What Is the Impact of Working from Home on Daily In-Home and Out-of-Home Activity Time Allocation?

What Is the Impact of Working from Home on Daily In-Home and Out-of-Home Activity Time Allocation? | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article What Is the Impact of Working from Home on Daily In-Home and Out-of-Home Activity Time Allocation? Masoud ArfaeiYazdiPour, Ali Mohammadi, Sina Asgharpour, Motahare (Yalda) Mohammadi, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7831614/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The widespread adoption of working from home (WFH) has reshaped many aspects of daily life, including time allocation to in-home and out-of-home activities. This study investigates how WFH influences time spent across twelve activity categories using data from the fourth wave of the COVID Future Survey, conducted nationwide in the U.S. The analysis focuses on employed individuals who report any frequency of remote work. Respondents detailed their time use on both WFH and non-WFH days for activities such as caregiving, household care, exercise, and socializing. Since time spent on each activity was collected as an ordinal measure, we apply random-effects ordered logit models to account for unobserved individual heterogeneity, controlling for a wide range of sociodemographic, household, housing, employment, and travel-related variables. Results indicate that WFH significantly increases time spent on several in-home activities, including household care, in-home exercise, entertainment, and personal business, as well as on out-of-home activities such as child or adult care and personal business. Conversely, time spent on out-of-home activities like eating out and socializing declines on WFH days. These findings highlight how WFH reshapes daily routines and provide valuable behavioral insights for transportation and urban policy. Incorporating these changes into activity-based travel demand models is essential for accurately forecasting travel patterns, while the results also inform broader planning strategies, such as flexible work scheduling, active travel promotion, and neighborhood-level service design, to ensure that the long-term expansion of WFH supports both mobility efficiency and household well-being. Work from Home Telework Daily Activity Time Allocation In-Home Activities Out-Of-Home Activities Random Effect Ordered Logit Model Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7831614","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":529241330,"identity":"e9c0bdca-c4f5-4742-96f0-5c81a8fb01d3","order_by":0,"name":"Masoud ArfaeiYazdiPour","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAn0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYJCCDwwVDDwghgSxOhhnMJwhWQtjG4RFnBbd9rMPG37OOyzD38B88DYPMVrMzqQbNvZuO8wjcYAt2Zo4LQfS2B/wArUYMPCYSROn5fwzxsa/c0Ba+L8RqeVGGmMzbwPYFjZitTxjbJY5ls4jcZjN2HIOcQ5LY2x8U2Ntz9/e/PDGG2K0IAAzacpHwSgYBaNgFOADAF+BLTfqgKwwAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"University of Illinois at Chicago","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Masoud","middleName":"","lastName":"ArfaeiYazdiPour","suffix":""},{"id":529241334,"identity":"6a2827db-46ae-4ee7-948c-6f20a15cfcaf","order_by":1,"name":"Ali Mohammadi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Illinois at Chicago","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ali","middleName":"","lastName":"Mohammadi","suffix":""},{"id":529241335,"identity":"2c39f955-e5ae-45cc-b969-f2aee515dbc1","order_by":2,"name":"Sina Asgharpour","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Illinois at Chicago","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sina","middleName":"","lastName":"Asgharpour","suffix":""},{"id":529241336,"identity":"2dde5091-bbff-4c0a-94fd-ab26466686e8","order_by":3,"name":"Motahare (Yalda) Mohammadi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Illinois at Chicago","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Motahare","middleName":"(Yalda)","lastName":"Mohammadi","suffix":""},{"id":529241337,"identity":"d5807b64-4999-400f-a7e8-361bbd5b91ef","order_by":4,"name":"Zahra Hajibagher Najjar","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Illinois at Chicago","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zahra","middleName":"Hajibagher","lastName":"Najjar","suffix":""},{"id":529241339,"identity":"ba2bb4b8-c4f9-475b-ae35-b74c34ab7e78","order_by":5,"name":"Abolfazl (Kouros) Mohammadian","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Illinois at Chicago","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Abolfazl","middleName":"(Kouros)","lastName":"Mohammadian","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-10-11 04:38:08","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7831614/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7831614/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":93666825,"identity":"70a2ca42-e6b2-4424-b565-cf7cf1904e15","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-16 09:11:06","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":1649443,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7831614/v1/69a8a2a031d7a1385854b73e.docx"},{"id":93665829,"identity":"113717d2-af2f-433f-81b9-9051fc9862a2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-16 09:03:05","extension":"json","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":8164,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"7f2b4b4875404d7991d07ffb3d94bdf3.json","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7831614/v1/c004c5a4503d052abb42865e.json"},{"id":93667086,"identity":"97cc874c-5ec5-4b81-8937-7997be5b7adf","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-16 09:19:06","extension":"xml","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":169078,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"7f2b4b4875404d7991d07ffb3d94bdf31enriched.