People Time and Me Time

I really enjoyed the article and class discussion on Polychronic and Monochronic time. It is something I’ve thought of in anticipation to traveling to Ghana. When I imagine myself living I envision the rejection of my planner and a set schedule, having multiple assignments going on at once, and being around a lot of people. I’ve consciously imagined my African experience this way and recognized it is completely opposite of the Monochronic time I live in right now. It excites me to think that I may have the opportunity to practice living in P- time more by living in Ghana. I yearn to live in the polychromic time because I know it is very relationship oriented. I am not only going to Ghana to perform my own research and to receive grades but to meet people and build new relationships. I really think the “P” in P-time stands for people. In a Mormon Message titled “What Matters Most” President Monson urges us to never let a problem to be solved be put above people to be loved. This is something I want to work on during my field experience. This may be tough though because I will prepare to return back to a Monochronic society that will expect collected empirical and measurable data regarding my research.

Along with my romantic vision of living in P-time I have a realistically reflected on the chance that I may not be able to relinquish my Monochronic time patterns. I only have 3 months to complete my research and I could easily try to control my experience by creating a strict schedule for myself to assure I will get everything done that I hope to. I could easily fall back into M-time or Me time where all the focus is on me and the research I'm conducting. I don’t want this attitude to detract from the more important things I could be learning and experiencing from such as social activities, private conversations, and such.

I truly desire to build relationships. I truly desire to experience Ghanaian culture. I truly desire to produce a valid research project. How am I going to practice participation and productivity at the same time? I think I might have biased opinions about Monochronic time like the author of the article did. Dave pointed this out in class, Polychronic time people ARE productive. I just don’t understand how right now because I am pure Monochronic timeian and that’s all I know. I feel liberated and less anxious now with recognizing at least one aspect of Ghanaian life that could provide culture shock for me. Now I just need to prepare and accept that thought I dream of Polychronic time, I may not be comfortable with it.