This product contains a rechargeable battery that maintains your settings in the event of a power outage and allows you to set up your timer before plugging it into the wall. If you do not see anything on the LCD screen, please plug the timer into a wall socket for at least 5 minutes to let this battery recharge. The timer needs to be given the correct time and day of the week before you can create schedules. You can set up to 8 schedules for this timer. The schedules can be set to run on a variety of day-of-the-week combinations, so you can set different schedules for weekdays, weekends, or several different ON/OFF cycles that run every day.