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How to List Future Upcoming Scheduled Posts in WordPress

Keeping website visitors engaged and anticipating new content is an ongoing challenge for bloggers and content creators. Here at WPBeginner, we understand the power of fostering a loyal readership.

One strategy that can significantly boost user engagement is showcasing a curated list of upcoming scheduled posts.

By strategically displaying your content calendar, you can generate excitement around new releases, encourage repeat visits, and ultimately cultivate a thriving online community.

In this article, we will show you how to easily display future upcoming posts in WordPress, step by step.

List Future Upcoming Scheduled Posts in WordPress

Why Display Future Upcoming Posts in WordPress?

If you have been running a WordPress blog for a while, then you will know that publishing posts at a certain time can get more people to read them.

However, you can’t just sit around and wait for the right time to hit the publish button. That’s why WordPress has a built-in scheduling feature that lets you schedule posts to be published later.

This can help you focus on creating content and managing your editorial calendar like a pro.

Once you have scheduled the posts on your site, it is also a good idea to show a list of these upcoming articles to create hype around them and increase engagement on your blog.

Displaying future scheduled posts can be especially effective for content like serialized stories, product launches, or event announcements.

It may encourage users to discuss upcoming topics in the comments section or social media, sign up for your newsletter, or even pre-register for events.

Having said that, let’s see how to easily list upcoming scheduled posts in WordPress.

You can easily show a list of scheduled upcoming posts on your WordPress site by adding custom code to your theme’s functions.php file. However, making even the smallest error while typing the code can break your site and make it inaccessible.

That is why we recommend always adding custom code using WPCode. It is the best WordPress code snippets plugin on the market that makes it safe and easy to add code to your website.

First, you need to install and activate the WPCode plugin. For detailed instructions, see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: WPCode has a free plan that you can use for this tutorial. However, upgrading to the pro plan will give you access to more features like a cloud library for code snippets, advanced conditional logic, and more.

Upon activation, visit the Code Snippets » + Add Snippet page from the WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Use Snippet’ button under the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.

Add new snippet

This will take you to the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page, where you can start by adding a name for your code snippet. The name is only for your identification and can be anything you like.

After that, choose ‘PHP Snippet’ as the Code Type from the dropdown menu on the right.

Choose PHP Snippet option for the code snippet to show a list of scheduled upcoming posts

Next, you need to copy and paste the following custom code into the ‘Code Preview’ box:

function wpb_upcoming_posts() { 
    // The query to fetch future posts
    $the_query = new WP_Query(array( 
        'post_status' => 'future',
        'posts_per_page' => 3,
        'orderby' => 'date',
        'order' => 'ASC'
    ));
 
// The loop to display posts
if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
    echo '<ul>';
    while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
        $the_query->the_post();
        $output .= '<li>' . get_the_title() .' ('.  get_the_time('d-M-Y') . ')</li>';
    }
    echo '</ul>';
 
} else {
    // Show this when no future posts are found
    $output .= '<p>No posts planned yet.</p>';
}
 
// Reset post data
wp_reset_postdata();
 
// Return output
 
return $output; 
} 
// Add shortcode
add_shortcode('upcoming_posts', 'wpb_upcoming_posts'); 
// Enable shortcode execution inside text widgets
add_filter('widget_text', 'do_shortcode');

After that, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section and choose the ‘Auto Insert’ mode.

Keep in mind that you will still have to add a shortcode to show a list of upcoming posts on your WordPress website.

Choose an insertion method

Finally, scroll back to the top of the page to toggle the ‘Inactive’ switch to ‘Active’.

Once you do that, simply click the ‘Save Snippet’ button to store your settings.

Save the code snippet for showing scheduled posts

Display a List of Scheduled Upcoming Posts in the Sidebar of a Classic Theme

To display a list of upcoming posts in the WordPress sidebar, visit the Appearance » Widgets page from the WordPress dashboard. Keep in mind that this option will only be available if you are using a classic (non-block) theme.

Here, you need to click the add block ‘+’ button in the top left corner of the screen to open the block menu.

From here, drag and drop the Shortcode block into the sidebar section. After that, add the following shortcode into the block:

[upcoming_posts]

Add the shortcode for displaying a list of upcoming scheduled posts in the widget area

Next, click the ‘Update’ button at the top to store your settings.

Now, you can visit your WordPress site to view the list of upcoming scheduled posts in action.

A preview of list of upcoming scheduled posts

Display a List of Scheduled Upcoming Posts in the Full Site Editor

If you are using a block-based theme, then the Widgets menu tab won’t be available for you. In that case, you need to visit the Appearance » Editor page from the WordPress dashboard.

