[:en]You will all agree that nowadays we are all in a rush, running after time, hyper connected in order to save as much time as possible, always stressed and making sure people around us know it, especially the ones wasting our precious time.
But, are we really wasting time? That feeling of time waste comes, from my perspective and experience, from the fact that something ranked as “high value” in the brain cannot be completed due to a lower value event. And we hate to waste and lose, well our brain does. How can you fight against that?
Recently, I was working hard when I had to stop what I was doing (ranked high on my to do list as the result was about more business and as such safety for resources – food – for myself and my family) when I had to go lie down with my youngest son to put him to sleep. At first I was frustrated that I couldn’t work and get that important task completed. Then, I started thinking that the most important is to be with my 3-year-old one during that peaceful moment, just the both of us. Fully reversing the list of priorities.
What was I thinking? This made me wonder about all those moments when we, you, get that feeling that you are wasting your time. Isn’t there something else we can get out of that “wasted time”? Isn’t there value in that moment? This helped me rethink time and how to use it. How to get my brain to look for value and gain in a very different place.
Of course there will always be moments when time is really wasted! There are some experts, lets show them our time is still ours. A bank clerk asking for the 23rd copy of that document you have lost, a missed train thanks to a traffic jam, etc… all these little moments that could be stressful can also become funny moments…each one of us has to find the way to maximize this “wasted time” and modify it to “great time”. Grow the value!
The most interesting experience I had recently was at the airport rental car desk. I was tired, still had one hour to drive, in a small rental car, no time to waste with chit-chat.
Well, I told myself to relax and enjoy meeting a new person, the rental car clerk, and have a quality moment instead of being the pushy, angry usual client. Not only did I enjoy that moment talking about everything and nothing, but by being nice and smiling I got a bigger car at no extra charge, a VIP parking spot and plenty of good advices!
The cost? Nil! The gain? Awesome!
It may be hard on our brain but being able to use the Neocortex to send a bit of positive signals to our System 1 can only trigger a virtuous circle.
[:]Time to have fun and use that period of time we spend on earth to its max!
