What's your "time personality?"

Some people are punctual, others flexible. The reason, experts say, is that we relate to the clock in different ways.

Excerpt: Arguments about punctuality are common, but experts say they are often really about something else entirely: the different ways we relate to time.

Social scientists have worked for the better part of a century to understand our varying approaches to the clock. 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 moving to the next. In Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, he found what he called “polychronic” societies, where he observed that people were more comfortable shifting gears in the middle of a task and less rigid about sticking to a schedule.

Dr. Hall’s insights have inspired generations of organizational theorists and management experts. And while he originally made observations about societies, he and others have observed that people’s individual time-use styles also vary considerably.

Studies suggest that people are most creative, motivated and productive when they can work in their preferred style, whether that’s dipping in and out of multiple tasks or focusing laserlike on a single one. Becoming aware of your own relationship to time can make your life easier and can help you negotiate conflicts with the people around you."