daily activity calendar excel

Excel calendar templates

Many calendar templates are available for use in Microsoft Excel. A template provides a basic calendar layout that you can easily adapt for your needs.

An Excel calendar template may have one or more of these features:

Twelve months in one or separate worksheets.

Thirteen months starting with July or August and ending with July or August of the next year to represent a school year.

Calendar printing on one page or twelve pages (thirteen pages for school year calendars).

Display of weekdays from Sunday to Saturday or from Monday to Sunday.

Portrait or landscape orientation for printed pages.

A ruled column for notes.

A vacation planner.

To-do lists.

Task trackers.

Budget trackers.

Daily schedule tracker.

Download a calendar template:

Browse through the calendar templates , choose an Excel calendar template that is best for you. Click the Download button on the template page, open the template file in Excel, and then edit and save your calendar.

Note:  By default, a template file download goes into the Downloads folder on your computer. You may want to copy the template file to a different location so that you can easily find it later.

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community  or get support in the Answers community .

Create a calendar by using a template

Facebook

Want more options?

Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.

daily activity calendar excel

Microsoft 365 subscription benefits

daily activity calendar excel

Microsoft 365 training

daily activity calendar excel

Microsoft security

daily activity calendar excel

Accessibility center

Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.

daily activity calendar excel

Ask the Microsoft Community

daily activity calendar excel

Microsoft Tech Community

daily activity calendar excel

Windows Insiders

Microsoft 365 Insiders

Was this information helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

daily activity calendar excel

Try Microsoft Designer, a new AI-powered graphic design app for creating stunning designs in a flash.

Share this page

Calendar design templates

Keep track of each and every thing in style with customizable calendar design templates. from personal planning to promotional calendars for customers and followers, find calendar templates for every kind of project and aesthetic..

calendars photo

Keep your life on track using calendar templates

Stay on top of all the events and tasks in your busy life using Excel calendar templates. You can play with fun color schemes while you’re designing a calendar for each month. Spice up your designs by adding real and animated photos as the background. Change the size of your calendar so that you can highlight special events on your website, social media platforms, and via email. Keep a smaller calendar on your smartphone and print out big ones to keep in your home. Save your design so you can reuse it month after month and year after year. You can even use Excel templates to build and follow a social media calendar so that you know what you want your business to post and when you want to post it. Use the calendars to organize your business life and personal lives so that you never miss a beat or a special event.

Daily Calendars for Microsoft Excel

Daily calendars in portrait orientation (22 templates)

Download  template 1: Daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 12 hours from 8am to 8pm in 30-minute intervals

Template 1: Daily calendar portrait, graded red

Download  template 2: Daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 12 hours from 8am to 8pm in 30-minute intervals

Template 2: Daily calendar portrait, graded purple

Download  template 3: Daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 15 hours from 8am to 11pm in 30-minute intervals

Template 3: Daily calendar portrait, graded blue

Download  template 4: Daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 14 hours from 8am to 10pm in 30-minute intervals

Template 4: Daily calendar portrait, mint

Download  template 5: Daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 18 hours from 6am to 12am in 1-hour intervals

Template 5: Daily calendar portrait, orange

Download  template 6: Daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 24 hours divided into am and pm

Template 6: Daily calendar portrait, purple

Download  template 7: Daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 24 hours divided into am and pm

Template 7: Daily calendar portrait, yellow, grid lines

Download  template 8: Daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 15 hours from 8am to 11pm in 1-hour intervals

Template 8: Daily calendar portrait, red line

Download  template 9: Classic daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 14 hours from 8am to 10pm in 1-hour intervals

Template 9: Classic daily calendar portrait

Download  template 10: Cute daily calendar for kids template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, in rainbow colors

Template 10: Cute daily calendar for kids portrait, in rainbow colors

Download  template 11: Daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 7am to 7pm in 30-minute intervals

Template 11: Daily calendar portrait

Download  template 12: 15-minute daily calendaring sheet template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 17 hours from 7am to 12am (midnight) in 15-minute intervals

Template 12: 15-minute daily calendaring sheet portrait

Download  template 13: 10-minute daily appointment calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 9 hours, 9am to 6pm, 10-minute intervals, for up to 5 people or days

Template 13: 10-minute daily appointment calendar portrait

Download  template 14: Simple daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 18 hours, 30-minute intervals, in rainbow colors

Template 14: Simple daily calendar portrait, in color

Download  template 15: Simple daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 18 hours from 6am to 12am in 30-minute intervals

Template 15: Simple daily calendar portrait

Download  template 16: 24-hour daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 24 hours in 2 columns

Template 16: 24-hour daily calendar portrait

Download  template 17: 24-hour daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 24 hours in 2 columns, lined

Template 17: 24-hour daily calendar portrait, graded yellow/orange

Download  template 18: 24-hour daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 2 columns, 24 hours

Template 18: 24-hour daily calendar portrait, graded gray

Download  template 19: Two 12-hour daily calendars template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, two calendars of 12 hours each or one 24-hour calendar

Template 19: Two 12-hour daily calendars portrait, graded red/purple

Download  template 20: 2-day calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 12 hours from 8am to 8pm in 1-hour intervals

Template 20: Simple 2-day calendar portrait, 12 hours

Download  template 21: 2-day calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 24 hours in 1-hour intervals

