Stop Waiting, Start Creating! How Much Time Do YOU Spend Just Hanging Around Waiting For Others?

How much of your life do you spend simply killing time while waiting for others?

And at the same time feeling you really could be getting on with something more creative..?

We all seem to have busy lives these days and anything that can help us to make better use of our time is usually gratefully welcomed.

The act of creating each day and getting into this rhythm and discipline is one way we can begin to work towards this.

Even if we do this however, many of us find we still "waste" much time in waiting around for others.

Some everyday examples are waiting in queues in shops, or waiting for a train that's late. These situations we can't do much about.

But then there are those other times where we're waiting out of some obligation for another. We're with people we're close to in our lives - our partners, children, friends or colleagues - and we may feel because we're in the same room or building at the same time, we "should" spend some time with them .

Rather than schedule a fixed amount of time in which to see them and have some quality undisturbed time together, we often just try to squeeze it in and drop the other activities we're currently doing.

How often have you been with a friend, and felt pressured because you know you don't have much time together until one of you has to leave to attend to some other task?

This looming urgency then puts a spoiler on your time together and instead of relaxing and enjoying each other's company, you never quite get into any meaningful conversation or commit to doing something together you both like and appreciate.

Over a period of weeks, months or years, this can build up and instead of having occasional enjoyable and largely undisturbed time together where you're both focused and committed, you feel like you have a series of snatched interludes, where in all honesty you'd probably both be rather spending the time doing something else!

It's like having a snack every few hours and throwing it down your throat because you know the restaurant is closing in five minutes.

When really, you'd rather take a couple of hours to sit down and relax with a delicious meal and a bottle of wine once a day.

Or maybe even worse, it may feel like sitting in a restaurant waiting for a meal with someone when neither of you are particularly hungry and can't decide what to order!

So maybe it takes being selfish first to be giving in the long term.

Maybe next time you try to snatch a few minutes with your partner, children or friends, just because you're both in the same place at the same time, think about how you could book some more focused and relaxing quality time together instead, and give you both the opportunity to really get the most from each other's company...

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