Time-use research

Time-use research is an interdisciplinary field of study dedicated to learning how people allocate their time during an average day. Work intensity is the umbrella topic that incorporates time use, specifically time poverty.

The comprehensive approach to time-use research addresses a wide array of political, economic, social, and cultural issues through the use of time-use surveys. Surveys provide geographic data and time diaries that volunteers record using GPS technology and time diaries. Time-use research investigates human activity inside and outside the paid economy. It also looks at how these activities change over time.

Time-use research is not to be confused with time management. Time-use research is a social science interested in human behavioural patterns and seeks to build a body of knowledge to benefit a wide array of disciplines interested in how people use their time. Time management is an approach to time allocation with a specific managerial purpose aimed at increasing the efficiency or effectiveness of a given process.

Questions relating to time-use research arise in most professional and academic disciplines, notably:

Time-use researcher Dagfinn Aas classifies time into four meaningful categories: contracted time; committed time; necessary time; and free time.

Contracted time refers to the time a person allocates toward an agreement to work or study. When a person is using contracted time to commute this person understands that this travel time is directly related to paid work or study and any break in this commute time directly affects job or school-related performance.

Committed time, like contracted time, takes priority over necessary and free time because it is viewed as productive work. It refers to the time allocated to maintain a home and family. When a person is commuting using committed time this person may feel that the commute is a duty to family such as walking children to school or driving a spouse to work. Contracted and committed time users may feel that their commute is more important than the commute of necessary or free time users because their commute is productive work. Therefore, they may be more inclined to choose a motorized mode of travel.

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