How the numbers are calculated
- Hours per year = hours per day × days per week × working weeks per year.
- Full 24-hour days = hours per year ÷ 24. This number surprises people most.
- Share of waking hours assumes 16 waking hours a day, every day of the year.
- Hours left = hours per year × (retirement age − your age), assuming nothing changes.
It leaves out commuting, unpaid overtime you didn't count and the evening email check. If you want an honest number, enter the hours you actually work, not the ones in your contract.
Why the total matters less than how you spend it
Hours do matter at the extreme. A 2021 WHO/ILO analysis linked working 55 or more hours a week with a higher risk of stroke and heart disease than a 35–40 hour week. But for most people the damage comes less from the yearly total and more from how the hours are spent: long unbroken sessions, no real lunch, and evenings that never quite stop being work.
Those are fixable without a new job. The burnout test shows which of those habits you have, the break calculator builds breaks into your day, and a shutdown ritual gives your workday an actual end.
Frequently asked questions
How many hours a year does a full-time job add up to?
A 40-hour week over 46 working weeks (allowing for holidays and public holidays) is 1,840 hours a year, or about 77 full 24-hour days. Working 9 hours a day, 5 days a week for 48 weeks is 2,160 hours, which is 90 full days.
How is the share of waking hours calculated?
The calculator assumes 16 waking hours a day, 365 days a year (5,840 waking hours) and divides your yearly working hours by that. It ignores commuting and unpaid overtime you didn't enter, so the real share is usually higher.
What counts as a long working week?
A joint WHO and ILO analysis published in 2021 linked working 55 hours or more a week with a higher risk of stroke and heart disease compared with a 35 to 40 hour week. It is a population-level finding, not a prediction for any individual.
Is anything I enter saved?
No. The numbers stay in your browser, are not saved and are not added to the page address. If you accept analytics cookies, only a coarse weekly-hours band is recorded when you use the calculator.