What is on the daily planner
- Date and focus
- The date, the day and a one-line statement of what the day is for. Writing the focus first, before the schedule, is what stops the day being run by the inbox.
- Hourly schedule
- One line per hour from 6 AM to 9 PM (half-hours on the time-blocked design). Fixed appointments go in first, then the work blocks around them.
- Top three priorities
- The three tasks that would make the day a success even if nothing else got done. Three, not ten; the rest goes on the to-do list.
- To-do list
- Everything else, with a tick box and a "when" column so each task has a slot rather than floating around all day.
- Meals, water and habits
- On the time-blocked design: what you plan to eat, eight glasses of water to tick off and five habits with a note line. The things that slip when the day gets busy.
- Notes and tomorrow
- Phone numbers, decisions, loose thoughts from meetings, and the two or three things that should be first on tomorrow's page.
How to plan a day on one page
Start the night before or first thing in the morning, and work top to bottom. Write the date and the single focus for the day. Put fixed appointments into the schedule at their times: meetings, school pick-up, the dentist. Then look at what is left and block the open hours for real work, with the hardest job in the first open block when energy is highest. Only then write the top three priorities, because by that point you know how much time there actually is. Everything that didn't make the top three goes on the to-do list with a rough "when".
During the day, tick things off and move what slips. At the end of the day spend two minutes on the notes and tomorrow lines. The unfinished items from today become the first entries on tomorrow's page which is the whole point of using paper: nothing gets lost in an app you forget to open.
Which design to print
- Hourly schedule: the standard layout for a working day. Hours from 6 AM to 9 PM, three priorities, fourteen to-do lines with a "when" column, notes.
- Time-blocked: half-hour blocks from 7 AM to 8 PM for people who plan in blocks rather than appointments, with meals, water, habits and a line for tomorrow. Busiest page, fits a lot.
- Half sheet: two days per page with a cut line. For an A5 or half-letter binder, or when a full page feels like too much. Eleven schedule lines, eleven to-do lines, one notes line.
All three are fillable PDFs, so you can type into them on a tablet or laptop and save the file with the date in the name. The Word and Excel versions are for people who want to change the hours, rename the habits or add rows.
Time blocking versus a to-do list
A to-do list says what has to happen; a time block says when. Most people who feel permanently behind have a long list and no blocks, so the list grows while the day gets eaten by whatever arrives. The planner puts both on one page so each item on the list is either given a slot in the schedule or deliberately left for another day. The "when" column on the hourly design is the lightweight version of this; the time-blocked design does it properly with half-hour slots.
A rule that works: block the first ninety minutes of the working day for the hardest task and treat that block like a meeting with someone important. Put email and messages into two or three fixed blocks rather than leaving them open all day. Leave at least one block empty, because something always comes up and an empty block absorbs it without breaking the plan.
Printing and binding
The pages are designed for US Letter with an A4 version that uses the same layout. Print single-sided on plain paper for a daily tear-off, or double-sided for a bound planner. The half-sheet design prints two days per page; cut along the dotted line and punch for a half-letter (5.5 x 8.5 in) or A5 binder. For a month, print 20 to 22 working days at a time and date them in advance, or leave the dates blank and use them as an undated planner.
Editing the Word and Excel versions
The Word file is built from tables, so you can change the hours (start at 5 AM, finish at 11 PM), add or remove rows, and rename the habit items. The Excel version has the same layout on a grid; it's useful if you plan on screen and want to copy a day's schedule to the next sheet. There are no formulas on a daily planner; the Excel file is for people who prefer to type in a spreadsheet. The ODT and ODS files open in LibreOffice and Google Docs.
For the whole week on one page use the weekly planner; for a plain schedule without the to-do list there's the daily schedule; for blocking time across a week the time blocking template. The habit tracker covers a full month of habits, and the daily to-do list is the list without the schedule.
Questions
What hours does the daily planner cover?
The hourly design runs from 6 AM to 9 PM in one-hour lines. The time-blocked design runs from 7 AM to 8 PM in half-hour blocks. The half sheet covers 7 AM to 5 PM. Change the hours in the Word or Excel file if your day starts earlier or ends later.
Is the planner dated?
No. Every design has a blank date field so you can print it on any day, or print a month of pages and date them in advance.
Can I type into the PDF?
Yes. Every line, box and tick box is a form field. Open the PDF in Acrobat Reader, Preview, Edge or Chrome, type, and save the file with the date in the name.
How do I print two per page?
Use the half-sheet design, which already has two planners on one page with a cut line. Printing the full-page designs at two per page makes the text too small to write on.
Does the Excel version calculate anything?
No. A daily planner has nothing to total. The Excel and ODS versions are there for people who prefer to plan in a spreadsheet and copy a day forward.
Comments and questions
Have a question about this template, or an idea to make it better? Leave a comment.
Leave a comment