What our time-management styles say about productivity and gender

Picture two scenes. In the first, a Swiss train pulls away at exactly 10:02 a.m. If you’re not on the platform, it’s already too late. Precision is respect. It always comes first. In the second, a family minibus idles with the engine running. Somebody’s cousin is late. “We can’t leave without him.” The whole group waits because relationships matter more than the clock.

These two images capture what anthropologist Edward T. Hall described in the 1950s as monochronic and polychronic relationships to time.