Keep it Moving
As I sat at a restaurant on my own recently, quietly observing the crowd I lost myself in reflective thought. My mind is always racing and my need to keep moving is a base compulsion. Whether in business, writing, conversation, or daily routines, it is an endless feeling of the need to accomplish what I’m doing, and getting on to the next thing. To that end, I only give a specific activity in a given day, a certain amount of time to come full circle before moving on to the next thing.
Some may not enjoy that compulsive feeling to keep moving, but I actually love it because “keeping it moving” doesn’t always mean being on-the-job. I love to slow it down, wake up later in the morning, chill with a cup of coffee, read, enjoy the full moon and the pulsating ocean. When I’m doing these types of things, I’m doing something that helps me reach a goal, even if it is the goal of enjoying the simple pleasures of life. But I won’t sit there all day staring at the stars or making pictures out of the clouds. There is more to do!
That brings us back to the restaurant. Once I paused in my reflections I realized it had been ten minutes and nobody had come to me with a menu, some water, or even an acknowledgement that I was present. That is not all time wasted because reflection is a useful expenditure of time. Yet, I like to micromanage my own time and not let someone or something else do that for me, to the extent possible. Why give up more control in our lives than necessary?
The resolution in this case was that I decided ten minutes was enough time to wait for service, and so I got up quietly and left. Nobody even noticed. This is not the first time I have done this, nor will it be the last. With so many options for dining, why wait longer than you want to wait? We have perfect control in these situations. As such and where possible, I don’t typically wait. I don’t wait in long lines at Starbucks. My mind swirls with wonder when I see someone choosing to wait in an obvious 20-minute line for coffee. I don’t wait at restaurants if servers don’t wait on you in a reasonable amount of time. I don’t wait in grocery lines, opting for self-checkout, even when I have thirty things. I don’t wait in lines of traffic when there is an alternative route that is moving more quickly, even if it means it will take longer to get where I want to go. I don’t work on anyone else’s schedule. I try to shop and get banking, business, DMV, and all other needs done on the computer to avoid travel, lines, and added wasted time. The average person sleeps 25 years of his life, so as a species, we should not consider spending any more time on things that can be done more quickly somewhere or someway else. Or as James Bond once put it, “there is plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead.”
Is this impatience? Perhaps. But what is wrong with not being patient if it is quietly (or with noise when I’m on my own venting behind a slow driver) conveyed and does not lead to harm? How patient do we want to be anyway? What does a patient person look like and why are they so patient? You don’t have to be. Take control. Leave, avoid, and look for alternative solutions to save more time.
Keep it moving! The time you save, may be your own.