“Time performance” consciousness is not limited just to Gen Z: Two types of behavior and the drivers behind them

1. What is “time performance”?

“Time performance” is a Japanese-English term referring to time-effectiveness. It is a term coined by replacing “cost” in the Japanese-English term “cost performance” with time to indicate the extent of satisfaction with time spent on something, and was selected as the grand prize winner of Japan’s “New Word of the Year for 2022”. It is also cited as one of the characteristics of “Gen Z”, the generation born around 1995 ~ 2010.

While I the author am a millennial, I think that not only Gen Z, but my generation as well has become aware of “time performance” in an increasing number of scenes. One of the background factors driving this is the increasing availability of environments that maximize time-effectiveness.
For example, cafes and restaurants customers line up to use have introduced numbered que tickets issued online to enable customers to use the time they would have waited at storefront for other purposes. The proliferation of internet environments in homes and the spread of digital devices has made it possible to connect to the internet even on devices other than smartphones, and has accelerated the practice of multi-tasking online, such as listening to music while net surfing and watching subscription services on the TV.

In this article, we will explain whether “time performance” really is a “Gen Z characteristic”, and what Gen Z’s “time performance” characteristics are, taking into account the opinions of experts too.

2. “Time performance” is not a characteristic solely of Gen Z

In February 2023, INTAGE conducted a questionnaire survey on “time performance” with a total of 5504 males and females aged 16 ~ 65. Approximately 80% of the total responded that they “Want to value time”, with no significant difference observed between generations. This clearly indicates that many people have a fundamental awareness of “time performance” such as observed in “Want to value time” regardless of the generation.

Approximately 50% of the three generations in Gen X, the Millennials (Gen Y), and Gen Z excluding those 58y.o. and over responded “I’m busy every day, and feel like I’m pressed for time”, with no significant difference observed between generations on this question either. This illustrates that regardless of generation, the values of being busy and wanting to value time are shared by many consumers. This is to say that “time performance” awareness cannot be simply relegated to Gen Z as a value characterizing only that generation.

Fig 1

Let’s take a detailed look at the 10 questions. A larger proportion of people in Gen Z endorsed “I want to enjoy and experience as many things as possible in a certain amount of time” and “When doing something, I try to think about the balance between ‘time I use/time I spend’ and ‘value I gain’”, and rate these significantly higher than other generations, suggesting that before they start something, they consider time and value before deciding whether or not to do it.

In addition, 40% of Gen Z responded “I am satisfied with the way I use my time every day”, and rated this significantly higher than other generations. It is apparent they are satisfied to a certain extent with how they use their time every day and the value they get from this. They also rated significantly higher on specific “time performance” behavior including the proportion who “watch videos simultaneously”, “watch at double speed”, and “watch summaries and spoilers”, and well as behavior like “check synopses and reviews in advance”, clearly indicating they are innovating ways to enjoy as much as possible within a certain amount of time.

Of the 10 questions asked this time, Gen Z tended to rate significantly higher than the other generations on a sizable 7 of the questions. This result indicates that while all generations have a fundamental “time performance” consciousness where they want to value their time, Gen Z proactively engages in behavior and choices to achieve “time performance” more so than other generations, and are more confident that they are satisfied with how they use their time.

In contrast, a significantly greater proportion of Millennials “Try to do things like housework in parallel to other things as much as possible” than other generations, suggesting they have a different outlook to Gen Zs. While not significantly different, a greater proportion of them gave “I’m busy every day, and feel like I’m pressed for time” than any other generation, and 10% fewer than Gen Z also endorsed “I am satisfied with the way I use my time every day”, suggesting that Millennials are physically busy every day, so have no choice but to want to achieve “time performance”, which may lead to low satisfaction with how they use their time.

3. Two types of “time performance” behavior

Based on the quantitative data we have seen to this point, we asked Professor Yukihiko Kubota, Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at Aoyama Gakuin University, who specializes in marketing, and has been researching liquid consumption, a characteristic of recent consumer behavior, in detail about “time performance” tendencies.

