Templates

Hourly planner template

This hourly planner template is a free printable page with one row for every hour from 6 AM to midnight. Each row has two columns: the plan, and what really happened. The gap between them is the useful part.

Last updated

Reviewed by Mohammed Raqeeb

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The hourly planner template.

The hourly planner template is one US Letter page. It starts with a line for your top three tasks, then one row for each hour.

Download the PDF
  • Top three for today: the tasks the day has to hold.
  • Plan: what each hour is for, written in the morning.
  • What really happened: filled in as the day goes, or at night.
  • At the bottom: hours planned for what matters, and hours it really got.

How to use it

How to use an hourly planner.

An hourly planner works when the plan is written before the day starts. Fill in the plan column in the morning, starting with the top three tasks. Leave some hours empty on purpose.

Fill in the second column as the day goes, or at night. Where the two columns differ, write why. After a week, the differences show which plans were too tight. A time audit does the same over a whole week.

Filled in

An hourly planner, filled in from a real day.

In this filled-in planner, the plan was written for the page, and the second column comes from a real workday entry read by the Think in Numbers parser. The planned gym hour never happened, and lunch was eaten at the desk. The day ended with 3h 5m unaccounted.

A plan for each hour beside what really happened
HourPlanWhat really happened
Wake up, get ready
  • Sleep: Up at 6:45
  • Personal Care: Showered and made coffee, out the door by 7:30
Train to work
  • Personal Care: Showered and made coffee, out the door by 7:30
  • Travel & Commute: The train took 40 minutes
Emails
  • Travel & Commute: The train took 40 minutes
  • Work: Emails from 8:15 to 9
Planning meeting
  • Work: then a planning meeting until 10:30
Quarterly report
  • Work: then a planning meeting until 10:30
  • Work: Worked on the quarterly report until lunch at 12:30
Quarterly report
  • Work: Worked on the quarterly report until lunch at 12:30
Lunch away from the desk
  • Work: Worked on the quarterly report until lunch at 12:30
  • Food & Meals: Ate at my desk for half an hour
Meetings
  • Work: Two more meetings from 1 to 3
Meetings
  • Work: Two more meetings from 1 to 3
Quarterly report
  • Work: Back on the report from 3 to 5:30
Quarterly report
  • Work: Back on the report from 3 to 5:30
Train home
  • Work: Back on the report from 3 to 5:30
  • Travel & Commute: then the train home
Gym
  • Travel & Commute: then the train home
Cook and eat dinner
  • Food & Meals: Cooked pasta around 7 and ate with my roommate
  • Using Phone: Scrolled my phone on the couch for about an hour
Read
  • Using Phone: Scrolled my phone on the couch for about an hour
  • Self-Growth: Read for 20 minutes
Read, wind downUnaccounted
Screens offUnaccounted
Sleep
  • Sleep: lights out at 11

Real output from the Think in Numbers parser (version v21), run on with the app’s starter categories. Stored as written, not edited.

Without paper

The planner whose second column fills itself in.

Think in Numbers is the no-paper version of the second column. It is a smart journaling app with time tracking built in: you write or say what happened, and it turns your words into hours by category. Its weekly plan and targets sit against those real hours.

For a log without a plan, use the time log template. For the day in words, use the daily journal template.

Questions

Questions people ask.

What is an hourly planner?

An hourly planner is a page with one row for each hour of the day. You write what you plan to do in each hour. This one adds a second column for what really happened.

Why does this planner have a column for what really happened?

A plan on its own never tells you whether it worked. Writing what really happened beside each hour shows where the day drifted, and which plans need more time than you gave them.

What hours does the planner cover?

The printable hourly planner runs from 6 AM to midnight, one row per hour, with a line in each row for half hours.

Is this hourly planner template free?

Yes. The hourly planner is a free one-page PDF. Print a copy for each day.

Is there an app that fills in the second column?

Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app for iPhone and Android, fills in what really happened from your own words. It also has a weekly plan and targets you can hold against your real hours.

Try it on my day.

Think in Numbers is a smart journaling app with time tracking built in. Write or say today in your own words, and see where the hours went. No timers.

Write my first day

For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.