Productivity Calculators
Deep work hours.
Start from the hours in your working week, take away meetings, shallow work and everything else that is not focused work, and see what is left. Set a target to see how many hours you would need to win back. Runs in your browser; nothing is sent or stored.
Your week
Deep work
Fill the form and press Calculate.
Worked example
A 5-day week of 8-hour days has 40 hours. Take away 12 hours of meetings, 8 hours of email and admin and 4 hours of other overhead and 16 hours are left, 3.2 a day and 40% of the week. With a personal limit of 4 hours a day (20 a week) the cap does not bind, so deep work is 16 hours. A target of 20 hours leaves a shortfall of 4 hours to win back from meetings or admin.
How it works
Deep work = week hours - meetings - shallow work - other overhead, where week hours = working days x hours per day. If you set a daily cap, deep work cannot exceed cap x working days, and anything above it is shown as lost to the cap.
The tool does not say how many hours of focused work a person can sustain. That varies with the person and the task, which is why the cap is a number you choose. A target above your cap cannot be reached by freeing time alone, and the result says so.
The split between deep and shallow work is your call: the tool treats whatever you put in the shallow and overhead fields as not deep work.
Sources and basis (checked 2026-10-08): arithmetic on the numbers you enter; no external rate is applied.
FAQ
How many hours of deep work should I aim for?
There is no figure built into the tool. Enter your own target and, if you want, your own daily limit, and the result shows whether your week can support it.
What counts as shallow work?
Anything that is not demanding focused work, such as email, chat and routine admin. You decide what to include, and the tool subtracts it.
What is the daily cap for?
If you know you can only do so many hours of focused work in a day, the cap limits the weekly total. Time above the cap is shown as lost to the cap.
How do I free up more deep work time?
Compare the shortfall with your meeting and shallow hours. Cutting that many hours from either brings the week to the target, unless your daily cap is the limit.
Why does the tool report an error when my hours do not fit?
Meetings, shallow work and overhead together cannot be more than the hours in the week. Reduce one of them or increase the working days or hours.