Daily Clock

Daily clocks are a participatory way to explore the activities and tasks that individuals do during an average day.

Related Approaches and Tools

Participatory Rural Appraisal

Digital Tools

Thematic Analysis

Sensemaking Workshop

Generating Insights

Daily clocks help participants share and reflect on an average 24-hour period with a focus on paid and unpaid workloads. They are useful tools for exploring the dimension of gender dynamics in the home, workplace, and wider society. They explore the common roles and responsibilities between individuals and how these activities make individuals feel. Like other participatory activities, daily clocks can offer a unique approach to MEL, but can also serve as a transformative activity for project participants. Participants can reflect on their day-in-the-life and what might change. This activity can explore the dynamics of paid and unpaid workloads within families and investigate who decides on roles and responsibilities.

Within MEL, daily clocks can be used in four different ways:

Observational– single point of time reflecting on the present
Retrospective – single point of time reflecting on the past or comparing the past and present
Comparative – single point of time comparing different types of people
Longitudinal – multiple points of time comparing different responses of the same people against goals and milestones

Daily clocks have four objectives:

Encourage participants to reflect on their activities, roles, and responsibilities
Compare and contrast the activities, roles, and responsibilities of different types of people
Begin deeper conversations around complex topics, such as gender roles
Collect GESI-related insights through clock outputs

Step 1. Clarify the objective and modality of the clock

In this first step, facilitators will need to reflect on exactly what they hope to achieve using a daily clock exercise. Some points to think through include:

Will the activity only be for monitoring or also to create strategies for change?
Online facilitation, interviews, workshops or focus groups?
Change agents, beneficiaries, or staff?
Individual or group activity? If conducted in a group, separate men and women into different groups and then bring those groups together at the end to share.

Step 2. Prepare the materials

Collect and prepare materials used for the daily clock. This can be an A3 canvas or large brown poster paper. Also include markers or post-it notes. We recommended testing any tools with a variety of participants before starting. Add visuals and translate as required. Laminate cards or templates if they will be used frequently.

Step 3. Conduct clock exercise

At the appropriate time, during the interview, workshop or focus groups follow these sub-steps:

Introduce the topic of a daily clock. What are you trying to explore?
Starting with when a participant wakes up, have them mark the clock with key activities. Mark the start and end of activities with times and label them. If used retrospectively, the inside of the clock can be used for the past, and the outside can be used as the present. If participants struggle to define an average day, pick a particular day (e.g. Monday).
Ask participants to then mark each activity with either a smile 🙂 or frown 🙁 as a point of enjoyment or a point of displeasure. Probe participant(s) to explain their decisions
If in an appropriate group setting, allow participants to share their ideas with the wider group for discussion.
During the activity, make a note of important aspects that are useful for analysis: age, status gender, role, religion, ethnicity, experiences. If applicable and with consent, take photos of the canvases for your records.

Step 4. Data analysis, sensemaking and sharing

The final step is to analyse the clock responses to identify key themes and to share them with relevant stakeholders.

Compile clocks. We recommend creating a spreadsheet, drawing software, or Word document to summarise the differences between different types of people (gender, age, role). Use all relevant ‘data’ including text, drawings and observations. Create composite clocks representing the main participant types.
Conduct thematic analysis. Drawing on the compiled clocks, search for patterns and themes within the data. Explore differences by age, gender, ethnicity, or other aspects. This may take a different shape if the analysis is observational, longitudinal, comparative, or retrospective.
Generate insights. Bringing together the compiled clocks and thematic analysis to create a set of insights from the data.
Sensemaking workshop. In a workshop setting, explore the data with a group of key stakeholders.

Travel Restricted Times

While daily clocks are best done in person, they can also be completed remotely using participatory methods.

Keeping in mind differences in access and literacy, think about different ways to facilitate and plan the activity.

Computer and internet access	Encourage participants to fill in a daily clock on collaborative platform (Mural, Micro, Google Slide or Google Sheet). This can be conducted individually or collaboratively as an interview, focus group or workshop through audio/video conferencing. Encourage participants to fill in a daily clock through an online qualitative survey questionnaire (Mentimeter, Phonic, Google or Microsoft Forms, Kobo, Airtable)
Smartphone and internet access	Encourage participants to fill in a daily clock through an online qualitative survey questionnaire (Mentimeter, Phonic, Google or Microsoft Forms, Kobo, Airtable)
Basic phone access	Collect daily activity information over the phone as an interview and have the enumerator fill in the clock canvases.

See an example of participatory activities using Google Slide.

Learn more on the digital tools page.

Materials

download

PPTX | 2 MB

Learn More

Halcrow G, Rowland C, Willetts J, Crawford J and Carrard N (2010) Resource Guide: Working effectively with women and men in water, sanitation and hygiene programs. International Women’s Development Agency and Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. (Page 26).

BRACED (2016). Gender and Resilience Toolkit: Daily Activity Clock

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