Describe your audience and research goal. Makeform builds a focused survey about time allocation, planning, interruptions, workload, and self-reported outcomes.
Send survey responses to Google Sheets, Slack, and Zapier.
Sample prompts for the builder
Choose a prompt, adapt it, or send it to the builder. The outline is an example, not a live AI result.
Audience
Employees across departments or work arrangements
Format
Anonymous pulse survey with rating scales
Prompt size
317 chars
Example survey structure
Anonymous pulse survey with rating scales
How is your work time divided?
How often do you plan your top priorities?
Which interruptions consume the most time?
How manageable is your current workload?
What one change would help most?
Suggested analysis tags
Planning habits
Time barriers
Support needs
Use a defined period such as the past seven days so answers are easier to compare.
Step 1
Define
audience, reference period, and research goal
Step 2
Ask
time allocation, habits, barriers, and outcomes
Step 3
Collect
share one survey and gather consistent responses
Step 4
Compare
group patterns and identify practical next steps
Better survey design
Separate time allocation, planning, interruptions, and perceived outcomes to reveal patterns without treating busyness as performance.
Use bounded ranges and one reference period for quick estimates and consistent comparisons.
Measure planning separately from meetings, notifications, caregiving, workload, and other constraints.
Pair rating scales with a focused prompt explaining patterns and desired support.
Adapt it to the audience
Choose wording and response options around the decision the results will inform.
Find whether meetings, shifting priorities, or unplanned requests reduce focus.
Select exercises around prioritization, estimation, delegation, or interruptions.
Compare intended schedules with study, work, sleep, and leisure demands.
Set the recall window and collect consistent, structured responses.
Build the survey
Provide an audience, time frame, and analysis goal, then review the questions before sharing.
State the audience, recall period, and decision the results should inform.
Fix double-barreled wording, align scales, and make sensitive context optional.
Check category coverage, recall effort, relevance, and completion time.
Compare distributions and relevant groups, reading comments alongside scores.
Choose the right method
A survey scales reported habits and perceptions but is not an exact minute-by-minute record.
Field guide
Use these six sections selectively, define terms, and keep one reference period throughout.
Time allocation
Use broad hour ranges or proportions instead of minute-level recall. Fit categories to the audience and explain multitasking.
Planning behaviors
Measure how often people set priorities, schedule focus, estimate duration, review deadlines, and revise plans.
Priorities & tradeoffs
Scenario questions can reveal how people weigh urgency, importance, dependencies, deadlines, and others' requests.
Interruptions & constraints
Offer concrete barriers such as meetings, messages, unclear priorities, unexpected work, commuting, caregiving, or fatigue.
Perceived outcomes
Measure perceived control, manageable workload, deadline confidence, focus, or satisfaction without presenting scores as performance proof.
Context & open response
Broad role, study level, or work arrangement can support comparisons. Avoid unnecessary identity fields and ask one focused comment question.
Related tools
Add a focused employee, student, lifestyle, remote-work, or training survey when needed.
FAQ
Answers for trainers, researchers, instructors, and students.
It asks how people allocate time, plan, prioritize, handle interruptions, and perceive control or satisfaction. It can support training, an employee pulse, student reflection, or research.
Cover relevant activities, planning frequency, priorities, interruptions, constraints, deadline confidence, and desired support. Keep only items you will analyze or act on.
Name a recall period and offer realistic ranges. Explain multitasking, include an other option, and treat answers as estimates rather than exact records.
Avoid names, email addresses, and direct identifiers; make context optional. Review settings and questions so they match the explanation given to participants.
Use the shortest survey covering your goal. Test it with the target audience and remove repetitive questions or detail you will not analyze.
Use neutral, single-idea questions. Label scale endpoints, keep direction consistent, offer not-applicable choices, and separate behavior from self-evaluation.
Yes. Makeform supports unlimited free forms and responses, including generating, editing, and publishing your survey. The paid tier removes the Makeform badge; it is not required to keep collecting responses.
Review distributions, then compare relevant broad groups. Look for combined patterns and read comments for context. Associations alone do not establish cause.
Make time patterns easier to understand.
