DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-8741-1
title: United Kingdom Time Use Survey Sequence Pre and During COVID-19 Social Restrictions, 2016-2020
title: United Kingdom Time Use Survey

description: &lt;p&gt;In 2016 the Centre for Time Use Research (CTUR) developed a new online Click and Drag Diary Instrument (CaDDI), collecting population-representative (quota sample) time use diary data from Dynata's large market research panel. The same instrument was fielded using the same UK market research panel in May-June 2020 - at the peak period of the COVID-19 lockdown, providing a real-time comparison with 2016 behaviour, and again in late August 2020 following the relaxation of social restrictions in July 2020.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The surveys consisted of individual questionnaires including information on the standard socio-demographic variables (including health status), and between 1-3 time use diaries per respondent, recording activities, location, device use, enjoyment and co-presence throughout the diary day. Overall, 3,002 diaries were collected across the 3 waves, allowing comparison of behavioural change (as represented by time use) between the baseline (in 2016) and two periods marked by different levels of social restrictions. Further information can be found on the CTUR &lt;a title="Time use diaries and the Covid-19 crisis" href="https://www.timeuse.org/time-use-diaries-and-the-covid-19-crisis" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;Time use diaries and the Covid-19 crisis&lt;/a&gt; webpage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The deposited data forms part of a wider project of ESRC-funded time use research - &lt;a title="New Frontiers for Time Use Research" href="https://www.timeuse.org/sites/default/files/NFTUR%20Work%20Programme.pdf"&gt;New Frontiers for Time Use Research&lt;/a&gt; (NFTUR). Information on time spent in the various activities of daily life provides a comprehensive and exhaustive basis for summarising the activities of a society. Yet people in general do not know how much time they devote to their daily activities (readers consider, for example, how many hours spent in their job, or doing housework, or asleep, last week.) For this reason, we have to adopt a special research technique. Rather than asking a set of direct questions, such as "how much time did you spend in this or that activity", people are instead asked to to list, in sequence, all the things they have done, with, as precisely as they are able to recall, the start and end times of each successive activity, from 4am yesterday to 4am today; the time use diary.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The CTUR has experimented by comparing day-diaries of this sort with worn camera records (The &lt;a title="CAPTURE24" href="https://www.timeuse.org/CAPTURE24"&gt;CAPTURE24&lt;/a&gt; project) and has demonstrated that, though uncertainty about precise start times introduces a random error, the diary technique produces overall estimates of time devoted to the various broad classes of activity (paid work, household chores, childcare, travel, media use, social and solitary leisure, sleep) which are virtually identical to the total durations estimated from the camera records. The CTUR is the world-leading specialist in collecting and analysing nationally representative samples of time diaries, from both adults and children. It produces highly original sociological, economic, and other research (for example in the fields of public health, transport, environmental sustainability) with the results of its time use analysis. It is building up a unique, historical database, with UK surveys from every decade since the 1950s, and from 25 other countries from across the developed world, the &lt;a title="Multinational Time Use Study" href="https://www.timeuse.org/mtus"&gt;Multinational Time Use Study&lt;/a&gt; (MTUS), comprising a total of more than a million-and-a-quarter diary-days so far.&lt;/p&gt;