Excel is one of the top choices to boost productivity and make the most out of the day. It allows users to organize data in tabular form. They can easily streamline and keep track of their daily, weekly, and monthly tasks with Excel Scheduling templates.
This is a quick guide about the top 8 Excel schedule template for 2024. They are created to help users improve their productivity. We have sorted the list in random order, so make sure to read the article till the end until you find the right fit for your needs.
Moreover, we will discuss creating a scheduling template from scratch using built-in tools and Excel functions at the end.
Why are Schedule Templates created using Excel a must-try?
Organizing and analyzing complex datasets in Excel is a breeze. It is used by millions of users around the globe. If you haven’t yet, you are surely missing an excellent tool to manage your daily and professional activities.
Here are a few of the benefits of using Excel to schedule tasks and events:
- Ease of Use – Excel’s interface is easy to use, making it an ideal tool for setting up and managing tasks and events. Learning to add and edit information will hardly take a couple of hours.
- Team Collaboration – Excel offers both desktop-based and cloud-based applications. Using a cloud-based Excel app, you can collaborate with colleagues and friends in real time. It includes fewer tools and functions than the desktop version, but it does the job in most cases.
- Extensive Customization – Scheduling templates created in Excel are customizable according to the user’s preferences. Users can easily adjust time slots, add colors, and use formulas to enhance the functionality.
- Accessibility – Excel files can be shared easily via email or cloud storage, ensuring that every team member stays up-to-date. Additionally, users can access the Excel templates from any corner of the world if they have an internet connection. It works smoothly on both mobile and desktop devices.
These are just a few of the program’s benefits. It is worth trying if you are genuinely looking to boost your productivity.
Additionally, there are hundreds of forums and online communities to help you.
Top 8 FREE Excel Schedule Template of 2024
Numerous Excel schedule templates are available online. All of them are unique in some respects, but they may not perfectly fit your requirements.
We have tried to compile a comprehensive list of schedule templates that help in most cases. They are a perfect fit for individuals and small—to medium-sized businesses.
Here are our top picks:
- Daily Schedule Template
- Weekly Schedule Template
- Social Media Schedule Template
- Weekly Task Schedule Template
- Work Schedule Template
- Appointment Schedule Template
- Employee Schedule Template
- College Schedule Template
Now, let’s discuss each of them in detail.
1. Daily Schedule Template by SoftwareAccountant
Click Here To Use The Template!
It is a simple template designed by SoftwareAccountant to track your daily activities.
Anyone can use it without any prior experience with Excel. The template is optimized for both desktop and mobile users.
Start by selecting the date and then the start time, followed by the interval. It automatically displays the time of the day based on the inputs provided. The main table allows you to add up to three tasks. You can include more functions by adding more columns.
At the end of the table, you will find a column to add notes for the day.
2. Weekly Schedule Template by SoftwareAccountant
Click Here To Use The Template!
It is another masterpiece by SoftwareAccountant that lets you organize tasks weekly.
This free-to-use template can be customized according to your preferences. Before sharing it with others, make sure to add your personal details in the header and remove the SoftwareAccountant logo.
It is divided into two sections, as shown in the above image.
At the top of the main table, you must define the week start date, day start time, and interval. Depending on this data, the main table will be adjusted, and you will notice that the days, dates, and times of the day are automatically updated.
You can play around with the colors and font of the template to make it more personal.
Note that the template uses formulas to auto-update days, dates, and times of the day in the main table. So, avoid editing them; otherwise, the template won’t function as expected.
3. Social Media Schedule Template by SoftwareAccountant
Click Here To Use The Template!
This beautiful and minimal social media calendar template by SoftwareAccountant is worth trying. Managing posts across various social channels is time-consuming and challenging.
But don’t worry because the above template is all you need to ensure all posts are published on time.
The entire template is divided into several monthly spreadsheets.
The above image shows that each spreadsheet includes a mini calendar on the left side and a table across the screen.
You can enter the post details such as topic, content type, social media channel where the post needs to be published, hashtags, image links, additional notes, etc.
The template is pretty straightforward. You can download and customize it for free.
4. Weekly Schedule Template by Vertex42
Click Here To Use The Template!
This Weekly schedule template provides an easy way to help you stay organized.
It contains two main sheets as follows:
- Work: This sheet is designed to give you a clear overview of weekly plans. It provides a grid for each day of the week, from Monday to Sunday, where users can record their appointments, events, and tasks. You can list your tasks in any order throughout the day (Morning, Afternoon, Night).