Template 21: Simple 2-day calendar portrait, 24 hours

Download  template 22: 4-day calendar template for Microsoft Excel, portrait, 1 page, 12 hours from 7am to 7pm in 1-hour intervals

Template 22: Simple 4-day calendar portrait, 12 hours

Daily calendars in landscape orientation (9 templates)

Download  template 23: Daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, landscape, 1 page, 10 hours from 8am to 6pm in 30-minute intervals

Template 23: Daily calendar landscape, graded red

Download  template 24: Daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, landscape, 1 page, 9 hours from 8am to 5pm in 30-minute intervals, for up to 4 people or days

Template 24: Daily calendar landscape

Download  template 25: 15-minute daily calendaring sheet template for Microsoft Excel, landscape, 1 page, 13 hours from 7am to 8pm, 15-minute intervals, for up to 4 people or days

Template 25: 15-minute daily calendaring sheet landscape

Download  template 26: Daily appointment calendar template for Microsoft Excel, landscape, 1 page, 10 hours from 8am to 6pm in 15-minute intervals, for up to 5 people or days

Template 26: Daily appointment calendar landscape

Download  template 27: Two 12-hour daily calendars template for Microsoft Excel, landscape, 1 page, two calendars of 12 hours each or one 24-hour calendar

Template 27: Two 12-hour daily calendars landscape, graded red/purple

Download  template 28: Daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, landscape, 1 page, 18 hours in 2 columns, 30-minute intervals

Template 28: Daily calendar landscape, 18 hours

Download  template 29: Daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, landscape, 1 page, 24 hours in 2 columns, 1-hour intervals

Template 29: Daily calendar landscape, 24 hours, 1-hour intervals

Download  template 30: Simple daily calendar template for Microsoft Excel, landscape, 1 page, 24 hours in 2 columns, 30-minute intervals

Template 30: Simple daily calendar landscape, 24 hours, 30-minute intervals

Download  template 31: 2-day calendar template for Microsoft Excel, landscape, 1 page, 2 days, 18 hours from 6am to 12am in 1-hour intervals

Template 31: 2-day calendar landscape, 18 hours

Statcounter

Vertex42.com - The Guide to Excel in Everything

Daily Calendar

If you are looking for a daily calendar , I hope this page will be helpful. I've created all kinds of calendars and planners designed to help organize and track your daily activities. In addition to the template on this page, see below for other examples such as the Daily Planner or Monthly Calendar . If you are looking for one of those little desktop tear-off type daily calendars , I'm afraid that is something I don't have. But keep browsing. Vertex42 provides many different printable calendars and calendar templates for Excel. You may find something else you like.

Daily Calendar Templates

Daily planner ▶.

This template lets you print a daily planner page and has a lot of cool features. This is the closest thing I have to a " daily calendar ".

Printable Daily Calendar

Daily Calendar Template

License : View Agreement (not for distribution or resale)

Description

A simple blank daily calendar that you can print or customize with Excel. Enter

Printable Daily Desktop Calendar ▶

Customize and print your own daily desktop calendar. Some assembly required.

Weekly Calendar ▶

If you want to list appointments or create a schedule for a full week, you might want to take a look at this template.

12-Month Daily Calendar ▶

This is usually called a "monthly calendar" but if this is what you are looking for, go ahead and download it. You can find more like this on our printable calendars page.

Follow Us On ...

Calendar templates, common types, specific types.

How to Create a Calendar in Microsoft Excel

Last Updated: January 31, 2023 Tested

Use a Calendar Template

Import excel data into outlook.

This article was co-authored by wikiHow Staff . Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. The wikiHow Tech Team also followed the article's instructions and verified that they work. This article has been viewed 1,050,630 times. Learn more...

While not known as a calendar program, you can use Excel to create and manage your calendar. There are a variety of calendar templates available that you can customize to your liking, which will be a lot quicker than trying to format a calendar yourself. You can also take a list of calendar events from a spreadsheet and import them into your Outlook calendar.

Things You Should Know

Image titled Create a Calendar in Microsoft Excel Step 1

Image titled Create a Calendar in Microsoft Excel Step 2

Image titled Create a Calendar in Microsoft Excel Step 3

Image titled Create a Calendar in Microsoft Excel Step 4

Image titled Create a Calendar in Microsoft Excel Step 9

Image titled Create a Calendar in Microsoft Excel Step 10

Community Q&A

Community Answer

You Might Also Like

Calculate the Day of the Week in Excel

About This Article

wikiHow Staff

1. Open Excel. 2. Search for a calendar template. 3. Select a template. 4. Set the correct dates. 5. Adjust visuals as needed. 6. Enter your events. Did this summary help you? Yes No

Is this article up to date?

Am I a Narcissist or an Empath Quiz

Featured Articles

Respect Autistic People

Trending Articles

Plan for a Long Weekend

Watch Articles

Cook Rice in a Microwave

wikiHow Tech Help Pro:

Level up your tech skills and stay ahead of the curve

TrumpExcel Logo - Online Excel Tips & Tricks

How to Make an Interactive Calendar in Excel? (FREE Template)

If you like to plan ahead and make a weekly or monthly schedule, having a calendar in Excel could be quite useful.

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to create a calendar in Excel that automatically updates when you change the month or the year value.

