Free shift calendar
21 on 7 off shift calendar 2026
21 on 7 off is the 3 and 1 roster: three weeks on site, one week at home. It turns up on remote mine sites, long marine rotations and overseas projects, wherever the journey is long enough that a shorter swing would be spent travelling.
This page draws the whole of 2026 for a crew starting January 1: 12 hours shifts for twenty one days, then seven off, all year. The 28 day cycle is exactly four weeks, so the swings never drift off their weekdays.
Suits remote sites where travel is expensive and the money is the point. Three weeks on with one week back is the hardest of the common rotations on a family.
Quick facts
- Cycle length
- 28 days
- Shifts per cycle
- 21 on, 7 off
- Shift length
- 12 hours
- Hours a week
- 63 on average
- Crews for 24/7 cover
- 2.7
- Full weekends off in 2026
- 13
21 on 7 off (3 and 1), 2026
The grid shows a crew whose cycle starts January 1, 2026; other crews run the same rotation offset by a few days. The 28 day cycle divides evenly into weeks, so the rotation never drifts: whatever weekdays a crew works in January, it works in December. Crews on other phases can see very different weekends. To line the pattern up with your real start date, use the interactive shift pattern visualizer.
The 2026 numbers
Full weekends off
13
Jan 1 crew; all crews: 11.1 on average (0 to 13)
Night shifts
0
274 day shifts
Recovery days
0
no night shifts to sleep off
Longest stretch
21
consecutive shifts
How many hours is 21 on 7 off in 2026?
Worked in full, 21 on 7 off in 2026 comes to 274 shifts of 12 hours: 3,288 hours, an average of 63 hours a week across the whole year. These figures assume every scheduled shift is worked: no overtime, no swaps, no sick days, no leave.
Put 21 on 7 off 2026 in your calendar
One file, every shift of the year, ready for Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook. Shifts import with a default time of 7am to 7pm. Edit the times after import if your site runs different hours.
That file is the textbook rotation. Your real roster has swaps, overtime and cover shifts that no pattern predicts, so photograph it with Lumical and every shift lands in Apple Calendar. We make Lumical, so read this with that in mind.
Get Lumical on the App StorePaste this into your page. The credit line sits outside the frame on purpose, so it stays a real link.
A perfect rotation fits in a calendar file. A real roster does not.
Swaps, overtime, and holiday cover break the pattern. Reading a real roster is what the Lumical app does: photograph it and every shift lands in your calendar, overnights included. We make it, so weigh the recommendation accordingly.
Common questions
What is a 3 and 1 roster?
Three weeks on site, one week at home. In days that is 21 on 7 off, a 28 day cycle. It is the longest of the common fly-in fly-out rosters and the one most often flagged in fatigue research.
How many days a year is 21 on 7 off in 2026?
274 shifts and 3,288 hours, an average of 63 hours a week. Three quarters of the year on site, before travel.
How many weekends off does 21 on 7 off give in 2026?
13 for this crew, 0 to 13 across crews. One week off in four is at most thirteen weekends, and the 28 day cycle locks which ones they are for the whole year.
Why do sites run 21 on 7 off at all?
Travel cost and continuity. Where a swing change means a charter flight or a boat, three weeks of work per trip beats two. Crews trade the time at home for the money and for fewer journeys.
How many days will you work on 21 on 7 off in 2026?
274 shifts, which comes to 3,288 hours at 12 hours each. That leaves 91 days off. The count moves by a shift or two depending on where your crew sits in the cycle on January 1.
How many crews does 21 on 7 off need to cover 24 hours a day?
2.7. The cycle runs 28 days with 21 of them worked, so keeping one position filled every day takes 1.3 crews, and a 12 hours shift needs 2 positions to fill the day. That does not land on a whole number, which is why sites on this rotation cover the gap with overtime or an extra crew.
How do I get this calendar into Apple Calendar?
Download the .ics file on this page and open it on your iPhone or Mac. Apple Calendar offers to add the whole year in one go. That covers the textbook rotation. A real roster has swaps, overtime and cover shifts, and for that we make Lumical: photograph the roster and every shift lands in Apple Calendar. We make it, so read that with the obvious bias in mind.