Free shift calendar

6 on 4 off shift calendar 2026

6 on 4 off is a ten day cycle: six shifts, four rest days. UK police forces run it as two earlies, two lates and two nights before the rest days, which is where the other name, 2-2-2-4, comes from. Security contracts and some ambulance trusts use the same shape.

Shift lengths differ by force. Published rotas run anywhere from 8 to 10 hours, and some sites run 12s. This calendar uses 10 hours, which is the length that produces the 42.4 hour week a 40 hour contract plus rest day working comes to. Check your own rota before you use the hours figure for anything that matters.

Suits response teams that need earlies, lates and nights covered by one crew. Six shifts in a row across three different start times is hard on sleep.

Quick facts

Cycle length
10 days
Shifts per cycle
6 on, 4 off
Shift length
10 hours
Hours a week
42.4 on average
Crews for 24/7 cover
4
Full weekends off in 2026
10
6 on 4 off calendar 2026: twelve months with every worked day marked
Year at a glance. Open the full size image to save it.

6 on 4 off (2-2-2-4), 2026

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
MonWedFriSun
Day shift Night shift Recovery day Off Full weekend off

The grid shows a crew whose cycle starts January 1, 2026; other crews run the same rotation offset by a few days. The 10 day cycle does not divide evenly into weeks, so the rotation drifts through the weekdays. Other crews get a similar year, just shifted. To line the pattern up with your real start date, use the interactive shift pattern visualizer.

The 2026 numbers

Full weekends off

10

Jan 1 crew; all crews: 10.4 on average (10 to 11)

Night shifts

73

148 day shifts

Recovery days

36

first day off after nights

Longest stretch

6

consecutive shifts

How many hours is 6 on 4 off in 2026?

Worked in full, 6 on 4 off in 2026 comes to 221 shifts of 10 hours: 2,210 hours, an average of 42.4 hours a week across the whole year. 33% of those hours are night work: 730 hours that cross midnight. These figures assume every scheduled shift is worked: no overtime, no swaps, no sick days, no leave.

Put 6 on 4 off 2026 in your calendar

One file, every shift of the year, ready for Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook. Shifts import with default times: day shifts 7am to 5pm, night shifts 7pm into the next morning (5am). Edit the times after import if your site runs different hours.

Download the 2026 calendar (.ics) Download the PDF Download as Excel (.xlsx) Download as CSV

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.

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Common questions

How does the 6 on 4 off shift pattern work?

Six shifts, then four rest days, then the same again. On the police version the six are two early shifts, two late shifts and two nights, in that order, so one crew covers the clock without handing over to another rota.

How many hours a year is 6 on 4 off in 2026?

2,210 hours on this calendar: 221 shifts of 10 hours, an average of 42.4 hours a week. Forces that run 8 hour shifts land nearer a 34 hour week, so the figure moves with the rota.

How many full weekends off does 6 on 4 off give in 2026?

10 for the crew shown, 10 to 11 across crews. The ten day cycle does not divide into a week, so the rest days walk through the weekdays and every crew ends up near the same number.

Why do the two nights come last?

Forward rotation. Moving earlies to lates to nights follows the body clock forward, which is easier to adapt to than the other direction, and it puts the rest days straight after the nights so the first one is spent asleep.

How many recovery days does 6 on 4 off have in 2026?

36. Each block ends on a night shift, so the first rest day starts with a morning in bed. That turns 144 rest days on paper into 108 usable ones.

How many days will you work on 6 on 4 off in 2026?

221 shifts, which comes to 2,210 hours at 10 hours each. That leaves 144 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 6 on 4 off need to cover 24 hours a day?

4. The cycle runs 10 days with 6 of them worked, so keeping one position filled every day takes 1.7 crews, and a 10 hours shift needs 2.4 positions to fill the day.

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.

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