Shift Calendar: Your Rotating Shift Schedule for the Whole Year

Ready-made examples

Each example opens in the generator above with every setting filled in, and the address bar becomes a share link you can send.

• DuPont, Crew A, from Jan 5, 2026

  1. N
  2. N
  3. N
  4. N
  5. O
  6. O
  7. O
  8. D
  9. D
  10. D
  11. O
  12. N
  13. N
  14. N
  15. O
  16. O
  17. O
  18. D
  19. D
  20. D
  21. D
  22. O
  23. O
  24. O
  25. O
  26. O
  27. O
  28. O

  The classic 28-day DuPont: Crew A opens with four 12-hour nights and ends each cycle with a 7-day break. 182 shifts and 2,184 hours in 2026.

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• Nurse on a 2-2-3, day shift, Crew B

  1. D
  2. D
  3. O
  4. O
  5. D
  6. D
  7. D
  8. O
  9. O
  10. D
  11. D
  12. O
  13. O
  14. O

  Twelve-hour day shifts on the 14-day 2-2-3, starting a week after Crew A, so the three-day weekends fall on the other weeks.

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• Police Pitman, night squad C

  1. N
  2. N
  3. O
  4. O
  5. O
  6. N
  7. N
  8. O
  9. O
  10. N
  11. N
  12. N
  13. O
  14. O

  The Pitman (2-3-2) worked as fixed nights from 19:00 to 07:00: two on, three off, two on, two off, three on, two off.

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• Firefighter 48/96, B platoon

  1. F
  2. F
  3. O
  4. O
  5. O
  6. O

  Two 24-hour shifts back to back, then four days off. B platoon starts two days after A, so one platoon is always on duty.

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• Plant Southern swing, 8 hours, Crew C

  1. D
  2. D
  3. D
  4. D
  5. D
  6. D
  7. D
  8. O
  9. O
  10. S
  11. S
  12. S
  13. S
  14. S
  15. S
  16. S
  17. O
  18. O
  19. N
  20. N
  21. N
  22. N
  23. N
  24. N
  25. N
  26. O
  27. O
  28. O

  Seven days, seven swings, seven nights on a 28-day loop with 8-hour shifts — Crew C starts two weeks in, on its swing block.

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• Custom: 4 days, 4 nights, 6 off

  1. D
  2. D
  3. D
  4. D
  5. N
  6. N
  7. N
  8. N
  9. O
  10. O
  11. O
  12. O
  13. O
  14. O

  A 14-day rotation built with the custom cycle: four 12-hour days, four nights, then six days off. Change the letters to make your own.

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How to make your shift calendar

1. Pick your pattern. Choose a preset such as DuPont, 2-2-3, Pitman, 4 on 4 off, Continental or a firefighter 24/48, or pick "Custom cycle" and type your rotation with D (day), S (swing or late), N (night), F (24-hour) and O (off).
2. Choose your crew. Crews (or platoons) A to D run the same cycle, each shifted by a fixed number of days. If you are not sure which letter you are, use "Which crew am I?" below the calendar.
3. Set your crew's cycle day 1. With your crew picked, enter your own crew's first day of the cycle — the day your rotation sheet calls day 1 for your crew. The generator works out every other crew from it, and the hint under the field shows the matching Crew A date. It defaults to today, so change it to a real day 1 from your roster.
4. Pick the year. All 12 months redraw at once with every date lettered. The cycle keeps running across New Year, so the next year continues exactly where December stops.
5. Check, save or export. Look up any date, compare two crews, read the year's hours and an overtime estimate, then print, save a PNG or PDF, download an .ics file, or copy a share link.

Everything updates as you type. The strip above the calendar shows your crew's whole cycle with today's position ringed, and the hours panel recalculates the year: for DuPont Crew A in 2026 that is 182 shifts, 91 of them nights, 2,184 hours and about 42 hours a week on average.

