How much free time do you get each day??

November 10, 2007 7:32 PM

How much free time do you get each day??

Please help out a curious bunny :) I'm currently re-organising my daily schedule and want to work out how much free time other people have each day (on average) to help me with my own schedule. If you're interested please post here and tell me:

How much free time YOU personally get each day, measured in hours
"Free time" = the kind of time that's entirely yours to curl up with a good book, work on a hobby, spend time with your family, read your favorite websites, etc. Things you have to, or should, do (work / exercise / cooking / cleaning / organising) don't count.


Please also post a little about your current situation such as:

- How many hours a week you work on average
- Whether you freelance / work from home, or work in an office
- Whether you have children or not
- Whether you outsource things like housework / cooking, or if you do this yourself
- Anything else you think might be relevant or interesting

A very big THANK YOU in advance :)! And I will be checking this thread so please let me know if you have any questions.

posted by katala to society & culture (43 comments total)

It's hard to answer the question because many of the things that are on your "have to do" list are also things that are things that I want to do, especially cooking (I love food) and cleaning (I love neatness). That said, I have a fairly open schedule. I spend maybe 10-15% of every hour doing MetaFilter (which is my job, as well as something I enjoy, life is great sometimes) and a few hours a day working at my other jobs. However, for me the job/work distinction is fuzzy, almost invisible but I'd have to say I can spend maybe 4-6 hours a day, waking time that is, doing whatever I want. Since sleep is also something I enjoy, that's a big chunk of time doing something nominally fun also. So, for your questions

- I have no average week but I usually work between 20-50 hours depending if I'm travelling
- almost all freelance, I teach classes and I go "in to the office" to do that. I travel a lot so I'm on the road a lot which is only sort of free time
- no kids
- outsource almost nothing, I eat out maybe once or twice a week, most of my food is from-scratch not prepackaged
- relevant or interesting is that I decided at some point that free time, or rather discrectionary time to do what I wanted, was one of the more important things to me. Moreso than money, moreso than career-minded stuff (though that has worked out well) and so the reason these answers are like this is to a large degree on purpose.
posted by jessamyn at 7:39 PM on November 10, 2007

I usually get to work (in the office) around 10 am. I leave typically between 7 pm and 11 pm. I guess 8:30 is pretty normal.

I have to do a few hours of work of the weekend fairly frequently, but it can usually be done from home.

I am childless. I don't outsource housework, but I typically eat out at night, usually at one of a handful of local diners.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 7:40 PM on November 10, 2007

I work 21 hours a week, plus maybe 8-12 hours outside of work (grading papers, planning lessons).
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:40 PM on November 10, 2007

I work 35 hours each week (9-5) and take two classes (1.5 hrs 2x per week and 2.5 hrs 1x per week). I don't have kids, I don't outsource anything, and I try to eat out rarely. I go to the gym everyday except the day of my long class and Friday night. I usually get about 2-4 hours of free time per night, I'd say. This is almost always in the form of reading a book or watching a movie, though...I very rarely go out on weeknights.
posted by lxs at 7:49 PM on November 10, 2007

My free time varies. I homeschool my son but it doesn't consume my entire day (he enjoys self-directed assignments). I work with my daughter at a diner one day a week and I really enjoy it. I spend time doing housework, cooking, bill-paying, grocery shopping, etc... But, on the whole, I have quite a bit of free time. My husband is a police officer who works 12-hour shifts, and I'm a night owl, so I get to spend a lot of time reading, watching TV and surfing the web while everyone else is asleep and/or otherwise occupied. I think I'd go insane if I didn't have as much "me" time as I have.
posted by amyms at 7:52 PM on November 10, 2007

Spending time with my family is my job, because I'm a full-time mom with young kids. However, I feel like I get approximately 1 1/2 hours of free time a day -- the interval between putting my son to bed, and when I turn out the lights. It's not enough.
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:53 PM on November 10, 2007

