An official website of the United States government.
Instructions for Study of Use of Time by Homemakers
Title
Instructions for Study of Use of Time by Homemakers
Date
1926-1931
Subject
Excerpt
Record each activity as soon as possible after it is performed, using a sharp pencil. Account for the entire 24 hours. The time need not be entered to the exact minute. The nearest 5 minutes is accurate enough. For example, 9:12 should be entered as 9:20. No entries should be made for less than 5 minutes. Activities taking less than 5 minutes should either be entered as 5 minutes or be ignored, the time being thrown in with the next activity.
The entries should state just what was done. For example, "housework," "care of baby," and "in town," are too vague; the particular activity done should be stated, as "made beds," "fed baby," "went to a movie."
Activities should not be combined. For example, if 2 hours were spent in filling out a mail order for food and writing personal letters those two activities should not be entered together in a space marked off for 2 hours, but the time spent on the mail order, say 50 minutes, should be marked off separately and labeled "mail order for food," and the remaining time, 1 hour and 10 minutes, marked off and labeled "writing personal letters."
When two activities are carried along together, first one being attended to and then the other, the time actually spent on each should be estimated and entered separately. For example, if baking is tended to along with ironing for 1 hour, the total time given to the baking, say 10 minutes, should be estimated and marked off separately and labeled "baking," and the remaining time, 5O minutes, marked off and labeled "ironing."
If however, two activities are actually done at the same time, they should be entered together. For example, if mending is done for 3O minutes while listening to the radio, the 30 minutes should be marked off as a whole and labeled "mending and listening to radio."
The entries should state just what was done. For example, "housework," "care of baby," and "in town," are too vague; the particular activity done should be stated, as "made beds," "fed baby," "went to a movie."
Activities should not be combined. For example, if 2 hours were spent in filling out a mail order for food and writing personal letters those two activities should not be entered together in a space marked off for 2 hours, but the time spent on the mail order, say 50 minutes, should be marked off separately and labeled "mail order for food," and the remaining time, 1 hour and 10 minutes, marked off and labeled "writing personal letters."
When two activities are carried along together, first one being attended to and then the other, the time actually spent on each should be estimated and entered separately. For example, if baking is tended to along with ironing for 1 hour, the total time given to the baking, say 10 minutes, should be estimated and marked off separately and labeled "baking," and the remaining time, 5O minutes, marked off and labeled "ironing."
If however, two activities are actually done at the same time, they should be entered together. For example, if mending is done for 3O minutes while listening to the radio, the 30 minutes should be marked off as a whole and labeled "mending and listening to radio."