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Monochronic Behavior
The cultural habit of accomplishing tasks one at a time and of dividing time into linear compartments. According to the anthropologist and social researcher Edward T. Hall, monochronic behavior is most likely to be exhibited by Western folk, including Americans and northern Europeans—in particular, the Germans, the Swiss, and the Scandinavians.
Hall argues that dividing time into compartments is not in keeping with the rhythms of nature, and that monochronic time is a result of the Industrial Revolution. Since its inception in England, factory work has required people to be in place at set times, and since then, the sounds of bells and whistles have added to the belief that the constraints of time are a necessary order for living.
People who are monochronic gear their energies ...