How to choose a shift pattern

Most 24/7 rotations differ in three ways: how long each shift is, how many crews share the work, and how the on and off days are grouped. Twelve-hour patterns such as DuPont, 2-2-3 and 4 on 4 off need four crews to cover day and night and average 42 hours a week. Eight-hour patterns such as Continental and Southern swing also use four crews and average 42 hours, but you work 21 shifts per 28 days instead of 14. Firefighter patterns use 24-hour shifts and three platoons, which works out to 56 hours a week on average.

The table compares every preset in the generator. All numbers come from the same engine that draws your calendar, for Crew A with cycle day 1 on Monday, January 5, 2026; the ranges show how the counts differ between crews in the same year.

A few rules of thumb. If you want regular three-day weekends, look at the 2-2-3 or Pitman; both give you every other weekend off. If one long break matters most, the DuPont packs seven days off into each 28-day cycle in exchange for a heavy week of three nights and four days. If you dislike long stretches, 4 on 4 off never asks more than four shifts in a row, but its working days drift one weekday later every cycle. For 8-hour rotations, the Continental moves forward from earlies to lates to nights. Compare all the 12-hour options in our 12-hour shift schedule guide, and the 2-2-3's other name in the Panama schedule explainer.

How to find your crew and your start date

A rotation only becomes your calendar when two things are fixed: which crew you are, and the date your crew's cycle day 1 falls on. Your roster usually prints both. Pick your crew, then enter your own crew's cycle day 1 — the first day of the cycle as your roster numbers it for your crew. The generator places every other crew from that date, and the hint under the field shows the matching Crew A date. If you only know the date your workplace counts the rotation from (Crew A's day 1), leave the crew on A, enter that date, and use "Which crew am I?": give a date and the shift you worked, and the generator names the matching crew and switches to it without moving the rotation. With DuPont and Crew A's cycle day 1 on January 5, 2026, a night shift on January 12 can only be Crew B.

Fire departments usually call crews platoons or shifts (A, B and C), and the generator switches the label automatically for the firefighter patterns, including the Kelly schedule.

Put your shifts into your phone calendar

The free .ics download writes every shift of the year as an event with its start and end time in your time zone, so a 19:00 night shift ends at 07:00 the next morning in the event. Import it once into Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook. Because an imported file does not update itself, import the next year's file when the time comes — or use the Pro sync link, which your calendar app refreshes on its own and which can combine several crews into one calendar.

Print a copy for your family

The Print button lays the whole year out on landscape pages with every day lettered, so it reads in black and white as well as in color. You can also save the year as a PNG image to send in a chat, or as a one-page PDF; the month PDF shows each day's shift and times in large type for the fridge. Use "More options" to pick colors and whether weeks start on Sunday or Monday before you print.

What is free and what Pro adds

The calendar and every tool on this page are free with no account and no limits. Pro adds four outputs that are made on our server from your schedule settings: an auto-updating sync link for Google, Apple and Outlook; a 13-page yearbook PDF with paydays, monthly hours and your day notes; a wall poster with every crew on one page, your unit name and logo, in A3, A4 or Letter; and an Excel workbook. Pro costs $19 a year, renewing automatically, or $29 once for lifetime access. See pricing for the details.

Who uses it

Frequently asked questions

More shift pattern calendars

• DuPont schedule calendar

  28-day 12-hour rotation for four crews, with a 7-day break.

• 2-2-3 schedule calendar

  2 on, 2 off, 3 on over 14 days; every other weekend off.

• Pitman (2-3-2) schedule calendar

  2 on, 3 off, 2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off: a 14-day loop common in policing.

• 4 on 4 off shift pattern calendar

  An 8-day cycle whose days drift through the week.

• Firefighter shift calendar

  24/48, 48/96, Kelly and 24/72 for platoons A, B and C.

Guides

• Panama schedule

  How the Panama name relates to the 2-2-3 and Pitman.

• Continental shift pattern

  8-hour earlies, lates and nights over 28 days.

• Kelly schedule

  The 9-day Kelly cycle and what a Kelly day means.

• 12-hour shift schedule guide

  Every rotating 12-hour pattern compared side by side.