I work about 45 hours a week, at a place of business; no children. I live in a small apartment and do the cleaning and cooking myself, although I tend to eat things that don't require much time in preparing, like salads or sandwiches. I set one day a week aside for housecleaning and errands; probably I average about four hours a week on housecleaning (although I consider this a free time activity since I enjoy it). Sleep between 7 and 9 hours a night, and subtracting the small 'have-to's' that add up during the day like preparing food, driving, etc. - this leaves me with, normally, six or seven hours hours a day of free time. I don't exercise - my job keeps me pretty active the whole time I'm there.
posted by frobozz at 7:57 PM on November 10, 2007

I work 45 hours a week, in an office, but only get paid for 40. I also have 1 week of every 5 that I am on-call, which I am also not paid for; oh, and Disaster Recovery testing (1 week of 16-hour days), which is not only unpaid, but I have to buy my own food & get myself to Sterling Forest, NY from Harrisburg, PA. Ahem, moving on...

No kids of my own, but I am currently supporting my mother and my 2 siblings, so I guess that counts. All housework is outsourced.

5:30 am -- 6:29 am: get ready for work.
6:29 am -- 7:00 am: commute (only 8 miles, but it takes 31 minutes).
7:00 am -- 4:00 pm: work.
4:00 pm -- 4:40 pm: commute (same 8 miles, 40 minutes on the way back).
4:40 pm -- 5:00 pm: I honestly don't know what happens to these 20 minutes. Probably taking out the dog, cleaning up things, etc. It seems like whenever I look up after coming home from work, it is 5:00 pm.
5:00 pm -- 5:30 pm: eat.
5:30 pm -- 9:30 pm: free time.

4 hours a day; this is probably about average, but it feels like a raw deal. Especially in the winter months, when it is dark for all 4 of those hours. I make up for it by doing absolutely nothing all weekend, however.

Mostly, my lack of "discretionary time" as jessamyn puts it, is due to 1: my field and 2: my family. And really, even as a unix admin, I could find a position that lets me have more free-time (with a university, say), but it would involve abandoning my family and taking a lot less money. Not quite there yet.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 8:02 PM on November 10, 2007

I currently have copious amounts of free time (more than 10 hours a day) because I am on hiatus from my 2nd job.

My primary employment is a 20-hour a week gig where I go into the office one or two times a week for a few hours and work from home for the rest of the hours.

We have no kids and I outsource the housecleaning.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:02 PM on November 10, 2007

Um, by "all housework is outsourced," I mean "the other people that live here do it." Not maids.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 8:03 PM on November 10, 2007

I study full-time through distance education for 26 weeks a year, and that takes between 12 and 30 hours per week. I have a casual part-time job that takes between 0-21 hours per week. I have two teenage children who sometimes need a lot of time and sometimes none, so between 0-21 hours per week, and because I don't have full time work, my spouse and I have agreed that I am responsible for the majority of the household chores, shopping, and finances, and the minimum I spend on that a week is five and half hours per week (shopping and cooking dinner) and 15 hours (including washing, vacuuming, bill paying).

Sometimes, I have a maximum everything week which stresses me a bit but still leaves enough time to sleep. Sometimes I have a minimum everything week, and I feel like I live in the land of the lotus eaters.

I made the choice over 5 years ago not to let commuting take over my life and everything I need is within a 5 kilometre radius, including work, library, schools & shops. This was a real saver when an accident destroyed our car two years ago. Now i walk everywhere (as do the kids), and even so, the longest trip is no more than half an hour.

Free time? I have the ability to take free time nearly all the time. There is almost nothing I can't postpone if I feel like it (I could delegate cooking dinner to another household member, do my study the next day, worry about the shopping the day after). This means I need a fair bit of self-discipline to get things done. I don't have as much as I should, I think. I don't accomplish as much as I could.
posted by b33j at 8:04 PM on November 10, 2007

On weekdays, subtracting work (9 hours at work and 2 hours commute) and cooking, I have around 4 hours free time. Usually I spend one of those hours at the gym. On weekends all of my time is my own, minus about two hours cleaning and 2 hours exercising. Although I consider running one of my hobbies, so I wouldn't put it into an "obligation" category. Likewise I love to cook.

