Subtract breaks and fixed items first, then split what is left by weight
Say a meeting runs from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM with three agenda items and a 10-minute break after the second. The time available for items is 120 minutes minus the 10-minute break, which is 110 minutes. Splitting that evenly gives 110 ÷ 3 = 36.67 minutes, so in whole minutes it becomes 37, 37 and 36 minutes. The 2 minutes that do not divide evenly go to the first items, one minute each. The schedule reads 1:00–1:37 PM, 1:37–2:14 PM, break 2:14–2:24 PM, and 2:24–3:00 PM, so the last item ends exactly at 3:00 PM.
Items do not have to be equal. Give the discussion item a weight of 2 and the 110 minutes split 1 : 2 : 1, which is 28, 55 and 27 minutes. For an item that needs exactly 20 minutes, such as a presentation, type 20 in its length box and it stays fixed. The time column next to the table draws the whole span as one vertical bar, and each piece is as tall as its real length. Fixed-length items use the strongest color, items split by weight use a softer shade, and breaks are hatched. Hover over a row or focus one of its boxes to highlight its piece and band.
When a time plan helps
If you only fix the end time, the early items tend to run long and the later ones get rushed. When every item has its own end time written down, you can see during the session how far behind you are and how many minutes the later items must give up. It is especially useful for plans like these.
- Meetings: giving each topic a time box is a common practice. The 2020 Scrum Guide sets the Daily Scrum at 15 minutes and caps Sprint Planning at 8 hours and the Sprint Retrospective at 3 hours for a one-month Sprint. Fix the items with a set length, such as a status report, and let the discussion items share the rest by weight.
- Study sessions and homework: when you split four evening hours across subjects, a weight of 2 for the hard subject divides the time after breaks 1 : 2 : 1. Fix anything that takes the same time every day, such as reviewing mistakes.
- Exams: enter the number of questions in each section as its weight and each section gets time in proportion to its questions. Fix the time for copying and checking your answers first, so it is not squeezed out.
- Seminars and event run sheets: fix the talk lengths and leave only the Q and A open, and it takes all the remaining time. You can also see right away how much the Q and A shrinks when one more talk is added.
How the calculation works
- Find the total time. End minus start. If the end is earlier than the start, the plan is treated as ending the next day and 24 hours are added; if the two times are equal, it is a 24-hour plan. 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM is 120 minutes.
- Subtract breaks and fixed-length items. What is left is the time to split by weight. From 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, a fixed 10 minutes and a 10-minute break leave 100 minutes.
- Cut it into split units. With 5-minute units, 100 ÷ 5 = 20 units. Any remainder that does not fill a unit stays at the end as spare time.
- Give out the whole part in proportion to the weights. For each item it is the whole part of units × weight ÷ total weight. With weights 1, 2 and 1, that is 20 × 1 ÷ 4 = 5, 20 × 2 ÷ 4 = 10, and 5 units.
- Hand out the leftover units one at a time, largest fraction first. If fractions tie, the earlier item goes first. So when all weights are equal, the first items each get one extra unit.
Time to split = (end − start) − total breaks − total fixed items · Units = ⌊time to split ÷ unit⌋ · Item share = units × weight ÷ total weight (whole part first, then one unit each by largest remainder)
The last two steps follow the same idea as the Hamilton (Vinton) method that the U.S. House used from 1850 to 1900 to divide seats among states. Seats were split in proportion to population, each state first received the whole part, and the remaining seats went one at a time to the states with the largest fractions. Here the 1-, 5- or 10-minute units play the part of seats, and the weights play the part of population.
What to base the weights on
Weights only matter as ratios. Weights of 1, 2, 1 and 10, 20, 10 give the same result, and they do not need to add up to 100. Pick one rule that fits the situation and type it in as it is.
| Basis | How to enter it | Fits |
|---|---|---|
| Importance | 1 for routine items, 2 to 3 for items that must reach a decision | Meetings |
| Difficulty | 1 for a familiar subject, 2 for a hard one | Study plans |
| Questions or points | The number of questions or the total points in the section, as is | Exams |
| Number of people | Speakers or participating teams | Seminars, workshops |
For example, take an exam with 45 questions in 80 minutes. Fix 10 minutes for filling in and checking the answer sheet, and enter the question counts 17, 17 and 11 of the three sections as weights. The remaining 70 minutes split as below, about 1.6 minutes per question.
| Section | Weight | Time | Clock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Items 1–17 | 17 | 27 min | 8:40 AM–9:07 AM |
| Items 18–34 | 17 | 26 min | 9:07 AM–9:33 AM |
| Items 35–45 | 11 | 17 min | 9:33 AM–9:50 AM |
| Check answers | Fixed | 10 min | 9:50 AM–10:00 AM |
Items 1–17 and 18–34 have the same weight but get 27 and 26 minutes. The two sections have the same fractional part of the 70 ÷ 45 ratio, so the one leftover minute went to the earlier section.
