Covid-19 Is Changing Americans' Relationship To Time by Bex Jay

Covid-19 is changing Americansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; relationship to time. What does that mean for companies?

With covid-19 lockdowns, more Americans feel they have more agency over, and less structure to their time; they are reluctant to return to old routines. This is leading to key shifts in meaning and practice that more companies need to tap into to succeed in a post-pandemic world.

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“[When school went remote], there were so many more chunks of uninterrupted time in which I was responsible for determining my own schedule, and I think I struggled more with that than I anticipated. And I also think there was a lot more flexibility — like, if I wanted to go for a walk in the middle of the day, no one is stopping me, right?” – Genevieve, 27, NYC Leave the apartment by 7:20 am. Teach from 8:15 am to 4:30 pm. Then hit the gym at 5:00 pm and return home by 6:45 pm to cook, do a bit of work and maybe go out with friends. Before covid-19, 27-year-old Genevieve, a charter teacher in Brooklyn, lived a fairly hectic and often tightly scheduled life. Yet once the work-from-home order started, Genevieve found she had more flexibility in how she spent her time: her commute was cancelled, all her classes were online, and there was no one looking over her shoulder if she stepped out or took a break. At first the prospect daunted her. How could she stop herself from scrolling social media? But eventually she relaxed into the new rhythms, rediscovering her passion for reading, for example, and joining her neighbors for civil rights protests in the streets.

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Across industries, we often hear the same request from our client partners: how can we reduce friction, streamline experiences, enhance efficiency, and generally make our offerings faster or more convenient to use? The time-crunched U.S. customer – be it a harried mom or weary office warrior – is often among the easiest profiles for companies to conjure and arguably the one they hold most dear. Yet spurred by covid, Americans’ relationship to time is changing. The social and professional routines that formerly defined people’s days are in flux. That is, a significant number of Americans are now experiencing greater agency over, but also less structure to their time. With bosses distant, and usual routines overthrown, more of us have more autonomy over how we distribute the hours of our days than at any point in our lives since the meandering afternoons and “self-directed” play of childhood. This is a major departure from what came before: For years (if not decades) Americans have worshipped at the cult of “busyness.” Elite American men, for instance, work more hours both than poorer US men and rich men from other advanced countries. Americans who posted pre-covid about being busy on social media were consistently ranked as “higher status” by their peers.

Yet, the present experience of more fluid, selfdetermined time, as we’ve found in our recent ethnographic research across the US, has awakened many to more meaningful alternatives. Instead of saying, “one day” I will start a garden or take up the piano, for instance, many people are actually doing it. Take Alanis, a schoolteacher and mom of two who began composing lengthy hand-written letters to both friends and strangers, or Matt, who began weaving work on his passion project, an app for the social good, amidst his typical professional duties. As applied social scientists, these changes in human behavior provide a rare glimpse into what people actually value – not what they say they’d like to be doing, or wish they had more flexibility to do, but when given opportunity and resources, what they actually invest their time and effort into. This matters deeply for companies for whom what people value, as a function of how they spend their time, it at the heart of what they do. It is even more consequential for companies, we argue, who have largely catered to the pre-covid cult of “busyness”.

In the following, we go on to discuss five new values, or shifts in how people are spending their time, that are emerging alongside but also somewhat in tension to corporate orthodoxies of efficiency, convenience, and productivity. These shifts are not only here to stay, we go on to suggest, with reference to prior trends, but are also critical for companies to pay attention to and tap into in order to thrive in a post-pandemic world.

SHIFTS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Rediscovering holistic identities (Re)assessing personal values Making their own fun Savoring the senses Tightening family bonds and renegotiating American identity

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Shift 1: Rediscovering holistic identities “[The workplace] is optimized to keep you working, and mentally turn off other parts of yourself.” Thirty-something Matt is a software engineer living in NYC. Prior to covid, he spent much of his day preparing for and being at the office, where he had little flexibility to work on his passion project: a new app / networking site committed to the social good. Now that he is at home, with more control over his time, Matt spends a significant part of his day on the app, switching back and forth between it and other work tasks as needed. Partly as a result, Matt now feels he can be more openly who he is at all times: a black gay man who is both a software engineer and a social activist. He no longer needs to put on his “professional” hat when the day starts, trading this for his “do-gooder” hat only in the evenings and weekends. He can now interchange them fluidly – sometimes wearing both – throughout the day.

