The Thing About Waiting

Picture this. 9am in the morning. Instead of saying grace to another beautiful morning or thanking the universe for another day on earth, you are cursing and swearing as you are crushed inside a train or lost in an endless queue of traffic on the highway, or sandwiched in between construction sites. During lunch, you are again stuck in a queue just to get your daily nourishment, for which you are only given an hour before you have to rush back to your little cubicle, also known as the hell hole.

Studies have shown that an average person spend a year worth of waiting in his entire lifetime. Some, maybe more. Sound exaggerated? Think again. Waiting for the bus, waiting for food, waiting for the websites to load, and even waiting for the toilet. This list is non exhaustive... And because of all the waitings, studies have also correlated waiting to stress. As the amount of time spent on waiting increases, so will the stress.

So what do you do? Here are 5 simple steps that you can choose to take to reduce the waiting or reduce the stress.

1. Instead of waiting, fill up your time with something useful during the wait. Bring along newspapers or magazines to read while you wait through the jams or the queues. Read your twitter or facebook timeline. Go through your mails, call up a friend to catch up, watch your favourite movies or catch up on those TV series.

2. Practice breathing control. Breathe in and out and picture yourself exercising, doing the taiqi or just close your eyes, relax and catch the much needed powernaps.

3. Wear a comfortable clothing- thick clothes if you are waiting in somewhere cold or thin, breathable clothings if you are waiting in a presumably hot area. Perspiring buckets or freezing your arse while waiting will only add on to the stress level.

4. To reduce the time wasted queueing up fir cash, you may choose to spread your wealth into the less popular banks. If you are in Singapore, Maybank is your best bet. You will never ever have to queue to withdraw your money from Maybank.

5. Get into the habit of online transactions- all transactions can be done at the comfort of your home without having you to even lift your butts off your favourite couch/ seats.

Remember, the lesser time you spend on waiting, the more time you'll have to enjoy life. Work smart, live smarter.