Creating a Plan: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Creating a plan in Pacemaker takes a few minutes and walks you through a short form. You'll set a goal, pick dates, choose how you want the work distributed, and customize around your schedule. Here's what each section does.

Starting out

Go to pacemaker.press/plans/create or click Create A Plan from your dashboard. Alternatively, you can use the Create a Plan (Wizard) from the Create menu.

The creator is organized into:

• Collapsible panels on the left hand side of the dashboard. Click on the up/down arrows to the right of the panel name and it will collapse or expand as needed.
• A panel to the right that can toggle between Schedule, Progress, and Stats.

The panels on the left will help you set up your plan. You can work through them top to bottom or jump to any section. Let’s walk through them starting with the Plan Info box and move top to bottom.

Plan Info

This section, located in the upper left hand corner of the screen, covers the basics.

• Name — give your plan a unique name so it's easy to find later.
• Activity — what kind of work is this? Click the dropdown button and choose from selections (e.g. drafting, writing, editing, translating, studying)
• Content — what are you working on? Click the dropdown and pick the one that matches your needs (e.g. novella, novel, essay, script, thesis)

Project Organization (Premium Lite + Pro only) — This section will populate with information once the plan has been saved. See Creating and Managing Projects.

Plan Description (Premium — Lite and Pro only)

This panel is for optional context about your plan. Free users will see it but can't fill it in.

• Make this plan private — when checked, only you can see this plan. Private plans are available to Premium subscribers. Free plans are always public.
• Description — a rich text field, up to 300 words. Use it for notes, a synopsis, context for collaborators, or anything you want to remember about this plan.

Goals

This is where you define your target and timeline.

Start

If you've already done some of the work before creating this plan, enter that amount here (e.g. "5000" if you've already written 5,000 words). Leave it at 0 if you're starting fresh.

Target

Your overall goal: the total amount of work you want to complete. You can enter a single number (e.g. 50000 ) or a range (e.g. 50000-60000 ).

Measurement

What unit are you counting in? Words, pages, hours, chapters, scenes — click the dropdown to choose the one that fits your project.

Is this an overall goal or a daily target

Pacemaker can calculate a daily target based on your goals or you can set one yourself. The Overall Target function will set one for you. With Fixed Daily Target, you input the target you set for yourself.

Overall Target (default) — you set a finish-line number, and Pacemaker divides it across your available days according to the strategy you pick.

Fixed Daily Target — you commit to the same amount every day. Your plan end date shifts to accommodate skipped days or changed daily amounts.

The options in the rest of this panel will change based on your selection of Overall or Fixed Daily target.

Overall Target Options

Maximum daily [unit]: Set a ceiling so Pacemaker won't schedule more than this amount on any single day. This is useful if you know you can't realistically do more than, say, 2,000 words in a day.

Your Start Date

When do you want to begin? Pacemaker starts scheduling from this date.

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Fixed deadline?

• Yes (default) — enter a Target Finish Date. Pacemaker fits your target into the days between your start date and that deadline.
• No — instead of a specific end date, tell Pacemaker how much you want to do per day, and it will calculate the finish date for you. Enter your daily amount in the Adjust deadline based on [unit] per day field.

If you selected a fixed deadline, the next panel is Strategy. If you did not, the next panel is Customizations.

Strategy

This is where you choose the shape of your workload — how your targets are distributed across the plan.

• Steadily — the same amount every day
• Rising to the challenge — start small, finish strong
• Biting the bullet — heavy at the start, lighter later
• Mountain Hike (default) — most effort in the middle
• Valley — heavy at the start and end, lighter in the middle
• Oscillating — a mix of heavier and lighter days
• Randomly — every day is a surprise (tap More Random to shuffle further)

Intensity (Beta)

Below the strategy options, Intensity controls how pronounced the peaks and valleys are within your chosen strategy. Available to all users.

• Gentle — smooth, little day-to-day variation
• Low
• Average (default)
• Medium
• Hard Core — the most exaggerated swings

(Intensity doesn't appear for checklist plans.)

Customizations

Here you can fine-tune how Pacemaker handles specific days and periods.

On Weekends?

Tell Pacemaker how to treat Saturdays and Sundays:

• Skip — no work scheduled on weekends
• Do Less — a reduced amount
• The Usual (default) — the same as any other day
• Do More — a heavier load on weekends
• Push! — make weekends your biggest days

Customize Workload on a certain…

Add rules that override the default for specific days or periods:

• Weekday — e.g. schedule less on Mondays (note Saturdays and Sundays are also options)
• Date — e.g. take a specific day off
• Date range — e.g. a vacation or a conference week

Each rule lets you set the same Skip/Do Less/The Usual/Do More/Push! options for that day or range.

Your Availability Events (Pro only)

If you're on Pro and have set up Availability Events in your account, they'll appear here automatically and be factored into this plan's schedule.

Reserve free days at the end

Enter a number of buffer days to leave unscheduled at the end of your plan. Useful if you want a margin for final editing or unexpected delays.

Display

There are four options for how you can view the chosen schedule: table, graph, calendar, or bar chart.

Progress

In this section, you define how you want your plan to adjust as you progress. It also allows you to determine how progress is recorded. For more information, see Logging Progress on Standard Plans

Saving your plan

Once you're happy with everything, click Save This Plan, the middle button of the three at the top right of the screen. Pacemaker generates your schedule and takes you directly to your new plan, where you can start logging progress right away.

You can edit any of these settings later by opening the plan and clicking Edit in the toolbar.

Plan limits by tier