How Different Cultures Understand Time

the clock is just one tool among many for reckoning time, and its full meaning emerges only when it’s joined with a particular goal or cosmology.

We live with these realities because they make the rest of our lives feel manageable. But time did not have to be arranged that way. We have  imagined  time, at least in Western countries, as subservient to commerce, and attempted to export or forcibly impose that understanding worldwide.

According to Meyer, monochronic cultures value a fixed, linear schedule. These cultures focus on one thing at a time and value punctuality (although lateness is generally acceptable up to a point). They run on “clock time,” eating lunch at noon because it's noon. By contrast, polychronic cultures work on several things at once, adhering to schedule