What you can use
Estimate available client-work hours with a filled capacity worksheet, slower-case project calculation and checks for review, handoff and unfinished work.
SOLOHATCH FIELD GUIDE · SOLO WORKFLOWS
Estimate weekly client capacity by subtracting fixed work, a deliberate allowance for uncertainty, and already-promised delivery from your usable working time. Then compare the remaining hours with the full workload of a new project—not just its first draft.
The result is a planning estimate. It does not establish how many clients you can reliably serve or justify a delivery promise before scope, inputs and review dates are clear. Use the worksheet below to decide whether to accept, defer or narrow the next request.
1. Find the hours that are actually available
Start with the coming week’s calendar. Count usable working time after known personal commitments and breaks. If those periods have already been removed, do not subtract them again. Avoid planning around extra evenings you have not decided to work.
Separate the remaining time into four buckets. Make the buckets exclusive so the same task does not appear twice.
- Fixed business work: administration, bookkeeping, sales conversations, routine support and other work that must happen regardless of a new project.
- Uncertainty allowance: time deliberately left available for interruptions, corrections or estimates that turn out to be low.
- Existing commitments: client work already promised for this week, including its communication, reviews and handoff.
- Uncommitted delivery budget: what remains for possible new work.
Usable working hours − fixed business work − uncertainty allowance − already-promised client work = uncommitted delivery budget
Choose the allowance from your own recent variation and the consequences of a delay. There is no universal percentage used here. If you have no history, make the uncertainty explicit and accept less work while you learn.
2. Estimate the whole project, including its tail
A three-hour drafting task is not necessarily a three-hour project. List the work needed to turn an enquiry into a checked, usable deliverable. Include preparation, clarification, production, internal checking, client review, final changes and handoff where applicable.
For each step, write a working estimate and a plausible slower case. Use the slower case to show what could add work, such as another clarification call, inconsistent source material or extra checking.
Clarify those boundaries with the project scope template or the free Project Scope Builder. A broad deliverable with unknown inputs needs clarification before a precise estimate becomes useful.
3. Work through this hypothetical example
Illustrative example: a solo web specialist is considering a small website-maintenance request. All numbers below are invented planning inputs, not industry benchmarks or measured SoloHatch results.
| Bucket | Hours |
|---|---|
| Usable working time | 32 |
| Fixed business work | −7 |
| Uncertainty allowance | −5 |
| Existing client commitments | −8 |
| Uncommitted delivery budget | 12 |
| Step | Working estimate | Slower case |
|---|---|---|
| Clarification and setup | 0.5 h | 1 h |
| Maintenance changes | 3 h | 4 h |
| Browser checks and client review | 1 h | 2 h |
| Final handoff | 0.5 h | 0.5 h |
| Total | 5 h | 7.5 h |
On the working estimate, two projects require 10 hours and fit within 12. If both take the slower case, they require 15 hours and do not fit. One slower-case project uses 7.5 hours, leaving 4.5 of the uncommitted delivery budget. The separate five-hour uncertainty allowance remains protected.
A cautious decision is to consider one new project, then reassess before committing a second. That is conditional on the calendar and dependencies below. The arithmetic alone does not establish a start date.
4. Check bottlenecks before accepting the slot
Total weekly hours can hide a crowded Tuesday. Place draft work, calls, review windows and handoff on the calendar. A client approval arriving Friday cannot support a final delivery promised Thursday, even if the weekly total fits.
- Inputs: are the required materials ready, and who owns anything missing?
- Review: can the approver respond during the proposed window?
- Work in progress: how many unfinished projects will require attention at once?
- Handoff: do checks, packaging or access arrangements compete for the same time?
- Next week: which review or support obligations carry forward?
Suppose the web specialist already has two open projects and has chosen a personal limit of two to reduce switching. A new project should wait until one closes or the sequence is explicitly revised. A waiting project may consume few hours today while still creating a future review obligation. Keep it visible.
Copy this capacity decision worksheet
WEEK BEGINNING: Usable working hours: Fixed business work (tasks + hours): Uncertainty allowance and reason: Existing client commitments (tasks + hours): Uncommitted delivery budget: NEW REQUEST: Deliverable and exclusions: Required inputs / owner / ready date: Work by step: working estimate / slower case Work required this week: Work carried into later weeks: Approver and review window: Current unfinished projects / personal WIP limit: Calendar or handoff conflict: DECISION: accept / defer / narrow / clarify What must be confirmed before promising a date: Next review point:
Replace estimates with observations
After delivery, compare estimated and actual effort by step. Record why they differed without turning one unusual project into a permanent rule. Repeated clarification work may point to an intake problem; repeated review delays may call for a different approval arrangement.
Use the weekly business review worksheet to update the next week’s commitments. Continue through Solo Workflows or all SoloHatch guides for related templates.
To see which started outputs are active or waiting before accepting more work, use the work-in-progress tracker template alongside this capacity estimate.
Developed with AI assistance for SoloHatch, operated by My Target Limited. Examples are illustrative. Adapt this planning framework to your situation; no delivery or business outcome is guaranteed.