Q.　Both Gen Z and Millennials have “time performance” tendencies, yet are observed to have different needs. How do the two differ?

“I believe there are two types of “time performance” behavior: “time-saving type” and “variety type”. Time-saving type time performance behavior is engaged in when people are forced to increase their time efficiency due to having little disposable time (no time). For example, efficiently multitasking with housework, cooking, and child rearing is time-saving type time performance behavior. Variety type time performance behavior is when you want to consume or enjoy more things in a certain length of time. Behavior like watching a movie at double speed or listening only to the chorus with music is variety type time performance behavior.
The reason why these two classifications are important is that understanding the existence of the variety type enables you to understand the phenomenon of “becoming time performance oriented despite not necessarily having limited disposable time”, which appears contradictory at a glance.

Variety type time performance behavior will likely spread beyond students and young people in future. According to an INTAGE survey, more than 50% of people other than Gen Z respond positively to the attribute “I want to enjoy and experience as many things as possible in a certain amount of time”. In addition, it is also hard to imagine that people who are currently students and young people will no longer engage in variety type time performance behavior in 10- or 20-years’ time. With this in mind, variety type time performance behavior, which is behavior specific to young people seems to be a transitional phenomenon.

Next, what about the fact time-saving type time performance behavior is common among women who are busy with work, housework, and child rearing? To discuss this issue head-on, more detailed research is needed. However, if this sort of time-saving type time performance behavior is really marked among women who are busy with work, housework, and child rearing, this would be a major social issue. In order to realize a society where everyone can live happily, I think we all need to work to ensure time-saving type time performance behavior does not become a phenomenon unique to a certain segment.”

Fig 2

4. The drivers behind “time performance” behavior

Q. What are the drivers behind “time performance” behavior?

“I surmise that 3 factors are involved.

Driver behind “time performance” behavior 1 : “time efficiency preference”

I think there is an increasing orientation toward time efficiency behind “time performance” behavior. However, I don’t think that time efficiency preference behavior is only becoming more marked among young people. People tend to prefer short columns to long articles, and when meeting people, often choose lunch they can be over and done with in around an hour over drinking parties that last 2 ~ 3 hours. I think this orientation toward time efficiency is becoming more prevalent in society as a whole. However, at the same time, the fact is this orientation toward time efficiency (especially the variety type) is observed more markedly among young people. Let’s consider the reasons why this orientation toward time efficiency has increased among the younger generation.

One reason is that there is an increasingly apparent need for more diverse topics to talk about. Toyofumi Inada points this out in his book “People Who Watch Movies on Fast Forward” (Kobunsha). The spread of digital communication tools such as social media has enabled the younger generation in particular to belong to a greater number of groups and communities than ever before.
For example, students previous only belonged to groups like circles of friends in their classes at university, their after-school club activities, casual jobs, and family, but now belong to more groups simultaneously beyond this as well, such as friends from their junior and senior high school days, and online acquaintances they have never met in person. This has created a need to respond to different topics in each of these groups. As a result, people no longer have any choice but to be exposed to a wide variety of information in order to acquire a wider variety of topic to talk about in a limited amount of time, which I deem to have increased the need for orientation toward time efficiency among the younger generation.

Another reason is the high “ability to consume time modularly”. Naturally it is not only young people who use social media and belong to multiple groups. It isn’t rare for even middle aged and older people to have multiple X and Facebook accounts. However, the orientation toward time efficiency seems to be much more marked among young people. The key to understanding this doubt is deemed to be a high “ability to consume time modularly”. The reason why time performance orientation has increased among young people is likely because they are “excellent digital tool users”. They are known as digital natives, and have extremely high abilities as digital tool users.
To explain in slightly more detail, by adeptly getting full use out of information and digital tools, they have developed the ability to “switch” between various products, services, and information, and have acquired a flexible ability to enjoy and consume the huge number of products, services, and information they can be exposed to in that way simultaneously.

