Why plan the year in a circle
A wall calendar or a list of months cuts the year into separate pages. A year really is a cycle, though: December runs straight into January, and the seasons come back in the same order. Drawing the year as a circle makes that visible. You see the full twelve months in one picture, where you are right now, how much of the year is behind you and how much is left.
That view helps with things a monthly grid hides:
- Long-range planning. Trips, school terms, projects and deadlines that are months apart sit in one picture, so you can see how they are spaced across the year.
- Seasonal rhythm. The wheel is split into winter, spring, summer and autumn, so busy and quiet seasons stand out.
- Reviewing a year. With your calendar connected, you can look back over a whole year of events in one view.
- Several calendars side by side. Gregorian months, Hebrew months and holidays can sit on the same wheel as separate rings.
Three views of the year
Classic
The year as 52 weeks arranged in four seasonal quadrants. A slider morphs the shape between a circle and a square, and you can switch the direction time flows (clockwise or counter-clockwise) and rotate the seasons. Click any week to open a week view with the days laid out like a paper diary, including your events.
Rings
Concentric rings, each showing one way of dividing the year: seasons, Gregorian months, Hebrew months, weeks and holidays (Hebrew, Christian and European, computed for the selected year, so movable dates such as Passover and Easter land on the right day). Turn rings on and off, drag them to change their order, and adjust ring width and corner radius.
Zoom
A nested view that goes from the year (twelve months in a circle) to a month, a week and finally a single day shown as a clock with its events. Click to zoom in, use the back button, the mouse wheel or a pinch to zoom out, and swipe to move to the previous or next period.
Getting started
- Open yearwheel.lipu.dev. The current year appears straight away; no account is needed.
- Choose Classic, Rings or Zoom in the header.
- Use the arrows above the wheel, or the ← → keys, to move between years.
- Open Settings (the gear button or S) to change the shape, time direction, theme, language and overlays.
Showing your Google Calendar events
YearWheel can display events from your Google Calendar. The connection is read-only: it uses the calendar.readonly permission, so YearWheel can list events but never creates, edits or deletes them.
- Click Sign in with Google in the header.
- Choose your Google account and allow read-only access to your calendar.
- Your events appear on the wheel and in the week and day views.
- After changing something in Google Calendar, use Refresh Events in Settings to reload.
- In Classic view, Ctrl+click (⌘+click on a Mac) a week to open that week in Google Calendar, or use Open in Calendar in the week view.
- To disconnect, choose Sign out in Settings.
Overlays and settings
- Moon phase, zodiac signs and Hebrew month: in Classic view, hover over a week to see the moon phase at its start, the zodiac signs it falls in and the Hebrew month (or months) it overlaps. Each one can be turned on or off.
- Theme: light, dark, or automatic to follow your system.
- Language: the interface is translated into English, Hebrew, Esperanto, toki pona, Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Ido.
- Reset to Defaults restores the original layout.
Settings are saved in your browser, so the wheel looks the same the next time you open it.
Keyboard shortcuts
- S: open or close Settings
- ?: open or close the help panel
- Esc: close panels
- ← →: previous or next year
Install it as an app
YearWheel is a progressive web app. In Chrome, Edge or Safari you can add it to your home screen or install it from the browser menu, and it opens in its own window like a native app.
Privacy
YearWheel runs in your browser. Calendar events are fetched directly from Google into the page and are not stored on a YearWheel server. Visit statistics (Google Analytics) are only stored in cookies if you allow them. See the Privacy Policy for details.
← Open YearWheel