Throughout our research in the US, we’ve observed a similar pattern, where greater flexibility and control over their time during lockdown is allowing more Americans to embrace more sides of themselves – to integrate their multi-pronged identities. In other words, the breakdown of formerly rigid, often externally dictated routines has allowed more American to switch more seamlessly between work and personal projects throughout the day, thereby harmonizing previously siloed – or even reclaiming formerly deprioritized – facets of their identity, such as activist or artist. Sociologists use a phrase called “context collapse” to describe what happens, for instance, when you message your mom, coworker, best friend and spouse all at the same time, using the same social media channel. You are then forced to integrate the different parts of yourself – the various personalities you show to each person in your life – into one space or moment in time, an experience which for some can be overwhelming.

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Shift 1: Rediscovering holistic identities continued

With covid, many of us are experiencing context collapse everyday; instead of spending time with a spouse or children only in the evening or weekends, for example, these interactions are often now sprinkled more fluidly throughout the day. The result is a collision or better yet, integration – for many people, positive – of the varying aspects of who they are. To be sure, there were signs of this trend even before the pandemic. In particular, members of Generation Z, as we have found in our extensive research with this demographic, embrace a philosophy of what we call “living life in beta”: they are comfortable with the notion that who they are, and how they are identify, is constantly in flux – able to “contain multitudes” in any given moment, as Walt Whitman put it. For example, nineteen-year-old Andi, who identifies as non-binary, doesn’t like to be “pigeon-holed.” They keep multiple social media accounts for different aspects of their personality; might dress in “farmer” chic on Tuesday and “English tweed” on Wednesday; and at university ,they juggle multiple majors, from sociology to biology to Chinese language studies. This ability to contain diverse facets simultaneously is the closest they come to having a single, stable sense of self.

The pandemic, we suggest, is bringing about a similar shift in both experience and expectations also for members of other generations. While some are still mourning the loss of familiar routines – and the stable sense of purpose and identity these often provided – many others seem to have a found a new solace in no longer having to time-box different parts of their personality or passions to different parts of the day. In embracing these more flexibly, when their mood and broader context suits, they can be more authentically, dynamically themselves.

Key implications and thought starters Keeping on top of these changing trends in identity is critical for companies who seek to foster both greater workplace productivity among employees and to create powerful brand narratives that resonate with customers. Certain Gen-Z focused brands, such as make-up companies Fluide and Jecca Blac, have leaned into the ambiguity of that demographic – 20% of Gen-Z do not consider themselves exclusively heterosexual, which is twice that of other generations (McKinsey) – to considerable success. • Similarly, how might your industry better appeal to and tap into the multi-pronged identities that many Americans are rediscovering? • In your company, are you still asking people to identify with one facet of who they are over others, or straying into outmoded stereotypes (e.g. of the corporate warrior)? • As an employer, how could your business better support your employees’ multiple identities and interests, for instance by giving even more flexibility over their schedules, despite a return to the office?

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Shift 2: (Re)assessing personal values “My favorite thing about quarantine is that we were all forced to be alone with our thoughts for a little bit and everyone was like ‘Absolutely not. I will learn to bake bread from scratch’.” Fifty-something Gretchen, in Colorado, laughed at this meme and could relate, but she was also fighting the urge. Lately she had been following racial justice accounts on Instagram and had just finished a remote course at Harvard on the Selma Voting March (this was still some weeks before the BLM protests). With more control over her daily schedule, and frankly fewer external demands, Gretchen felt it her duty to take the chance to look inwards and reassess her personal values – overall, to pursue greater moral and emotional growth. For some years now, marketers and researchers – including many of our ReD colleagues – have been observing a rise in “value-driven” buying driven largely by the increasing market influence of Gen Z and to a lesser extent their Gen-X parents (activists in their own way). McKinsey for instance has found that 70% of Gen-Z customers try to purchase products from companies they consider ethical; 80% avoid buying from companies involved in a scandal.

