Plan with a goal and the Calendar

Open the goal dialog

"Set a goal" opens from three places: the "Your channel" card on Today, the "Set it" button next to "Goal" in Ask, and the "Goal" card on the Overview tab of the Channel page. If you already have a goal, for example from when you connected your channel, "Edit goal" on Today or on that card changes it.

Under "Where do you want to get to?", Videxa suggests up to three targets: "Your current pace, about 3 months", "Next milestone" and "A stretch". One of them may already be highlighted, so tap the one you really want. Or type a number in the "Or type your own number" box.

Your goal must be above your current subscriber count. If it is not, "Save goal" will not work.

"Your current pace, about 3 months" appears only after Videxa has tracked your channel for a couple of days and seen it grow. Until then, type your own number.

A line under the targets estimates when you might get there, based on your growth so far. It is an estimate, not a promise.

Pick your current pace, or a lower number of your own. No person, tool or course can promise you subscribers, and that includes Videxa and this course. A goal you can reach keeps you going.

Choose a rhythm you can keep

Next, the dialog asks "How often can you comfortably upload?" The choices are Daily, 2 to 3 a week, Weekly, Every 2 weeks and Monthly. Videxa highlights your saved rhythm, or, if you have not chosen one yet, one based on how many videos you posted in the last 30 days, and reminds you: "Pick what you can keep up on a busy week, not your best week."

Choose the rhythm you settled on in "A pace you can keep", lesson 7 of Getting good on YouTube: the one that still works in your busiest month of exams, office deadlines, weddings or festivals. The craft check below tests it.

Name what feels hardest, then save

"What feels hardest right now?" is optional. The choices are Finding ideas, Getting views, Staying consistent, Titles and thumbnails, Keeping viewers watching, and Turning viewers into subscribers. If you pick one, Ask can offer a starter button such as "Help me with staying consistent".

Tap "Save goal" when you are done.

Your rhythm line on Today

Without a 2-week plan, Today shows a rhythm line under the greeting, for example: "Your rhythm is weekly. 1 upload this week, right on track." It counts your real uploads on YouTube, not how often you open Videxa. For slower rhythms it looks back further, such as the last 14 days.

If nothing is out yet, it says so calmly: "Nothing out this week yet, and that is fine." With a 2-week plan, the line is about your plan instead, such as "Next upload: Short on Thu, 30 Oct. 1 of 6 planned uploads out." The "Your channel" card on Today shows your goal with a progress bar.

Put your next videos on the Calendar

Open "Calendar" from the sidebar. On a phone, tap "More" in the bottom bar, then "Calendar". Tap "Plan a video", or tap any day on the month grid. Weeks on the grid start on Monday.

Each entry has a Title, Date, Status and Notes. The Status moves through Planned, Filming, Editing and Published. To move a video along, tap it to open "Edit video", change the Status and tap "Save". Uploads from a 2-week plan show a coloured dot for "Long video", "Short" or "Live stream". Videos you add yourself have no dot.

Ideas you plan from Ask land on tomorrow. "Plan" on Today puts an idea on the next free day in the coming week, and in Write you pick the day yourself. Open any entry to change its Date to the day you really mean. To plan two weeks at once, use "Plan my next 2 weeks" on Today, or "Plan a season" on the Channel page's Goal card.

Lesson 7 of Getting good on YouTube showed that YouTube's upload schedule tips suggest building notable dates, such as local holidays, into your plan ^[2].

Put festival videos on the Calendar early. For a Diwali faral (festive snacks) video, set the date a few days before the festival, and leave time to film and edit before that.

Coming up, and "Write title and description"

"Coming up" lists your next 8 unpublished videos, from today on. Each shows its Status and a "Write title and description" button. On a phone, each video in the list has a "Write" button that does the same.

"Write title and description" opens Write with the entry's Title and Notes filled in. Nothing is written until you tap "Write title and description" there, and that write uses daily usage, which "Making the most of the Free plan" explains. Afterwards, "Save title" puts the title you picked back on the same entry.

Tap "Write title and description" only when you are ready to write for that video. Keep rest days on paper or in a video's Notes, not as their own entry. Notes go to Write along with the Title when you tap "Write title and description", so keep rest-day notes short, or write them on paper. A rest day entry would sit in "Coming up" with its own "Write title and description" button, as if it were a video.

Published, automatically

Each night, Videxa compares your plan with your real uploads. It marks an entry Published when a video went live within 7 days of the entry's date, and at least half the words of the planned title appear in the real title.

Say you plan "Kolhapur Misal Trail" for a Tuesday and publish "Best Misal in Kolhapur: My Trail" on Friday. That is 3 days later, and every planned word is in the real title, so after the next nightly check the entry shows Published.

Before a video goes live, check that the entry's Title is close to the title you will really use. If you renamed the video completely, published more than a week away from the date, or the entry still says Planned a day or two after your video is out, set its Status to Published yourself.

A plan, not an uploader

The Calendar never uploads, publishes or schedules anything on YouTube. Nothing reaches YouTube until you upload or schedule it yourself in YouTube Studio. The Calendar is free on both plans.

As lesson 7 of Getting good on YouTube showed, YouTube recommends scheduling your videos, so you can stay consistent without feeling tied to your computer or phone ^[2].

So when a video is ready, schedule it in YouTube Studio. Leave the Calendar entry as it is, and Videxa will mark it Published after the video goes live.