Driver behind “time performance” behavior 2 : “Spare time” and “modular time consumption”

Let’s return our focus from the younger generation to society as a whole. As is evident in the now widespread use of the term “spare time”, it has become common for people to use time in small blocks for a variety of activities such as study, cooking, and watching videos. While communication with friends used to take 2 ~ 3 minutes in the days when people made phone calls, this is now over in a matter of a few seconds with messenger apps like LINE. This is to say the unit of time people spend on each of their activities has become smaller. As a result, rather than devoting themselves to the one thing for long lengths of time, they now use their time by allocating a little of it here and there to different things. This manner of using time can be called “modular time consumption”.

However, what we are referring to here as modular time consumption us “breaking up time into chunks, and using that time by freely combining it”. The important thing is that not everyone can engage in modular time consumption in the same way. For example, when I see university students switching instantaneously between people on LINE while having completely different conversations, I think that would be impossible for me. This means that I have a low ability to engage in modular time consumption.

Driver behind “time performance” behavior 3: a high “ability to engage in modular time consumption”

Let’s return to our discussion on the drivers that have heightened the younger generation’s orientation toward time efficiency. As you may have already guessed, young people have a high “ability to consume time modularly”. The idea is that they are adept at breaking up time into chunks, and consuming it by freely combining it. They are called digital natives and have experienced “modular time consumption” from early childhood, which has probably naturally heightened these sorts of abilities. In contrast, people over a certain age may have a relatively low ability to consume time modularly due to not having opportunities for these sorts of experiences in early childhood.
Young people have a high ability to consume time modularly, so are able to enjoy and consume multiple products, services, and information in parallel simultaneously, making it possible for them to enjoy a wide and varied form of consumption. This means they can consume multiple different types of products and services in a short amount of time, so can practice time performance (and in particular, variety type time performance). To summarize the reasons why the younger generation has a higher orientation toward time efficiency, as we have discussed to this point, the combination of the need for more topics to talk about due to belonging to multiple communities due to the spread of social media and their ability with having a relatively higher ability to consume time modularly may have increased the younger generation’s orientation toward time efficiency (or time performance orientation).”

5. “Time performance” behavior in the past and future

As the old saying goes, “time is money”. Time is as valuable as money, and many people value their time and don’t want to waste it. As a result, “wanting to value one’s time” is a value shared by all generations even today.
When video streaming services first appeared, one company said “Our rival is ‘sleep’”, so winning consumers’ limited time is a marketing issue for all companies. For example, if you are a food product manufacturer, the three meals a day that were once commonplace may be replaced by two meals due to consumers’ concept of brunch, and with protein etc. trending, meal time (including preparation time) may be drastically reduced. In addition, as telework becomes more commonplace, some consumers may fall out of the habit of using services and eating out (including vending machine use) that they used to use during their commutes or that target commuting hours due to their reduced travel time. No matter how great the service or product you create, not being able to win consumers’ time to use your product is likely to be fatal.
From a modular time consumption perspective, we will probably go on to see usage scenes envisaged where consumers are multi-tasking (can do something simultaneous to other things), and claims in the near future like “In the time you’re doing XX, you can also actually do these sorts of things” and “have some xxx to accompany you when you’re doing XX”, and services that provide support with “heightening your ability to consume time modularly” might also emerge. I am so good at modular time consumption that my boss once said to me, “Kobayashi-san, aren’t you actually two people? Or maybe you’re just not sleeping?”, but even I can’t wait to see various kinds of “multi-tasking” emerge in the near future.

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[INTAGE Industry-Academia Collaborative Consumer Research Project – Quantitative Survey Data]
Research area: Nationwide, Japan
Respondent criteria: Males and females aged 15 ~ 40
Sample recruitment method: Selected from INTAGE’s “Mighty Monitor” and sent questionnaire
Sample size: n=5504 *Equal numbers by gender/age group recovered
Survey implementation period: (Wed) 2^nd February ~ (Mon) 7^th February, 2023
Generation classifications’ Classified by age at time responded to questionnaire　
Gen Z: 16~25y.o. Millennials: 26 ~ 40y.o.　Gen X: 41 ~ 57y.o. 58y.o. and over: 58 ~ 65y.o.

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