Thoughts While Waiting

Time spent waiting is an opportunity, a chance to consider why you are waiting and how things might be done better: how systems, products, policies and services could be improved.

The events of each day are punctuated by waiting time: wait for the bus, the plane, the connection, in traffic, for coffee, between classes, before the meeting, at the ATM, to pay for groceries, in the voice mail tree, on hold for customer service (often the longest waits of all). Spending time until something productive can be accomplished is best when spent with a friend. Chat, catch-up, or complain to about the wait. Misery does love company; it is something to talk about.

Maybe we now spend more time waiting than in past years, but probably not by much. We used to have to wait at the bank for a teller, and go to the butcher, baker and grocer to get dinner organized. We perceive more time pressure, probably accurately, as everyone feels the needs to be more productive. We don’t wait for the next widget to come down the assembly line; instead, we now wait for the file to download. If there is not more time spent waiting, there are certainly more things to wait for.

Time spent waiting is an opportunity. One could read, work a crossword puzzle, or call a friend. But it is also a bit of quiet time, a chance to reflect on social and business life: events, interactions with bureaucracies (public and private), marketing in daily life, public policies that affect personal decisions.

Consider how these things could be different, even improved. When recorded, an occasion to consider the meaning, effects of, and alternatives to, issues, events and situations become Thoughts While Waiting.

These are mine.