Wasting Time Waiting

I’m at the airport, again. Waiting for my flight to Atlanta, again. The flight is 30min late, again. I wonder how time I waste each year waiting for flights, trains, buses, Ubers, Lyfts, taxis, cars. Waiting in line at coffee shops. Waiting to pay at the grocery store. Waiting due to delays. Waiting on other people. Waiting. Imagine if one could get all that time back? 🤔

Let’s say that we could get back only the time wasted waiting on various modes of transportation. How much would an average traveler get back? Per month? Per year? I’m sure it’d add up rather quickly.

Lets assume that we’d only “get back” time lost due to delays caused by circumstances beyond our immediate control. For example, flight delays due to mechanical problems or weather. It’s a few minutes here, an hour or so there, and all these delays add up.

What would we do with this time if we got it back as a big chunk? I’m sure that it’d be a few days per year. Days! How about a vacation? At home! That would be so nice.

Of course, as fun as these thought experiments are, they’re also kind of pointless. Something to do to help fight boredom while waiting in line. It’s better than standing there fuming over all the wasted time.

A younger less patient me used to get aggrevated fairly quickly. Blood pressure went up and my mood soured. Did it help? Of course not! Today I try to take delays in stride. I still don’t like it when it happens. But there’s nothing I can do about it and not worth getting upset over. Older and wiser? Not really. Just much more chill 😎