I will show you the exact process to create the interactive monthly and yearly calendar, and I also have these as downloadable Excel files, so that you can use them offline.

You can print these calendar templates and manually create the schedule on paper.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of making the calendar in Excel, let me show you what the final output would look like.

Click here to download the monthly calendar Excel template

Click here to download the yearly calendar Excel template

This Tutorial Covers:

Demo of the Interactive Calendar in Excel

Below is an example of the interactive monthly calendar in Excel where you can change the month and year value and the calendar would automatically update (you can also highlight holidays or specific dates in a different color).

It also highlights the weekend dates in a different color.

And on similar lines, below I have the yearly calendar template, where when you change the year value the calendar automatically updates to give you the calendar for that year.

The weekend dates are highlighted in a different color and if you have a list of holidays (or important dates such as project deadlines or birthdays/anniversaries), then those holidays are also highlighted in the calendar.

Now let me quickly explain how I have created this calendar in Excel.

Some Pre-requisite Before Creating the Interactive Calnedar in Excel

While most of the heavy lifting in this calendar is done by some simple formulas. you need to have a few things in place before you make this calendar.

Have the Holiday List and Month Names in Separate Sheets

Before starting to make the calendar, you need to have the following two additional sheets:

Holidays to highlight in the calendar

Month Names in a separate sheet

If you download the calendar template for this tutorial, you will see these two additional sheets.

For the sake of simplicity, I have kept these two sheets separate. If you want, you can also combine and have the holiday dates and the month names on the same sheet.

For this calendar, I have used the holidays in the US. You can change these to your region’s holidays, and even add important days such as birthdays or anniversaries so that they can be highlighted in the calendar.

Holidays highlighted in the monthly calendar

The data from this holiday sheet would be used to highlight the holiday dates in the calendar.

Create Drop Down Lists To Show Month Names and Year Values

Since I want this calendar to be interactive and allow the user to select the date and the year value, I will:

Note that the month drop-down list is needed only for the monthly calendar template, as in the yearly calendar template all the months are shown anyway.

Below are the steps to do this:

Entering Year and Month headers

The above steps would give you a drop-down list in cell B2, where you can select the month name.

Drop Down list created in cell B2

Now that we have a place to enter the year value and select the month name, the aim here is to create a calendar that would automatically update as soon as we change the month/year values.

So it’s time to go ahead and build that awesome calendar in Excel.

Creating the Monthly Calendar in Excel (that Auto-updates)

You can download this monthly calendar template by clicking here

The first thing I need to build this monthly calendar is to have the weekday names in a row (as shown below).

Enter weekday names in a row

After entering the day name , I’ve also given it a background color and increased the column width a little.

Now it’s time for the formulas.

While I can create one single formula that will give me the values in the calendar grid that I have created, it would become quite big.

So for the purpose of this tutorial, let me break it down and show you how it works.

For the formula to work, I will need two values:

Formula to get the month number of the selected month:

Formula to get the weekday value of the first day of the month

I have the output of these formulas in cells M4 and M5 as shown below.

Getting parts of formula in extra cells

Now that I have these values, I will be using these in the main formula that I will be using in the calendar grid.

Below is the formula that will give me the dates in the calendar:

This is an array formula, so you just need to enter it in cell D5, and the result would spill automatically to all the other cells in the calendar.

Calendar Formula to get dates in the cell

Note: This formula would only work in Excel for Microsoft 365, Excel 2021, and Excel for the web. This is because it uses the SEQUENCE function, which is a new formula and is not available in the older version of Excel.

In case you’re not using Excel for Microsoft 365 or Excel 2021, you can use the below formula instead:

Enter this formula in cell D5, and then copy and paste it for all the other cells in the calendar grid.

The result of the formula is the date serial number, so you may either see a serial number (such as 44562) or a date.

While this is good enough, I only want to show the day number.

Below are the steps to change the format of the cells to only show the day number from the date value:

Select the Number tab in Format Cells Dilaog box

Enter dd as the cell format

The above steps would only display the day number in the calendar.

Monthly Calendar with day numbers d shown in the cells

As I mentioned, I broke down the formula to make it easier for you to understand how it works. In the templates you download, I have used one single formula only to generate the entire calendar.

Adding a Dynamic Title for the Calendar

The next step in making this dynamic calendar would be to add a dynamic title – that would tell us for what month and year does the calendar shows.

While I can see these values in cells P1 and P2, it would be easier if I create a title that shows me the month and year value right above the calendar.

To do this, I have used the below formula in cell D3:

Adding Header to the calendar

This is a simple concatenation formula that combines the value in cell B2 and cell B1 (separated by a space character)

If you make any changes in the month and year selection, this value would automatically update along with the calendar.

I’ve also done the below cosmetic changes to make it look like a header and align it to the center of the calendar:

Formatting Calendar Header

Highlight the Weekend Days

This one is simple.

Just select all the days in the calendar which represent the weekend and give it a different color.

Highlighting Weekend Days in the Calendar

In this example, since Saturday and Sunday are weekend days for me, I have highlighted these inner light yellow color

Highlighting Holidays in the Calendar

And the final thing that I want to do in this calendar is to highlight all the days that are holidays in a different color.

As one of the previous steps, we already created a separate holiday worksheet where I listed all the holidays for the current year.

