Twenty-four hours and counting: Capturing life as it is lived.

The purpose of this development paper is to reflect upon the use of participant diaries aimed at capturing ‘a-day-in-the-life’ of an academic. These diaries are unusual in that they focus, in detail, on separate twenty-four hour periods, thereby providing snapshots in time of life as it is lived. The diaries are part of a larger on-going ethnographic study investigating how, and in what ways, formalised location independent working practices affect the lives and working relationships of academics. The diaries are also used to provide rich, grounded participant-generated insights into how the practices and contexts of the employing organisation and wider higher education sector are affecting, and in turn being affected by, the experiences and working practices of these academics. Whilst diary methods are well established in ethnographic and autoethnographic research, the format and way in which they are used in combination with other qualitative methods, makes this study unique.