Build your weekly plan
Formula used
This planner calculates a Priority Score for each task using weighted ratings and an effort penalty:
The Eisenhower quadrant label is based on Importance ≥ 4 and Urgency ≥ 4.
How to use
- List your tasks and assign a day.
- Rate Importance, Urgency, and Impact (1–5).
- Enter Effort in hours, then set daily capacity.
- Adjust weights to match your working style.
- Click calculate to rank tasks and check load.
- Download CSV/PDF to share or archive your plan.
Example data table
A compact sample you can mirror when entering your own tasks.
| Task | Category | Day | I | U | P | Effort (h) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prepare weekly review | Work | Mon | 5 | 4 | 5 | 1.0 |
| Deep work: roadmap draft | Work | Tue | 5 | 3 | 5 | 2.5 |
| Pay bills | Finance | Wed | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0.5 |
| Doctor appointment | Health | Thu | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1.0 |
| Family outing | Family | Sat | 5 | 2 | 5 | 3.0 |
Weighted scoring for clear tradeoffs
This planner converts 1–5 ratings into a 0–100 score using normalized weights. A common starting mix is 0.45 importance, 0.35 urgency, and 0.20 impact. After two weekly reviews, most users tune weights to match real constraints, such as customer deadlines, leadership priorities, or personal energy windows. Keep weights stable for a week to observe patterns.
Effort penalty that protects flow
Effort hours reduce the score through a logarithmic penalty, so larger tasks must earn their rank. With penalty strength k=0.30, a 1-hour item gets a light reduction, while a 6-hour item needs higher importance or impact to stay near the top. This keeps deep work visible without ignoring quick wins. If you enjoy long projects, lower k slightly.
Quadrants that guide decisions
Quadrants use thresholds at 4 for importance and urgency. “Do first” items are high risk and time sensitive. “Schedule” items are high value but not yet urgent, ideal for protected blocks. “Delegate” items reduce bottlenecks, and “Defer” items highlight low-return commitments for batching or removal. Review deferred items monthly to avoid silent backlog growth.
Capacity signals to prevent overload
Daily load is the sum of effort assigned to each day and compared with your capacity setting. Weeks run smoother when planned load stays under 85% to preserve buffer for interruptions. If a day rises above 105%, shift “Schedule” tasks forward, split effort into smaller steps, or reduce scope before work begins. Treat buffer as planned resilience, not unused time.
Day-level focus improves throughput
The planner groups your highest-ranked tasks by day to create an execution view. Many professionals aim for one deep-work block per weekday and cluster meetings into fewer windows. If your chart shows midweek spikes, redistribute tasks to lower context switching, reduce handoffs, and keep priorities stable. Pair demanding tasks with low-meeting days for better output quality.
Review loop that sharpens planning
Close the week by comparing planned items to completed outcomes. If urgent work dominates, lower urgency weight slightly and raise impact to rebalance. If big tasks never surface, reduce the effort penalty or break them into milestones with separate effort estimates. Track three weeks to stabilize settings and improve predictability. Record one lesson learned to refine next week’s inputs.
FAQs
1) What do the weights actually change?
Weights control how much each rating contributes to the base score. Increasing importance favors strategic work, increasing urgency favors deadlines, and increasing impact favors outcomes. Weights are normalized so they always sum to one.
2) Why use a logarithmic effort penalty?
It avoids extreme distortion. A 10-hour task is penalized more than a 1-hour task, but not ten times more. High-value projects remain visible while smaller tasks still get momentum benefits.
3) How many tasks should I enter for one week?
A practical range is 10–25 tasks. Fewer can miss admin work, and more can add noise. If you have many small items, batch them into one task with a combined effort estimate.
4) What daily capacity should I set?
Use realistic focused hours, not the full day. Many roles fit 4–7 focused hours. Start with 6 hours, then adjust after one week by comparing planned load to what you completed.
5) Can I plan personal routines with it?
Yes. Add health, learning, and family tasks and assign days. If personal priorities matter, raise importance or impact to keep them ranking near the top. The capacity table helps you balance commitments.
6) How should I interpret “Delegate” and “Defer”?
Delegate indicates urgent but lower-importance work that can be handed off or automated. Defer indicates low urgency and low importance work that can be delayed, batched, or removed to protect higher-value time.