No kids, just a husband, and I get around 7 hours sleep on average.
posted by gaspode at 8:13 PM on November 10, 2007

5 days a week: I get up every morning by 4:45AM to hit the gym by 5:15. I shower there and make it to work by 6:45. I work until 5 or 5:30 and I am home by 6. The family and I eat dinner. Followed by playing with the kids for an hour or so. Getting the kids ready for bed takes a long time - baths, PJ's and books. 2 kids - they are 2 and 3. I have from 8:30 to 10PM with my husband to hang out; watch TV. I usually go to bed by 10, read a bit and then go to sleep by 10:30.

I do laundry during the week - usually one or two loads a night. I have weekend duty at work once a month and that usually requires about 4-6 hours of coverage.

My husband is a stay at home dad; he does all the shopping. We split the cooking. I do most of the cleaning. He does all the outside stuff and house maintenance. I clean on weekends only.

My weekends are spent cleaning; hanging out with the kids and generally doing a lot of nothing. And catching up on sleep. I usually cook on Sundays - things that we can eat easily during the week (soup, meatballs, whatnot).
posted by beachhead2 at 8:37 PM on November 10, 2007

No matter what I do, I always seem to retain about 3. I think I just need that many, even though at times I would rather go with less.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:45 PM on November 10, 2007

I'm single and share a house. I get up at 6, commute, work, get home by 5 or so. I cook for myself and do my own chores and shopping. I usually go to bed at about midnight (6 hours or less of sleep per night, but it suits me), so I have about 30 hours of my own time during the week. Minus housecleaning and shopping, figure another 25 on the weekend. I consider the time I spend on cooking on the weekends to be hobby time.

So: 55 hours of free time per week. Less when I'm dating.
posted by ten pounds of inedita at 8:50 PM on November 10, 2007

During the week, I have about 7 hours of free time per day, with a bump up to 8 if I ignore the idea of excluding cooking (something I greatly enjoy and would do even if totally unnecessary). I wake up at 6A, spend a half hour getting ready, then another half hour of free time (usually spent checking sports scores and RSS feeds that updated overnight). I'll leave for work at 7A, and have no free time again until I get home for the night at 5P. At that point, the rest of the day is free time for me until I hit the hay around midnight (give or take a half hour for random chores). Again, an hour or so of that is taken up by cooking, so you can count that or not. So in a typical work week, I say I roughly spend 50 hours working (including commute), 30 hours sleeping, 5 hours cooking, 5 hours on random required things (showers, chores, etc), and 30 hours free.

Weekends, on the flip side, are almost entirely free. Take out an hour for a few more random chores, an hour for grocery shopping, and sixteen hours for sleeping. That leaves me with 30 hours left free, or the exact same amount I have during the work week.

I am 24, unmarried, and without children. That means I have fewer responsibilities and almost certainly don't spend as much time cleaning and such as many others. All in all, I feel like I have plenty of free time to spend on a variety of activities that make me happy.
posted by mjgrady at 9:03 PM on November 10, 2007

I work a 9/80 schedule, so it's 44 hours one week, 36 hours the next. Of course, it's occasionally more.

I make certain to get 7 to 8 hours a sleep at night, so once you factor in 9 hours at the office, an hour for lunch, a half hour total of commuting (I live close to work), a half hour of getting ready in the morning, and about an hour of figuring out what planet I'm on/cooking dinner/housework in the evening, I'm left with about 4 hours of free time per day during the week. In practice, however, I find it's more like 3 hours.

On weekends, I usually spend 3-4 hours total (for the entire weekend, that is) on errands that take me away from home. I don't do much housework on the weekend; I do little bits here and there throughout the week and clean up after myself as I go, so nothing piles up with the exception of laundry. And doing laundry doesn't require much time. For all intents and purposes, weekends are mine to do as I please, and I sure as hell take advantage of it. Getting a three day weekend every other week is especially nice.