Something as shown below:

Below are the steps to highlight all these holiday dates in the calendar:

Click on Conditional Formatting

Click on New Rule

Select Use a formula to determine which cells to format

Enter the formula to highligth holidays in the calendar

Click the Format button to specify the holiday dates formatting

The above steps apply a conditional formatting rule in the selected cells, where each date in the calendar is checked against the holiday list that we provided.

In case the formula finds a date in the holiday list, it’s highlighted in the specified color, else nothing happens

That’s it!

If you follow the above steps, you will have an interactive dynamic monthly calendar that would automatically update when you make the year and month selection. It would also automatically highlight those dates that are holidays.

Creating the Yearly Calendar in Excel (that Auto-updates)

You can download this yearly calendar template by clicking here

Just like the monthly calendar, you can also create a yearly calendar that automatically updates when you change the year value.

The first step in creating the yearly calendar is to create an outline as shown below.

Create an outline for the calendar

Here I have the year value in the first row, and then I have created the monthly grids where I’ll populate the dates for the 12 months. I have also highlighted the weekend dates (for Saturday and Sunday) in yellow.

For the yearly calendar, we don’t need the Month Names sheet, but we would still be using the holiday list in the Holidays sheet to highlight those dates that are a holiday.

Now let’s start building this yearly calendar.

Have Month Names Above Each Month Calendar

For this yearly calendar to work, I will somehow need to refer to the month value in the formulas for that month (i.e. 1 for Jan, 2 for Feb, and so on)

Let me show you a cool trick that will allow me to use the month number but at the same time instead of showing the number show the month name instead

Follow the below steps to do this:

Enter 1 in cell B3

Select Number tab in Format Cells dialog box

Select Custom option in the Category

Enter January in double quotes

The above steps format cell B3 to show the full month name. And the good thing about this is that the value in the cell still remains 1, and I can use these values in the formulas.

So while the value in cell B3 is 1, it is displayed as a January.

Pretty Cool… right!

When you do the above, you may see the ## signs instead of the month name. This happens when the cell width is not enough to accommodate the entire text. Nothing to worry about – this will be sorted we align the text in the center (covered next)

You need to repeat the same process for all the months – where you enter the month number in the top-left cell in the above row off the calendar month grid (I,e, 2 in J3 and 3 in R3, and 4 in M12 as so on).

And for all these numbers, you need to open the format cells dialog box and specify the month name for each number.

This is just a one-time setup, and you won’t be required to do this again.

Also, you can reposition the name of the month so that it appears in the center above the monthly calendar grid.

You can do this using the Center Across Selection technique.

To do this:

Center across selection

After doing this, the month names will be shown right above the monthly calendar and aligned to the middle.

Month Name shown in the center

You can also format the month name if you want. In the calendar I have made, I made the month name bold and changed the color to blue.

Once you have done this for all the months, you will have the structure in place, and we can go ahead and enter the formulas.

Formulas to Make the Dynamic Yearly Calendar

Similar to the monthly calendar, you can use the below formula for January:

As soon as you enter the formula in cell B5 for January, it will spill and fill the entire grid for the month.

Formula for yearly calendar

And again, since we are using the SEQUENCE formula, you can only use this in Excel for Microsoft 365, Excel 2021, and Excel for the web.

You can use the same formula for other months as well, with one minor change (replace $B$3 with $J$3 for February, $B$3 with $R$3 for March, and so on).

This is because we have the month number for each month in a different cell, and we need to refer to the month value for each month in the formula.

And the final step of creating this dynamic yearly calendar is to highlight those dates that are holidays (these dates are specified in the holiday worksheet).

Select Use a formula to determine which cells to format

Conditional Formatting formula to highlight holidays

Click the Format button in New Formatting Rule dialog box

The above steps would check all the dates in January and highlight those that are marked as a holiday in the holiday worksheet.

You will have to repeat this process for all the months with one minor change.

In the following formula that we use in conditional formatting, you need to replace cell B5 with the top-left cell reference of that month.

For example, if you are doing it for February, then instead of B5, use J5, and for March, use R5.

Once done, all the holidays will be highlighted in the yearly calendar as shown below.

Holidays highlighted in the yearly calendar

In the downloadable templates that I have provided, I have made sure that the entire calendar would fit one single sheet when printed.

So this is how you can create an interactive calendar in Excel that automatically updates when you change the month value and the year value.

I hope you found this tutorial useful.

Other Excel tutorials you may also like :

Excel Ebook Subscribe

FREE EXCEL BOOK

Get 51 Excel Tips Ebook to skyrocket your productivity and get work done faster

BEST EXCEL TUTORIALS

Best Excel Shortcuts

Conditional Formatting

Creating a Pivot Table

Excel Tables

INDEX- MATCH Combo

Creating a Drop Down List

Recording a Macro

© TrumpExcel.com – Free Online Excel Training

DMCA.com Protection Status

Privacy Policy  | Sitemap

Dynamic calendar formula

Related functions .

File

To create a dynamic monthly calendar with a formula, you can use the SEQUENCE function , with help from the CHOOSE and WEEKDAY functions. In the example shown, the formula in B6 is:

where start is the named range J6. In the example shown, conditional formatting is used to highlight the current date and holidays, and lighten days in other months. See below for a full explanation.

