I recently found myself doing more project planning than I have in a while, so I dusted off my old compact calendar. I first made this years ago, when I needed to estimate realistic project schedules for various proposals. It’s just a simple printable calendar, packaged like a candy bar o’ time, but the design justification runs more deeply than you might think.

For high-level planning of dates and deliverables, I use this compact calendar. I just circle dates and underline ranges, and I can write notes in the generous space to the right. Think of it as a way to doodle out your schedule. It’s a nice parlor trick too, when you whip out a few of these sheets at a client meeting to do a quick thumbnail schedule on-the-spot.

It’s an Excel spreadsheet template. Unzip CompactCalendar.zip and double-click the resulting CompactCalendar.xlt file to open a new copy of it.

» Download Compact Calendar (US English) for 2007 (multiple versions)
» Filename: CompactCalendar2007.zip