As for your specific questions, I work at an office, have no kids, and do everything myself. Other relevant things? I don't stay up late or sleep in on the weekend. I've found that a lot of my friends who always complain about a lack of free time waste away a fair chunk of the weekend in bed. I can't even tell you the last time I slept longer than 9 hours in a single night... my body won't even allow it anymore.
posted by jal0021 at 9:15 PM on November 10, 2007

I sleep from 11PM-8AM. I feel like this cuts into my free time more than anything else, but I cannot function like a human adult on less than 8+ hours of sleep. Neither can my husband. 8-9AM is getting ready, plus maybe 15 minutes checking email and RSS feeds. Work and commute takes out 9-6:30PM. I'm actually a graduate student, so my time is flexible during the day, but in an effort to maintain sanity I treat it like a job and stay in my lab whenever I'm not in class.

6:30-8PM is when I cook, eat, and do daily cleaning-up stuff. I'm not currently exercising regularly, but when I am, that's an extra 40-60 minutes a few times a week that takes up space here. That leaves 8-11PM for totally free time. We have no kids, so this time is mostly spent Reading the Internet, reading books, playing games, or playing with the cat.

On the weekends we do all the major cleaning, grocery shopping, and laundry (and sleep in a few extra hours). Also I frequently have homework on the weekends, but even so, let's say about 8 hours per day Saturday and Sunday.
posted by miagaille at 9:23 PM on November 10, 2007

2 to 3 hours free time a day. I work 40 hours a week in an office, plus approximately 45mins-1hr commute each way. I have 1 child (an infant). No outsourcing of any household tasks, except sometimes we order food to be delivered. I am not counting the time when my son is awake on weekdays as free time, since I spend that time feeding, bathing, dressing and entertaining him and cannot do what I want, although its still enjoyable to do most of that.
posted by Joh at 9:27 PM on November 10, 2007

I'm a student who doesn't study much and has a really really cushy job, when I'm at work I'm usually just waiting for (non-existant) students to come in with questions, so I can do whatever I want if I'm in the office. If you count that as free time (which I do) then I'd say I spend maybe 2 or 3 hours a day doing 'necessary stuff', like studying or chores, and the rest is free time or sleep.
posted by jacalata at 11:17 PM on November 10, 2007

I'd say about 3.5 hours each weekday to do whatever I want to, and to spend time with my husband (married, no kids). Get up at 7:30am to get ready for work. Work from 9am to a little after 6pm, get home about 6:30pm. Exercise, tidy up, and/or cook, done at 8pm. Go to bed about 11, read for half an hour, sleep 8 hours.
On weekends, I'd say about 8-10 hours to do whatever, with the remaining time taken up with laundry, grocery shopping, doing errands, etc. We don't outsource cleaning, but I use Peapod to order groceries about once a month, for staples and heavy items. We also eat out fairly regularly.
posted by gemmy at 11:20 PM on November 10, 2007

Wow. My schedule is kinda fucked up.

Work from 9 or 9:30am (8:30am on Monday, the only hard start time) to usually 9pm. Once or twice a week I work until midnight. This is at the office.

Usually 5-10hrs of weekend work, sometimes from home, sometimes at the office. Depends whether the VPN connection is slow or not.

So that's 60-70 hrs/week working. How much of this is actual work is debatable (surfing the net, eating lunch, etc). My commute is a <5>
On weekdays, I get about 6 hrs/night sleep. Weekends, about 10-12.

I do my own laundry, but no other housework (outsource for $). I don't cook anything (outsourcing for $ again). If I add up laundry, showering, paying bills and running minor errands I think it'd be about 7-10 hours a week.

So I probably end up with 40-45 hrs of free time a week. Not including time spent eating. I guess I basically buy my own free time. I should get a hobby.
posted by mullacc at 11:21 PM on November 10, 2007

Wow. My schedule is kinda fucked up.

