1. Setup – Your foundation for smooth planning 🛠️
Before you jump into planning, let’s make sure everything’s set up the right way. That’s how your plans stay realistic – and chaos-free.
The awork Planner connects your project management with your calendar. You can align tasks, meetings, and bookings directly with your team’s capacity. But for that to work smoothly, you’ll need a solid setup.
Here’s what to include:
Set your holiday region: Know when your team is off and recharging.
Activate calendar integration: Connect your Google or Outlook calendar – either yourself or centrally as an admin.
Set accurate working hours: No one wants to be booked for 8 hours a day when working part-time. Adjust those hours!
Track absences: Vacation days, sick leave & more – keep them in the Planner. You can even sync with tools like Personio or MOCO.
Add skills & roles: Use tags to keep track of who can do what.
Check permission settings: Who can view or edit projects and tasks?
💡 Pro tip: Remind your team to take care of these settings early on. It’ll save loads of confusion later.
2. Planner views at a glance 👀
Project view
See all active and planned projects
Use filters (e.g. by team or priority), sorting, groups, and columns
Plan directly in the timeline – just drag & drop
Want to move or extend projects? Simply drag or edit in the pop-up
User view
See tasks, bookings, and calendars of your team members
Filter by skills, tags, or project
Use the workload bar to spot overbooking
Tasks can be assigned, moved, or commented on directly
💡 Nice to know: Use the user icon to show your team’s calendars too – that way you’ll have meetings & routines on your radar.
3. Smart project planning – from big picture to daily details ✨
In awork, you can build, structure, and align projects with your team’s capacity – flexibly and in your style. Want to keep it high-level or go into the nitty-gritty? Both work. Or mix it up!
Here’s what to think about when structuring your project:
What do your tasks (and subtasks) look like?
Are there deadlines and budgets?
Which tasks need a time budget?
Who will work on the project and individual tasks?
And don’t forget the "invisible tasks" – emails, calls, and feedback rounds take time too. Make sure they’re in your plan. Use task statuses like “Open”, “In Progress”, “Blocked” or “Done” to stay on top of things.
4. High-level or detailed? Your call! 🎯
High-level planning: Weekly & monthly overview
Need a quick overview or prefer to plan in weekly chunks? Then bookings are your best friend. Bookings reserve capacity without needing to assign every task just yet.
Perfect when:
Tasks aren’t fully defined
You plan by week (e.g. during your Thursday check-in)
You just want to block out general time slots
What to keep in mind:
Bookings spread evenly over the booked time period
They influence workload, but don’t shift automatically
No tracked time is logged on bookings – they’re placeholders
Use the user view to see who has capacity available
Detailed planning: Daily clarity
Perfect when you want daily transparency and a clear view of your team’s workload.
You’re working directly with tasks that:
Have a defined start and end date
Come with time budgets
Can be time-tracked or scheduled in the calendar
Important: Tasks without time entries or calendar slots get pushed into the future automatically – keeping your workload clean.
💡 Pro tip: You can totally combine high-level and detailed planning. Start with bookings to block out time, and switch to detailed tasks as you go.
5. Plans change? No stress! 🔄
Let’s be real – planning is never set in stone. With awork, you stay flexible even when the unexpected hits.
Here’s how:
Hold weekly planning sessions (e.g. every Thursday)
Bring the team into the Planner (User View) and review who’s working on what
Use checklists & filters to find tasks or available capacity fast
When things change suddenly:
Add an absence (e.g. someone’s out sick)
Check who’s available
Reschedule tasks or use multi-select + AI support to reorganize
Typical situations:
New project: Who’s got free capacity? Use the availability filter to find out.
Client request: Check who’s free and assign tasks immediately.
Team bottlenecks: Mark priorities, leave comments, shift tasks.
And now? Let’s do this! 🎉
Kick off your first planning session, block time with bookings, or assign detailed tasks – however you get started, one thing’s for sure: with the awork Planner, things get structured, flexible, and definitely not boring.