The Flow Map

A one-page flow map — a simplified Sankey diagram — that takes one total and splits it into proportional streams so you can see, in a single picture, exactly where it all goes. A column of numbers is easy to skim past; a flow is not. Give it a whole — a paycheck, a 40-hour week, a project budget, your monthly spending, even your energy — then list where it goes, one line each with an amount. The total leaves a source spine on the left and fans out into ribbons, one per stream, each drawn as thick as its true share of the whole. The rent that swallows half your take-home looks like half the page; the small, forgettable leaks look small. Every ribbon lands on a labelled node showing its amount and its percentage, so the proportions are honest and impossible to argue with. Use it to map a budget and find the fat categories, to see how your working week really divides between deep work and everything else, to break a project's hours or dollars across workstreams, or to show a household where the money actually lands. Add the amounts and the flow is drawn for you, sized and labelled automatically.

• Landscape
• 1 page
• Planning

Best for: Splitting one total — a budget, a week, a project — into proportional streams so you can see where it all goes at a glance.