Work from 9 or 9:30am (8:30am on Monday, the only hard start time) to usually 9pm. Once or twice a week I work until midnight. This is at the office.

Usually 5-10hrs of weekend work, sometimes from home, sometimes at the office. Depends whether the VPN connection is slow or not.

So that's 60-70 hrs/week working. How much of this is actual work is debatable (surfing the net, eating lunch, etc). My commute is a ~5 minute walk, which has been awesome but comes at the cost of ridiculous rent.

On weekdays, I get about 6 hrs/night sleep. Weekends, about 10-12.

I do my own laundry, but no other housework (outsource for $). I don't cook anything (outsourcing for $ again). If I add up laundry, showering, paying bills and running minor errands I think it'd be about 7-10 hours a week.

So I probably end up with 40-45 hrs of free time a week. Not including time spent eating. I guess I basically buy my own free time. I should get a hobby.
posted by mullacc at 11:23 PM on November 10, 2007

*sigh* I work 8:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., so about 9 hours a day, 5 days a week. I try not to work on weekends, other than my weekly freelance gig, which takes about 3.5 hours out of each Sunday.

I fall asleep by 10:30 or 11 p.m. most nights, and wake at 6:30 a.m. weekdays. So I'm getting about 8 hours of sleep per night, which isn't actually enough for me—I do better with 10-12. I sleep in on the weekend, with the goal of 12 hours of sleep each night those nights.

The drive home after work usually takes about half an hour, so I get home between 5:30 p.m. (on a good day) and 6 p.m. (on a crappy, lil'-late-leaving, lots-of-traffic day). I have to eat at some point in there, so figuring out what to eat/going to get it/eating it usually takes another hour out of the evening.

So all that gives me maybe 3 hours of do-whatever-I-want time per weeknight, plus maybe 7 good hours per day on the weekend, and that's not nearly enough.

I need a lot more unscheduled time than 30 hours per week. Ugh.
posted by limeonaire at 12:18 AM on November 11, 2007

I'm a freelancer and I work 10-40 hours per week, sometimes at home and sometimes on site. So figuring out my free time is difficult at first glance, but I guess when it comes down to it, my evenings are free time. When I work at home I give myself liberty starting at 5pm, and when I work on site I'm home by 6-7. So then it's just a matter of how long I want to stay awake. :) But I mean, I could count at least 5 hours a day as free time. I'm a single, childless homebody.
posted by iguanapolitico at 12:36 AM on November 11, 2007

Average week?

Monday:
Wake up 10am, check emails and news websites.
Clean apartment. Shop for food. Pay bills. Do laundry etc
Evening all my own.
Sleep at 1am.

Tuesday - Friday:
Wake up 10am, check emails and news websites.
Work 11am - 6pm (5 minute commute)
Tidy apartment, cook dinner, load dishwasher etc (1hr)
Evenings all my own. Will go to cinema / gig / eat out once or twice with girlfriend.
Sleep at 1am.

Saturday:
Wake up 10am, check emails and news websites.
Work 11am - 11pm (5 minute commute)
Go to bar / club with girlfriend.
Sleep 4am

Sunday:
Sleep late.
Rest of the day my own. Usually quality time with girlfriend, cook food, read newspapers, sex etc.
Sleep at 1am.



WORK = 40 hrs approx
FREE TIME: 40 - 50 hrs approx

Early 30's, unmarried, live alone, no kids. Happy, happy days.
posted by brautigan at 1:01 AM on November 11, 2007

I work 40 hrs a week, and every single hour outside of that in my life is "free". So, what 125 hours not including sleeping?
posted by tristeza at 1:30 AM on November 11, 2007

I didn't answer very well before, so here goes:

I work three days a week, about twenty-one hours total. I also have about eight to ten hours work besides that.

I'm single and cook/clean myself, although I have a housekeeper come twice a month for three hours to do the heavier cleaning.

I sleep about 5-6 hours a night.

