The Changing Nature of Work: What Can We Learn from Time Use Diaries?

We use new time diary data from the UK Office for National Statistics (April 2020–March 2025) to examine the persistence of remote work and its relationship to time use, well-being, and self-perceived productivity. Remote workers spend less time in paid work and over an hour less commuting per day than on-site workers. They reallocate this time toward sleep, unpaid work and caregiving, and health-related leisure, and exhibit greater temporal flexibility by shifting work away from early mornings and mid-day hours toward the late afternoon. Despite these adjustments, remote workers report lower instantaneous enjoyment and self-assessed productivity whilst working. Our findings suggest that the sustained use of remote work is driven less by perceived gains in productivity or well-being in work and more by the avoidance of commuting and increased flexibility in non-work activities. These results have implications for the design of hybrid work arrangements and contribute to broader discussions on time allocation, labour supply, and commuting behaviour.