Everything here
Sleep, habits, study, people and work, in hours.
Pick the question you came with. Each article ends with a test that tells you whether what you are doing is working, and each tool gives its answer in hours.
Sleep
How much you need, how to move it, and how to see what you really get.
- ArticleIs 6 hours of sleep enough?What the research says, and how to see your real sleep hours.Read the article
- ArticleHow to fix your sleep scheduleA day-by-day plan and a test that tells you it worked.Read the article
- Free toolSleep debt calculatorA week of bed and wake times in, hours short out.Open the tool
Habits
What a habit is and how one forms, how long it takes to form or to fade, and how to tell when it has.
- ArticleHabit formationWhat a habit is, how one forms, and the habit loop checked against the research.Read the article
- ArticleHow long to form a habit66 days on average, and how to tell when yours has formed.Read the article
- ArticleHow long to break a habitNo fixed number of days, and what works instead.Read the article
Study
The methods with the strongest evidence, and a plan in hours a day.
Learning a skill
The hours a language takes, and what they come to at your pace.
Reading
Your reading speed, and what your reading time adds up to.
People
Which hours feel good, the hours you spend with others, and how to add more on purpose.
- ArticleHow to be happierRebuild your day the way the researchers did, and move the hours.Read the article
- ArticleHow to deal with lonelinessCount your hours with people, then add them on purpose.Read the article
- ArticleHow much time couples spend togetherThe national average in hours, and a way to count your own.Read the article
Work and rest
Your real work hours, whether your week can hold your list, and rest that counts.
Getting unstuck
One honest week of hours, and time on the thing you keep putting off.
Keep reading.
- Journal promptsPrompts by moment and goal, many ending in something you can count.
- Journal entry examplesFour real entries, each shown with the hours it became.
- TemplatesPrintable PDFs: a daily journal, an hourly planner and a time log.
- Time journalingThe method: write or say your day in your own words, then see it as hours.
Try it on my day.
A week is easy to remember and hard to count, so the hours you guess are rarely the hours you really had.
A good way to track your hours counts them from what you already write or say about your day, with no timer to start or stop. Most journaling apps stop at how the day felt, not where it went.
One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in.
You write or say your day in your own words, as it happens or all at once. The app reads what you wrote and counts the hours that went to each part of it: work, sleep, meals, time with people, your phone, and the time you never mentioned (shown as unaccounted). Then it shows those hours over days and weeks.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.