Academics · Subject Resources · Time

The week has
168 hours.

Type sleep, school, homework, a job and each activity. The calculator lays the week out, checks sleep against the recommendation for the student’s age, and says how much time to find or how much room is left.

Add up my weekWhat you get

The extracurricular balance calculator

The worked example is a junior in soccer season with band, robotics, a food bank shift and a Saturday job. Nothing you type leaves this browser.

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What you get

Academics · Subject ResourcesFree

What you finish with
The week’s 168 hours part by part, average sleep against the recommendation, and the hours to find, or the room left, after full sleep and two free hours a day. It prints as a one-page summary for a family conversation about the season.
Who it is for
Middle and high school students choosing activities for a season, families weighing one more commitment, and school counselors helping a student plan a schedule.
Format
Browser calculator for a phone, tablet or computer, by touch or keyboard. Prints a summary; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); export and import a file.
Access
Free. No account, no sign-in and nothing to install. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Subject Resources space in Caveat Academics.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Type sleep for both kinds of night.
  2. Add the school day and commute.
  3. Add homework and any job.
  4. List each activity’s hours.
  5. Read what to find or the room left.

Add up my week

How the week is added up

Fixed hours first, then what is left.

The worked example: a junior’s fall season168 hoursthe weekfor everyoneMinus sleep−53 h7 h school nightsMinus the rest−99 hschool, work, basicsFree15.7 h2.2 h a dayThe worked example: a junior’s fall season168 hoursthe weekfor everyoneMinus sleep−53 h7 h school nightsMinus the rest−99 hschool, work, basicsFree15.7 h2.2 h a day
The week is fixed at 168 hours. Sleep and the other commitments come out first; what is left is free time, and the sleep recommendation shows what it should cost.

Sleep comes first

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends 9 to 12 hours a night for children 6 to 12 and 8 to 10 hours for teens 13 to 18; the CDC uses the same ranges. The calculator averages school nights and weekend nights together, so a short week and a long weekend show up as what they are.

What counts as an activity

Count everything an activity takes: practices, games, rehearsals, meetings, and the drive there and back. Two free hours a day is a planning target for unscheduled time, not a rule; change your plans to fit the student, not the number.

Sources

  1. Paruthi, S., et al. (2016). Recommended amount of sleep for pediatric populations: a consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 12(6), 785–786.
  2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About sleep: how much sleep do I need? (cdc.gov/sleep).
  3. American Academy of Pediatrics (2014). School start times for adolescents. Pediatrics, 134(3), 642–649.
  4. Mahoney, J. L., & Vest, A. E. (2012). The over-scheduling hypothesis revisited: intensity of organized activity participation during adolescence and young adult outcomes. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 22(3), 409–418.

A planning estimate from your own numbers. Your entries stay in this browser. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.