Note: dynamic array functions are only available in Excel 365 and 2021. For a formula approach that works in older versions of Excel, see this example .

Explanation 

Note: This example assumes the start date will be provided as the first of the month. See below for a formula that will automatically return the first day of the current month.

In this example, the goal is to generate a dynamic calendar for any given month, based on a start date entered in cell J6, which is named "start" We assume that start is a valid first-of-month date like 1-Jan-2022, 1-Feb-2022, 1-Mar-2022, etc. The final calendar should place each day of the month in a grid with each week starting on Sunday, as seen in the example. The solution explained below is based on the SEQUENCE function . SEQUENCE is one of the original dynamic array functions in Excel , and a perfect fit for this problem.

Background study

Short version

The explanation below is rather long. The short version is that the SEQUENCE function outputs a 6 x 7  array of 42 dates in a calendar grid, formatted to display the day only. This works, because Excel dates are just serial numbers . The main challenge with this problem is figuring out what date to start with for a given month, which is always a Sunday. This is handled with the CHOOSE and WEEKDAY functions. Conditional formatting is used to highlight the current date and holidays, and lighten days in other months. Read below for all the details.

Basic SEQUENCE

The SEQUENCE function can be used to generate numeric sequences. For example, to generate the numbers 1 to 10 in ten rows, you can use SEQUENCE like this:

The result is an array that contains the numbers 1-10. The array spills into a vertical range of ten cells. SEQUENCE can generate arrays in rows and columns. For example, the following formula creates the numbers 1-10 in an array with 5 rows and 2 columns:

And the formula below will fill a 7 x 6 grid of cells with the numbers 1-42:

The screen below shows how these formulas behave on a worksheet:

Basic SEQUENCE function examples

These are just numbers, not dates, but you can see the core concept.

SEQUENCE with dates

Because Excel dates are just large serial numbers , the SEQUENCE function can easily be used to generate arrays of dates. For example, the formula below will generate dates for the 31 days of January 2022:

Note: the DATE function is a safer way to hard code dates into formulas, since dates entered as text can be misinterpreted.

To translate: we are asking for 7 numbers, in a 7 x 1 array, starting with January 1, 2022. SEQUENCE automatically defaults to a step value of 1, so the result is a list of serial numbers starting with 44562. Obviously, we don't want to display serial numbers in our calendar, we want to show days. To do that we can use the custom number format "d". That will cause Excel to display just the day numbers. The screen below shows before and after:

SEQUENCE with dates and custom number formatting

Now let's see what happens if we ask for 6 x 7 grid, starting with January 1, 2022:

Once we format the output with the custom number format "d", we see a total of 42 numbers, beginning with January 1. At the end of January, the month changes to February and the day becomes 1 again:

SEQUENCE dates formatted to show day only

We still don't have a usable calendar, but we're getting closer! 

To make a proper calendar, we need the first day in our grid to start on Sunday. If the first day of a month is not a Sunday, we need to start the grid on the last Sunday of the previous month. How can we calculate the last Sunday of the previous month? Before we get into specific functions, let's clarify the goal.

First Sunday

If the first of a month happens to be a Sunday, we're done. There's no need to do anything. The first of the month is our start date. However, if the first of the month is not a Sunday, we need to "roll back" some number of days to the prior Sunday. How many days do we need to roll back? This depends on what day of the week the first day of a month lands on. For example, if the first is a Tuesday, we need to roll back 2 days. If the first is a Friday, we need to roll back 5 days. And if the first is already a Sunday, we need to roll back 0 days.

Now we have a pretty good idea of what we need to do, we just need to implement that behavior in a formula. This is where the formula gets a bit tricky, because we need to combine two functions, WEEKDAY and CHOOSE, in a way that most users won't recognize.

The WEEKDAY function

To figure out the day of week, we use the WEEKDAY function . WEEKDAY returns a number for each day of the week. By default, WEEKDAY returns 1 for Sunday and 7 for Saturday. For example, WEEKDAY returns 7 for January 1, 2022, since the first is a Saturday:

For January 2, 2022, WEEKDAY returns 1, since the second is a Sunday:

To summarize, WEEKDAY will give us a number between 1-7 for each day of the week, and we can use that result to figure out how many days we need to roll back.

The CHOOSE function

The CHOOSE function is used to select arbitrary values by numeric position. For example, if we have the colors "red", "blue", and "green", we can use CHOOSE like this:

CHOOSE is a flexible function and accepts a list of text values, numbers, cell references, in any combination.

CHOOSE + WEEKDAY

Next, we're going to combine CHOOSE and WEEKDAY to give us the correct "roll back" number like this:

The index_num  argument is provided by the WEEKDAY function. The other individual values given to CHOOSE are the roll back numbers, one for each day of the week. WEEKDAY returns a number between 1-7, and the CHOOSE function uses the number from WEEKDAY to select a number from the list of numbers provided. For example, if WEEKDAY returns 3 (Tuesday), CHOOSE returns 2:

Now we are finally ready to use this roll back number to compute the first Sunday in the grid. Because dates are just numbers in Excel, the operation is simple – we just need to subtract the roll back number from the start date:

The result is a valid date that represents the first Sunday in the calendar grid.

