Build a capacity plan comparing my workload to available hours
Calculates the hours your work needs versus the hours you or your team actually have, and shows where to cut or add help.
The prompt
Build a capacity plan for my workload.
Whose capacity: [just me / my team - list people and their working hours]
Planning period: [e.g. "next quarter, by month"]
Work to fit in: [PASTE PROJECTS, RECURRING WORK, AND EXPECTED REQUESTS - with estimated hours if known]
Time already committed: [meetings, admin, support duty, training, PTO, holidays]
Known peaks: [e.g. "year-end close in December", "product launch in week 6"]
Steps:
1. Calculate available hours: contracted hours minus PTO, holidays, meetings, and admin. Treat [e.g. 70%] of what remains as realistic project capacity unless I say otherwise.
2. Estimate demand hours for each item; mark estimates and give ranges for uncertain work.
3. Compare demand with capacity for each period and person.
4. Identify overloaded and underloaded periods and people.
Return:
1. Capacity table: | Period | Person | Available hours | Demand hours | Gap | Utilization % |
2. The main crunch points and what drives them.
3. Options to close each gap, with trade-offs: reschedule, cut scope, reassign, temporary help, overtime (last resort).
4. A recommended plan, and what I need to ask for or say no to.
5. An Excel-ready layout so I can update the numbers each month.
Show your math. Don't invent hours or headcount; ask if key numbers are missing. Treat planned utilization above 85% as a risk, not a target.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Productivity & Planning prompts
What to fill in
- just me / my team - list people and their working hours
- e.g. "next quarter, by month"
- meetings, admin, support duty, training, PTO, holidays
- e.g. "year-end close in December", "product launch in week 6"
- e.g. 70%
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
Related prompts
- Plan my day in an ADHD-friendly wayBreaks tasks into tiny, concrete steps with timers, rewards, and low-friction starts.
- Plan what to do with the time AI saves me or my teamA reclaimed-capacity plan that redirects hours saved by AI to priority work, instead of letting them disappear into more busywork.
- Sort my task list into deep work, shallow work, and async workTags every task by focus needed, sync vs. async, strategic vs. admin, and reactive vs. proactive so you know how to schedule each.
- Plan a deep-work workflow to finish a big projectMaps a multi-week project into deep-work sessions, prep steps, and re-entry notes so progress doesn't stall between interruptions.