In the 1950s, the anthropologist Edward T. Hall coined the terms “monochronic” and “polychronic” to describe different cultural attitudes to time management.

In northern Europe and the United States, which Dr. Hall labeled “monochronic” societies, he wrote that people tended to emphasize deadlines and work sequentially, completing one task before... See more

Monochronic cultures may be more “efficient” in their use of time, but in their treatment of time as a commodity, they lose the richness that comes with allowing tasks, conversations, and interactions to move forward at a more natural and sustainable pace.

People of the Western world, particularly Americans, tend to think of time as something fixed in nature, something around us and from which we cannot escape; an ever-present part of the environment, just like the air we breathe. That it might be experienced in any other way seems unnatural and strange, a feeling which is rarely modified even when... See more