For people looking after home: time for yourself counts too
Looking after a home is real work. Women in India spend about 289 minutes a day on unpaid work at home. It's easy for your own plans to come last.
What people looking after home often put off
- Is it too late to do the thing you've always wanted to do?Learning music, writing a book, a trip, a new skill: weigh how much your postponed dream matters to you, and find the very first step.
- What putting off a daily quiet practice costs youCount the hours of prayer, meditation or journaling you've missed against the time you planned.
- Go back to studying: how much it weighs on youWeigh how much going back to study matters to you, and find one first step for today. Many big exams have no age limit.
- What putting off learning a skill or language costs youCount the practice hours you'd already have if you'd started on time, against your own goal.
- Free health check-up in India at 30 and overIndia screens everyone 30 and over for blood pressure, diabetes and three common cancers for free. See how long it's been since your last check-up.
- Hair fall, acne or pigmentation: the dermatologist visit you keep putting offHair loss treatment tends to work best when it starts early. See how long you've waited, and book one small step this month.
- Strength training after 30: the sessions you've missedAfter 30, muscle mass drops by about 3% to 8% a decade. WHO suggests strength work 2 days a week. See the sessions you've missed since you meant to start.
- Daily sunscreen and skin ageing: what skipping days adds up toIn a 4.5-year trial, daily sunscreen users showed no detectable increase in skin ageing. See how many days a year your skin goes without it.
- Reconnect with an old friend: how much it weighs on youWeigh how much a friendship you've let drift matters to you, and find one easy first message to send today.
- Call your brother, sister or cousins: how much it weighs on youWeigh how much staying close to your brother, sister or cousins matters to you, and send one easy message today.
- How many weekends you have leftCount the weekends ahead at the average for your age in India, and how many went by while you waited to use them well.
- The trip you keep putting off: how many have slipped byCount the trips that didn't happen while you waited, with friends, your partner, your parents or on your own, and pick the next one.
- Give back or volunteer: how much it weighs on youWeigh how much giving some of your time matters to you, and find one small way to start this week.
Everyone's basics
Health, money and the people you love, at every age.
- Sleep debt: how many hours of sleep you've missedCount the hours of sleep you've missed against your aim, and the 7 or more hours a night that sleep doctors say adults need.
- What putting off exercise costs you, in hoursSee the hours of movement you've missed against your own weekly aim, and WHO's 150 minutes a week.
- Screen time calculator: your phone hours in days a yearTurn your daily phone hours into full days a year, and see how many days your own aim would give back.
- What waiting to start saving costs youSee what a late start costs your own monthly saving plan, in today's money after tax, on low, middle and high growth paths.
- How many days you have left with your parentsCount the days together at your current pace, and how many more your plan would add. Gentle maths, from Tim Urban's The Tail End.
- Talk to someone about how you feel: free help in India (Tele-MANAS 14416)If you've been meaning to talk to someone about how you feel, India's free Tele-MANAS helpline is on 14416, any time. Weigh how much it's been on your mind.
Meet someone like you
Meena, 38
Looks after home. An example, not a real person.
Start with a list like Meena's
Questions people ask
I don't earn a salary. Is this for me?
Yes. Most of what's here is about your time, your health, your learning and the people you love, not a salary.
Where do my answers go?
Nowhere. They stay in the link on your phone, like every answer on this site. Only people you share the link with can see them.
Source
Time Use Survey 2024 (2025): An average for everyone aged 6 and over. It's higher for women aged 15 to 59.
We show what waiting costs on your own plans. We never tell you what to buy or invest in.