Comments on: Creating an Annual Time Block

By: Put the Big Rocks In First | Michael Hyatt

Put the Big Rocks In First | Michael Hyatt — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 01:12:03 +0000

[...] have written about this previously under the title of Creating an Annual Time Block. However, I just stumbled across this video by Stephen Covey. He describes a similar exercise in [...]

By: Field Reports: Plan Your Week Like a Start-Up Executive | Advanced Riskology

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 11:02:02 +0000

[...] [...]

By: toddplunk

toddplunk — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:47:00 +0000

Never mind my request above, I was able to update and recalculate the template! Thanks again for this resource.

By: toddplunk

toddplunk — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:37:00 +0000

Michael,
Do you happen to have an updated excel file for 2012? The Leap year seems to be causing problems when I try to update for 2012…

By: Casey

Casey — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:04:00 +0000

Love this post! Great idea! Unfortunately, when I download the Excel document and recalculate the date to 2012, the leap year throws the entire layout off. Any ideas? I am using Excel on Mac, btw.

By: Why Scheduling Backwards is the Most Efficient Way to Plan | 7sistershomeschool.com

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:11:48 +0000

[...] Hyatt, a champion of intentional leadership, wrote this blog the day after Christmas, and in it he shares a link to a free Excel spreadsheet you can download to [...]

By: Daren Sirbough

Daren Sirbough — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 03:35:00 +0000

I’ve filed this excel spreadsheet and will begin working on it on the 2nd of January 2012.

By: 10 Things To Do Before The New Year « Paul Kandavalli

10 Things To Do Before The New Year « Paul Kandavalli — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:22:25 +0000

[...] http://michaelhyatt.com/creating-an-annual-time-block.html [...]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 22:40:00 +0000

This thread saved me. I was struggling with the same thing. Thanks Jonathan and Michael!

By: Tasha McKinlay

Tasha McKinlay — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:07:00 +0000

What a great idea, and a great template! I do believe I’ll do this too! Thank you!

By: 70KILO

70KILO — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:12:50 +0000

[...] Reserve time annually for your most important priorities. This has been a huge help to me, particularly as things got crazy. I reserve the week between Christmas an New Years to plan out the coming year. I don’t plan every detail—far from it. But I doput the big rocks in the jar first by scheduling my most important priorities. I have created a tool for this called the Annual Time Block. [...]

By: Mark Weaver

Mark Weaver — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:03:00 +0000

thanks Mike, for so willingly sharing your time management skills. the time block tool ROCKS!

By: Jonathan Watson

Jonathan Watson — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:24:00 +0000

Google is the way to go. Not only does this allow me to see years at a time (Go to Labs) but it’s fully syncable between platforms and devices.

By: Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:45:00 +0000

I’m glad you solved the problem. Thanks.

By: Bill Dodge

Bill Dodge — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 03:26:00 +0000

Mike, I checked the other responses and I was able to change the calculation to Automatic from Manual and it worked. Thanks.

By: Bill Dodge

Bill Dodge — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 03:15:00 +0000

Mike, I love the spreadsheet, but I can’t get the year to update when I change the date in A5. is there some trick to getting the weekends to adjust? I am trying to do 2012 and 2013. I have tried several different ways., nothing moves the weekends.

By: Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 03:03:00 +0000

Thanks, Paul. I consider myself “cyber-hugged.” ;-)

By: paul peterson

paul peterson — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 01:22:00 +0000

Michael, no kidding here… most of your posts make me just want to hug you because they are so good. This one is no exception! GREAT post! Thank you for unearthing and sharing this gold! Have a great night!

By: How to Find Your Stuff in Evernote

How to Find Your Stuff in Evernote — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:45:12 +0000

[...] have Saved Searches for my Life Plan Documents (e.g., my Life Plan itself, my Ideal Week, and my Annual Time Block), Unpaid Bills, Reimbursable Expenses, Guest Posts, etc. Basically, any time I create a search, I [...]

By: Ryan K

Ryan K — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:54:00 +0000

I love the rock story. It’s easy to lack structure and run on the fly but planning the big things out helps to make sure they happen.

By: Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:09:00 +0000

You have to be using the most recent version of Excel.

By: Jenni Hypes

Jenni Hypes — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:31:00 +0000

Hi Michael! Your annual time block planning tool sounds great. I’m trying to download it on my mac, but when I try to open it, it’s telling me that it’s a read-only file? Any suggestions?

By: Tweets that mention Creating an Annual Time Block -- Topsy.com

Tweets that mention Creating an Annual Time Block -- Topsy.com — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 02:14:26 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Susan Minatrea, Kathy Fannon, HC. Kathy Fannon, HC said: Previous quote by @michaelhyatt: http://michaelhyatt.com/creating-an-annual-time-block.html# [...]

By: Finding a sustainable pace « Two Tasks

Finding a sustainable pace « Two Tasks — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:32:18 +0000

[...] etc. These are the “hard edges” to your calendar. Take a look at Mike Hyatt’s annual time block for one way to do this. I do this over the summer since our ministry year run July to [...]

By: David

David — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:21:00 +0000

Michael. This is a great tool. I will experiment with it in 2011.

By: Georgiana

Georgiana — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 22:44:00 +0000

Wow ~ love the rock – gravel – sand -water illustration! This is definitely a great reminder on how important it is to create balance in life and place our most vital plans and priorities first in our schedules. By not being overwhelmed but pacing our tasks out in a flexible way, we live more peacefully and in harmony.

By: Jonathan Lazar

Jonathan Lazar — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:19:50 +0000

Perfect. Thank you!

