168 Hours

Colour in every hour of your week and see where the time actually goes.

This tool works directly in your browser. Your entries stay on your device.

What it does

Everyone gets 168 hours a week. Most people can’t account for about thirty of them. Put rough numbers against the main things in your week — sleep, work, commuting, cooking, family, exercise, screens — and the tool draws the week to scale, one square per hour, so you can see where the time really goes.

How to use it

1. Enter your hours per week for each category. Rough is fine; precision isn’t the point.
2. Add your own categories if the defaults don’t fit your life.
3. Look at the unaccounted hours — the grey squares left over.
4. Pick one change for next week and try it.

What to do with the result

The unaccounted hours are the interesting ones. For most people they add up to between twenty and forty hours a week, and they aren’t laziness — they’re scrolling, admin, travel and the fifteen-minute gaps between other things. You don’t need to fill them. But if you want time for a side project, exercise or a course, that is where it will come from.

Tips

• Do it twice: once for the week you think you have, once for last week as it actually happened. The difference is often the most useful part.
• Sleep is usually the first thing people cut and the last thing they should.
• Pair it with the Focus Timer to see how many of your work hours are actually focused.