Split unit: 1, 5 or 10 minutes
A 1-minute unit divides the time most evenly, but start times come out awkward, like 1:37 PM. If the plan will be written on a handout or announced to people, 5- or 10-minute units are easier to read. The table below changes only the unit for the same plan (1:00–3:00 PM, three items, a 10-minute break after item 2).
| Unit | Item 1 | Item 2 | Item 3 | Item 3 starts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 min | 37 min | 37 min | 36 min | 2:24 PM |
| 5 min | 40 min | 35 min | 35 min | 2:25 PM |
| 10 min | 40 min | 40 min | 30 min | 2:30 PM |
With 5-minute units, 110 minutes is 22 units. Each item gets 7 units first, and the one leftover unit goes to item 1, giving 40, 35 and 35 minutes. When the time to split is not a multiple of the unit, the remainder stays at the end. If you fix 13 minutes and then split 107 minutes in 10-minute units, only 100 minutes are handed out and 7 minutes show as spare time.
Examples for common situations
These are the same plans as the example buttons above the calculator. Press “Try it” to load one as it is, then change names or weights and compare.
| Situation | Setup | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team meeting 1:00–3:00 PM | Review of last decisions fixed at 10 minutes, status update, discussion and decisions at weights 1, 2, 1, a 10-minute break, 5-minute unit | 25 min · 50 min · 25 min | Try it |
| Evening study 7:00–11:00 PM | English, math and science at weights 1, 2, 1, two 10-minute breaks, reviewing mistakes fixed at 30 minutes, 10-minute unit | 50 min · 1 h 30 min · 50 min | Try it |
| 80-minute exam 8:40–10:00 AM | Question counts 17, 17 and 11 as weights, checking the answer sheet fixed at 10 minutes, 1-minute unit | 27 min · 26 min · 17 min | Try it |
| Seminar 2:00–4:00 PM | Opening and closing 5 minutes each, three talks fixed at 20 minutes each, a 10-minute break, only the Q and A left open | Q and A 40 min | Try it |
In the seminar example, adding one more 20-minute talk shrinks the Q and A to 20 minutes. The more items you fix, the less is left for the open ones, so it is easier to adjust a plan if you fix only the times you truly have to keep.
A break shortens the total first, and its position only moves later start times
A break is just one row of the plan, so the up and down arrows move it between any two items. Moving a break does not change the total of the breaks, so item lengths stay the same and only the start times after the break change. In a 1:00–3:00 PM plan with three items, moving a 10-minute break from after item 2 to after item 1 pushes the start of item 2 from 1:37 PM to 1:47 PM.
| Break position | Item 2 starts | Item 3 starts | Item lengths |
|---|---|---|---|
| After item 2 | 1:37 PM | 2:24 PM | 37 · 37 · 36 min |
| After item 1 | 1:47 PM | 2:24 PM | 37 · 37 · 36 min |
| 5 min after item 1 + 10 min after item 2 | 1:40 PM | 2:25 PM | 35 min each |
With two breaks the total break time grows to 15 minutes, only 105 minutes remain for items, and the three items get 35 minutes each. Break lengths are also whole minutes. Time that is not a rest, such as travel or setup, can go in as a break row with a different name.
Common calculation mistakes
- Splitting without subtracting breaks: divide 2 hours into three 40-minute items and add a 10-minute break, and the plan ends at 3:10 PM. Subtract breaks before you split.
- Counting the end time twice: 1:00–1:37 PM is 37 minutes. The time one item ends is the time the next one starts, so do not leave a spare minute between them.
- Trying to make weights add up to a percentage: weights do not need to total 100. A ratio of 2 : 1 : 1 means the same as 50% · 25% · 25%.
- Missing that fixed time is longer than the total: when breaks and fixed items add up to more than the total, the open items get 0 minutes and the plan runs past the end. The calculator shows the overrun and the real finish time in orange.
