How to use it
- Set when your day starts and ends, and how much buffer you want between blocks. Ten minutes is a good default.
- Add your fixed points first, like meetings and appointments, using Add at this time.
- Add everything else with Add in next free slot. The planner places each block after the last one that fits, buffers included.
- Check the line under the list. Free time left shows how much of the day isn’t planned yet. If it’s zero, the plan is too full.
- Download the calendar file, or print the day.
The list is the real plan, and you can operate it fully with a keyboard. The timeline beside it is a picture of the same blocks. A block that overlaps another, or falls outside your day, is labeled in the list.
Plan a day you can actually keep
- Plan about two-thirds of your hours. Leave the rest empty. It soaks up interruptions, overruns and the task you forgot.
- Put the hardest block where your energy is. For many people that’s mid-morning. For others it’s late afternoon. Plan around your real energy, not an ideal one.
- Use typed blocks. Focus, admin, meeting, break and personal blocks have their own colors, so you can see when the whole day is meetings with no focus time.
- Give breaks a block. A break that’s on the plan actually happens.
If rigid schedules don’t work for you
Time blocking doesn’t need to be hour-by-hour. Some people block in zones instead, like “deep work until lunch” and “admin after 3”, and use the planner only to check that the zones fit. When a block slips, move it to the next free slot instead of rebuilding the day.
Time blocks in Thendoo
In the Thendoo app you drag tasks onto your Today timeline, between your Google Calendar meetings. You can also send your time blocks to a separate “Thendoo” calendar in Google, so the people you work with can see when you’re busy.