Inspired by charismatic reformers such as Greta Thurnberg and Emma Watson, this generation takes its personal values seriously and seeks to live by, not just speak them, expecting others to do so, too. Once again, the pandemic seems to be hastening a broader transition that was already in motion. Without as much pressure to perform “productivity”, many Americans regardless of generation – including Gretchen, but also Elle in NYC, who has been protesting with her neighbors; and Gina in Chicago, who has been discussing relationship ethics with friends late into the night – have realized that, in attempts to show that they outwardly “had it together,” their inner lives were atrophying. With covid, more Americans have had more flexibility to educate themselves and gather for civil rights protests organically. With less going on in the world – and with more autonomy over how they spend their time – they are keeping up more regularly on news, especially about how the crisis has widened social inequalities.

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Shift 2: (Re)assessing personal values continued

The Black Lives Matter protests flourishing across the US is one prominent example of a more general urge that we have observed toward greater self-examination, emotional growth and maturity (though of course these events’ origins lie in injustices that predate the outbreak). On a more individual level, we have also found that people are carving out time in their more self-determined routines to reflect on what they truly value in life, what the good life is, and to play a more prominent role in their immediate communities. For example, alongside protesting, Elle is also taking time out of her days to volunteer at a food bank. For some, this has also meant scrutinizing what they buy and from where. With questions of physical and financial heath now top-of-mind, many want to ensure that their purchases are safe not only for themselves, but also for the workers supplying them. Genevieve in NYC for example stopped buying from Amazon after hearing about overcrowded shipping warehouses; she similarly boycotted Everlane after reports that they had laid off many people early in the pandemic. This is not an urban-elite-only trend: a survey by McKinsey has found that as many as 26% of Americans report thinking more about whether a company takes care of its employees before making a purchase than they did prior to covid.

More people, too, are reassessing the sheer number of items that flow into their home, not only their origin; ample time at home has forced Americans to confront the volume of stuff they own, which is arguably more than another society in history, while a greater connection to nature has heightened environmental awareness of the consequences of consumerism. It’s worth acknowledging that a similar trend is happening in China and France, as our colleagues explore in two recent reports on “Weak Signals” from covid. The greater flexibility in how they organize their days – no longer bound to the “9-9-6” regime – has allowed many in China to refocus on other values, such as meals with family or enhanced civic participation for example, while in France, many people are rediscovering core French values of “solidarité” and “egalitarité.”

Key implications and thought starters It’s already become apparent in the pandemic that companies are being held to a “higher standard,” for instance, on issues of inclusivity and diversity. Though, even before covid-19, values mattered: Adidas Brand Strategy, for instance, found that “impact” is a major expectation that customers have for big brands especially. Some brands, such as Patagonia, have made a clear values statement – what they stand for beyond the bottom line, such as the environment – core to their business strategy, reaping major returns in revenue. • Similarly, in your industry and company, what could you be doing not just more of but better? • How often have you revisited your company values during this time, or have you been so focused on “getting through” this experience that all such “soft” KPIs have fallen to the side? • Going forward, how will you communicate your broader vision for social impact to both your employees and customers – and stay committed to bringing it to life?

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Shift 3: Making their own fun

For the first time in a long time, fifteen-year-old Billie was bored. If 2020 had been a normal school year, she would have rushing to student council, drama, youth group, soccer, and a demanding course load, including AP government. Like her sister, Billie could have spent the lockdown mindlessly scrolling Instagram; she could have curled up in front of Netflix like her mom. Instead, she decided to go for long hikes, challenged her friends to a remote baking competition over Zoom, brushed off her Spanish via Duo Lingo and regularly uploaded new content on TikTok.

To be sure, some people have gladly relinquished their newfound control over their schedules during the pandemic: early on, Netflix posted record growth, adding almost 16 million subscribers globally in Q1; other passive forms of entertainment, such as TV viewing increased ~24% during the week of March 16 over the same week in 2019. Some study participants we met, such as nineteen-year-old Gina in Chicago, were indeed happy to spend their lockdown days absent of work and school routines engaged in more passive, “self-soothing,” digital pasttimes, such as scrolling social media or bingeing TV.

This is consistent with what we have found in previous studies of Gen-Z. An astonishing 54% them say that they want to start their own company, and many of them have aligned their supposed “leisure pursuits” to that goal, for instance, monetizing social media rather than passively using it to fill dead time. But even looking beyond Gen-Z, the pandemic has given people more agency over, and responsibility for, how they spend their time. Like Billie, they are increasingly deciding to use this to make their own fun rather than relying on purely passive content from corporations, a shift we call “agentive entertainment.”