- Forgetting the remainder after raising the unit: with 10-minute units and 107 minutes to split, only 100 minutes are handed out and 7 are left. Use the spare time for a wrap-up or questions, or lower the unit to 5 minutes.
Limits
- Time is split in whole minutes only. Items and breaks can be 1 to 1,440 minutes, weights 1 to 99, and a plan can have up to 30 rows.
- When the weights differ, adding total time can occasionally shrink one item’s share. With weights 2, 5 and 5 split in 10-minute units, 80 minutes gives 20, 30 and 30, while 90 minutes gives 10, 40 and 40. This is the known “Alabama paradox” of the Hamilton method; in such a case, fix that item’s length.
- Dates, time zones and daylight saving time are not taken into account. The start and end are read as wall-clock times in one time zone, and the total never exceeds 24 hours (fixed time that overflows simply makes the plan end later).
- It does not time the session or sound alerts. To time the session itself, use “Run in Meeting Timer” to send the same order to Meeting Timer (it cannot be sent if any row is longer than 120 minutes).
- Your input is calculated only in this browser and is not sent to a server or stored. Copying the link puts the plan after the # in the address, and that part is not sent to the server when the page is opened.
Sources checked: October 22, 2026. The period of use of the Hamilton (Vinton) method and the Alabama paradox come from U.S. Census Bureau material, and the example of meeting time boxes comes from the 2020 Scrum Guide. Unit rounding and the rule that the earlier item goes first when fractions tie are this calculator’s own method.
Sources
- 01U.S. Census Bureau: Congressional Apportionment, Historical PerspectiveHamilton (Vinton) method, 1850–1900: whole parts first, then one seat at a time to the largest fractions. The Alabama paradox
- 02The Scrum Guide (November 2020)Daily Scrum 15 minutes; for a one-month Sprint, Sprint Planning up to 8 hours and Sprint Retrospective up to 3 hours
- 03WHATWG HTML Living Standard: Time state (type=time)A time input that takes only hours and minutes, with no date or time zone
- 04IETF RFC 5545, 3.6.1 Event ComponentThe end of an event (DTEND) does not include that moment, so one item’s end and the next item’s start are the same time
Frequently asked questions
What are the lengths for 3 items and a 10-minute break from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM?
The 110 minutes left after the 10-minute break are split three ways. In 1-minute units that is 37, 37 and 36 minutes, and the 2 minutes that do not divide evenly go to the earlier items, one each. With the break after item 2, the plan is 1:00–1:37 PM, 1:37–2:14 PM, break 2:14–2:24 PM, and 2:24–3:00 PM.
How do I give one item twice as much time?
Change that item's weight to 2. Weights only matter as ratios, so 1, 2 and 1 split the remaining time 1 : 2 : 1. For the 110 minutes above that is 28, 55 and 27 minutes. The weights do not need to add up to 100.
Can I mix fixed-length items with items split by weight?
Yes. An item with minutes typed in the length box stays at that length, and the items with an empty length share the rest by weight. From 1:00 to 3:00 PM with a first item fixed at 10 minutes and a 10-minute break, the remaining 100 minutes go to three items with weights 1, 2 and 1 as 25, 50 and 25 minutes.
What changes when I use 5-minute units?
The shares become multiples of 5 minutes, so start times are easier to read, such as 1:40 PM and 2:25 PM. Splitting 110 minutes across three items gives 40, 35 and 35 minutes. If the time to split is not a multiple of 5, the remainder is shown at the end as spare time.
Can I add several breaks or move them around?
Each press of Add break creates another break row, and the up and down arrows move it between any two items. Moving a break keeps the item lengths the same and only changes the start times of the items after it. The total of the breaks is subtracted before the time is split.
What happens if breaks and fixed time are longer than the total?
Items left open get 0 minutes and the plan runs past the end time. The calculator shows in orange how many minutes late it ends and the real finish time. Shorten a fixed length or a break, or move the end later, and it fits again.
Can I plan something that runs past midnight?
If the end time is earlier than the start, the plan is calculated as ending the next day. From 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM it is 120 minutes, and times after midnight are marked as next day. If the start and end are equal, it is a 24-hour plan. Dates, time zones and daylight saving time are not applied.
How can I share the plan or run it as it is?
Copy plan copies the item names with start and end times as text, and Copy link makes an address that opens the same plan. The plan is kept only after the # in the address, so it is not sent to a server. Run in Meeting Timer opens Meeting Timer with the same order and lengths.