Efficiency is Killing Me

I value my time a lot. Part of this may be due the fact that I run a business and I must be efficient to be profitable. But I believe most of it is just my nature.

So, I was (to put it mildly) extremely annoyed the other day when I was standing in the hardware store on a weekend, trying to get ahold of my husband because I wasn’t sure exactly which widget he needed for a project, and he wasn’t answering the phone. “OK,” I thought, I can pick up the other stuff and call him again in ten minutes. Ten minutes later, and still no answer. I leave a voicemail. I send a text: “Please turn your ringer ON!” (dammit)

In this instant, I got angry, stressed and emotional. A wave of negative thoughts swirled in my head. After a deep breath, I picked out a widget that had a snowball’s chance in hell of being the right one, and steeled myself to the high likelihood of another trip to the hardware store later in the day, eating up more of my precious weekend.

A bit later, headed home with the 80%-probability-of-being-returned widget, I noticed how tensed up and stressed out I was. (I can tell I’m stressed out in the car if I can’t see out the mirrors anymore — it’s a good indicator of tensed posture!)

OK, more deep breaths needed. And a bit later I began to see humor and irony in the situation… My angst and stress over wasting time is not healthy. It’s probably taking days off my life, maybe even weeks.

So next time I get riled up about efficiency, I’ll try to keep the long view in mind. A few minutes graciously given up now may help me live to 100.

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