Yet many others have embraced the pandemic as an opportunity to exercise greater agency over how they have their fun, not only when in the day it happens. For instance, thirty-four-year-old Prahlad and his friend Nick, in Massachusetts, have started playing more interactive video games on AR. Overall, time spent playing video games, where players take a more active role in directing the storyline and outcome, has grown even more dramatically than time spent on TV: it was up 45% the week of March 23 over the previous week.

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Shift 3: Making their own fun continued

TikTok, which encourages subscribers to create, not just consume, clever home videos using addictive audio memes, may be the true winner of the pandemic. It surpassed 2 billion downloads globally in April, which is an even more impressive feat if you consider the collective energy and creativity needed by ordinary Americans to supply its endless feed. More conventionally “make-your-own fun” activities such puzzles and crafting have also enjoyed a resurgence during lockdown. Again, this is not an American-only trend: some of the biggest growth in crafting during covid-19 has been in the UK, where search requests on the website Hobbycraft for example were up 400% over April; jigsaw searches were up 800%. With all this emphasis on “making” and “creating,” are we witnessing a renaissance of the “productivity” mindset? We think not. Rather than ways of building skills that will make them even more “productive” in the future, for many people activities such as completing a puzzle or going for a hike serve to add novelty and variety to the day.

An overwhelming number of people spoke to us about the monotony of being always at home, trying to find something new to watch on Netflix, for instance. Taking more ownership over their entertainment counteracts this. While scrolling the same three apps everyday, all day, can quickly feel repetitious, going for a walk, learning a dance, or cooking a new recipe for your girlfriend, can engender welcome feelings of heterogeneity and motion.

Key implications and thought starters Leaders in the toy and entertainment industries, such as Lego, have been for years promoting a philosophy of “maker play” with highly customizable products and interactive storylines that let customers have more ownership over their experience. The video game industry, too, has enjoyed considerable success with more interactive, customizable journeys, for instance with alternative game endings determined by the decision-making of the player. • In your business, what can you do to involve people more actively in their experience of your offerings? • In what ways might you ensure that people have a “new” experience of your offering each time, or a sense of variety in how they engage with it? • Are there cost-efficient ways that you help people personalize, for instance? • Does the journey always have to be the same for all customers, or can people be more active “co-authors” in how they navigate your services or site?

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Shift 4: Savoring the senses

Nineteen-year-old Andi in CA, who identifies as nonbinary, had taken up letter-writing during covid. They wanted a firm reason to try to pay attention to – and describe – their immediate sensations: the cool draft on their leg, the birdsong outside, the lingering odors from lunch. Rather than rushing to classes, they now used their breaks between Zoom lectures to look out the window, watch the cat in the sun, and savor the sound of the breeze in the pines – that is, to enjoy the meditative feeling of being more in control of their time but also, more present in their body. Even before covid-19, our prior research found that many young professionals in particular were seeking more embodied, richly sensory experiences, often as a corrective to the growing amount of time they spend staring at screens, in temperature-controlled spaces. They went for walks to see the sky, embraced lavish cooking projects, and started ambitious gardens. Covid-19 has accelerated many of these trends, not only by granting a bit of extra flexibility in the day to literally stop and smell the flowers, but also by increasing the digitization of our work and social lives. Though lockdowns have given many

Americans more flexibility in how they spend the hours of their day, they have also vastly restricted where they do so. For instance, instead of meeting colleagues in a conference room, extended family around the dinner table, and good friends at a local bar, all of these interactions have now been collapsed onto a tiny screen – on Zoom. With cases rising, this looks to remain the situation for some period still. As a result, many people we’ve met describe a kind of detachment from their physical bodies. They deeply mourn in particular realtime, multi-sensory experiences that are shared with other people, for which there seem to be few digital alternatives. For instance, Gretchen, in Colorado, has been faithfully attending church services over Zoom, but it’s not the same. Without the sound of others singing near her, the musty smell of the church and the flickering light of the candles, she struggles to feel a shared sense of the “sacred.” For Jerry, in North Carolina, it’s live music he misses. He still performs occasional jam sessions with his bandmates over FaceTime, but it’s hard to feel the rhythm. He struggles to lose himself to the moment and the music.