By: Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:49:45 +0000

Yes, it is set up for manual recalculation. You can change this in the preferences or you can recalc the spreadsheet. Hope this helps.

By: Jonathan Lazar

Jonathan Lazar — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:38:22 +0000

Michael,

Perhaps a bit of irony, but in my attempt to be efficient, I have tried using your spreadsheet, but am unable to successfully change the date in cell A5. Is there a simple solution to this?

By: Jonathan Lazar

Jonathan Lazar — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:36:46 +0000

Michael,

Perhaps a bit of irony, but in my attempt to be efficient, I have tried using your spreadsheet, but am unable to successfully change the date in cell A5. Is there a simple solution to this?

By: Mark Andrews

Mark Andrews — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:06:32 +0000

Thanks again for another great post. I will be printing this out and using it for our young church and my family. People already thought we were cutting edge for planning preaching out a year in advance, this will be quite interesting. After 15 years of marriage my wife and I are adopting two brothers from the Phillipines, and this will be an interesting tool to use.
In case anyone is wondering, I’ll be planning for the family first, then the church. I know what my biggest rocks are.

Again, thanks a ton!

By: @realestatebecca

@realestatebecca — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 16:48:46 +0000

Great perspective! My version for the less tech savvy or those using paper day planners… Flag that page usually found in the back for future year plan and put your "big rocks" there. ____This has been so helpful to me and this year marks the first I've attended a couple of annual events that I always really wanted to go to and somehow they always just slipped by due to lack of planning and/or overcommitting. Whenever I missed such an event last year or did something that I definitely wanted to repeat again, I posted it into the future year calendar immediately and it is working!! Thanks Michael!

By: Daniel Tardy

Daniel Tardy — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:51:00 +0000

I use this all the time now and I LOVE it! Great tool! Especially if you travel a lot. My recent post No one cares about your snow.

By: Daniel Tardy

Daniel Tardy — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:51:48 +0000

I use this all the time now and I LOVE it! Great tool! Especially if you travel a lot. My recent post No one cares about your snow.

By: Planning for a New Year: Tools I’m Using for 2010

Planning for a New Year: Tools I’m Using for 2010 — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:49:25 +0000

[...] Time Block – This is a spreadsheet put together by Michael Hyatt. I love it, and it should be very useful in planning time for [...]

By: Jeremy McGarity

Jeremy McGarity — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:05:00 +0000

Great post-How long did it take to get this mapped out? a day? or two?
thanks for the help.

By: Jeremy McGarity

Jeremy McGarity — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:05:48 +0000

Great post-How long did it take to get this mapped out? a day? or two?
thanks for the help.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:12:17 +0000

Great tool. I made three modifications to this that others may find useful. First, I aligned the days of the week horizontally (so that all of the Mondays in a quarter show up in the same line). I realize that the dates at the beginning of the month or end of the month end up being in the wrong column (e.g., August 31 may actually show up in the September column), but being able to see the days of the week aligned far outweighs that.

Secondly, I formatted the cells to "wrap text". Just a simple way to give myself more room on a line if I need it (without having to add in another row).

Finally, because of the wrap text feature, I decided to put each quarter on a seperate Excel tab. That way, if I have a row whose height is 4 lines tall (for example), it only affects that row in that quarter and not all the rows in other quarters. This might not make sense unless you you are more than a novice at Excel.

Overall, great help. Thanks for sharing.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:12:00 +0000

Secondly, I formatted the cells to "wrap text". Just a simple way to give myself more room on a line if I need it (without having to add in another row).

Overall, great help. Thanks for sharing.

By: Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:06:00 +0000

Scott, this is so encouraging. Thanks for sharing with me.

By: Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:06:00 +0000

Scott, this is so encouraging. Thanks for sharing with me.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:12:00 +0000

Totally just watched Bill Hybels teach and use this illustration (stones and sand) at willowcreek.org in his message "The Forgotten Way" Hmmm.. maybe the Lord is trying to teach me something.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:12:00 +0000

Totally just watched Bill Hybels teach and use this illustration (stones and sand) at willowcreek.org in his message "The Forgotten Way" Hmmm.. maybe the Lord is trying to teach me something.

By: @johnataylor

@johnataylor — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:28:40 +0000

Mike,

Thanks for sharing. This came just in time. I'm working through the same process right now, and was just considering creating something in Excel for the same reasons you described.

You've saved me some much-needed time.

By: @johnataylor

@johnataylor — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:28:00 +0000

Mike,

Thanks for sharing. This came just in time. I'm working through the same process right now, and was just considering creating something in Excel for the same reasons you described.

You've saved me some much-needed time.

By: Brian York

Brian York — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:08:02 +0000

wow…thanks for this. You just saved my sanity!!!

"if you don’t have a plan for your life, someone else does." – how true is this!!

By: Brian York

Brian York — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:08:00 +0000

wow…thanks for this. You just saved my sanity!!!

"if you don’t have a plan for your life, someone else does." – how true is this!!

By: Scott Meyer

Scott Meyer — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:06:12 +0000

Michael,
Thanks for sharing this insight and this tool that you created. We (the ministry staff) took the spreadsheet and have now been planning more than 1 year out. Know that your tool is having an impact on one ministry team and a church in Texas.

Grace & Peace
Scott

By: Scott Meyer

Scott Meyer — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:06:00 +0000

Grace & Peace
Scott

By: Annual Planning Calendar | Michael Hyatt

Annual Planning Calendar | Michael Hyatt — Tue, 26 May 2009 01:08:18 +0000

[...] so that I can make sure I am not driven by the “tyranny of the urgent.” I call this my Annual Time Block. Unfortunately, I could not find a ready-made tool any where. Microsoft Outlook and Entourage [...]