Putting it all together

Now we need to combine the ideas explained above into a single formula based on the SEQUENCE function. We start off by asking for a 6 x 7 array of numbers like this:

Then, for the start argument , we simply provide the code we worked out above:

The result is a full grid of 42 dates that can be displayed as a monthly calendar. If the start date in J6 is changed to another first of month date, the grid automatically updates.

Conditional formatting rules

The conditional formatting rules to highlight the current date and holidays, and lighten days in other months are listed below:

Conditional formatting rules

The formula for the current date is:

The formula to highlight holidays is based on the COUNTIF function :

If the count is anything but zero, the date must be a holiday. Holidays must be a range that contains valid Excel dates that represent non-working days. In the example shown, holidays is the  named range L6:L8. You can add more holidays to this list as you like, but don't forget to update the named range. Alternatively, you can define holidays as an Excel Table so the range updates automatically.

The formula to lighten days in other months is based on the MONTH function :

If the month of the current date is different from the month of the date in J6, trigger the rule.

Read more: Conditional formatting with formulas , Excel custom number formats

Calendar title

The formula to output the calendar title in cell B4 is based on the TEXT function :

The title is centered over the calendar grid with the Center Across Selection. Select B4:H4, and use Control + 1 to open Format Cells , then select "Center Across Selection" from the Horizontal text alignment dropdown. This is a better option than merge cells, since it doesn't alter the grid structure in the worksheet.

Perpetual calendar with current date

To create a perpetual calendar that updates automatically based on the current date, we need to update the formula to generate the first day of the current month on the fly. The first day of the current month can be calculated with the EOMONTH function like this:

You can use this formula directly in cell J6 and the calendar will always stay up to date. For an all-in-one formula, we can add the LET function like this:

Here, we use the LET function to define "start" as the first day of the current month, then run the original formula unchanged. The local variable "start" overrides the named range start on the worksheet, which can be deleted if desired.

Monday start

To generate a calendar that starts on Monday instead of Sunday, you can use the following code inside of SEQUENCE as the start argument:

Using the same logic explained above, this code rolls back the start date as needed to begin the calendar on Monday. This example has more information on rolling back dates to previous days of the week.

Dave Bruns Profile Picture

Hi - I'm Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.

Related Information

Get Training

Quick, clean, and to the point training.

Learn Excel with high quality video training. Our videos are quick, clean, and to the point, so you can learn Excel in less time, and easily review key topics when needed. Each video comes with its own practice worksheet.

Excel foundational video course

Help us improve Exceljet

Your email address is private and not shared.

15 Free Marketing Calendar Templates to Keep Your Content on Schedule

By Joe Weller | June 7, 2016 (updated May 17, 2023)

Link copied

Marketing campaigns and deliverables are complex, and each comes with its own set of delivery dates and expectations. With so many deadlines, marketing calendar templates can help you collaborate creatively and successfully move a campaign from ideation to execution.

The following customizable content calendar templates are expert-tested, free, and designed to help you plan, schedule, and carry out your marketing strategy. Read on to learn more about creating the perfect marketing calendar or jump down to our free templates below .

How Do I Create a Marketing Calendar?

In order for a marketing calendar — from scratch or a template — to be successful, you need to know how to create one. To build a marketing campaign, you will need to follow these 10 steps:

You can use a free content strategy template or a calendar tool to create an official calendar, in which you can designate timelines, assign goals, and keep teams accountable for the creation of projects and campaigns.

What Should a Content Calendar Include?

A content calendar should include the following elements:

How Do I Organize My Marketing Calendar?

You can organize your calendar using a variety of methods, such as by date, campaign, team, or theme.

Let’s take a closer look at these elements:

Many of our project timeline templates and scheduling templates have these elements already in place, so you can organize your marketing calendar whichever way works best for you or your team.

What Are the Types of Marketing Calendars?

There are five main types of marketing calendars:

The type of marketing calendar you should use depends on the content you wish to create. Additionally, editorial calendars can account for multiple types of content in one campaign.

Editorial Calendar Template

Mockup of an editorial calendar template.

Download Editorial Calendar Template Excel | Google Sheets

You can use an editorial calendar template to schedule content far in advance, assign ownership for each item, measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, and adjust your content plan based on key metrics.

Social Media Calendar Template

Mockup of a social media content calendar template.

Download Social Media Content Calendar Template Excel | Google Sheets

Use the free Smartsheet template

Each social media channel is different, and social media content calendar templates allow users to map out content for each day and platform. Additionally, specialized calendar templates can help ensure you’re posting on the most effective outlets, have an equal presence across platforms, remember important dates, and don’t end up with holes in your content schedule.

Email Marketing Template

Mockup of an email marketing template.

Download Email Marketing Template Excel | Google Sheets

Email marketing can be effective and profitable, or it can be the definition of spam. This email marketing calendar template can help you plan and keep track of your contact with newsletter subscribers or other customers in order to build lasting relationships.

Annual Marketing Calendar Template

Mockup of an annual marketing calendar template.

Download Annual Marketing Calendar Template Excel | Google Sheets

This detailed marketing calendar template is designed for annual planning and also includes monthly and quarterly views. Row additions allow for customization in each of the seven sections, and sales goals can be compared to each week’s, month’s, and year’s actual sales.