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Shift 4: Savoring the senses continued

These losses cut to core of who we are as human beings: social creatures who inhabit highly attuned and energetic physical bodies. Early in the pandemic, it quickly became apparent that some Americans were seeking to fight this newly disembodied situation, for instance, by doing more cooking and baking. Yeast and flour shortages were declared across North America and Europe in April; Google similarly reported an all-time high in bread-making inquiries. Breadmaking is unlike reheating pizza or boiling pasta; it is a messy, immersive, odorous, often tiring, and deeply sensory process. People are also gardening more to become more “selfsufficient”, but also, again, to be outside and get their hands dirty: to feel and smell and be in a body. One young out-of-work participant we met virtually even saw it as a form of therapy, a way to silence their anxious internal monologue about the pandemic. Skyrocketing bike sales further suggest that, alongside a refuge from germ-ridden public transit, many people have also discovered the sensory pleasure of motion on two wheels, sped along by the wind, shaded under the trees.

Still, many people have struggled to recreate the multisensory experiences they share with others over Zoom. They can’t hear the same sounds, enjoy the same tastes and smells. Early half-solutions, such as digital dinner parties where each person cooks and eats the same dish, have fallen short of expectations. It will likely remain a challenge for both individuals – and companies – to find new ways of sharing “fellow feeling” without a tangible physical presence for some while to come.

Key implications and thought starters New Yok retailer Beautyque recently created what they call the world’s first “virtual beauty store,” a lush interactive website that can be navigated as if it were a physical store, with high-quality images, “live” video events, and a virtual mirror where visitors can upload personal photos to “try on” different products. Offline, as some spaces reopen but with strict physical distancing measures, more companies are experimenting with ways of counteracting sensory deprivation in such “no touch” spaces, for instance with sonic branding and custom scents. • In your business, where might there be hidden opportunities to dial up sight, sound, smell, touch, and motion? • Taking inspiration from Beautyque, what are similar ways to learn from, or digitally emulate satisfying physical experiences online? • More broadly, how can you help people reconnect with their bodies or the natural world? Consider: it might be as simple as slowing down slick, perfectly ‘seamless’ experiences so people have more time to think, reflect, and be present.

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Shift 5: Tightening family bonds and renegotiating American identity Before covid, Alanis, a schoolteacher, rarely saw her husband, a start-up CTO, during the workday. They would sometimes text and call, but his hectic schedule meant family time was often reserved for late evenings and weekends. Yet, now that everyone is working from home, with a bit more flexibility in their days, Alanis finds that they have many more stolen moments of connection, for instance catching up on work gossip over the coffee maker. Alanis has also found that she interacts with her neighbors more often on her brief spurts of exercise around the block or when running errands for elderly residents. Even as covid-19 seems to be unravelling aspects of the national fabric – the number of people who say they are “extremely proud” to be American is the lowest since Gallup pollsters first started asking the question in 2001, at 42% – it also appears to be strengthening ties nearer to home, particularly in families and local communities. In households grappling with layoffs, or where young adults have temporarily moved home, this effect is even more pronounced. Take Tiffany in Chicago, for instance. A more flexible work-from-home schedule at her administrative job means she can now take breaks to gossip with her daughter, who is on lockdown from her master’s program, or to trade jokes with her

husband, who has been furloughed from his job Tiffany tries to start and end her workday earlier, to have more time with them. Particularly when it comes to multigenerational living arrangements, such as Tiffany’s, covid is accelerating existing trends. According to Pew, multigenerational living has been on the rise in the US since the 1980s. Of course, this change hasn’t been positive for all families, some of whom may now find themselves trying to please both a boss and a teen or toddler at the same time – an impossible task. Yet, in our research, we’ve heard time and time again that many people value this renewed closeness. Young professionals savored home-cooked meals; school-age kids treasured more quality time with parents; and many parents in turn enjoyed a rare window into their children’s personal and social lives, for instance, with FaceTime calls happening in the living room or funny YouTube videos shared together on the sofa. Again, this is true not only in the US, but elsewhere in the world. Our participants in China, for instance, treasured the chance to have family meals together – a rare occurrence under the 9-9-6 regime. As one family put it, “our house finally feels like a home.” R E D

