Level 5 · 2 to 3 hours
Build a content calendar
You will plan four weeks of content for a real audience you can name, such as customers, classmates, or readers of a newsletter you already send. Gemini will help you propose topics, vary the formats, and lay out a calendar. You will cut anything generic, private, or impossible on your actual schedule. Each slot needs a reader problem, a format, and a status that says idea, outlined, or ready for your edit. You will not publish unchecked drafts from the chat. The result is a calendar you could follow next week, plus a prompt you can reuse when the month turns and the audience is still the same.
Outcomes
- A named audience and a one-sentence promise for the next four weeks of content.
- A calendar of slots, each with a reader problem, a format, a date, and a status.
- A reuse prompt and a rule that nothing is published until you edit it yourself.
Steps
1. Name the audience and the promise
Write who the content is for and the one job it does for them over the next four weeks. Reject audiences as broad as everyone or the internet. Note how often you can really publish, including the hours you have, not the hours a growth thread recommends. Add topics you will not touch because they are private, off-brief, or unpaid extra work.
2. Generate options, then cut
Ask for more topic ideas than you need, each tied to a reader problem and a format you can produce. Then delete. A good calendar is the short list that survives your time, your knowledge, and your limits. If two ideas say the same thing in different clothes, keep one. Generic inspiration with no reader problem does not earn a slot.
3. Lay out four weeks
Place the survivors on a four-week grid with a date, a format, a working title, and a status of idea, outlined, or ready for your edit. Leave at least one open slot so a real event can replace a weak idea. Do not mark anything ready for your edit unless an outline you trust already exists. The grid is a plan, not a claim that the pieces are written.
4. Draft one piece and edit the voice
Choose the next slot and ask for an outline, then a draft, using a sample of your public writing if you have one you may share. Change the opening and at least one example so the piece sounds like you. Remove any claim you cannot support. The draft is not published when the model stops. It is published when you would sign it.
5. Save the monthly restart
Save the audience promise, the off-limits list, the calendar, and the prompt that produced useful ideas. Write the date you will rebuild the next four weeks. Note what you cut and why, so next month you do not resurrect the same generic topics. The calendar is done when a stranger could see who it serves and what you will make first.
Starter prompts
Four-week idea cut
Help me plan four weeks of content. I will paste the audience, the promise, how often I can publish, and topics I will not cover. Propose twelve ideas. For each, give a reader problem, a format I can actually make, and a reason it might be generic or repetitive. Do not invent personal stories, customer names, or performance numbers. After the list, recommend the six I should keep and the six I should cut, based only on the constraints I gave you. Do not write the full pieces yet.
Draft one slot
Draft the next calendar slot from the brief I paste: audience, reader problem, format, and length. If I paste a short sample of my public writing, match its sentence length and directness, and flag any line that copies the sample too closely. Do not invent facts, quotes, or results. Leave a bracket where a personal example from me is still missing. End with three edits I should make myself before this can be marked ready: a voice fix, an unsupported claim, and a line that does not serve the reader problem.
Checklist
Rubric
- A stranger can tell who the calendar serves and what it will not cover.
- The volume matches your real hours.
- Each slot earns its place with a reader problem, not a vague theme.
- You changed a draft before treating it as yours, and unsupported claims are gone.