How To Create A Weekly Schedule On Excel

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Excel Weekly Planner Template

Get this free Excel weekly planner template. Enter week start date, customize calendar settings, then print the weekly planner sheet, to use all week

Weekly Planner

Use this free Excel weekly planner to make notes about your daily plans and activities. See how to use this planner, so you can print a customized calendar every week. There are a few notes on how the weekly planner's formulas work too, if you're interested in that.

weekly planner calendar

This video shows how to adjust the line settings in the Excel Weekly Planner, and how to set up the conditional formatting that controls the lines.

Weekly Planner Sheets

There are 4 sheets in the Weekly Planner Template workbook:

Instructions - links and overview notes
Setup - customize the weekly plan
WeekPlan - printable weekly plan
Admin - tables used for drop down lists

The WeekPlan list is protected, with NO password. The other sheets are not protected.

Customize Weekly Plan

The first step in using the Excel Weekly Plan template is to go to the Setup sheet, and change the settings there.

Required Setting

Start Date

Optional Settings

Weekdays Format
Day Sections
To Do Lines
Week Note

Start Date

Every week, before you print the weekly plan:

Type the start date in cell C7
Press Enter

A formula in cell D7 shows the weekday name for that date

enter the week start date

NOTE: For most weekly calendars, the start date is a Sunday or Monday. However, you can use any weekday as the start date.

Weekdays Format

In the weekly plan, the weekday names appear at the top. You can show the short name - Sun, or the long name - Sunday.

weekday headings in long format

To change the weekday format:

On the Setup sheet, select from the drop down list in cell C9

choose a weekday format

To change the font formatting, see the Cell Styles section below.

Day Sections

In the weekly plan, there are 3 sections for each day, with a dividing line and heading for each section. You can change any of those section headings, or leave them as they are.

day section headings

To change a section heading:

On the Setup sheet, type the heading text in cells C11:C13, or leave cell(s) blank

enter text for day section headings

If you leave heading 2 or 3 blank, the dividing line for that section will not appear. Here's what the weekly plan sheet looks like, with the new headings, and section 2 heading left blank.

day section 2 heading blank

To Do Lines

At the left side of the weekly plan, there is a Week To Do List. You can control the line spacing in this section, or remove the lines. In this screen shot, the lines have triple spacing.

choose a weekday format

To change the To Do line settings:

On the Setup sheet, select from the drop down list in cell C15

choose a weekday format

Week Note

At the top left of the weekly plan, there is a space for a weekly note that you want to highlight. For example, you could type:

a motivational message
an important task reminder
nothing - leave it blank to fill in later

weekly note in planner

To change the weekly note:

Type a short message in cell C17, or leave the cell blank.
Press Enter

The message length appears in cell C18. It's just for your information, and not used anywhere.

choose a weekday format

Print the Weekly Plan

After you've entered the Start Date, and changed any optional settings, you can print the weekly plan. To print the plan:

Go to the WeekPlan sheet
Click the Quick Print button on the Quick Access Toolbar
OR, click the File Tab, and click Print
- Choose a Printer, and check the Settings
- Click Print

NOTE: The Print Area on the WeekPlan sheet only includes the Calendar cells. Even if the formula rows and columns are visible, they won't print.

Cell Styles

To make it easy for you to change the Weekly Plan appearance, there are 3 Cell Styles in the workbook:

CTX DATE HEADS
CTX DAY SEC HEAD
CTX QUOTE

Where the Styles are Used

Cell Style CTX DATE HEADS is used for the date and weekday names, in C4:I5

cell style for dates

Cell Style CTX DAY SEC HEAD is used for the Day section headers, in columns C:I

cell style for day sections

Cell Style CTX QUOTE is used for the weekly note, at the top left, in cell B4

cell style for weekly note

Modify the Cell Styles

You can modify one or more of the cells styles, to give your weekly plan a different look.

To modify a Cell Style

On the Home tab, click Cell Styles
Point to any Cell Style, to see its full name
Right-click on the style that you want to change, and click Modify
Click Format, then make the formatting changes that you want
Click OK twice, to save changes

modify a cell style

How It Works

Here's a quick overview of how the Weekly Planner Template works.