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Shift 5: Tightening family bonds and renegotiating American identity continued

On a slightly more macro level in the US, many people have also relished the opportunity to rekindle connections with neighbors, e.g. chatting over fences, meeting for socially distanced barbeques, or trading gossip during sanity- and health-preserving walks. This closeness has been newly enabled not only by more time at home, but also by more flexibility in how they spend this time. For instance, now that 60-yearold Beatrice, in NYC, is able to tend her back garden more frequently throughout the day, she is getting to know more of the other residents in her building, who share the same space. During the early days of the lockdown, use of the neighborhood app Next Door was up 80%, especially as neighbors sought a digital, no-contact way to coordinate their responses to the pandemic and assist with restocking supplies and food. This resurgence in local community feeling comes national sentiment may be waning. Several participants we met indeed found themselves questioning what it meant to be American in a way that hadn’t quite before. Ineffective responses to the virus had shaken some of their national confidence; frictions over BLM protests have widened existing political divisions – social media has become “hostile,” as one participant put it; while quite simply, the inability to travel has made other parts of the country feel very far away.

Key implications and thought starters In our prior research, we have seen that multigenerational living, for instance in Latin America and the Caribbean, can have an influence on the offerings that households adopt. Products or services that can be used easily by all members of the family regardless of age or ability, and which increase in value when more people use them, are more likely to be taken up. Netflix and WhatsApp are iconic examples: with elder-friendly UX and interfaces, they are often easy for young and old to use alike and can be widely shared amongst the family group, with a clear “network effect”. • At your company, are there opportunities for making your offerings more friendly towards, and valuable to multi-gen families? • For instance, could you build in special synergies for families, either in the offerings themselves, or in the interaction model that surrounds them? • Alternatively, how could you reduce some of the barriers to how families use and interact with – and around – your products?

On the topic of renegotiated American identities, certain national brands, such as Target, have found success in partnering with, and intentionally seeking to serve local communities. Target has a local artist program, for instance, that allows their national brand to benefit from positive associations with community artists and narratives that, in this current moment, may hold more currency than broader, shifting notions of “Americanness.” • If your company has been historically allied with “Americanness,” what might the recent shift in sentiment do to your brand perception and resonance? • How might there be opportunities for you to leverage growing local or community sentiment, both in your offerings, but also your marketing and communication? • Where could you be doing more, possibly, to help local communities thrive amidst the turmoil – and to make your contributions more visible?

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C O N C L U S I O N – Making the most of this time

The pandemic won’t, we hope, last forever, but it’s impact on American lives and attitudes will no doubt linger beyond the arrival of a vaccine. Even as some Americans start to return to work or school, many will likely remain at home, with greater flexibility and more unstructured schedules for awhile.

more inward-looking pursuits, suggests that the orthodoxy of the time-starved customer can no longer serve companies in quite the same way, held tightly as one of the few “givens” about the market, invoked in everything from offerings development to marketing campaigns.

Those who return to their “normal”, pre-covid lives may find that something has shifted in them, namely, a desire to preserve some of the agency and ownership they have enjoyed over their time – a reluctance to return to the rigid, unthinking routines that marked the pre-covid world. Matt, in NYC, for instance, has already started negotiating a more flexible work-fromhome schedule with his boss; others may simply find they use their time outside of the office in new ways, making the most of it.

In the above, we have sought to describe new horizons of meaning and activity that more Americans are embracing, and which more companies might seek to better serve both now and after the pandemic. Even while ordinary Americans seek to make the most of the more flexible hours that the pandemic has granted them, companies, too, should be wary of squandering this period before society opens more fully – and changed; it’s time now to prepare for what comes ahead. As we have hopefully shown, getting ready for the next chapter in the (ideally) post-covid world will require a great deal of self-reflection, introspection, and an honest assessment both of company capabilities but also, corporate values.

Of course, there will still be a role for convenience and efficiency in a post-pandemic society, especially for those Americans who, having gained more control over their time, decide they no longer wish to spend it so thoughtlessly on cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping and the like. Yet the fact that the productivity craze of the last few years appears to be waning or, as we argue, being redirected into new,