Weekly Marketing Calendar Template

Mockup of a weekly marketing calendar template.

Download Weekly Marketing Calendar Template Excel | Microsoft Word | Google Docs

This marketing calendar template enables you to home in on and track key marketing activities at a weekly view and clearly define tasks for a variety of marketing channels to keep you focused on your short-term campaign objectives. 

Monthly Marketing Metrics Calendar Template

Mockup of a monthly marketing metrics calendar template.

Download Monthly Marketing Metrics Calendar Template Excel | Google Sheets  

Track your progress and build on your successes (or learn from your failures) with this monthly marketing metrics calendar template. Especially for small business owners, this template is a handy tool for tracking goals and monthly performance.

Marketing Calendar Template

Mockup on a marketing calendar template.

Download Marketing Calendar Template Excel | Google Sheets

This pre-built marketing calendar template is designed to help the marketing manager get organized, effectively implement each component of the marketing strategy, and compare sales goals and actual sales to help pinpoint effective and adjustable campaigns. Plus, calendars with budget elements can help keep managers and teams within their financial plan.

Marketing Project Calendar Template

Mockup of a marketing project calendar template.

Download Marketing Project Calendar Template Excel | Google Sheets

This marketing project calendar template breaks down each phase of a project into essential marketing tasks. Track the status of each initiative, assign task ownership, set deadlines, and utilize the color-coded task bars to help prioritize and complete complex campaigns.

Digital Marketing Template

Mockup of a digital marketing template.

Download Digital Marketing Template Excel | Google Sheets

Use this digital marketing calendar to develop your online marketing strategy and create a plan of action by detailing marketing initiatives according to campaign type, adding project goals, assigning task ownership, and tracking performance.

Marketing Campaign Calendar Template

Mockup of a marketing campaign calendar template.

Download Marketing Campaign Calendar Template Excel | Google Sheets

This template is designed to help you organize content around multiple marketing campaigns. Enter the name, description, date, and status for each campaign and track the associated content or marketing strategies.

Blog Calendar Template

Mockup of a blog calendar templated.

Download Blog Calendar Template Excel | Google Sheets

This editorial calendar template is designed specifically for blogging . This template provides an overview, with important dates and a weekly schedule of blog posts, space for brainstorming ideas, and an area for future planning. Manage your blog and create more consistent, effective content by using a blog calendar template .

Content Schedule Template

Mockup of a content schedule template.

Download Content Schedule Template Excel | Google Sheets

Use this customizable schedule template to develop your content strategy. Plan and organize your content efforts according to content type and buyer lifecycle stage, and then assign writers and set deadlines to drive performance .

Real Estate Marketing Calendar Template

Mockup of a real estate marketing calendar template.

Download Real Estate Marketing Calendar Template Microsoft Word | Google Docs

This real estate marketing calendar template enables you to plan out marketing initiatives in personalizable categories in a designated time period.

Ecommerce Calendar Template

Mockup of an ecommerce calendar template.

Download Ecommerce Calendar Template Excel | Google Sheets

This customizable ecommerce calendar template is designed for managers to create themed campaigns surrounding specific holidays and events that align with an organization’s business objectives.

Restaurant Marketing Calendar Template

Mockup of a restaurant marketing calendar template.

Download Restaurant Marketing Calendar Template Excel | Google Sheets

This pre-built restaurant marketing calendar template enables you to plan and schedule marketing activities based on themes and events being held at a food establishment. The template also includes task and description sections, and you can adjust the deadlines and duration dates.

Drive Campaign Results with Smartsheet for Marketing

The best marketing teams know the importance of effective campaign management, consistent creative operations, and powerful event logistics -- and Smartsheet helps you deliver on all three so you can be more effective and achieve more. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Use a pre-built Smartsheet template to create a marketing calendar in minutes.

IMAGES

  1. Free Daily Work Schedule Templates

    daily activity calendar excel

  2. Free Daily Schedule Templates For Excel

    daily activity calendar excel

  3. Daily Schedule Template Excel Collection

    daily activity calendar excel

  4. daily-timesheet-excel-template

    daily activity calendar excel

  5. Microsoft Excel Daily Planner Template For Your Needs

    daily activity calendar excel

  6. Daily Activity Log Template Excel New 10 Call Log Template Excel

    daily activity calendar excel

VIDEO

  1. Excel Trick: How to create dynamic monthly calendar in Excel #shorts

  2. Calendar making Activity|Co-Curricularactivities#calendar#cocurricularactivities#mathsactivities

  3. Annual Activity Calendar of CWA for the Year 2022-23 Topic-Domestic Violence- Legal Defense

COMMENTS

  1. Excel calendar templates

    Download a calendar template: Browse through the calendar templates, choose an Excel calendar template that is best for you. Click the Download button on the template page, open the template file in Excel, and then edit and save your calendar. Note: By default, a template file download goes into the Downloads folder on your computer.

  2. Planners & trackers design templates

    Templates for planners and trackers. Keep track of all your plans with handy, customizable templates for all your planning and tracking needs, whether for business or personal use. You'll find ways to keep everything organized, including health and food journals, budgets for business or home, trip planning spreadsheets, sales call logs, and more.

