How is the score worked out?

Every block that fits and can happen where you put it earns its points. A block left out earns nothing, and some cost points as well, because something goes wrong without them. Focused work gains a point for each half hour in your peak and loses one in your low hours; admin is the other way round. A block that needs travel or shower time beside it loses 5 if something is in the way. Four hours or more without a meal, rest or a free half hour loses 4. Each half hour past 23:00 loses 3, because it comes out of your sleep. The results list every line.

Why can't I fit everything?

Because no day can hold everything on its list, and the game is built that way. The list in hand always runs longer than sixteen hours, and the fixed appointments and opening hours make it shorter still. Something has to go; the score shows what it costs.

What makes a block turn red?

It is somewhere it cannot happen: outside the hours it is possible (the plumber only answers until 17:00, the market packs up at noon), finishing after its deadline, or starting before the block it depends on is done. A red block earns nothing, and counts as left out.

Can I cancel an appointment?

Some, yes. Select a fixed block and press Delete, or drag it off the day, and it goes back to your hand as cancelled, with its cost shown. Put it back and it returns to its own time. School runs and the launch call cannot be cancelled.

Is there one right answer?

No. Each day has several good plans that trade different things away: a longer focused morning or an earlier gym session, the run or the clean bathroom. Two different plans give two different scores, and the results tell you why.

Can I play it with a keyboard?

Yes. Tab to a block and press Enter to pick it up, then move it with the up and down arrows and press Enter to place it. On a placed block, the arrows move it half an hour (Shift moves an hour), Enter picks it up, and Delete sends it back to your hand.

Where is my progress saved?

Only in this browser, in its local storage: the plan you are working on and your best score for each day. Nothing is sent to HourLife, and clearing your browser's site data removes it.

Keep this game for later

Games
Time Architect

Time Architect

One day, sixteen waking hours, more to do than fits. Place the blocks where they can actually happen, decide what to leave out, and read what the day costs, line by line.

Play full screen How it plays

5 minutes a day
Four days to draw each with its own trade-offs
No account your best scores stay in this browser

How it plays

Read the day
Each day has fixed appointments, a deadline, things that can only happen at certain hours, and the hours when this person thinks best. The list in hand always runs longer than the sixteen hours between 7:00 and 23:00.
Place the blocks
Drag a block onto the day, or select it and pick a time. The score moves as you go, and a block that cannot happen where you put it is marked in red with the reason. Blocks cannot overlap; some need travel or shower time kept clear beside them.
Finish the day
The results list every line of the score: what fit, what was left out and what that costs, how well the hard work matched your sharp hours, the breaks, and anything that ran into the night. Try again; your best for each day is kept.

The ideas in the rules

The list is longer than the day on purpose. Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks starts from the fact that there will always be more worth doing than time to do it, so the real skill is choosing what to leave undone. Greg McKeown makes a similar case in Essentialism: every yes is a trade-off, whether you choose it or not.

The peak and low hours come from Daniel Pink's When, which describes the day as a peak, a trough and a recovery. Most people meet them in that order, and night owls roughly the other way round. In the game, focused work earns a point for each half hour in the peak and loses one in the low hours, and admin is the reverse: low hours suit it, and spending your best ones on it costs you.

Each day names one Highlight, the idea from Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky's Make Time: pick the one thing that would make the day a good one, and give it a time. Cal Newport's Deep Work is behind the long focused blocks, and Pink's chapter on breaks is behind the rule that four hours without one costs points.

The point values are the game's own, chosen so that each day has more than one reasonable answer. They are not measurements of anything.

Sources: Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks (2021); Greg McKeown, Essentialism (2014); Daniel H. Pink, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing (2018); Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, Make Time (2018); Cal Newport, Deep Work (2016).

The books behind the rules

Each rule in the score comes from one of these.

Questions

How is the score worked out?

Every block that fits and can happen where you put it earns its points. A block left out earns nothing, and some cost points as well, because something goes wrong without them. Focused work gains a point for each half hour in your peak and loses one in your low hours; admin is the other way round. A block that needs travel or shower time beside it loses 5 if something is in the way. Four hours or more without a meal, rest or a free half hour loses 4. Each half hour past 23:00 loses 3, because it comes out of your sleep. The results list every line.
Why can't I fit everything?

Because no day can hold everything on its list, and the game is built that way. The list in hand always runs longer than sixteen hours, and the fixed appointments and opening hours make it shorter still. Something has to go; the score shows what it costs.
What makes a block turn red?

It is somewhere it cannot happen: outside the hours it is possible (the plumber only answers until 17:00, the market packs up at noon), finishing after its deadline, or starting before the block it depends on is done. A red block earns nothing, and counts as left out.
Can I cancel an appointment?

Some, yes. Select a fixed block and press Delete, or drag it off the day, and it goes back to your hand as cancelled, with its cost shown. Put it back and it returns to its own time. School runs and the launch call cannot be cancelled.
Is there one right answer?

No. Each day has several good plans that trade different things away: a longer focused morning or an earlier gym session, the run or the clean bathroom. Two different plans give two different scores, and the results tell you why.
Can I play it with a keyboard?

Yes. Tab to a block and press Enter to pick it up, then move it with the up and down arrows and press Enter to place it. On a placed block, the arrows move it half an hour (Shift moves an hour), Enter picks it up, and Delete sends it back to your hand.
Where is my progress saved?

Only in this browser, in its local storage: the plan you are working on and your best score for each day. Nothing is sent to HourLife, and clearing your browser's site data removes it.