- Week with Hours: This sheet offers a more detailed planning tool. It breaks each day into specific hourly time slots, from morning to evening, helping you plan activities down to the hour. You can easily organize meetings, appointments, or personal activities.
This template allows you to improve your planning approach. You will be able to achieve weekly goals quickly.
5. Work Schedule Template by Template.net
Click Here To Use The Template!
This is another straightforward template designed to help you plan and track employee shifts like a pro. It provides a calendar view where you can enter each employee’s shift details.
The template organizes your work schedule by date, making it easy to see what’s coming up at a glance.
At the top, it also gives a total count of the employees in a given shift using the built-in formulas.
The template is fully customizable, so you can adjust it to fit your needs. It’s ideal for managing your workload, improving time management, and ensuring you stay on top of your responsibilities.
6. Appointment Schedule Template by TheGooDocs
Click Here To Use The Template!
You will surely love this minimalistic appointment scheduling Excel template. It includes a massive table in which the days are mentioned across the header row and time across the column.
As you might have noticed, the table is divided into 15-minute intervals to accommodate as many appointments as possible.
The dropdowns beside each column representing the day of the week let you mark the status of each appointment as,
- Completed
- Postponed
- Canceled
- Momentous
- Private
The template is pretty straightforward. It is optimized for both mobile and desktop users.
Make sure to edit the header and add your brand or personal details. The template can be customized as per your preference without any limitations.
7. Employee Schedule Template by TheGooDocs
Click Here To Use The Template!
Are you responsible for managing the employee shifts?
Here is another employee schedule template to eliminate the confusion and errors while managing shifts.
It is a weekly schedule template divided into two sections, as shown in the above image.
You need to start by selecting the week’s start date. As soon as you click on the cell beside the option named “Week beginning:”, a calendar popup will be displayed.
Then, enter the start and end time of the working day.
The main table is automatically adjusted based on your inputs. Note that the template uses built-in functions across various cells. Please avoid editing such cells.
It is an easy-to-use template designed for both beginners and advanced users.
8. College Schedule Template by TheGooDocs
Click Here To Use The Template!
Are you a college student finding it difficult to manage your schedule?
Here is the last pick for you to manage your schedule or classes as a student or teacher.
This template allows you to organize classes, study sessions, extracurricular activities, and personal tasks all in one place.
It is easy to customize. Make sure you adjust it to fit your specific needs. Start by adding time slots and color-coding different activities using Excel’s built-in tools, such as conditional formatting.
How to create a Schedule Template using Excel
Here is a quick guide to creating and managing schedules in Excel.
We have already discussed plenty of schedule templates that meet the requirements of most of the readers.
In this section, we will discuss generic steps, formulas, and formatting options for creating a schedule template from scratch.
Here is the example weekly schedule template.
Let us use built-in features and functions to recreate the above template.
Before proceeding with the main steps, we will need a separate spreadsheet named Helper with the following data.
Please make sure to follow the same time format as shown above to avoid errors.
STEP #1 – Create the Header
The header plays a crucial role in all types of templates. It allows you to add personal details, including logos and the individual or company name, to the table.
- Select the entire first row
- Increase the height as shown below
- Select all the cells from “A1” to “H1”
- Hover to the main menu and click on “Home“
- Click on the “Merge & Center” in the “Alignment” group
- Type “Weekly Schedule“
- Increase the font size to 30
- Change the font alignment to the middle
- Change the cell background to light gray (Hex Code – #fafafa)
- Make the font bold
Here’s how our header looks after following the above steps,
STEP #2 – Design the Navigation Table
In this step, we will create a table where you can select the week start date, day start time, and time interval.
Note that we will use the separate spreadsheet created at the beginning, which holds pre-defined time and interval values.
Let’s begin,
- Select the entire third row
- Increase the height as shown below
- Click on the cell “B3“
- Type “Week Start Date“
- Next, click on the cell “C3” and type “Day Start Time“
- Click on the cell “D3” and type “Interval“
- Select all the cells from “B3” to “D3”
- Change the cell background color to green (Hex Code – #00ac46)
- Make the font bold
- Change the font color to white
- Change the font alignment to the middle
The headers for the table are ready. Here’s how it looks,
Now, let us ensure that the date fields are correctly formatted.
- Select the cell “B4“
- Hover to the main menu and click on “Home” tab
- Click on the “General” dropdown in the “Number” group
- Select “More Number Formats“
- A Format Cells dialog box will appear as shown below
- In the “Number” tab, select the “Date” format
- You will find a few date formats available. Select the date format in which you wish to see the Week Start Date
After following the above steps, your selected cell (B4) will now display the date in the format of your choice.