Drop Down Lists

The drop down lists on the Setup up sheet are created with Data Validation. The source data for the drop down lists is stored in named Excel tables, on the Admin sheet.

Excel tables for drop down lists

Worksheet Formulas

Setup Sheet Formulas

There are 2 formula cells on the Setup sheet:

Cell D7 calculates the weekday name, based on the Start Date
- =TEXT(StartDate,"dddd")
Cell C18 calculates the number of characters in the Week Note:
- =LEN(WkNote)&" chars"

WeekPlan Date Formulas

There are 3 sets of date formulas on the WeekPlan sheet

Hidden in row 3 are simple links to the named cell WDF_ID, on the Admin sheet.
- =WDF_ID
Cells C4:I4 calculate the date, based on the Start Date that you entered, plus the hidden number that is typed in row 2
- =StartDate+C2
Cells C5:I5 calculate the weekday name, based on the date in row 4, and the Weekday format option that is hidden in row 3.
- =TEXT(C4,C3)

WeekPlan Day Section Formulas

There are 3 sets of Day Section formulas on the WeekPlan sheet. The T function is used in these formulas, to return an empty string, instead of a zero, if the linked cell is blank.

Cells C6:I6 are linked to the named cell DaySec01 -- cell C11 on the Setup sheet
- =T(DaySec01)
Cells C16:I16 are linked to the named cell DaySec02 -- cell C12 on the Setup sheet
- =T(DaySec02)
Cells C28:I28 are linked to the named cell DaySec03 -- cell C13 on the Setup sheet
- =T(DaySec03)

WeekPlan Week Note Formula

There is a simple formula in cell B4, to show the Week Note that you entered on the Setup sheet. The T function is used in this formula, to return an empty string, instead of a zero, if the linked cell is blank.

=T(WkNote)

Conditional Formatting

There is conditional formatting on the WeekPlan sheet, to

Show or hide dividing lines in the Day Sections
Show or hide lines in the Week To Do List

NOTE: You can see ths setup steps for the condtional formatting in the video, at the top of this page.

Day Section Lines

The heading cells for Day Sections 2 and 3, (C16:I16, C28:I28), have this conditional formatting rule, to check if the cell contains an empty string:

=C16=""

If that is true, the cell is formatted with no top border

conditional formatting no top border

Week To Do List Lines

There are 4 different options for the Week To Do List lines -- None, Single Spaced, Double Spaced and Triple Spaced. Instead of setting up 4 different Conditional Formatting rules, a worksheet formula checks which rows should have lines.

Here's how the worksheet formulas are set up.

ID Number

On the Admin sheet, cell C3 is named ToDoLinesID, and it has an INDEX/MATCH formula to find the ID number for the option that you selected.

=INDEX(LinesID,MATCH(B3,LinesList,0))

True or False

That ID number is used in formulas on the WeekPlan sheet, in hidden columns K:L

Column L calculates a sequence of numbers, starting at 1. Here's the formula in L12:
- =SUM(L11,1)
Column K calculates if each row should have a line, based on the ID number, and the number in column L:
- =IFERROR(MOD(L12,ToDoLinesID)=0,FALSE)

The MOD function returns the remainder, after the number in L12 is divided by the ID number selected.

If the number in L12 is divisible by 3, and the ID number is 3, that row will show TRUE.
If the number is not divisible by 3, that row will show FALSE
The IFERROR will return FALSE if the MOD function returns an error

Conditional Formatting Rule

In the Week To Do List cells, this conditional formatting rule is used:

=K12=TRUE

If that is true, the cell is formatted with a bottom border

conditional formatting bottom border

And here is the Week To Do list, with lines set to Triple Spacing. Every 3rd row is TRUE, and shows a line.

lines in Week To Do List

Get the Workbook

Get a copy of the free Excel Weekly Planner Template workbook. The zipped file is in xlsx format, and does NOT contain any macros.