Once the editor opens up, click on ‘Pages’ and then simply choose a page where you want to add the shortcode from the options on the left.

Choose a page in the full site editor where you want to add a shortcode

The page of your choice will now be launched in the full site editor. Here, you must click the add block ‘+’ button to open the block menu and add the Shortcode block to the page.

After that, just add the following shortcode into the block: [upcoming_posts]

Add shortcode to display scheduled upcoming posts in the FSE

Finally, click the ‘Save’ button at the top to store your settings.

Now, simply visit your WordPress site to view the list of scheduled upcoming posts.

Upcoming posts preview in FSE

Bonus: How to Display Recent Posts in WordPress

Apart from displaying upcoming posts, you may also want to show a list of recently published posts on your WordPress site.

Doing this can help introduce visitors to new content and encourage them to explore your website more.

You can easily display a list of new posts in WordPress using the Latest Posts block in the Gutenberg editor.

Show post content in recent posts

After that, you can further customize this block by adding post excerpts, author name, publication date, or featured image.

For more information, you can see our tutorial on how to display recent posts in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to list future upcoming scheduled posts in WordPress. You may also be interested in our tutorial on how to bulk schedule posts in WordPress and our top picks for the best WordPress popular posts plugins.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

25 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
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  2. Hajjalah

    Thanks for your guide, I successfully placed future upcoming posts into my sidebar using the the code snippet method. But I still have a question about this. Is there a way to enable the featured image for the scheduled posts to be shown using the code method?

    • WPBeginner Support

      It would require some changes to the code, we will look into the possibility in the future :)

      Admin

  3. Ivan Salko

    It works but displays:
    Warning: Undefined variable $output
    Can someone help me?

  4. Jiří Vaněk

    I sometimes use scheduling posts and this is a really great way to entice people to visit again. It’s a really neat idea. Thanks for the tutorial on how to do it.

  5. Pobitro Deb

    Can I make a video post for the scheduled post?

    • WPBeginner Support

      If you wanted to make a video teaser, that would normally be best done by publishing a post for the specific teaser :)

      Admin

  6. Mrteesurez

    This is a great idea.
    Show the upcoming scheduled posts will get users informed of new posts and make them return to read the post when published or live. It will also give user an opportunity to suggest next posts that they need to reads and be best benefited to them.
    I will implement this idea, thanks.

  7. Patrick

    Hello,
    it was a very useful article! I used to code for a long time because it was exactly what I needed. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be working anymore, and I haven’t found a way to fix it.

    • WPBeginner Support

      From testing the code is still working, you would want to use the shortcode block if you are not currently and that should allow the shortcode to work in your widget area again.

      Admin

      • Patrick

        I stand corrected! The code is indeed still working PERFECT. I’ve made a mistake in the way I added it to the functions.php of the theme!

        • WPBeginner Support

          Glad to hear you solved the issue! :)

  8. Susanne Tamir

    Great function exactly what i need but one thing missing the title is not linked to the post. How do i link the title to the post in this code? Thanks a lot

    • WPBeginner Support

      We do not have a recommended method for that as this would show the upcoming posts that are not published yet so there is nothing to send the users to.

      Admin

  9. rashid

    it is great and exactly what I needed,
    now i am thinking about, making the Post test a link, and on hover can give extra info,
    plus is it possible to add a url behind them (example: register for an upcoming event.)

  10. Antuan

    I have to do couple to leave me in a normal page all future events with their titles, dates and featured images? Thank you.

  11. kimberly

    thanks, looks super easy

  12. shabir

    thanks for sharing such a wonderful stuff.

  13. Rogier

    Thanks for sharing this manual code. I wonder how it could be modified for Custom Post Types? For example for an ‘event’ post type? Is that something you could reveal? (None of the scheduled post plugins work for custom post types.)

    • may

      i think you can do that by adding (‘post_type’ => ‘addcustomposttype’,) this in array im not sure but this one is working in my custom post type btw thank you wpbeginner for the tut :D

  14. Cecilio

    I have found a problem in code:

    For exclude sticky posts to add this line to query:

    ‘ignore_sticky_posts’ => 1,

    Useful article :-)

  15. MarkDeafMcGuire

    I like to use the Editorial Calendar. It allows you to drag and drop posts from a calendar point of view. Useful for trending topics and seeing gaps in scheduling posts.

    • Editorial Calendar

      Is that a plugin??

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