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7831614/v1/bd339ba86b661fd060c0d62f.xml"},{"id":93665831,"identity":"d343d69c-55a7-424c-8835-de1c0cb8577f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-16 09:03:06","extension":"png","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":736932,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7831614/v1/60c88071480c254bfc0f8f6e.png"},{"id":93665835,"identity":"89a7d1ae-8737-48b0-90b9-f1b82132ecb8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-16 09:03:06","extension":"png","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":742666,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7831614/v1/8ed02ae026e388e4903cd9fd.png"},{"id":93666827,"identity":"5859c456-339a-4289-ae56-9b8b341dc2db","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-16 09:11:06","extension":"png","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":246743,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7831614/v1/b6b99a788f8ab42620351508.png"},{"id":93665836,"identity":"5f9dcf13-d0a2-49cb-ac01-f0d39e0c7d56","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-16 09:03:06","extension":"png","order_by":6,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":245833,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7831614/v1/80e23d0044950f8cb3ca3836.png"},{"id":93665833,"identity":"66ae8db6-c96b-42a8-940b-50ddb6b4558c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-16 09:03:06","extension":"xml","order_by":7,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":169791,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"7f2b4b4875404d7991d07ffb3d94bdf31structuring.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7831614/v1/11dc4e829904a4c8765538d1.xml"},{"id":93665837,"identity":"b1c494ba-896a-466b-a020-20f7a63b344c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-16 09:03:06","extension":"html","order_by":8,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":179844,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"earlyproof.html","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7831614/v1/e7ecc603768158d7aa530e0a.html"},{"id":94045553,"identity":"7c1e1e16-1270-4b70-8c4f-0bba36ecdad3","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 21:46:28","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":808360,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7831614/v1_covered_bf8cfa7c-c181-4ff8-8faa-74767bba4094.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eWhat Is the Impact of Working from Home on Daily In-Home and Out-of-Home Activity Time Allocation?\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Work from Home, Telework, Daily Activity Time Allocation, In-Home Activities, Out-Of-Home Activities, Random Effect Ordered Logit Model","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7831614/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7831614/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe widespread adoption of working from home (WFH) has reshaped many aspects of daily life, including time allocation to in-home and out-of-home activities. This study investigates how WFH influences time spent across twelve activity categories using data from the fourth wave of the COVID Future Survey, conducted nationwide in the U.S. The analysis focuses on employed individuals who report any frequency of remote work. Respondents detailed their time use on both WFH and non-WFH days for activities such as caregiving, household care, exercise, and socializing. Since time spent on each activity was collected as an ordinal measure, we apply random-effects ordered logit models to account for unobserved individual heterogeneity, controlling for a wide range of sociodemographic, household, housing, employment, and travel-related variables. Results indicate that WFH significantly increases time spent on several in-home activities, including household care, in-home exercise, entertainment, and personal business, as well as on out-of-home activities such as child or adult care and personal business. Conversely, time spent on out-of-home activities like eating out and socializing declines on WFH days. These findings highlight how WFH reshapes daily routines and provide valuable behavioral insights for transportation and urban policy. Incorporating these changes into activity-based travel demand models is essential for accurately forecasting travel patterns, while the results also inform broader planning strategies, such as flexible work scheduling, active travel promotion, and neighborhood-level service design, to ensure that the long-term expansion of WFH supports both mobility efficiency and household well-being.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"What Is the Impact of Working from Home on Daily In-Home and Out-of-Home Activity Time Allocation?","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-10-16 09:03:01","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7831614/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"9fac3e0f-f5c3-42ca-9af9-4e526438b14f","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 16th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-10-21T21:38:19+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-10-16 09:03:01","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7831614","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7831614","identity":"rs-7831614","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}