I've had an idea for a flexible planner, so I've built a prototype using Excel '07 - and it's proving very useful!

The idea is that rather than having specific times for tasks, such as:

Work on Outliner Project - 09:00 - 13:00.

I can simply drag a project's colour over a section of the day. My schedule rarely calls for exactly 4 hours of one project, but rather a task that is either small, smallish, medium, - well, you get the idea.

So now I don't spend time planning how long I should spend on each task, I can just throw a plan for the day together, based on the size of my to-do list for that project. (I keep my to-do lists on basecamp).

This might not sound like it offers much benefit over simply remembering what I've got to do that day - but there's no reason why you can't plan your week, month, etc.

When I do have something at a specific time, such as a conference call, I just click somewhere near that time and write a note over it (making sure I include the exact time in the note itself).

It's incredible how much more productive I've become by roughly laying out what I want to get through each week.

(Click to enlarge)

Update: The Excel template file.