Simplify Your Systems With Spreadsheet Templates

Web platforms, browser extensions, apps, and desktop software—there is no shortage of helpful tools for today’s business and ministry leaders. While these tools can be total game-changers for you and your organization, they can also be challenging to learn. This is especially difficult if you are just starting out and have so much on your plate.

Thankfully, you can never go wrong with spreadsheets. If the last time you looked at a spreadsheet, your eyes glazed over, I have good news for you. Spreadsheets have evolved dramatically and using a template can help you quickly create action plan templates, schedule planners, and content calendars.

Below are some of the spreadsheet templates you can use to simplify scheduling and run things effortlessly and seamlessly:

Schedule Planner Template

To make the most out of your day, create a schedule that lists the specific tasks you need to complete during the day along with the time you want to allot to the task.

This is where a schedule planner template can come in handy. Your schedule planner template allows you to delegate and track your tasks. As a general rule of thumb, make sure you allow plenty of time to complete each task.

While it would be awesome to complete tasks quickly, it is crucial to have realistic expectations for the timeline. Your schedule planner template can also make kicking off and monitoring projects a breeze.

Action Plan Template

A business action plan is a powerful project management tool that can help you create a strategy to achieve specific goals. To create your action plan, itemize the steps needed to achieve your goal. You can also set due dates, make task assignments, and identify essential resources.

Typically, an action plan template has six columns you need to create your plan:

• Action steps: this row is for individual steps that have to be done to accomplish a defined goal or finish a project.
• Assigned to: this column contains the names of individuals responsible for the action steps.
• Resource needed: this identifies the resources required to accomplish the action steps that have been laid out. This can include equipment, supplies, personnel, facility space, training, etc.
• Due date: this is where you can find the deadline for the action steps to be completed.
• Completed: once an action step has been completed, this box is used to mark it as finished or done. You can use a check or x mark or enter the date it was completed.
• Notes: this is where you record important information like progress updates, additional questions, reasons for extensions, etc.

Strategic Planning Gantt Template

A strategic planning Gantt template can be used to manage your strategic planning process. They are ideal when you want to capture key activities needed to assess or create your business plan.

Strategic planning Gantt templates are especially useful when creating a new product, refreshing your product strategy, or launching something new. They are also used to keep everyone involved focused on the activities that need to be done to reach your goals.

Strategic planning Gantt templates use a weekly timeline to visualize crucial tasks and critical phrases in the planning process. You can also include significant milestones in the template, such as planning kickoff sessions or presentations.

Using a template can help you quickly create action plans, schedule planners, and content calendars. Check out these template examples to set up your systems.

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Social Media Content Calendar Template

The social media content calendar helps you plan and schedule your social content in advance so you can create maximum impact. The social media content calendar can also help you:

• Easily remember important events and dates
• Fill and identify publishing gaps
• Ensure the content is up-to-date and performing well
• Effectively allocate resources
• Easily collaborate with teammates and partners
• Determine your ideal content mix

Content Calendar Template

Even if your content strategy is well thought out, it can still fail if you can’t hit your deadlines. Content calendars are indispensable tools that can help push content through the steps, streamline the content creation process, and ensure the entire team is aligned.

A content calendar template is also ideal if you have people helping with your content, running a digital publication, doing email marketing campaigns and blog posts, and tracking social media posts.

The content calendar template will let you see the crucial data without getting bogged down in the details. Looking at the calendar, you can also easily see important dates, promotions, and deadlines. With a content calendar template, you will be churning out high-quality content consistently in no time.

Conclusion

By now, you are probably convinced of how powerful spreadsheets can be when used right. It is reassuring to know there’s an infinite list of useful templates that you can just quickly copy to run your business or ministry. Once you get the hang of using them, you’ll be able to enjoy all the benefits they can offer.

Thanks to the great team at ExcelTemplates.com for helping me create this post.  Be sure to check out their completely free templates to uplevel your productivity with spreadsheets!