This means I probably average about twelve hours of free time per day. I often fill a third of that playing music, and the rest online and reading.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 2:01 AM on November 11, 2007

My free time is approximately 30 minutes in the morning (I try to get up earlier than I absolutely have to so I have some time to just relax and wake up slowly), and 4-5 hours at night, on weekdays. Weekends, it probably works out to about 10-12 free hours per day.

That all varies a lot because I freelance in an erratic sort of way in addition to my 40-hour-a-week desk job. Some weeks I have an hour of freelance work, some weeks I have 20 hours. Probably it averages out to about 3-4 freelance hours a week. Plus 45-90 total minutes of commute time per weekday, depending whether I'm traveling by bus or catching a ride with my partner.

No kids, but four cats, so I do spend a fair amount of time administering their various medications, preparing special diets that two of them eat for medical problems, cleaning litterboxes, and refilling water fountains. I don't outsource housecleaning but also don't do a lot more than the bare minimum to keep us all in clean clothing, dishes, and litterboxes. I never cook on weekdays; either we order in, my partner cooks, or we go out. On weekends I bake and make breakfasts, but that's fun for me as much as it is housework. I'd like to change this since it's hard on my finances, but usually having the free time to relax rather than grocery-shop and cook wins out.
posted by Stacey at 4:58 AM on November 11, 2007

Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour...

Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.

I'm in consulting (yes, one of the bobs, ironically), so I travel a good deal, but when I'm settled on a project, I'm typically in the office from 8am to 7pm, and my commute is usually negligible (under 5 minutes). I'm in a country right now where having a maid is fairly typical so my cleaning / laundry / dishes / etc. are all outsourced, included with my rent. Hardly ever cook, usually eat out, or pick up and bring home. No kids, sleep about 6 hours a night.

Basically, after 55 hours of work, 42 hours of sleep, and maybe 15 hours for the necessities when not in the office, I'd say that leaves me with roughly 56 hours free.

Its amazing that I can't get more done with that much time.
posted by allkindsoftime at 5:52 AM on November 11, 2007

I work two part-time jobs (I just quit the third one) so I work around 50-60 hours a week, usually seven days a week with maybe one day off month if I am lucky. That one day is usually spent doing major time-consuming errands or big jobs around the house. I wake up at 7 am every day because of my three year old, get the children ready for school, walk them to school and walk home, I get about an hour and a half at home to do housework, pay bills, run errands, and babysit a non-related child, return to school to pick up one of my children, make lunch, clean some more/run errands, drop off the child I babysit, pick up my other child from school, go to my babysitter and then off to work. I get home around 10 pm and pretty much collapse into bed (I am pregnant so I am exhausted all the time). I try to spend at least half an hour reading in bed (for work) before I fall asleep. I work every weekend so I spend less time at home and more at work. My commute on weekends can be over 4 hours each day because of babystting. I do not outsource any housework or errands but since becoming pregnant I have been eating more convience foods (I used to bake my own bread every day ~ sob). I usually read metafilter at work (but right now I am running between the stove and the computer to write this). I do not watch TV or even movies very much. I have no idea what free time looks like. My mother thinks I should do more housework.
posted by saucysault at 6:15 AM on November 11, 2007

I work at a weekly newspaper in a relatively small town, so my work schedule is extremely erratic.

