A schedule is important for every aspect of your life. It not only helps you manage your time, it can also reduce stress, help you evaluate progress as you work, and prepare you for the unexpected.
From organizing your to-do list to planning an event, a schedule will keep you on track and make sure you never miss a thing.
Using a template is the easiest way to make a schedule. In this article, you’ll find the best daily, weekly, and monthly schedule templates in Excel. We’ll give you step-by-step instructions for finding the best schedule template for your needs and tell you how to customize these Excel templates.
Additionally, we've provided customizable schedule templates in Smartsheet, a work execution platform that empowers you to better manage tasks, timelines, and due dates with real-time collaboration and process automation.
You can find a variety of schedule templates in Excel, ranging from monthly schedules, weekday displays, and schedules with notes. There templates are pre-made and formatted, ready for you to add your own information.
With so many available schedule templates, how do you know which one is the easiest to use? We’ve sorted through them all and found the best daily, weekly, and monthly schedule templates for Excel.
In a weekly Excel schedule template, each day is broken up into morning, afternoon, and evening, and you can adjust how much space you would like for each block of the day.
A daily schedule template usually spans Sunday-Saturday and includes duration in hours, with 30 minute increments. This kind of schedule will give you the most granular level of detail, letting you track even the smallest tasks during the day.
A monthly schedule template provides a high-level view of the entire month. Each of the 12 months in 2016 are typically a different tab in the Excel file.
These weekly schedule templates span the entire week, from Monday-Sunday. Many of the templates use hierarchy to organize information, with collapsible rows so you can hide or display certain dates or tasks.
All these templates highlight Smartsheet’s collaboration features. For example, in the weekly class schedule, you can color-code your courses so you can quickly visualize your schedule for the week. In the meal planner template, you can easily attach links to your favorite recipes for easy access. And, in the house cleaning schedule, you can assign chores to certain people to hold your family accountable.
Smartsheet’s daily schedules are organized by 30-minute increments, from 7am-9pm. If you want the schedule to span more or less time, just right-click on a cell and select Delete Row or Insert Row. Use the star symbols in the daily to-do list to designate priority and set reminders for your daily meetings and appointments, and daily work so you never miss a beat.
These monthly schedules include every month of the year for 2017, and you can adjust how much space you want to designate for each month by adding or delete rows. If you want to change any of the dates in the schedule (like if you need to change the year), simply enter the first couples date by hand, then select these cells and drag the bottom right-hand corner all the way down to autofill the rest.
Have comments directly in the project schedule template to unclog your inbox, automatically create dynamic Gantt charts, and use symbols to quickly convey status, priority, and progress.
Gantt Chart Project Schedule: Excel | Smartsheet
Once you decide on a daily, weekly, or monthly template, you then need to choose a layout, duration type (do you want Monday-Friday or Sunday-Saturday?), the sharing capabilities, and printing options. With all these factors to consider, it can be difficult to know which schedule template to use.
Here are some things to consider as you’re searching for a schedule template:
You first need to figure out if you need a daily, weekly, or monthly template. The daily schedule is the only template that has duration in hours (with 30 minute increments), the weekly schedule’s duration is broken up into morning, afternoon, and evening, and the monthly template has the least amount of granularity, with duration in days.
The events, tasks, or projects that you need to track on the schedule will dictate what kind of template you need. If you need to organize to-dos or appointments, the daily schedule will work the best. If you need to track longer term tasks or repeating events, consider a template that spans more time.
Think about who you need to share your schedule with. Is this a personal document that you will to track your own tasks and to-dos? Is this a family housekeeping/chore schedule that you need to print out and tape on the fridge or email to your spouse and children? Or, will you be using this schedule at work, collaborating and editing it with colleagues and external collaborators?
As a general tip, if you need to share your schedule with more than one person, you should look for an online version of the template so you can share, collaborate, and edit it in real time. If it will be a personal schedule, then make sure you have robust customization and printing capabilities to make sure it fits all your needs.
While you can choose the level of granularity in duration of your schedule, you also need to identify the level of detail you need to add to your template and the number of items you want to include.
To get a sense of the complexity of your events or projects, jot down one or two items you anticipate adding to your schedule. Write down all the details you need to include (item name, item details, assigned to, due date, location, contact information, etc). This exercise will give you a sense of the amount of space you need on your schedule. If you are sticking with a high-level view of the details, you could use the monthly schedule. If you are tracking multiple tasks per day, you may want to look at the daily schedule template.
It’s easy to customize your daily, weekly, or monthly schedule template in Excel. You can color-code certain items, like appointments or birthdays, or change font size and type. You can even add a logo to the calendar if you’re using it for work or with clients.
You can change the font colors or the background colors in your schedule. Color-coding may be especially helpful for labeling certain types of events or tasks.
Customize your schedule by adding images, like your company logo.
If you would like to add your logo or picture to the top of the schedule, you may need to add extra space so the image can fit.
Now you have extra white space to drag your image to the top.
In addition to finding the best schedule template for your needs, you’ll also have to think about printing and online collaboration capabilities.
Many people print out their schedules and put them on a fridge or wall. Or, for schedules like the to-do list planner or personal appointment/meeting planner, some put them in their purse or wallet for easy access.
While it can be helpful to print out and display the schedule for everyone to see, a paper calendar can actually make your life more chaotic and disorganized. If you forget or misplace the schedule, you have to start over from scratch. If someone wants to edit or add something, you won’t know who did it, unless you can recognize their handwriting. And, with limited space, your calendar can quickly get cluttered and messy with multiple edits and additions.
To have guaranteed, 24/7 access to your schedule, look for a cloud-based, collaborative solution. You want to be able to view and edit your schedule wherever you are, on a smartphone or on a desktop.
And, you’ll save a ton of paper by moving your schedule online. If you are sharing your calendar with multiple people, an online tool will streamline communication and changes. You can track edits and control permission levels, choosing whether someone is a viewer, editor, or admin.
And, many online tools have collaboration features to bring your schedule to the next level. You can have comments directly in the tool, set reminders or notifications, switch between a normal view, a Gantt view, or a calendar view, or add attachments.
Smartsheet is a spreadsheet-inspired work management tool with robust collaboration and communication features. With dozens of pre-built templates and sharing capabilities, Smartsheet is perfect for simple to-do list planners or more complex project schedules. And it’s easy to customize the templates -- simply right-click on any column to rename the column headers and double-click on any cell to add your own information. You can also change the colors, fonts, and switch between grid view, Gantt view, or calendar view.
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