Plan the hours before you need them.
Plan ahead. Nothing gets lost. ourli helps independent professionals allocate project hours against real availability and see what is complete, allocated and still to allocate.
Website redesign
22h project · due 18 Mar
5h
Complete
13h
Allocated
4h
Still to allocate
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Research
2h
Wireframes
2h
Page design
3h
Design review
2h
QA pass
2h
Build
3h
5h complete. 13h allocated. 4h still to allocate.
Time architecture for independent professionals. Know what fits before you promise it.
Plan the hours before you need them.
Most tools track time after you work. ourli helps you plan it before you need it.
Next two weeks
Website redesign
4h still to place
Mon
Tue
Research
2h
Wed
Thu
Build
3h
Fri
Plan ahead
Project hours → the weeks ahead
Set the hours a project needs, then place them into the weeks before its deadline. See whether the whole commitment fits before it becomes urgent.
Website redesign
22h project
5h
Complete
13h
Allocated
4h
Still to allocate
Keep the count
Complete. Allocated. Still to allocate.
A 22-hour project is not one vague total. See 5h complete, 13h allocated and 4h still to allocate, in one place.
Before removal
16h
allocated
1h
still to allocate
Thu · Build · 3h
After removal
13h
allocated
4h
still to allocate
3h returned to project
Nothing gets lost
The calendar changed. The work didn’t.
Remove or shorten a work block and its unfinished hours return to the project automatically. The hours stay visible until they have somewhere else to go.
Plan against real availability
Real availability, not a fictional 40-hour week
Travel, appointments, shorter days and time off reduce the hours available for work. Plan against what remains.
A plan that stays accountable to the work.
Define the commitment, place its hours ahead, then keep the count accurate as the week changes.
Define the work
Give each project a clear total. A landing page needs 8 hours. Three articles need 6. Every commitment starts with a count.
Plan the hours ahead
Place those hours into the days and weeks before the deadline. See what fits against the time you actually have.
Keep the plan true
When a meeting runs over or a work block disappears, the unfinished hours return to the project. Complete. Allocated. Still to allocate.
The planning layer around your calendar.
Three tools, three different questions. ourli keeps the hours for project work visible around the calendar you already use.
Task list
What needs doing?
Calendar
When am I busy?
ourli.
Where are the hours for the work?
Plan around the calendar you already use.
Connect Google Calendar to bring meetings and appointments into view. They reduce your available hours, while ourli keeps the project work around them accounted for.
Planning with Google CalendarEverything grouped, nothing buried
Areas, projects, recurring commitments, one-offs - all grouped and expandable. See everything at a glance without scrolling through a single endless column.
Time tracking, already there
Every completed block counts toward its area. See hours per area, cost per hour, or fixed project fees - no separate tracker, no extra tab. Works on your phone too - just add ourli to your home screen.
Keep the whole plan visible.
Every project. Every allocated hour. Every hour still waiting for space.
Founding member price
14-day free trial. Full access. No tiers. Cancel anytime.
The founding member price is limited to the first 100 members. It stays the same for as long as you stay subscribed. The price will be higher for everyone who joins after that.
Full access from day one
Unlimited areas & projects
Weekly capacity reports
Cancel anytime
Have I actually made time for all of this?
I kept coming back to one question: have I actually made time for all of this? A project might have a deadline and a careful task list, but that did not mean its hours had somewhere to go.
I wanted to take a 20-hour project and place those hours into the weeks ahead. At any point, I needed to see what was complete, what was allocated and what still needed space.
If a calendar block was removed, those hours needed to return to the project. The calendar changed. The work didn’t.
The plan also had to reflect appointments, travel and shorter days rather than starting from a fictional 40-hour week. I couldn’t find a tool that kept this whole picture visible. So I built ourli.
A different approach to time management:
forward planning built around a realistic workload.
Forward planning describes the mechanism: give project hours somewhere to go before you need them. Realistic planning describes the standard: build the plan around the hours you actually have.
AHEAD, fortnightly.
Notes on time, work and planning before the deadline. One letter every two weeks.