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How You Actually Spend Your Time

Research-backed writing on where the hours go — and what they add up to across a life.

Every article here starts from the same uncomfortable idea: your time is finite, and most of it is already committed. Using data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the OECD, the WHO, and peer-reviewed research, these pieces translate everyday habits — sleep, work, screens, exercise, hobbies — into the years they quietly consume over a lifetime. When you're ready to see your own numbers, the free calculator does the maths in about a minute.

Time & Mortality · 7 min New

How Much of Your Life Is Already Gone? The Maths Most People Avoid

The average life passes its halfway mark around age 37 — and only about 24 years of a whole life are genuinely free. Here's the arithmetic most people skip.

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Sleep · 5 min

How Much of Your Life Do You Spend Sleeping?

The average person spends roughly 24–26 years asleep. Here's what that number really means — and why it isn't time wasted.

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Social Media · 7 min

How Many Years of Your Life Do You Spend on Social Media?

Over six years of scrolling for the average person — and, as courts have now found, by deliberate design. Here's what the numbers mean.

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Exercise · 6 min

How Much of Your Life Do You Spend Exercising?

About three minutes a day, on average. The time cost of meeting the guidelines is tiny — and the return is measured in extra years of life.

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Time Management · 6 min

How to Do a Personal Time Audit (Step-by-Step Guide)

A simple way to find the gap between how you think you spend your time and how you actually do — in under ten minutes.

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Lifestyle · 6 min

Hobbies Aren't a Waste of Time. They Might Be the Point.

93,000 people across 16 countries, tracked for years. The research on hobbies is, by social-science standards, unusually cheerful reading.

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See where your own life goes

Reading about the averages is one thing. Seeing your own numbers laid out week by week is another.

Show me my numbers →