Draft, Scheduled & Published States
The three states a WordPress post moves through before and after it goes live.
What it means
A WordPress post is always in one of a few states. "Draft" means it's saved but private and not visible to visitors. "Scheduled" means it's finished and set to go live automatically at a future date and time. "Published" means it's live on your site right now for anyone to see.
Why it matters
Mixing these up is a common and embarrassing mistake — a post left in draft when you meant to publish it never reaches anyone, and a post accidentally published before it's ready goes out unfinished. Knowing which state a post is in before you walk away from the editor matters more than it sounds.
ask datanephew
Can datanephew tell me which of my posts are still stuck in draft?
Yes — ask it to list your draft posts, especially ones that have been sitting unpublished for a while, so nothing finished gets forgotten.
If I ask datanephew to publish something, will it check with me first?
Ask it to confirm the post's title and content with you before publishing if you want that extra check — it's a good habit for anything you haven't reviewed recently yourself.