How to Publish or Schedule a Draft Post in WordPress 

WordPress has a tool that you can use to schedule to publish posts instead of having them go live right away. Scheduling posts at busy hours helps drive traffic to your site.

You can use an editor or a plugin to schedule posts in WordPress. This article explains the steps to schedule posts using both so you can select the right option.

How to Schedule and publish posts

WordPress features an inbuilt scheduling tool in both the Classic and the Gutenberg editors. Here are the steps to take.

When you are ready to publish a draft, just change the status from Drafts to Published by clicking on the Blog Posts Tab, then the Draft tab at the top. Click on Publish, and you’re all set.

Scheduling posts via the Gutenberg editor

You can access the Gutenberg editor by logging in to your website dashboard. Then, look for the gear icon in the top right corner, then go to the Status and visibility section. By Publish, there is the option “Immediately.” Schedule your post on the date and time picker, and consider the time zone when scheduling. Finally, press Schedule to end the process.

The Publish button turns into a Schedule button to show that the content management system has scheduled the post for a future date. You need to wait to make sure this has happened.

Scheduling posts via the Classic Editor

Take the following steps to publish a new post with Classic. Go to the blue Edit link by Publish immediately, then alter the time and date, and press OK. Finally, go to Schedule to complete the process.

How to cancel a scheduled post

You can cancel a scheduled post at any time. Open the editor and click on the post to un-schedule it. If you’re using the Classic editor, look for Edit by Status below the Publish section. Go to Scheduled, then Draft, then OK. To complete the process, click the Update button. Make sure the post isn’t still in the Scheduled section.

For those using the Gutenberg editor, go to Switch to draft in WordPress. The Draft button is by the Schedule button. Clicking on it will cancel the publication of the post. If you want the post to go live immediately, on the other hand, click Publish.

Pros and cons of scheduling WordPress posts

The benefits of publishing a post on a specific date are many and varied. You will have more control over your content if you have an organized editorial calendar. Publishing new articles regularly will help keep your site active, even when you’re away. You will have more time to prepare to create content for time-sensitive subjects, promotions, special occasions, etc.

Scheduling posts isn’t without its downsides. It rarely happens, but errors can cause the CMS to miss scheduled posts, and you might feel overwhelmed if you have to manage an editorial calendar.

Managing posts

Here are a few effective ways to manage posts that will be published automatically once you have set up a publication date for them.

Keep track of your posts

If you don’t keep track of your scheduled posts, you might have two or more published simultaneously. You can check in your dashboard under Posts. Go to All Posts and then to Scheduled. When you click the section, WordPress will show all scheduled posts in the order they’ll be published. You can check if you need to change any dates or if there is an overlap. The All section contains a list of all the published posts.

Set a time zone

WordPress scheduled posts are automatically set to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+0). If you want to change the time zone, you can do this in the dashboard as well. Go to Settings, then General, and then Time zone. Save your changes to complete the process. It’s best to use the time zone where most of your readers are.

Final thoughts

Scheduling posts in WordPress will increase the traffic to your site. Schedule them depending on your current traffic and peak hours rather than publishing multiple posts on the same date and at the same time.