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Working Hours Configuration

note

PrimeCal v1.3.4 does not have a dedicated "working hours" setting panel — there is no screen where you enter "Monday–Friday, 9 AM to 6 PM" and PrimeCal shades everything else. Instead, working hours are something you communicate through your calendar, using recurring events to represent your schedule. This is the approach covered here.

For resource types in the reservation system, operating hours are a formal configuration (see Resource Availability). This page is about personal working hours for regular calendar users.

Why Represent Your Working Hours in the Calendar​

If you share your calendar with family members or colleagues, they should be able to look at your week and immediately know when you are typically heads-down and when you are reachable. Even without a dedicated "working hours" feature, you can make this very clear using two complementary approaches: blocking focus time with recurring events, and using the week view as a communication tool.

Option 1: Create Recurring "Work" or "Focus" Events​

The most reliable way to show working hours is to create a recurring event that spans your typical work block each day.

Steps​

  1. Open the Create Event dialog.
  2. Set the title to something that communicates the intent: "Work", "Office hours", "Deep work", or "Heads down".
  3. Set the start and end time to your working hours (for example, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM).
  4. Enable Recurrence and select "Every weekday (Mon–Fri)" or the specific days that apply to you.
  5. Assign it to a calendar that others can see (for example, your Work calendar or a shared family calendar).
  6. Choose a color that is visually distinct but not alarming — Slate or Sky works well for "this time is taken".
  7. Save.

Now anyone looking at your calendar can see a consistent pattern: weekdays have a large block showing your working hours. Gaps before and after those blocks — mornings, evenings, weekends — are visually free.

Example: Will's Work Block​

Will (will_blate) creates a recurring "Work — Deep Focus" event from 9 AM to 6 PM, Monday through Friday, on his Work calendar (Blue). May can see his week view and immediately knows not to schedule family errands during those hours. Will can still add specific meetings, calls, and lunches on top of the recurring block — they appear as separate events that override or overlap the base schedule visually.

Option 2: Use "Do Not Disturb" Blocks for Focus Time​

If you only want to signal a specific part of the day — like "I do not take calls before 10 AM" or "Friday afternoons are writing time" — create targeted recurring blocks rather than a full-day working hours event.

For example:

  • "No meetings" block every morning from 7–9 AM
  • "Deep work" recurring block on Fridays from 1–5 PM
  • "Admin time" block on Monday mornings

These smaller blocks work alongside your regular events and give a nuanced picture of your typical schedule.

Option 3: Block Non-Working Time​

The inverse approach: instead of blocking working hours, create an "Out of office" or "Unavailable" recurring event to cover non-working times. This is useful if your working hours are irregular — for example, a part-time schedule or shift work.

Create recurring blocks for:

  • Every weekday evening after 7 PM
  • Every weekend (two all-day recurring events: Saturday and Sunday)
  • Any regular days off

Anyone checking your calendar sees those blocks and knows not to plan on you being available then.

Tips​

Keep recurring events on a dedicated calendar

Put working-hours recurring events on a calendar that shared viewers can see, but consider whether you want them on your personal calendar or a shared one. A "schedule" calendar (with a neutral color like Slate) works well as a container for these structural events.

All-day events for broad "unavailable" signals

If you want to mark an entire day as unavailable (a travel day, a school day for kids, a public holiday), use an all-day event. It appears as a banner at the top of the day column in week view without cluttering the hourly slots.

Combine with timezone settings

If you are in a remote team, your working hours recurring events help colleagues in other timezones see your real schedule in their own local time — as long as the events are stored with the correct timezone in your profile. See Time Zone Handling.

Future Plans​

A native "working hours" configuration panel — where you set your typical start/end times per day and PrimeCal shades non-working hours in the week view — is on the product roadmap. This page will be updated when that feature becomes available.