What is a life calendar?

A life calendar (also called a "life in weeks" chart) is a visual representation of a human lifespan divided into discrete units — weeks, months, or years. Each unit is drawn as a small block. Blocks in the past are filled in, blocks in the future are empty, giving you an immediate sense of how much time has passed and how much remains. The concept was popularized by Tim Urban's Wait But Why essay and has since become a tool for reflection and motivation.

Tool description

This tool renders your lifespan as an interactive grid. Enter your date of birth and a target life expectancy, then choose whether to display life in weeks, months, or years. The grid shades every elapsed unit and leaves future units hollow. You can overlay named life events — birthdays, graduations, career milestones — each color-coded and visible as a tooltip when you hover over their block. The finished visualization can be downloaded as an image.

Features

  • Three view modes — switch between a weeks grid, a months grid, or a years grid to adjust the level of detail.
  • Life events overlay — add labeled events with custom dates and colors; they appear as highlighted blocks inside the grid with hover tooltips.
  • Custom colors & export — choose accent and background colors, then download the canvas as a PNG for use in presentations or as a desktop wallpaper.