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Time Budgeting

Time budgeting screenshot

The time budgeting system allows you to allocate and track time across categories with hierarchical tracking from yearly down to daily periods.

Overview​

Time budgets flow down through the hierarchy:

Yearly (10,000 hours)
├── Quarterly (2,500 hours)
│   ├── Monthly (833 hours)
│   │   ├── Weekly (208 hours)
│   │   │   └── Daily (24 hours)

Each level tracks total hours available, allocated hours per category, remaining hours, and parent budget status.

Setup​

Configure base hours: Set your weekly hours in Settings → Time budget. The plugin automatically calculates monthly, quarterly, and yearly hours. Learn more

Define categories: Add your time investment categories (Work, Health, Learning, etc.) with custom colors. Learn more

Allocating Time​

  1. Open any periodic note
  2. Click Edit allocations button
  3. Use the allocation editor to distribute hours across categories

Learn more about the Allocation Editor

Budget Tracking​

Visual indicators:

  • 🟢 Green - Within budget
  • 🟡 Yellow - Approaching limit (80-100%)
  • 🔴 Red - Over budget or exceeds parent allocation

Parent budget tracking: Child periods (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly) are tracked against their parent period's budget. Warnings appear when allocations exceed parent limits.

Remaining hours: The allocation editor shows allocated hours, remaining hours, and allocation percentage.

Hierarchical Budget Flow​

Time budgets cascade through the hierarchy:

  1. Yearly → Quarterly: Set yearly budgets, allocate quarterly portions, track remaining
  2. Quarterly → Monthly: Monthly allocations tracked against quarterly limits
  3. Monthly → Weekly: Weekly allocations tracked against monthly limits
  4. Weekly → Daily: Daily allocations tracked against weekly limits

Warnings appear when child allocations exceed parent budgets.

Visual Statistics​

The time budget block displays pie charts and allocation tables showing category distribution, allocated hours, percentages, and parent budget status.

Learn more about Visual Statistics

Advanced Features​

Auto-Inherit Parent Percentages​

Automatically fill child periods based on the parent period's percentage distribution.

  • Enable globally: Settings → Time budget → "Automatically inherit parent percentages"
  • Manual per-note: Click "Fill parent" button in the Allocation Editor

Example: If parent is 50/30/20, child gets the same 50/30/20 split of its own total hours.

Fill from Parent​

Per-category option in the Allocation Editor that calculates percentages based on the parent's category budget instead of the child's total hours. Mix and match: some categories can follow the parent, others can be independent.

Related: Allocation Editor • Visual Statistics • Configuration