Template · Planning
Free daily planner template with a time-blocked schedule
Plan your day in one note: three priorities, a schedule from 8:00 to 17:00 with a box to tick for each hour, room for notes, and a two-line review at the end of the day.
Daily plan · Oct 5
Date: Monday, October 5, 2026
Top three priorities
Schedule
Today
| Time | Plan | Done |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 | ||
| 9:00 | ||
| 10:00 | ||
| 11:00 | ||
| 12:00 | ||
| 13:00 | ||
| 14:00 | ||
| 15:00 | ||
| 16:00 | ||
| 17:00 | ||
| Checked 0 |
Also today
Notes
End of day
What went well:
What I will move to tomorrow:
Free. Barside asks before it adds the template, then makes a new note from it. Needs Barside 1.50 or newer.
Nothing opened? Barside may not be installed yet. Download Barside, then choose Open in Barside again.
A good daily plan fits on one screen. This template gives each day the same shape, so planning takes two minutes and the plan is easy to follow.
Who it is for
It suits anyone whose days fill up with other people's requests: freelancers, students, managers and people who work from home. If you like to block time on purpose, read our guide to time blocking, which this template follows.
What is in the daily planner template
- Top three priorities: a checklist of three. If you finish only these, the day was a success.
- Schedule: a table with one row an hour, a Plan column and a Done box. The total at the bottom counts the hours you checked off.
- Also today: a checklist for small tasks that do not need a time.
- Notes: space for calls, ideas and anything that comes up.
- End of day: what went well, and what moves to tomorrow.
An example
Maya, a freelance designer, opens a new daily plan at 8:30. Her three priorities are the logo drafts for a client, an invoice and a call. She writes "Logo drafts" in the 9:00 and 10:00 rows, the call at 14:00 and the invoice at 16:00, and leaves 15:00 empty. When the call runs long, the empty hour absorbs it. At 17:30 she ticks the Done boxes, writes that the drafts went well, and moves the invoice to tomorrow.
How to use the daily planner template
- Choose Open in Barside above. Barside opens and asks before it adds anything.
- Pick the workspace for the note, and leave Keep it in my templates ticked to use the template again.
- Choose Create note. A new note called "Daily plan · Oct 5" opens, ready to fill in.
- Next time, start one from New note from a template, or let Barside make it on a schedule as a repeating note.
No Barside yet? It is free for Windows, Linux and Mac: download Barside, then choose Open in Barside again.
How to plan a day that holds
- Pick the three priorities first, before you open email.
- Give the hardest priority your best hour, and write it in the schedule.
- Leave one hour in the afternoon empty. Something always runs late.
- Give a task a due date and it also shows on your task board.
- At the end of the day, move unfinished tasks to tomorrow on purpose, not by default.
Make it yours
- Change the hours in the Time column to fit your day, or add rows for the evening.
- Make it a repeating note every weekday morning, so the plan is waiting when you start.
- Add a column such as Energy to see when you work best.
FAQ
Questions and answers
How is a daily planner different from a to-do list?
A to-do list says what to do; a daily planner also says when. Putting tasks into hours shows you whether the day can actually hold them. For a plain list, use the to-do list template.
Is the daily planner template free?
Yes. The template and Barside are both free. Barside Plus is optional and adds cloud backup and sync between computers; templates do not need it.
Does the template work offline?
Adding it needs the internet once, so Barside can fetch it from barside.space. After that, the template and every note made from it live on your computer and work offline.
Can I use it on a Mac?
Yes: Barside for Mac is out. Barside also runs on Windows and Linux. The template page works in any browser, so you can preview it anywhere.