  3. Schedule design templates for Excel

    Design custom schedule templates to help you plan out your year and manage projects for your business. Use Excel to set schedules by the month, day, and even down to the hour. Leave fields for you to add in details of what task you want to complete during the time. Save your schedule template so that you can schedule it with your business ...

  4. Daily Planners in Microsoft Excel Format

    Template 2:Daily plannerportrait, pale purple. page orientation: portrait (vertical), 1 page. to do list and notes on the left, activities planner on the right. color scheme: pale purple. free to download, editable, customizable, easily printable. for Microsoft Excel from version 2007 (.xlsx file) Download template 2.

  5. Free Printable Daily Calendar Templates

    Blank Daily Calendar Template - Excel. This daily calendar displays only the days of the week, starting with Sunday. Use the blank slate to fill in whichever month and dates you wish along with events, holidays, and any other planning items. You can also use the calendar without dates and simply have a daily and weekly schedule for any month.

  6. Calendar design templates

    Keep your life on track using calendar templates. Stay on top of all the events and tasks in your busy life using Excel calendar templates. You can play with fun color schemes while you're designing a calendar for each month. Spice up your designs by adding real and animated photos as the background. Change the size of your calendar so that ...

  7. Free Daily Work Schedule Templates

    Download Daily Work Schedule Template. Excel | PDF | Smartsheet. This daily work schedule template allows you to plan a single day by the hour, view a week at a glance, and add important notes. Keep your work day organized and plan ahead for important meetings, events and deadlines. Use the note section to keep track of priority tasks and ...

  8. Free Excel Calendar Templates

    Whether you need to see a whole year at a glance or plan your week in detail, simply choose one of the free Excel calendar templates below and get started. We've included yearly, monthly and weekly calendar templates, including calendars for current and future years. All of the calendar templates are for Microsoft Excel and are free to download.

  9. Free Daily Schedules for Excel

    Template 1:Daily scheduleportrait, graded red. page orientation: portrait (vertical), 1 page. covers the 12 hour period from 8am to 8pm in 30-minute intervals. schedule on the left, to do list and notes on the right. color scheme: graded red. free to download, editable, customizable, easily printable.

  10. Free Daily Calendars for Excel

    Template 2:Daily calendarportrait, graded purple. page orientation: portrait (vertical), 1 page. covers the 12 hour period from 8am to 8pm in 30-minute intervals. to do list and notes on the left, calendar on the right. color scheme: graded purple. free to download, editable, customizable, easily printable.

  11. Daily Calendar

    In addition to the template on this page, see below for other examples such as the Daily Planner or Monthly Calendar. If you are looking for one of those little desktop tear-off type daily calendars, I'm afraid that is something I don't have. But keep browsing. Vertex42 provides many different printable calendars and calendar templates for Excel.

  12. Free Excel Schedule Templates for Schedule Makers

    Weekly Schedule Template in Excel. ‌ Download Free Work Week Schedule Excel Template (Mon-Fri) ‌ Download Free Full Week Schedule Excel Template (Sun-Sat) In a weekly Excel schedule template, each day is broken up into morning, afternoon, and evening, and you can adjust how much space you would like for each block of the day.

  13. 28 Free Time Management Worksheets

    Download 24-hour Activity Log Template. Excel | Smartsheet. An activity log provides a record of how you are spending your time on a daily and weekly basis. Similar to the time study template above, this time management spreadsheet captures all of your tasks in one place so that you can see exactly where your time is going.

  14. FREE Excel Templates for Your Daily Use

    The calendar is built in a way that you can easily take a print and will fit in a single page. Read more about this Excel calendar template. Click here to download the Excel template. Excel Holiday Template. This Excel template will give you all the national US holidays for the selected year.

  15. How to Create a Calendar in Microsoft Excel (with Pictures)

    Use a Calendar Template. 1. Start a new Excel document. When you click the "File" tab or Office button and select "New," you'll be shown a variety of different templates to pick from. For certain versions of Excel, such as Excel 2011 for Mac, you'll need to select "New from Template" from the File menu instead of "New."

  16. How to Make an Interactive Calendar in Excel? (2023 Template)

    Select all the cells in the calendar (excluding the day name) Click the Home tab. In the Styles group, click on Conditional Formatting. In the Conditional Formatting options, click on New Rule. In the New Formatting Rule dialog box, select the option - 'Use a formula to determine which cells to format'.

  17. Free Weekly Schedule Templates For Excel

    Download Weekly Planner Excel Template. This weekly planner template makes it easy to see your week at a glance, with room for notes and priority tasks. This is a simple choice if you're looking for a free, printable planner. Keep track of birthdays and events, create a to-do list, and plan for each day of the week.

  18. Dynamic calendar formula

    To create a dynamic monthly calendar with a formula, you can use the SEQUENCE function, with help from the CHOOSE and WEEKDAY functions. In the example shown, the formula in B6 is: =SEQUENCE(6,7,start-CHOOSE(WEEKDAY(start),0,1,2,3,4,5,6)) where start is the named range J6. In the example shown, conditional formatting is used to highlight the current date and holidays, and lighten days in other ...

  19. 15 Free Marketing Calendar Templates

    This detailed marketing calendar template is designed for annual planning and also includes monthly and quarterly views. Row additions allow for customization in each of the seven sections, and sales goals can be compared to each week's, month's, and year's actual sales. Use: This template is best for annual planning.