A planning system for the planning and management of multiple projects includes an input (122) for entering project information and task information associated with each project. The project information identifies each project as being of a mandatory, nonmandatory, or ad hoc type that arises intermittently and is subject to change. The task information describes each task to be performed by users of the system and an estimated duration of each task. Also included are a work hour calculator (124), an allocation engine (128), a schedule preparation engine (130), a time tracking system (132), and a time imbalance calculator (134). An allocation modification engine (136) reestimates the time required for completing each project based on the actual time spent and current status for each project and reallocates time to eliminate any time imbalance detected by the time imbalance calculator.