“Terrified of being alone, yet afraid of intimacy, we experience widespread feelings of emptiness, of disconnection, of the unreality of self,” wrote Sherry Turkle while reflecting on how computers affect our awareness of ourselves, of one another, and of our relationship with the world. “And here the computer, a companion without emotional demands, offers a compromise. You can be a loner, but never alone. You can interact, but need never feel vulnerable to another person.”

When the tragic events of 2020 forced everyone around the world to stay home, our computers were the only safe window to the outside world, our ways of connecting to friends, family, and loved ones. And even though we’re now in the process of slow recovery and human contact is not limited to digital screens and video calls, the issue of our excessive use of technology is not going away but might be more pressing than ever before. We should always re-examine our increasing reliance on computers and gadgets that have become an indispensable part of everyday life.

Wendell Berry (born August 5, 1934), an American writer, poet, farmer, and devoted nature conservationist, offers us a refreshing view on this issue in his 1987 essay titled Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer, which still resonates with the same force as it did three decades ago. It offers us a perspective that challenges technological fundamentalism so prevalent in our digital age.

At the beginning of his essay, Wendell Berry writes that several people had told him he could greatly improve things by buying a computer. But for him, it’s out of the question, and he gives several reasons for why it is so. The first one is that using a computer is the same as being dependent on strip-mined coal and energy corporations that are involved in the active destruction of nature. Berry writes:

I do not see that computers are bringing us one step nearer to anything that does matter to me: peace, economic justice, ecological health, political honesty, family and community stability, good work.

Another reason, Wendell Berry points out, is that he doesn’t believe that computer, as opposed to pen and paper, can make anyone’s writing better:

When somebody has used a computer to write work that is demonstrably better than Dante’s, and when this better is demonstrably attributable to the use of a computer, then I will speak of computers with a more respectful tone of voice, though I still will not buy one.

If a computer were to replace pen and paper, then it would have to adhere to a different set of innovation standards. Wendell Berry writes:

1. The new tool should be cheaper than the one it replaces.
2. It should be at least as small in scale as the one it replaces.
3. It should do work that is clearly and demonstrably better than the one it replaces.
4. It should use less energy than the one it replaces.
5. If possible, it should use some form of solar energy, such as that of the body.
6. It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools.
7. It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible.
8. It should come from a small, privately owned shop or store that will take it back for maintenance and repair.
9. It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists, and this includes family and community relationships.

Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer, an illuminating read for our technology-obsessed generation, sparked much controversy at the time of its publishing and includes five letters of criticism and Berry’s ingenious responses to those letters. Also included is his follow-up essay expanding on many of his original points titled Feminism, the Body, and the Machine.

If you ever thought about starting your own blog then you can expect that in the beginning you’ll have a lot of tasks to manage across different areas of activity: creating content, managing social media, scheduling email newsletters, answering incoming requests, creating images, and so much more. How do I know this? Because that’s what I had to do when I just started this blog three years ago.

That is why today I’m sharing with you a behind-the-scenes look at how I organize my blog with CoSchedule — the only way to organize all of your marketing in one place. CoSchedule offers three products to help you get more done in less time: Blog Calendar, Marketing Calendar, and Marketing Suite.

The plan I’m using is called Blog Calendar by CoSchedule. In this post, I’m going to talk about what is so special about it and why I recommend it if you started or planning to start your blog. Let’s dive in.

Planning and Writing Blog Posts

One of the biggest challenges you face when starting your blog is planning and writing blog posts regularly.

The key to success lies in the proper coordination of your writing tasks with everything else on your plate.

That is what CoSchedule allows you to do by providing you with the ability to create projects and schedule tasks.

I’ve been using CoSchedule for three years and tried different ways to plan and write blog posts. But eventually, I settled with two task templates: a blog post in one week and a blog post in two weeks.

I always plan ahead so, if today is Monday, June 1st, I will create a blog post project on Tuesday, June 9th, and apply a project template called “blog post in 1 week.”

Here’s how it looks on the calendar (click the image for a closer look):

Planning and Writing Newsletters to Subscribers

Running your blog is not only about writing blog posts. It’s also about keeping in touch with your subscribers.

Even if your blog is very new and you have only one subscriber, it’s still vitally important to write an email to that one person.

The sooner you start doing it, the easier it will get as more and more people sign up for your newsletter.

And here’s where CoSchedule makes it super easy for you to plan and coordinate writing your blog posts with your email newsletter. You can reuse “blog project” by applying a different color label and use it  to schedule all the tasks related to writing emails.

In my previous example, I planned my new blog post on Tuesday, June 9th. What I usually do is send a newsletter the next day after the post is published. So I will schedule my email on Wednesday, June 10th.

And the best part here is that I’ve designed my “Email” projects to coordinate similar tasks with “Blog post” projects: writing, brainstorming headlines, editing, etc.

Here’s how it looks on the calendar (click the image for a closer look):

Managing Social Media Across All Major Platforms

After you’ve written your blog post and newsletter, you also need to promote your content on your favorite social media channels.

And you guessed it right – CoSchedule allows you to create a social scheduling template for this too!

CoSchedule supports Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

I’ve tried different templates but eventually settled on the one that promotes my blog post on all social media channels for an entire year. With CoSchedule, you can create different templates that will drip your social messages over a time period of your choosing.

Not only that, but you also get a power-up called ReQueue which is available on all plans at no additional cost.

ReQueue allows you to re-share all your existing social messages across all platforms in a natural, non-spammy way.

Here’s how Social Campaign looks on the calendar (click the image for a closer look)

Integrating All Tools In One Place

One of the best things about CoSchedule is how it allows you to integrate all your essential tools in one place.

I’ve already covered writing blog posts, newsletters, and automating all your social media sharing. But it doesn’t stop there.

CoSchedule directly integrates with WordPress, Google Docs, and Dropbox. So you can create your project, gather all materials, edit in Google Docs, and then convert it into a ready-made post with one click. I love this feature and been using it a lot lately.

I’ve covered a lot, but not everything. CoSchedule has a lot of other features and integrations that will help you beat blogging overwhelm, save time, and focus on what’s really important to you.

To try all the features I described in this article, you need to sign up for the Blog Calendar by CoSchedule . You have 14 days to try all the features for free. Start your trial today.