Routine tasks? Check. Weekly priorities? Check. Now let’s learn how to squeeze the most out of every day and learn how to make a schedule in Excel! 📐
A step-by-step guide to make a schedule in Excel
Note: In this tutorial, we use Microsoft Excel for Mac Version 16.60. The steps and features may look different if you’re on another version.
Let’s be honest—it’s easy to get distracted, lost, or forgetful in your day-to-day with so many tools and emails. Work suddenly feels like a tough mountain to climb and getting through the day is just the goal.
That’s not fun.
So, what can help? For starters, making a schedule in Excel can help you keep all of your tasks in one place, so you don’t have to chase down everything that falls into your daily work.
This blog will show you how to easily (and quickly) make a schedule in Excel so you can regain a bit of order in the chaos of day-to-day work tasks.
1. Open the Excel app and click More templates at the top right-hand corner. Select the Daily Schedule template
2. Edit cell F3 with a start time that works best for you. Click enter on your keyboard to apply
Optional: Change the color theme by clicking on the Page Layout tab > Themes. Or, create your own from scratch and save it as a new theme under Save Current Theme
3. Add this week’s appointments, tasks, and events (so far!) to your schedule
4. Hide any time slots you’re not using for a cleaner, more print-friendly spreadsheet by highlighting the rows > right-click > Hide
5. Save your sheet as a reusable template by selecting File > Save as Template. Name your template and click Save
There you have it: a custom-made Excel work schedule. We have more Microsoft Office resources and recommendations if you’re looking for other alternatives to improve your planning needs! ⬇️
More Excel tutorials
👉 How to Make a Graph in Excel
👉 How to Make a Calendar in Excel
👉 How To Create a Timesheet in Excel 👉 How to Create a Flowchart in Excel 👉 How To Show Dependencies in Excel
Excel schedule templates
👉 Daily Schedule via template.net
👉 Weekly Work Schedule via template.net
👉 Work From Home Daily Schedule via template.net
Bonus: Best Free Schedule Makers
Now try it with ClickUp—the better scheduler
While it’s handy to know how to use popular spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel, it’s still Microsoft Excel—an app not designed to take prompt action on work. A schedule created in Excel is a standalone spreadsheet that’s likely to be maddening to update when you’re jammed with back-to-back schedule changes. 🖍
This reality is why it’s essential to use an intuitive calendar tool like ClickUp to take out the probability of human error that comes with Microsoft Office applications.
ClickUp is the ultimate productivity platform allowing teams to manage projects, collaborate smarter, and bring all work under one tool. Whether you’re new to productivity apps or a seasoned schedule planner, ClickUp’s customization can stretch to help you shape your best days! ✨
A modern calendar software like ClickUp offers more than creating a daily schedule template:
- Multiple project views including Kanban boards, task lists, Gantt charts
- Native integrations with other apps to sustain your current workflow
- Task/event descriptions to quickly understand their meaning
- Mobile access so you’re always in the know while on the go
- Recurring tasks so nothing falls through the cracks
- Shareable with team members and guests
- Time tracking and hourly estimation
Bonus: Work schedule apps!
Time to say goodbye to Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel may or may not be good for your tech health, but why take that chance? There are certain scenarios where Excel is invaluable. But what ends up happening is so many try to customize a tool that’s not really meant for managing and creating a true schedule.
It’s a lot like trying to fit a square peg into a circle—things just don’t always fit. But with ClickUp, our features are meant to save you time, increase productivity, and ultimately help you manage your schedule without the pain of creating one from scratch.
Want to see it in action? Get in the driver’s seat today and create a free ClickUp account! Start with the Calendar view feature and see why so many businesses have said goodbye to making a schedule in Excel and moved to ClickUp! 🗓