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Simple Project Plan
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Your weekly flight deck — track every deliverable, owner, and focus across all projects.
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To download an Excel file, go to File —> Download —> Microsoft Excel
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What this template doesWIP limit
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Each row = one deliverable (a named piece of work with a clear outcome).The gray "WIP limit" bar is your boundary. Keep active deliverables above it.
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Columns: Category (the area of work) → Owner (who's accountable) → Deliverable (what specifically) → weekly focuses.Park future work below it in the Backlog section. Pull items up when a slot opens.
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One glance tells you who's working on what, what's in flight this week, and where things are on fire.Rule of thumb: more than 7 active rows = time to re-prioritise or find more resource.
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Set up your table in 4 stepsUpdate rhythm
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1. List your deliverables in column С. Group related ones by Category (column B).Update once a week — 15 minutes before your team standup.
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2. Assign an Owner per row (column D). Use the dropdown — each person gets a unique color.Color last week's focuses (green/yellow/red), copy any unfinished ones forward, write next week's focuses.
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3. Assign your deliverables to relevant projects (column E)Bring it to your standup and walk through it. This replaces long status update meetings.
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4. Fill in weekly focuses (column F onwards). 2–3 words per cell: "Draft copy", "Review with client", "🚀 Go live".
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What each column meansColor coding for weekly cells
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Category — the area of work this deliverable belongs to (e.g. Marketing, Product, Engineering). Used for colour-coding: all rows in the same category share one colour so you can scan by team at a glance.🟢 Green background = completed this week.
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Deliverable — the specific, named piece of work with a clear outcome. Should answer "what will exist when this is done?" Not a task, not a project — a concrete result.🟡 Yellow background = in progress / solid movement but not closed.
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Owner — the one person accountable for this deliverable. If two people own it, split the row.🔴 Pink/red background = not started or at risk. Copy it forward to next week.
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Project — the tool, system, or initiative this deliverable belongs to (optional). Use it to group deliverables that feed into the same larger project, or leave blank if not relevant.Gray "Pause" cell = deliverable paused this week (blockers, vacations, dependencies).
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How to show more weeks (unhide columns)
How to apply conditional formatting to colour coding
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The template has 52 weeks pre-built. Only the first 13 are visible by default — the rest are hidden.Select the utilisation range in Dashboard (e.g. D10:M15) → Format → Conditional formatting → add 4 custom formula rules in this order:
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To reveal the next 4 weeks (1 month): click the header of the last visible column, then Shift-click a column header further right. Right-click → Unhide columns.Rule 1 — Time off (gray): =OR(D10="–", D10=0) Fill: #CCCCCC
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To reveal the full year: Ctrl+A → right-click any column header → Unhide columns.Rule 2 — Overloaded >100% (red): =AND(ISNUMBER(D10), D10>1) Fill: #FCE4E4
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After unhiding, expand your conditional formatting range to include the new columns: Format → Conditional formatting → update the range.Rule 3 — Watch 81–100% (yellow): =AND(ISNUMBER(D10), D10>0.8, D10<=1) Fill: #FFF3CD
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Rule 4 — Healthy ≤80% (green): =AND(ISNUMBER(D10), D10>0, D10<=0.8) Fill: #D9FBE7
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How to add a new deliverable rowReplace D10 with the top-left cell of your range. No $ signs — relative references only.
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Click on any existing data row → right-click → Insert row above or below.After unhiding more columns, expand the range in Format → Conditional formatting to include them.
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Copy the formatting from the row above: select the existing row, copy it (Ctrl+C), then select the new row and paste format only (right-click → Paste special → Format only).
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Fill in Category, Deliverable, Owner, and weekly focuses.
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