The objective of this survey was to discover how different groups of South Africans spend their time so as to assist policy-makers with further insight into the economic and social well-being of different groups. In particular, the survey sought to provide new information about the division of paid and unpaid labour between women and men, and about less-understood productive activities such as subsistence work, casual work and work in the informal sector. This paper focuses on the activity patterns of individuals at different times of the day, week and year. The overall results of the time use study have already been published as A survey of time use: How South African women and men spend their time (Stats SA, 2001). While the first publication reported, among other things, on the total amount of time spent on different activities by different groups, this paper looks at when people engage in those activities. Another Stats SA occasional paper focusing on the lives and time use patterns of teenagers is also available.