Monday: Work 8 a.m. to 7 or 8 p.m. writing stories, covering events, answering phone, no lunch or dinner break; may work later if there's something breaking (yes, even small towns can have breaking news/events). Get home around 8:30 or 9 p.m., eat cereal, watch TV to wind down for 30 minutes, read for 1 hour, sleep.
Tuesday: Work 7:30 a.m. to usually 7 p.m., no lunch or dinner break; writing, editing, paginating; dealing with computer crashes; sometimes covering meetings in the evening. Get home around 8:30 or 9 p.m.; eat cereal, watch TV, read, go to bed.
Wednesday: Work 7:30 a.m. to 1 or 2 p.m. paginating and sending (electronically) pages to print shop in a city 100-plus miles away, dealing with computer crashes every other page or so; 2-2:30 p.m. lunch. Catch up on e-mail, cover events (usually schools). Get home around 5:30 or 6 p.m. on a good day; pay bills, play with cat, watch Jeopardy with spouse (whose schedule is worse than mine), fix sandwich or burger, read, bed.
Thursday: Listen to complaints about what didn't get in paper, what we did wrong, what we should put in next week's paper. Cover events. Home early (5-5:30 p.m.); read; bed around 10 or 11.
Friday: Cover lots of activities, especially schools. Erratic schedule because of this, so can't say what the hours are...usually into the night.
Saturday: Cover weekend events around town and in area. If it's a festival-type weekend or the local college is hosting seminars or workshops, may work a 6- to 8-hour day. Take recyclables to recycling center. Usually have evening off to vegetate or go to dinner with friends and/or play with lonely little cat.
Sunday: Work on upcoming week's paper, write stories, check e-mail; this is usually a short work day, so I can do laundry, clean kitchen and bathroom (spouse does not do housework of any kind, but I do love him).

Time for myself? Any 30 minutes or an hour I can find. And then it starts all over again. Weekly newspaper editors and/or writers/photographers never really have a day off unless they get sick. But it's a good life in a wonderful town with awesome people. I could be stuck in some hellhole, or I could be unemployed like so many newspaper people these days, so should I complain?
posted by Smalltown Girl at 6:25 AM on November 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

Not enough.

-I work a part time job that takes 24 hours/week (4 days a week), traveling to and from is almost 2 hours per day. Sometimes I get called into work an extra day.

-I work another freelance job that takes up 20 hours a week, I work from home.

-I do another freelance job that takes 1-2 hours a week, also from home.

- no children, I mostly microwave food, not much cleaning to be done, once every few weeks does the trick.

-spend time with my gf 3 days a week after my first part time job and on the weekends - does that count as free time?

Overall I'd estimate I have about 2 hours a day to myself.
posted by Sonic_Molson at 7:54 AM on November 11, 2007

I drive an hour to spend 8.5 hours a day at work, so I am away from home for 10.5 hours. I try to get an hour's exercise in every evening after work (probably only manage about half of the time to actually do this), and I try to get 7-9 hours sleep, and I need an hour to get ready in the morning, leaving me with between 3 and 5 hours in the evening, which is usually free time - some days I need to do laundry, or cook meals, or clean the house, or do some freelance work, but most days I can spend that time doing whatever I want. I spend a large portion of it writing, which could be considered work or could be considered a hobby, depending on your definitions.

My weekends are usually my own to do whatever I want, though I try to do a lot of cooking so I won't have to do any during the week. I don't have children.

I don't outsource housework, except in the sense that my husband does about half of it. We're in a one-and-a-half bedroom apartment, so there isn't much housework compared to people who have to maintain a house and yard. We order in or eat out probably about twice a week.
posted by joannemerriam at 8:01 AM on November 11, 2007

I spend about 30 or 40 hours a week at my workplace, not all of that time spent working, and most of it spent doing work that I enjoy, and maybe a couple hours a month doing work-related stuff that I neither enjoy nor get paid for. The rest of it is all free time.

Or, uh, what tristeza said.
posted by box at 9:06 AM on November 11, 2007

5:50 am -- 7:15 am: Get ready for work.
7:15 am -- 7:40 am: Bicycle commute
7:45 am -- 4:30 pm: Work (schmerk).
4:30 pm -- 5:00 pm: Commute home (uphill on the way back).
5:00 pm -- 5:30 pm: Coffee+Shower.
5:30 pm -- 6:00 pm: Go to class or writers' group.
7:30 pm -- 9:30 PM: Food shopping and dinner.
9:30 pm to when I fall asleep is weekday free time.

