Enjoy it mindfully
Today’s world prizes efficiency. ‘Make the most out of life,’ they say. ‘Stop wasting time.’ People strive to achieve goals, do things quickly, make the optimum choice. And inefficiency in others becomes frustrating: the hours spent on the phone to a call centre, the manager who won’t reply to your emails, the dawdlers in front of you as you’re struggling to get past.
I have an admission: I am a horribly inefficient person. Yes, I get things done – lots of things, as it happens – but it seems to take me three times as long as it does everyone else.
Here’s an example. Before I go shopping, I dutifully write a list, but I often forget to add half the items I need. So I’m forced to return to the shop to get them. And then I’ll arrive home only to realise I’ve forgotten one more thing, and back to the shop I go. That’s three trips for the price of one. I’ve spent years getting annoyed with myself for the time I’ve wasted being inefficient. But no longer. I’ve finally understood that the meandering route has the potential to release benefits that tick-box efficiency never will.
When you forget things you need to buy or do, you’re forced to be both creative, by thinking of a way around the problem, and to be flexible, by being open to new ideas. Flexibility and creativity exercise people’s brains as much as any HIIT workout – and a healthy brain is a healthy human. Plus inefficiency means that you won’t have time for other activities, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If you can drop your least necessary habits (checking Facebook, anyone?), you’ll get as much done as you need, and save yourself neural overload at the same time.
Most importantly, if you don’t want to become frustrated with yourself or others, you’ll have to let go of the mantra that your time on Earth must be spent optimally. Your ancestors, along with billions of people in the world today, desired not much more than to feed and shelter themselves and their families. If you’re lucky enough to achieve those aims, anything else you get out of life is a bonus.
STEP-BY-STEP TO EMBRACING A WASTE OF TIME
- Become aware of frustration at inefficiency in yourself or others. You can’t avoid the emotion, but you can recognise when it occurs, greet it warmly and wait for it to pass.
- Let go of the ideal that you must maximise your time. It’s a 21st-century notion that doesn’t serve you well.
- Consider how this inefficiency has forced you to both devise alternative solutions and be open to new ideas. Praise yourself for exercising your flexible, creative brain.
- Think about which activities can be dropped from your agenda in order to accommodate the meandering route.
