mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

TimeArena: Shaping Efficient Multitasking Language Agents in a Time-Aware Simulation

arXiv 2402.05733 ↗First posted 8 Feb 2024cs.CLcited by 22

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks

Abstract (arXiv)

Despite remarkable advancements in emulating human-like behavior through Large Language Models (LLMs), current textual simulations do not adequately address the notion of time. To this end, we introduce TimeArena, a novel textual simulated environment that incorporates complex temporal dynamics and constraints that better reflect real-life planning scenarios. In TimeArena, agents are asked to complete multiple tasks as soon as possible, allowing for parallel processing to save time. We implement the dependency between actions, the time duration for each action, and the occupancy of the agent and the objects in the environment. TimeArena grounds to 30 real-world tasks in cooking, household activities, and laboratory work. We conduct extensive experiments with various state-of-the-art LLMs using TimeArena. Our findings reveal that even the most powerful models, e.g., GPT-4, still lag behind humans in effective multitasking, underscoring the need for enhanced temporal awareness in the development of language agents.

Key facts. Cited by 22 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 28 of its 51 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 8 Feb 2024.

Builds on

28 of 51 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2023SOTOPIA: Interactive Evaluation for Social Intelligence in Language Agents18 Oct
  2. 2023TPTU: Large Language Model-based AI Agents for Task Planning and Tool Usage7 Aug
  3. 2023Describe, Explain, Plan and Select: Interactive Planning with Large Language Models Enables Open-World Multi-Task Agents3 Feb

Other references · 25

  1. 2022Training language models to follow instructions with human feedbackcited by 15,712
  2. 2023LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Modelscited by 13,958
  3. 2023Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Modelscited by 12,865
  4. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
  5. 2020ALFWorld: Aligning Text and Embodied Environments for Interactive Learningcited by 1,143
  6. 2022Decomposed Prompting: A Modular Approach for Solving Complex Taskscited by 554
  7. 2022ScienceWorld: Is your Agent Smarter than a 5th Grader?cited by 298
  8. 2021Time-Aware Language Models as Temporal Knowledge Basescited by 290
  9. 2023OpenChat: Advancing Open-source Language Models with Mixed-Quality Datacited by 250
  10. 2023Language Agents with Reinforcement Learning for Strategic Play in the Werewolf Gamecited by 148
  11. 2021SituatedQA: Incorporating Extra-Linguistic Contexts into QAcited by 145
  12. 2023TaskBench: Benchmarking Large Language Models for Task Automationcited by 138
13 more
  1. 2023SmartPlay: A Benchmark for LLMs as Intelligent Agentscited by 123
  2. 2023Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Evaluating Strategic Planning and Execution of LLM Agents in an Auction Arenacited by 78
  3. 2020Temporal Reasoning on Implicit Events from Distant Supervisioncited by 58
  4. 2021TIMEDIAL: Temporal Commonsense Reasoning in Dialogcited by 55
  5. 2019Argument Generation with Retrieval, Planning, and Realizationcited by 45
  6. 2023Distilling Script Knowledge from Large Language Models for Constrained Language Planningcited by 45
  7. 2023Welfare Diplomacy: Benchmarking Language Model Cooperationcited by 43
  8. 2022Improving Time Sensitivity for Question Answering over Temporal Knowledge Graphscited by 26
  9. 2018Deep Dyna-Q: Integrating Planning for Task-Completion Dialogue Policy Learningcited by 21
  10. 2021Stylized Story Generation with Style-Guided Planningcited by 21
  11. 2019Fine-Grained Temporal Relation Extractioncited by 20
  12. 2022Extracting or Guessing? Improving Faithfulness of Event Temporal Relation Extractioncited by 15
  13. 2023Once Upon a textitTime in textitGraph: Relative-Time Pretraining for Complex Temporal Reasoningcited by 10

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 7; 2025: 12; 2026: 3.

22 papers.

Sort:

By area:

  1. 2024From Persona to Personalization: A Survey on Role-Playing Language Agentscited by 206
  2. 2024EvoAgent: Towards Automatic Multi-Agent Generation via Evolutionary Algorithmscited by 109
  3. 2025Agent-R: Training Language Model Agents to Reflect via Iterative Self-Trainingcited by 74
  4. 2024MegaAgent: A Large-Scale Autonomous LLM-based Multi-Agent System Without Predefined SOPscited by 45
  5. 2026DeepPlanning: Benchmarking Long-Horizon Agentic Planning with Verifiable Constraintscited by 43
  6. 2025From Language to Action: A Review of Large Language Models as Autonomous Agents and Tool Userscited by 32
  7. 2024SelfGoal: Your Language Agents Already Know How to Achieve High-level Goalscited by 21
  8. 2024Revealing the Barriers of Language Agents in Planningcited by 20
  9. 2024Temporal Knowledge Graph Question Answering: A Surveycited by 9
  10. 2025ARIA: Training Language Agents with Intention-Driven Reward Aggregationcited by 9
  11. 2025TCP: a Benchmark for Temporal Constraint-Based Planningcited by 8
  12. 2025LENS: Multi-level Evaluation of Multimodal Reasoning with Large Language Modelscited by 7
10 more
  1. 2024AgentGroupChat: An Interactive Group Chat Simulacra For Better Eliciting Emergent Behaviorcited by 6
  2. 2025PLANET: A Collection of Benchmarks for Evaluating LLMs' Planning Capabilitiescited by 6
  3. 2025Haste Makes Waste: Evaluating Planning Abilities of LLMs for Efficient and Feasible Multitasking with Time Constraints Between Actionscited by 5
  4. 2025Multi-level Value Alignment in Agentic AI Systems: Survey and Perspectivescited by 4
  5. 2025Co-Saving: Resource Aware Multi-Agent Collaboration for Software Developmentcited by 3
  6. 2026AsyncTool: Evaluating the Asynchronous Function Calling Capability under Multi-Task Scenarioscited by 3
  7. 2025Discrete Minds in a Continuous World: Do Language Models Know Time Passes?cited by 2
  8. 2025ParaCook: On Time-Efficient Planning for Multi-Agent Systemscited by 2
  9. 2025EncGPT: A Multi-Agent Workflow for Dynamic Encryption Algorithmscited by 0
  10. 2026ReLiveGym: Evaluating Long-Lived Agents over Weeks of Replayed Realitycited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026OdysseyArena: Benchmarking Large Language Models For Long-Horizon, Active and Inductive Interactions
  2. 2024LangSuitE: Planning, Controlling and Interacting with Large Language Models in Embodied Text Environments
  3. 2024LoTa-Bench: Benchmarking Language-oriented Task Planners for Embodied Agents
  4. 2025Learning to Wait: Synchronizing Agents with the Physical World
  5. 2024WorkArena++: Towards Compositional Planning and Reasoning-based Common Knowledge Work Tasks
  6. 2026The Agent's First Day: Benchmarking Learning, Exploration, and Scheduling in the Workplace Scenarios
  7. 2024One STEP at a time: Language Agents are Stepwise Planners
  8. 2026Can LLMs Perceive Time? An Empirical Investigation