My weekends are pretty much laundry, food shopping and un-disgust-orating my apartment and cooking. And a study group on Saturday afternoon. And photo walks. And more writing. And more studying for my class. The rest is set aside for hanging out in cat format.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 9:34 AM on November 11, 2007

I have typically 24 hours of free time each day, and have done for the last 3 months, although on occasional days (perhaps a few times a month) I've had to do some "work" for a couple of hours. This is because I sold my business several months ago.

And.. let me say. It sucks. Okay, it rules in some aspects, but with so much free time you get to thinking how rather pointless is if there's nothing to fill it with. So.. that's what I'm looking for now! The lesson, however, is.. there can be too much of a good thing.
posted by wackybrit at 9:44 AM on November 11, 2007

fewer than 3 waking hours per day.

How many hours a week you work on average 50 including commute

Whether you freelance / work from home, or work in an office office
Whether you have children or not no

Whether you outsource things like housework / cooking, or if you do this yourself all chores we do ourselves
Anything else you think might be relevant or interestingi get about 6-7 hours of sleep a nite.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 1:48 PM on November 11, 2007

I'm an undergraduate electrical engineering student, and I have no truly free time, only time that I am ignoring my responsibilities.
posted by phrontist at 3:59 PM on November 11, 2007

Undergrad science student here. I still live at home. At the moment I don't work (damn equine influenza has temporarily put me out of a job) but that would be anywhere between 5-9 hours on a Saturday.
During semester I'm on campus 4-5 days a week (commute an hour or so each way) and in class hours 3-5 hours a day. I'd probably average 2-3 hours on campus "free" time, where I should be in the library but I end up doing other stuff. I'm on the executive of a rather large club so that stuff is normally done in this time, or I have free time. When I'm home I help my mum out with cooking/cleaning/stuff but any time I'm not at uni or work is virtually free (depending on the time of semester and assignments/workload). I also aim to sleep 8 hours a night, because i feel like a zombie on anything less.

So I'd say a grand total of way too many hours of free time, most of which I don't achieve anyting in.
posted by cholly at 4:44 PM on November 11, 2007

I work around 45 hours a week. It's largely telecommute, although I do work at the office 1-2 days a week (1.5hr commute each way).

I spend, on average, about an hour a day doing living chores - groceries, cleaning, etc - and the cleaning isn't really sufficient. I spend perhaps 1-2 hours a day reading, and on average, 2 hours a day socialising. I don't often take lunch breaks during a work day. My husband and I split the cooking duties - sometimes I do it for fun, sometimes as a chore.

I'm currently in recovery from a schedule which afforded me about an hour of free time per day during the week, and about 3 hours a day on weekends. That wasn't enough.

I'm frequently not well. I'd say this consumes, as an average, an hour a day (which is to say, one day or two a month, I'm totally useless - being sick isn't 'free time').

I spend about 8 hours a day in bed, attempting to sleep. I require a good 8 hours a night to function optimally, and often sleep for 12 hours at a stretch on weekends. I also nap to make up the time if I have a bad night.

I guess, on the whole, I have around 3-4 hours of free time a day, at present.
posted by ysabet at 4:52 PM on November 11, 2007

Monday thru Thursday
8:00 am - 5:00 pm- Work
5:30 pm - 6:50 pm- Class
7:00 pm - 9:15 pm- Class
10:00 pm - 12:00 am- Get home eat, watch tv, clean, study, etc.

Friday
8:00 am - 5:00 pm- Work

5:00 pm Friday to 12:00 am Sunday--ENJOY LIFE

I am a 19 year old single male with no kids. I live in an apt by myself!!!
posted by kowboy at 9:20 AM on November 12, 2007

Thank you all very much for your responses :)!! Sorry it's taken me a while to respond but there were a lot more replies than I anticipated and I needed time to read through them all properly.

I love how so many of us have such varied lifestyles! Your responses have really helped me to realise that the 3 - 4 hours of free time I tend to get each day is quite acceptable, and to count as free time things I didn't previously.

Thank you again!
posted by katala at 3:59 PM on December 14, 2007