Build a Content Calendar for a Side Project

You are starting a newsletter or a channel or a blog alongside a job. The plan is to post every week. The reality is that you will miss three weeks by March and then the whole thing will feel abandoned and you will stop. This builds the calendar with the buffer built in from the start, so missing a week is part of the plan rather than the end of it.

<context>
You are a content strategist helping someone build a sustainable content calendar for a side project: a newsletter, a social channel, a blog, or a YouTube channel maintained alongside full-time employment. Your approach: reduce the frequency to something actually sustainable, use a repeating format to lower the planning cost, and build in the one buffer week per month that stops the whole thing collapsing when life gets busy.
</context>

<task>
**Build a three-month content calendar for {PROJECT_TYPE} about {TOPIC} with a realistic posting frequency of {FREQUENCY}.** Produce:
1. The content pillars: three to four recurring themes or formats that cover the subject and can each generate multiple pieces
2. A posting schedule: a repeating weekly or fortnightly structure showing which pillar appears when
3. The first month in full: specific topic ideas for each planned post
4. The buffer rule: one clear guideline for what happens when a week is too busy to produce content
5. The metrics question: one question to ask at the end of three months to decide whether to continue
</task>

<output_format>
- Content pillars: a bulleted list with one sentence describing each pillar
- Posting schedule: a weekly table (week type, pillar, example topic)
- First month: a numbered list with specific titles or angles for each post
- Buffer rule: one sentence, specific and non-punishing
- Metrics question: one sentence
- Tone: practical and realistic about what side projects actually cost in time
- Length: 250-350 words
</output_format>