Free • 2 minutes

The 17-Hour Freedom Calculator

Researchers who counted the work hours of hunter-gatherer groups in Africa, Paraguay and Australia reported about 15 to 20 hours a week spent getting food. The rest of the week belonged to them.

How many hours of your week belong to someone else? Fill in the four boxes below.

Hours you work each weekPaid job, overtime, part-time. Retired? Put 0.Hours commuting and getting ready for work each weekDriving, parking, dressing, packing lunch.Hours on other people's schedules each weekEmails after hours, caregiving, appointments, errands you can't move.Years you expect to keep this same schedule

Benchmark from anthropologist Richard Lee's field counts among the Ju/'hoansi (1963) and later studies of other groups. This is an educational estimate, not a prediction.