantly for every post on the site.
You’ll likely make frequent updates to your checklists as you develop the perfect process. Any changes you make here will show up immediately for your posts.
Now that you know how to create a checklist for your posts, let’s look at using it in the editor.
How to use your new checklist
While Strive supports the Classic Editor, I’ll be using the Gutenberg editor for my example.
When you view the post editor, you’ll see this new checklist icon added to the top of the sidebar:
Click the icon to reveal the checklist.
By default, the section corresponding with your post’s current status will be opened, but you can click any section to open it up.
As you complete the steps in each section, you can use the Editorial Status dropdown to update the post’s status.
Once you save your post, the checklist sidebar will automatically open to the new status.
Working in this way, you can create your posts following an orderly procedure and ensure you never miss a step.
As you create and publish content using checklists, you’ll discover better ways to work and continuously optimize your process, which will lead to higher-quality content.
Create better content faster
I love using checklists for content creation.
In fact, I wrote this post using a checklist created with Strive! I use it every day and frequently update my checklist to optimize my entire process.
If you’d like to create content with Strive too, you can try it out for free by signing up here:
There’s no credit card required, so there’s truly no risk in giving it a try.
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