Generate Time-Block Planner Pages

I'm a big fan of Cal Newport's Time-Block Planner but I didn't like having unused weekend pages and got tired of writing in the dates so I wrote this script to generate my own version of it. It generates a PDF with a week's worth of 8.5 x 11 inch pages.

I'm also a fan of Manager Tools' 1-on-1s, so I incorporated a version of their meeting form. You specify which people you meet every week, and you'll get a page for each.

Take a look at a sample and see what you think. If it's not to your liking, feel free to customize it, or try out some of the other variations people have put together:

• jlorenzetti's fork generates A4 pages in Helvetica, and omits the 1-on-1 forms.
  • pzula's fork is based off of jlorenzetti's but scales it down to A5.
• Hyunggilwoo's fork uses UbuntuMono and omits 1-on-1 forms. It looks like a good choice for Ubuntu users.
• dianalow's fork is scaled to fit in the TRAVELER’S notebook, and as usual omits, the 1:1 forms.

Installation

Assuming you've got Ruby and Bundler installed you can just run:

git clone [email protected]:drewish/planner.git
cd planner
bundle install

Usage

Planner Pages

You can generate planner pages for the current week:

./planner.rb

Or, you can generate a different week's pages by passing in the date:

./planner.rb 2023-05-01

If you'd like to generate multiple weeks at once:

./planner.rb --weeks 4

On a Mac you can send the PDF directly to your printer:

lpr time_block_pages.pdf

One-on-one Pages

The script that generates the 1-on-1 forms supports the same options:

./one-on-one.rb -weeks 2 2023-05-01

Notes Pages

You can also generate a PDF of some simple lined pages:

./notes.rb

Limitations

Probably only works on a Mac since it hardcodes the font path.

Thanks

• @Sumidu for contributing the internationalization code