We will create a dropdown for the day start time using the following steps.
- Select the cell “C4“
- Go to the main menu and click on the “Data” tab
- Choose “Data validation” in the “Data Tools” group
- A new dialog box will appear, as shown below
- In the “Settings” tab, click on “List” in the “Allow” dropdown
- In the “Source” field, select the range of cells in the “Helper” sheet that contain the start time options you want to appear in the dropdown
A dropdown icon will appear in cell C4, as shown below,
When you click on that icon, a list will be displayed.
Next, we will follow the same steps and create a dropdown for the “Interval” column of the table.
This time, we need to use the second column of the Helper spreadsheet while selecting the range.
Here’s how the dropdown looks for the Interval.
STEP #3 – Design the Horizontal Header of the Main Table
There are two types of headers in the main table.
The first is the horizontal header, where all the days and dates appear. Refer to the following image.
Similarly, the second one is a vertical header that displays the time of the day.
Let us create them one by one.
We will start with the horizontal header.
- Select the cell “B8“
- Type “=B4”
- Next, Select the cell “C8“
- Type “=B8+1”
- Repeat the above steps and create a table as shown below,
The output should look like as follows,
These are our weekdays. Now, let’s format them.
- Select all the cells from “B8” to “H8”
- Hover to the main menu and click on the “Home” tab
- Choose the “General” dropdown in the “Number” group
- Click on “More Number Formats“
- A Format Cells dialog box will appear as shown below
- Now, click on “Date” in the “General” category and click on your desired date format
Similarly, we need to create the weekdays with the help of the UPPER and TEXT functions in Excel. Our formula is as follows,
=UPPER(TEXT(B8,"dddd"))Here are the steps:
- Click on the cell “B7“
- Copy and paste the following formula,
=UPPER(TEXT(B8,”dddd”)) - Hover to the lower-rightmost corner of the cell “B7”
- You will see a Fill Handle icon
- Click on it and drag till the cell “H7”
Let’s format the header.
- Select all the cells of the header as shown below
- Reduce the font size to 9
- Change the cell background color to green (Hex Code – #00ac46)
- Change the font color to white
Here’s how the horizontal header of the table looks,
STEP #4 – Design the Vertical Header of the Main Table
In this section, let us create the vertical header for the main table. Before starting, we need to make a special arrangement.
Select the cell D5 and type the following formula,
=LEFT(D4,2)This formula will create an integer number, which can be used in the formulas in the upcoming section.
We will use the TIME function in Excel for the entire column header.
Let’s begin.
- Select the cell “A9“
- Type “=C4”
- Next, click on the cell “A10“
- Copy and paste the following formula,
=A9+TIME(0,(D5),0) - Now, repeat the above steps and complete the table as shown below,
By following the above steps, the column header will look as follows.
Now, let us format the column.
- Select all the cells of the column
- Go to the main menu and click on the “Format” tab
- Choose “Number” dropdown from the “General” section
- Click on the “Time” format option
That’s it!
Finally, select cell A7 and type “Time“.
STEP #5 – Adjust the Formatting
In this step, let us adjust the formatting of our template to make it more attractive.
We will start with the font type.
- Select the empty box that appears above the table, as shown below
- Hover to the main menu and select the “Home” tab
- Change the font to “Poppins” in the “Font” group
Here’s how our table will look.
Let us change the border color for the table and turn off the gridlines.
- Select all the cells of the main table
- Hover to the “Home” tab in the main menu
- Click on the “Borders” icon in the “Font” group
- Click on “All Borders“
- To change the border color to light gray, click on “More Borders“
- A Format Cells dialog box will appear in which click on the “Color” option
- Select the color “Light Gray”
We will follow the same process for the navigation table.
Finally, let’s turn off the gridlines.
- Hover to the main menu
- Click on the “View” tab
- Uncheck the box before the “Gridlines” option in the “Show” group
You can play around with fonts and colors to customize the template.
From our end, we have come up with the following based on our formatting skills.
To download the template we created, click on the following link.
Conclusion
Schedule templates help you stay organized and complete the desired tasks on time.
Our list of Excel schedule templates includes daily, weekly, and yearly spreadsheets to keep track of tasks assigned. You can also track appointments and employee shifts.
I hope you find the desired template as per your unique requirements. Let us know in the comment section if we are missing any fantastic template worth adding to this list.
Also, make sure to explore our blog section for tips and tricks to use Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets like a pro.