Podcast Organization Can Be Tough

I’ll be the first to admit that organization is not always a strong point of mine. I’ve tried many to do apps, I’ve used Google Sheets and Docs, I have Notion now and if I’ve learned anything it’s that it’s all just a matter of finding what works best for you and how your brain handles information. So let me tell you what my experience was like with organizing my podcasts and then I’ll have some recommendations at the end.

When I started Welcome to Geekdom, I was flying by the seat of my pants and wouldn’t even put recordings in my calendar at times. Eventually, as I started Chat Sematary and both podcasts were running weekly, I just couldn’t hold everything in my brain.

So from the start, Chat Sematary had a spreadsheet. In part it was because I was planning to go through all of King’s works chronologically, so I knew what all of the topics were in advance. Welcome to Geekdom varied wildly depending on what movies were coming out, who I could book on the podcast, and what I was in the mood to discuss in general.

Here’s a look at that Chat Sematary spreadsheet:

I’m not sure why I didn’t label that first column “release date,” but that’s what that is. And the two purple highlights mean that I owned copies of those movies at the time. I knew I owned all of the books, so I didn’t feel the need to highlight all of those as well.

Again, it’s all about what works for you brain. So this is just an example of how you can organize your podcast, especially if you know your topics in advance.

If you take a look at the record date and post date columns, you’ll see I started recording pretty far in advance (and not always in order). That’s because reading that many Stephen King books in a 3 month span would have been difficult, so I knew I needed the head start.

If I’m being honest, this spreadsheet was immensely useful. I have to give my friend Jacob Tender a shout out for helping me put it all together, too. I had no idea how filters or conditional formatting worked in Sheets at the time and that’s been a game changer for me ever since.

So, why should you organize your podcast?

The simple answer is: it’s less of a headache and makes your life easier.

Unless you’re someone who can store all of this information in your brain, something as simple as a spreadsheet can help a ton. And it doesn’t even need to be as detailed as mine. The only reason I had the media format included is because I was doing the books and adaptations so you’d get three entries that were just listed as Carrie under the title section and this made it a little easier to know which was which at a glance.

Putting in the prep work will always pay off. I never got the same system set up for Welcome to Geekdom and it showed in my work. That show always felt more chaotic, which is wild for something to be more chaotic than doing a weekly (at the time) Stephen King podcast.

Here’s what I’d recommend at a minimum:

• Have the next 3-5 episode topics planned out - so you always know what’s coming

• Send out calendar invites to your guests (or co-host(s)) so you always know when you’re recording

If you want to go a step further:

• Create a calendar or spreadsheet for your podcast (or Notion, Airtable, etc.) with all of the info that is relevant to the show

The main thing is to do what is best for YOU. My spreadsheet formatting might not be what’s best for everyone. But if it seems like it would work for you, feel free to copy it. Or tweak it to suit your needs.

That’s all for me from today, but if you want any further help with your podcast, feel free to reach out or schedule a consultation.