Success story
The whole year on one screen: how Dr. Ahlers’ private practice plans on-call duties, practice days and workations
Specialist physician, practice owner, on-call duties, training, podcast, workations, family: for Dr. med. Joachim Ahlers in Zurich, a lot has to fit into one year. His AnnuCal year planner runs more than fifteen calendars on one screen - from the duty roster to school holidays - plus a second scenario used only to plan next year’s on-call duties.
About the customer
- Location
- Zurich Seefeld, Switzerland
- Focus
- Fitness, vital nutrients and micronutrients, international infusion centre
- Patients
- Entrepreneurs, self-employed professionals, high performers, athletes
- Led by
- Dr. med. Joachim Ahlers, specialist in general internal medicine, Master in Medical Administration
- Team
- 1-10 employees
- AnnuCal
- Pro, since October 2025
- Calendars in the planner
- On-call duties (four duty calendars), practice, training, meetings, workation, family holidays, team holidays, public holidays canton Zurich, school holidays, personal holiday calendars, events & visits, birthdays
- Scenarios
- Current year · On-call duty planning · Next-year pre-planning
- Website
- dr-ahlers.com
The starting point
A private practice with a small team depends on one thing being clear: when the doctor is there. For Joachim Ahlers, plenty comes on top that shapes the practice year without being part of the daily routine - on-call duties spread across the year, training and meetings, workations spent working remotely, planned podcast recordings - and a family with school holidays, trips and fixed dates that everything else has to be organised around.
The problem was never missing appointments; they were all in the calendar - day to day, Dr. Ahlers works in Outlook. The problem was perspective. A weekly or monthly calendar answers “What’s tomorrow?” perfectly. It doesn’t answer the questions that matter for running a practice:
- How are my duties spread across the year - where do they cluster, where is there room?
- Which days am I at the practice, and which weeks are already fixed by holidays, public holidays or training?
- Where does a workation fit without colliding with duties, practice weeks, school holidays or recording dates?
“My goal was to block both private and business dates early and create enough free space. Despite my rather workaholic nature, I want to give my family time for shared evenings and long-term holiday and family planning.”
Dr. med. Joachim Ahlers
The solution
In AnnuCal, Dr. Ahlers’ year sits in one view as a stack of coloured layers. More than fifteen calendars can be shown or hidden individually - one per area, each in its own colour. The result is a picture no appointment calendar can deliver.
The fixed things first.
Public holidays of the canton of Zurich, school holidays and personal holiday calendars form the base layer of the year. They are non-negotiable - and because they are visible, planning happens around them, not against them.
Then the duties.
The on-call duties follow a fixed system: primary and secondary physician, each on day or night duty. That yields four duty calendars marking every duty as a day in the year. For next year’s roster, Dr. Ahlers uses a separate scenario (“On-call duty planning”): an empty year page on which the duties are first distributed on their own before they move into the full year.
Then the practice.
The days on site in Zurich Seefeld form the base rhythm - team and scheduling see early which weeks the practice is fully staffed. Training and meetings sit alongside; team holidays are visible as their own calendar.
Then what has to fit.
Workations go where the year picture has room - visibly placed between duty blocks, practice weeks and family holidays, not competing with them. Future podcast recordings find their place the same way.
Private and professional in one picture.
Family holidays, events and visits, birthdays and protected family time live as their own calendars in the same year. Nothing gets mixed up, but everything is visible at once - which makes it possible to actively block free space instead of hoping some is left over.
And next year already in view.
In a further scenario, the following year is already set up: school holidays, public holidays, family trips - the base layer is in place before the year begins.
“Outlook lacks a really good year overview. I could build something similar myself with SharePoint - but I already like this solution very much.”
Dr. med. Joachim AhlersThe result
What changed is less a number than a certainty: decisions about the year - when duties, when workations, when training, when practice, when family - are made with the whole picture in view, not week by week.
- Overview instead of paging: duties, practice days, workations and family time are visible together and readable against each other.
- Free space is planned, not hoped for: private and business blocks are set early in the year - what should stay free is placed as deliberately as what takes place.
- Planning in stages: distribute duties in their own scenario, move them into the full year, then prepare the following year.
- One picture for every role: physician, entrepreneur, podcaster, family person - one year, one view.
And the next step is named openly: Dr. Ahlers would like direct synchronisation with Outlook so that manual upkeep of entries disappears - connecting the major calendars is on AnnuCal’s roadmap.
“Anyone who doesn’t just run a practice but plans one is missing exactly this year view. For me it’s the building block between calendar and practice software.”
Dr. med. Joachim AhlersAnnuCal is a year planner that layers any number of calendars into a single year view and lets you keep several scenarios side by side - for practices, teams and independent professionals who want to see the whole year on one page. Time-first planning: the year first, then the week.