Introduction to time use diaries

How we spend our time has long been of interest to researchers around the world. How we can most accurately capture that information is key and of particular interest to survey methodologists. A popular research method since the early 1960s has been the use of Time Use diaries, which have been used to provide new answers to pressing questions about changes in our work and home lives. It's a topic that Professor Jonathan Gershuny, Director of the Centre for Time Use Research at the University of Oxford knows a great deal about, having established the Multinational Time Use Study in the mid-1980s and worked with time use data for many years. Following a presentation by him and some of his research team at the ESRC Research Methods Festival 2016, he spoke to Chris Garrington for the Methods Podcast about Time Use diaries, how they work, what they tell us and how new technology is providing exciting new ways to clock how we spend our days.