Overview
When you plan ahead, it's easy to put more into a week or month than you can actually do. Capacity planning shows a bar on each week, month and quarter in the Project Planner comparing the time you've planned with the time you have, so you can spot overload before it happens.
Screenshot to add: Week columns in the Project Planner, each with a capacity bar showing "12h / 20h" and "8h left"
Turning it on
Capacity planning is part of Planning Ahead (Features, Time Management group). Capacity is on the web and desktop apps.
Open the Project Planner (press P).
Click the sliders icon (Configure display) and turn on Show capacity.
Click the battery icon (Capacity settings) to set how much time you have.
Setting your capacity
The Set Your Capacity dialog has three modes:
Simple: the same number of hours every work day. Use the slider (up to 12 hours a day). Marvin shows your weekly total based on your work days. Most people can realistically do about 3 to 6 hours of focused work a day.
By Category: hours per week for each top-level category, like 10 hours for Work and 5 for a side project. You'll see your Total weekly capacity at the bottom.
By Day: hours per category for each day of the week. Pick a category at the top (or All to see everything), then fill in each day. With a category picked, use the + and − buttons next to Weekdays and Weekends to change several days at once, or Clear to reset them. Daily totals (all categories) shows how full each day is.
Click Save Changes when you're done.
Screenshot to add: The Set Your Capacity dialog with the Simple, By Category and By Day boxes at the top
Reading the bar
Planned time comes from your tasks' duration estimates, so tasks without an estimate don't count. The bar shows planned hours against available hours and how much is left. It turns amber at 80% full and red once you're at or over 100%. In By Category and By Day modes, any category that's over its own limit is listed in red under the bar.
Quarter planning
Besides weeks and months, the Project Planner has a quarter view for longer-range plans. Click the quarter icon at the top left, or press V to cycle through week, month and quarter. You can turn the quarter view off with Show quarter view in the Planning Ahead settings.
How weeks, months and quarters connect
Two Planning Ahead settings decide whether a task shows up in more than one view:
Upward planning sync (on by default): a task planned for a week also shows in that month, and a task planned for a month also shows in that quarter. Good if you like to see the full picture in the bigger views.
Exclusive planning tiers (off by default): once a task is planned for a specific week or month, it's hidden from the bigger views. Good if you use quarter, month and week as separate steps, moving things down as you go.
You can only use one of these at a time. Turning one on turns the other off.
Tip: Start with Simple mode and a modest number. You can always add more once you see how your weeks really go.