Project Deadline Planner

Whether a project can be finished by a date, the weekly hours it really needs, and a plain answer when it cannot.

Given a target date, the hours a project needs and the hours a week you can give it, the arithmetic is simple and the answer is often unwelcome. This calculator works out whether the deadline is achievable at your pace, the weekly commitment it would take, and how far short the current plan falls. When the hours do not fit it says so plainly rather than producing a schedule that cannot happen, and it reports the three honest options: more hours, a later date, or a smaller project.

At a glance

What you enter: Hours the project needs, Hours a week you can give it, Weeks to the deadline, Your pace against the plan, Weeks you know you will lose, Hours in one session
What you get: The deadline is achievable, Deadline status, Hours a week the deadline needs, Extra hours a week the deadline needs, Hours the calendar offers, Hours that become real work, Hours the plan falls short by, Hours to spare, Share of the project the calendar covers, Project that would have to go, Weeks needed at your pace, Weeks short of the deadline, Weeks to budget for if the date moves, Sessions a week the deadline needs, Pace factor the deadline requires
Formula shown: Yes, every step, right below your results.
Cost and privacy: Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.

See worked examples ↓ Read the FAQ ↓ Share this calculator ↓

Hours the project needs h

Use an estimate from a measured rate rather than an optimistic guess, and include the finishing work.

Hours a week you can give it h

The hours you can really set aside in a normal week, not the hours you would like to.

Weeks to the deadline weeks

Your pace against the plan times

One is the pace you planned at, 0.85 means about a seventh of the time goes on setup, finding your place and re-doing, 1.1 is faster than planned.

Weeks you know you will lose weeks

Holidays, work trips, family weeks, anything that removes capacity from the calendar.

Hours in one session h

The sitting length you actually keep up. Used for the sessions per week figure.

Reset

Results are estimates for general information only, always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.

How to use the Project Deadline Planner

1 Enter Hours the project needs (h), Use an estimate from a measured rate rather than an optimistic guess, and include the finishing work.
2 Enter Hours a week you can give it (h), The hours you can really set aside in a normal week, not the hours you would like to.
3 Enter Weeks to the deadline (weeks)
4 Enter Your pace against the plan (times), One is the pace you planned at, 0.85 means about a seventh of the time goes on setup, finding your place and re-doing, 1.1 is faster than planned.
5 Enter Weeks you know you will lose (weeks), Holidays, work trips, family weeks, anything that removes capacity from the calendar.
6 Enter Hours in one session (h), The sitting length you actually keep up. Used for the sessions per week figure.
7 Press Calculate. You get The deadline is achievable, Deadline status, Hours a week the deadline needs, Extra hours a week the deadline needs, Hours the calendar offers, Hours that become real work, Hours the plan falls short by, Hours to spare, Share of the project the calendar covers, Project that would have to go, Weeks needed at your pace, Weeks short of the deadline, Weeks to budget for if the date moves, Sessions a week the deadline needs, Pace factor the deadline requires, and every intermediate step stays visible under "How is this calculated?"
8 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result, that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.

Worked examples

Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.

Forty hours with three weeks to go

Three hours a week available, at the pace the project was planned at.

You enter

Hours the project needs: 40 h
Hours a week you can give it: 3 h
Weeks to the deadline: 3 weeks
Your pace against the plan: 1 times
Weeks you know you will lose: 0 weeks
Hours in one session: 2 h

You get

The deadline is achievable: 0
Deadline status: 3
Hours a week the deadline needs: 13.33 h
Extra hours a week the deadline needs: 10.33 h
Hours the calendar offers: 9.00 h
Hours that become real work: 9.00 h
Hours the plan falls short by: 31.00 h
Hours to spare: 0.00 h
Share of the project the calendar covers: 22.5%
Project that would have to go: 77.5%
Weeks needed at your pace: 13.33 weeks
Weeks short of the deadline: 10.33 weeks
Weeks to budget for if the date moves: 14
Sessions a week the deadline needs: 7
Pace factor the deadline requires: 4.44

Nine hours of capacity against forty hours of work, so the deadline is not achievable. It needs 13.33 hours a week, which is 10.33 more than there is, and seven sessions a week in two hour sittings.

Open this example in the calculator →

The same project with a lost week and a realistic pace

One week of the three is a holiday, and the pace factor drops to 0.85.

You enter

Hours the project needs: 40 h
Hours a week you can give it: 3 h
Weeks to the deadline: 3 weeks
Your pace against the plan: 0.85 times
Weeks you know you will lose: 1 weeks
Hours in one session: 2 h

You get

The deadline is achievable: 0
Deadline status: 3
Hours a week the deadline needs: 23.53 h
Extra hours a week the deadline needs: 20.53 h
Hours the calendar offers: 6.00 h
Hours that become real work: 5.10 h
Hours the plan falls short by: 34.90 h
Hours to spare: 0.00 h
Share of the project the calendar covers: 12.8%
Project that would have to go: 87.3%
Weeks needed at your pace: 15.69 weeks
Weeks short of the deadline: 12.69 weeks
Weeks to budget for if the date moves: 16
Sessions a week the deadline needs: 12
Pace factor the deadline requires: 6.67

Only two working weeks and 5.1 effective hours, so the deadline covers about 13 percent of the work and would need 23.53 hours a week. Moving the date to fifteen weeks at the current pace is the only answer that does not change the project.

Open this example in the calculator →

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Frequently asked questions

Can I finish this project in time?

Compare the hours the calendar produces with the hours the project needs. Forty hours of work with three hours a week available over three weeks is nine hours of capacity, so no, it cannot be done, and it needs 13.3 hours a week instead. The other two honest answers are on the same page: the date would have to move to about fourteen weeks, or about 78 percent of the work would have to come out of the design.

What is a pace factor and why does it matter?

It is the share of the hours you set aside that turns into actual progress. A two hour session contains setting up, finding where you left off, some thinking and occasionally some undoing, so a factor of 0.85 is realistic for most hand work and 0.8 is realistic for a project with a fiddly stage. Leaving it at one produces a plan that is optimistic by 15 to 20 percent, which is exactly the margin by which hand makers usually miss deadlines.

What should I do when the deadline does not fit?

There are three honest options and the tool reports the size of each. Add hours, and the weekly commitment needed is on the page. Move the date, and the weeks needed at your current pace is on the page. Cut the project, and the share that has to go is on the page. What does not work is deciding to work faster than you do: rushing a finish or a fiddly stage usually costs more time in re-doing than it saves, and the last week is when the mistakes happen.

How many sessions a week is that?

Divide the weekly hours needed by the length of a session you actually keep up. Needing 13.3 hours a week in two hour sittings is seven sessions a week, which is more than one a day and not a sustainable pattern for most people. That is often the moment a deadline becomes real: the weekly hours were an abstraction until they turned into an evening every night for three weeks.

Why does the plan need more hours a week than the project seems to need?

Because the hours available are not the hours worked. The pace factor removes the setup, the interruptions and the re-doing, and any week you already know is lost comes out of the calendar before the division. Forty hours divided by three weeks is 13.3 hours a week, but if one of the three weeks is a holiday the same work has to fit into two, which is twenty hours a week. Enter the lost weeks honestly and the plan stops flattering you.